b.dawgson
Official BeeDog inductee!
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2009
- Messages
- 1,499
I liked this review so much I thought I'd post it in its own thread.
For the record, this is my first official written review. Hopefully you all enjoy it!
So after a rather long and boring Saturday morning, I finally decided to tap into a great looking cigar received from Greggj77. The stick appears to be a robusto type size. I didn't measure it like a dummy but I'd guess it to be around 5 or 5.5 inches and about 50RG. Sitting outside in my swing I kick back and listen to the birds chirp while watching the family of young squirrels frolic in my trees. It's a bit overcast with a humid 88 degrees tipping the thermometer. The scent of my neighbors fresh cut grass fills the air and I'm ready to have a cigar!
Pre-Light:
This cigar has a cedar sheath with a black nylon foot band. I saw a very similar cigar at the Tinderbox last Tuesday but more on that later.
Construction looks really good. Darker colored wrapper with minimal tooth. Very thin veins running throughout. I did notice a small crack in the wrapper right up the foot for about 3/4" (You can see it in the picture below). The bunch looks good and full and there is very little give when squeezed gently. As you can see in one of the following pictures, the cap looks like it's positioned off center creating a crooked spot to cut on. No big deal IMO.
I decided to go ahead and make my cut a little wonky in attempt to prevent unraveling. Pulled my Xikar and Ronson $3 lighter out of my pocket and got to work cutting and lighting. After cutting, the cold draw produced no noticeable flavors but the aroma from the wrapper and the foot was that of tobacco and slight barnyard hints. The foot was easily toasted despite not being able to see the flame due to it being daylight (I prefer lighting in dimmer light).
First Third:
After toasting and getting the foot going, I see the split in the wrapper growing from the heat I assume. I also see another crack in the wrapper about midway on the cigar. Hopefully the cracks won't inhibit the cigar enjoyment.
Right off the bat I noticed an immediate faint sweetness on the lips and a bit of caramel on the sides of the tongue. The burn line is probably the thinnest burn line I've ever seen on a cigar - not saying much as I've not had that many. The ash is pretty much bright white the first half inch and has a few very very small black dots in it. About an inch into the cigar the sweetness subsides and a woody taste with a hint of light peppery spice begins to take the scene. The peppery notes become rather pronounced when pushed through the sinuses but not unbearable. Right at the end of the first third, the ash falls revealing a nice cone shaped cherry indicating a nice burn.
Second Third:
Burn still remains pretty thin and although gets a bit strange at times, doesn't require any torching to correct. Every few minutes, the wobbles in the burn line seem to straighten out on their own, I don't usually worry too much about the burn. As soon as I declared in my head that I was in the second third of the stick, I got a mocha tinted coffee bean flavor that quickly subsided and returned to the mildly spicy tastes. The body almost picked up to a medium and the peppery notes through the sinuses pretty much disappeared. Toward the end of the second third, a prominent woody taste and aroma really took the stage.
Final Third:
Burn had been getting kinda wonky throughout but wasn't a big deal. The cracks in the wrapper seemed to have no affect on the cigars performance - just made me kinda nervous. The flavors really died off in the last inch of the cigar and the finish did something that surprised me. There was a moment about a minute after i took a nice draw and exhaled that I got a slight taste of fresh fruit like kiwi. It also somewhat reminded me of the same taste you get after smoking a menthol cigarette minus the menthol. Could it have been my inexperienced palate? Sure!
Conclusion:
Overall this was a really good cigar in my opinion. It had some complexity that I haven't really had much experience with. I'd definitely buy this cigar and would love to smoke more! I'd put this stick in the $6-$8 range and would have no problem paying that or maybe even a little more. I really had no idea what the cigar was while smoking it as I'm not experienced at all with cigars. I saw a stick at Tinderbox that had the same sheath and black foot band so I'm going to guess this is the same cigar. Had it not been for the sheath and black foot band, I'd be lost!!!!
Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva robusto is my official guess by way of research only.
This Blind review stuff is pretty fun and it's great to really taste just the cigar (not the name or the price tag). I appreciate you guys letting me participate and look forward to any blind reviews in the future!
