baldheadracing
Reading more, posting less
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2008
- Messages
- 245
This cigar, amongst others, was gifted to me by a fine BOTL here. To protect the guilty, I will not reveal his name or the variety of Acid smoked.
The "sub-culture" line of Acids are a variation on the standard cigar marketing gimmick - a size or blend (or infusion) made for a specific retailer. The Drew Estate website lists seventeen different Acid's in the sub-culture line. The names are cool, but as for the cigars, Drew Estate says:
Cello
I was going to take pics, but that would be cruel. Suffice to say that it looked like a cigar in cello.
The outside of the cello had an overwhelming fragrance of the cheap incense that people burn to cover-up the smell of burning another plant, whose leaves and buds are typically smoked without fermentation. I will call this incense fragrance sandalwood in this review, but generic sweet gross-out is also a suitable descriptor.
Removing the cello was exceedingly difficult due a pigtail cap that seemed to have glued itself to the cello. The foot of the cigar was covered with folded-over wrapper, which also seemed to have developed some adhesion to the cello. Fortunately, I was able to apply years of practice in squeezing toothpaste out of tubes that never have the caps screwed back on, and got the cigar to squirt out of the cello with no apparent damage and no excessive ejaculation.
Pre-light
The wrapper looked to be perfect Connecticut shade-grown, and reeked of sandalwood. Some tobacco smell was evident at first sniff, but disappeared in subsequent snorts. Unraveling the folded-over wrapper at the foot revealed a loose bunch that had a spicier scent. There was no unevenness in the bunch - overall the construction was top-notch.
Not wanting to possibly contaminate my 'trusted Palio cutter,' I used a plastic double-blade guillotine cutter sourced from eBay. However, my fears were unfounded, and the eBay cutter did not smell like sandalwood afterwards. However, I did start sneezing and my nasal passages started dripping - a possible warning against blowing smoke out of the nose later. (I refuse to use "retrohale.")
Somewhat surprisingly, a cold draw revealed no tastes, except that my lips now had a sandalwood flavour (recall description of sandalwood used for this review). This was fixed by sliding up the band to the edge of the head of the cigar so that my lips subsequently contacted the band and not the wrapper.
Lit cigar
Toasting the cigar revealed no aromas of note. Once lit, the cigar drew perfectly, had an even burn, grey ash, with no touch-ups or similar required. No construction-related issues at all - a well-made cigar.
The taste of the cigar was, well, disguised. On the tobacco side - which was hard to discern - there was no sweetness, no bitterness, no acidity, and perhaps the slightest hint of saltiness. The tobacco actually seemed quite decent. Drew Estates say that this is mild cigar, and I agree.
However, the cigar did have an overwhelmingly aftertaste that had nothing to do with tobacco. Again, that sandalwood thing. After about an inch in, and the beginnings of a headache, I decided to remove the wrapper to see if that would remove the sandalwood.
Removing the wrapper transformed and improved the cigar. The binder had no sandalwood scent. The cigar seemed to smoke in bands: one draw would be gross, the next draw almost normal. However, now that the sandalwood aftertaste was seared onto my tongue, it was hard to make out any flavours. Drew Estates claim that the cigar should deliver "caramel and cream." Nope, no caramel or cream noted. The initial blast of flavour of each draw remained weird, but then gave way to a decent tobacco taste. Forcing the smoke out of the nose was not the horror story that I had expected, but didn't reveal anything new.
In the second half - yes, I got that far - a stronger non-tobacco flavour became evident - yes, you guessed it, roasted sandalwood. Gag. I put the cigar down, and retreated to the bathroom to try and get whatever was in my mouth out of there. My slight headache remained, and I generally felt violated.
Overall, this would have been a pretty good mild cigar - if it wasn't infused. As it was infused, it was definitely not for me.
Blech!
The "sub-culture" line of Acids are a variation on the standard cigar marketing gimmick - a size or blend (or infusion) made for a specific retailer. The Drew Estate website lists seventeen different Acid's in the sub-culture line. The names are cool, but as for the cigars, Drew Estate says:
It seems that somebody at Drew Estate has been to the Lew Rothman school of cigar advertising. On to the cigar:
Cello
I was going to take pics, but that would be cruel. Suffice to say that it looked like a cigar in cello.
The outside of the cello had an overwhelming fragrance of the cheap incense that people burn to cover-up the smell of burning another plant, whose leaves and buds are typically smoked without fermentation. I will call this incense fragrance sandalwood in this review, but generic sweet gross-out is also a suitable descriptor.
Removing the cello was exceedingly difficult due a pigtail cap that seemed to have glued itself to the cello. The foot of the cigar was covered with folded-over wrapper, which also seemed to have developed some adhesion to the cello. Fortunately, I was able to apply years of practice in squeezing toothpaste out of tubes that never have the caps screwed back on, and got the cigar to squirt out of the cello with no apparent damage and no excessive ejaculation.
Pre-light
The wrapper looked to be perfect Connecticut shade-grown, and reeked of sandalwood. Some tobacco smell was evident at first sniff, but disappeared in subsequent snorts. Unraveling the folded-over wrapper at the foot revealed a loose bunch that had a spicier scent. There was no unevenness in the bunch - overall the construction was top-notch.
Not wanting to possibly contaminate my 'trusted Palio cutter,' I used a plastic double-blade guillotine cutter sourced from eBay. However, my fears were unfounded, and the eBay cutter did not smell like sandalwood afterwards. However, I did start sneezing and my nasal passages started dripping - a possible warning against blowing smoke out of the nose later. (I refuse to use "retrohale.")
Somewhat surprisingly, a cold draw revealed no tastes, except that my lips now had a sandalwood flavour (recall description of sandalwood used for this review). This was fixed by sliding up the band to the edge of the head of the cigar so that my lips subsequently contacted the band and not the wrapper.
Lit cigar
Toasting the cigar revealed no aromas of note. Once lit, the cigar drew perfectly, had an even burn, grey ash, with no touch-ups or similar required. No construction-related issues at all - a well-made cigar.
The taste of the cigar was, well, disguised. On the tobacco side - which was hard to discern - there was no sweetness, no bitterness, no acidity, and perhaps the slightest hint of saltiness. The tobacco actually seemed quite decent. Drew Estates say that this is mild cigar, and I agree.
However, the cigar did have an overwhelmingly aftertaste that had nothing to do with tobacco. Again, that sandalwood thing. After about an inch in, and the beginnings of a headache, I decided to remove the wrapper to see if that would remove the sandalwood.
Removing the wrapper transformed and improved the cigar. The binder had no sandalwood scent. The cigar seemed to smoke in bands: one draw would be gross, the next draw almost normal. However, now that the sandalwood aftertaste was seared onto my tongue, it was hard to make out any flavours. Drew Estates claim that the cigar should deliver "caramel and cream." Nope, no caramel or cream noted. The initial blast of flavour of each draw remained weird, but then gave way to a decent tobacco taste. Forcing the smoke out of the nose was not the horror story that I had expected, but didn't reveal anything new.
In the second half - yes, I got that far - a stronger non-tobacco flavour became evident - yes, you guessed it, roasted sandalwood. Gag. I put the cigar down, and retreated to the bathroom to try and get whatever was in my mouth out of there. My slight headache remained, and I generally felt violated.
Overall, this would have been a pretty good mild cigar - if it wasn't infused. As it was infused, it was definitely not for me.
Blech!
