Marco-Polo
Go Irish Go!
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2008
- Messages
- 724
Cigar: Alec Bradley Ovation Maduro
Size: Baron, 5.1 x 54
Exec Summary: Maduro or dark natural cigar. Very flavorful and an excellent deal on clearance. The slightly uneven burn keeps it from scoring a solid 8; 7.5/10 and recommended.
Background: The Alec Bradley Ovation line is either a line extension to the Trilogy or a predecessor. Comes in Cameroon, Corojo, and Maduro. Made ... well, not sure where. AB farms out production to Tabadom in the DR, Plasencia (Trilogy) and Torano (MAXX) in Nicaragua. Currently available as a closeout from CI or on CBid, I bought a 5-pack from CBid a few months ago for $9.
First Impression: Baking-chocolate colored maduro wrapper, not oscuro black but dark natural, slightly lumpy (from the inside) with a few small veins. Shiny/oily on the surface. Fully filled, firm to the touch. Notably large diameter (looks larger than 5.1x54 to my untutored eye). Band is black and white with gold accents and a bright-orange stripe, denoting the maduro wrapper, quite handsome and classy looking.
Prelight: Smells of tobacco, wood, bitter chocolate. Required a little force on the clipper. Kept at 68/68 since April - thank god for my basement, which keeps everything at 65-70 and 68% humidity with very little effort on my part.
Construction/Burn: Lit unevenly, required a little touch-up at the start. The burn self-corrected about 1/2 inch in, but required intermittent rotation to stay even, and tunnelled slightly in the last 1-1/2 inches. Ash started out dark gray, converged on light grey interspersed with black, quite solid and held on for a full inch. Draw is easy, not loose, not tight, and lots and lots of smoke.
Flavor/Aroma: Considerably stronger than yesterday's Thomas Hinds Vintage - well into medium strength. Spicy and woody in general, a bit of bitter chocolate or bitter coffee in the mouth. The taste is much less sweet than most maduros; it's much more like a dark natural as opposed to a conventional maduro (and the wrapper bears that out as well). The flavor picks up as you go, the bitter chocolate note strengthening and the spice diminishing. As you cross the band, you get some baking spices (cinnamon, cardamom?) on the nose, plus a little sweetness which I must have missed before. A little bitter in the last inch, but smoked to the nub.
Time elapsed, 1 hr 20 minutes.
Size: Baron, 5.1 x 54
Exec Summary: Maduro or dark natural cigar. Very flavorful and an excellent deal on clearance. The slightly uneven burn keeps it from scoring a solid 8; 7.5/10 and recommended.
Background: The Alec Bradley Ovation line is either a line extension to the Trilogy or a predecessor. Comes in Cameroon, Corojo, and Maduro. Made ... well, not sure where. AB farms out production to Tabadom in the DR, Plasencia (Trilogy) and Torano (MAXX) in Nicaragua. Currently available as a closeout from CI or on CBid, I bought a 5-pack from CBid a few months ago for $9.
First Impression: Baking-chocolate colored maduro wrapper, not oscuro black but dark natural, slightly lumpy (from the inside) with a few small veins. Shiny/oily on the surface. Fully filled, firm to the touch. Notably large diameter (looks larger than 5.1x54 to my untutored eye). Band is black and white with gold accents and a bright-orange stripe, denoting the maduro wrapper, quite handsome and classy looking.
Prelight: Smells of tobacco, wood, bitter chocolate. Required a little force on the clipper. Kept at 68/68 since April - thank god for my basement, which keeps everything at 65-70 and 68% humidity with very little effort on my part.
Construction/Burn: Lit unevenly, required a little touch-up at the start. The burn self-corrected about 1/2 inch in, but required intermittent rotation to stay even, and tunnelled slightly in the last 1-1/2 inches. Ash started out dark gray, converged on light grey interspersed with black, quite solid and held on for a full inch. Draw is easy, not loose, not tight, and lots and lots of smoke.
Flavor/Aroma: Considerably stronger than yesterday's Thomas Hinds Vintage - well into medium strength. Spicy and woody in general, a bit of bitter chocolate or bitter coffee in the mouth. The taste is much less sweet than most maduros; it's much more like a dark natural as opposed to a conventional maduro (and the wrapper bears that out as well). The flavor picks up as you go, the bitter chocolate note strengthening and the spice diminishing. As you cross the band, you get some baking spices (cinnamon, cardamom?) on the nose, plus a little sweetness which I must have missed before. A little bitter in the last inch, but smoked to the nub.
Time elapsed, 1 hr 20 minutes.