Ben
For the record, this is my first official written review. Hopefully you all enjoy it!
So after a rather long and boring Saturday morning, I finally decided to tap into a great looking cigar received from Greggj77. The stick appears to be a robusto type size. I didn't measure it like a dummy but I'd guess it to be around 5 or 5.5 inches and about 50RG. Sitting outside in my swing I kick back and listen to the birds chirp while watching the family of young squirrels frolic in my trees. It's a bit overcast with a humid 88 degrees tipping the thermometer. The scent of my neighbors fresh cut grass fills the air and I'm ready to have a cigar!
Pre-Light:
This cigar has a cedar sheath with a black nylon foot band. I saw a very similar cigar at the Tinderbox last Tuesday but more on that later.
Construction looks really good. Darker colored wrapper with minimal tooth. Very thin veins running throughout. I did notice a small crack in the wrapper right up the foot for about 3/4" (You can see it in the picture below). The bunch looks good and full and there is very little give when squeezed gently. As you can see in one of the following pictures, the cap looks like it's positioned off center creating a crooked spot to cut on. No big deal IMO.
I decided to go ahead and make my cut a little wonky in attempt to prevent unraveling. Pulled my Xikar and Ronson $3 lighter out of my pocket and got to work cutting and lighting. After cutting, the cold draw produced no noticeable flavors but the aroma from the wrapper and the foot was that of tobacco and slight barnyard hints. The foot was easily toasted despite not being able to see the flame due to it being daylight (I prefer lighting in dimmer light).
First Third:
After toasting and getting the foot going, I see the split in the wrapper growing from the heat I assume. I also see another crack in the wrapper about midway on the cigar. Hopefully the cracks won't inhibit the cigar enjoyment.
Right off the bat I noticed an immediate faint sweetness on the lips and a bit of caramel on the sides of the tongue. The burn line is probably the thinnest burn line I've ever seen on a cigar - not saying much as I've not had that many. The ash is pretty much bright white the first half inch and has a few very very small black dots in it. About an inch into the cigar the sweetness subsides and a woody taste with a hint of light peppery spice begins to take the scene. The peppery notes become rather pronounced when pushed through the sinuses but not unbearable. Right at the end of the first third, the ash falls revealing a nice cone shaped cherry indicating a nice burn.
Second Third:
Burn still remains pretty thin and although gets a bit strange at times, doesn't require any torching to correct. Every few minutes, the wobbles in the burn line seem to straighten out on their own, I don't usually worry too much about the burn. As soon as I declared in my head that I was in the second third of the stick, I got a mocha tinted coffee bean flavor that quickly subsided and returned to the mildly spicy tastes. The body almost picked up to a medium and the peppery notes through the sinuses pretty much disappeared. Toward the end of the second third, a prominent woody taste and aroma really took the stage.
Final Third:
Burn had been getting kinda wonky throughout but wasn't a big deal. The cracks in the wrapper seemed to have no affect on the cigars performance - just made me kinda nervous. The flavors really died off in the last inch of the cigar and the finish did something that surprised me. There was a moment about a minute after i took a nice draw and exhaled that I got a slight taste of fresh fruit like kiwi. It also somewhat reminded me of the same taste you get after smoking a menthol cigarette minus the menthol. Could it have been my inexperienced palate? Sure!
Conclusion:
Overall this was a really good cigar in my opinion. It had some complexity that I haven't really had much experience with. I'd definitely buy this cigar and would love to smoke more! I'd put this stick in the $6-$8 range and would have no problem paying that or maybe even a little more. I really had no idea what the cigar was while smoking it as I'm not experienced at all with cigars. I saw a stick at Tinderbox that had the same sheath and black foot band so I'm going to guess this is the same cigar. Had it not been for the sheath and black foot band, I'd be lost!!!!
Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva robusto is my official guess by way of research only.
This Blind review stuff is pretty fun and it's great to really taste just the cigar (not the name or the price tag). I appreciate you guys letting me participate and look forward to any blind reviews in the future!
Ben
