Gurka comparison trial

[Gunpowder]

First, my resume' to guage my notes below: I have been smoking since the early to mid 1990's right before the cigar rush of the mid 1990's that IMO was started by the popularity of Rush Limbaugh and his promotion of the hobby on radio. Much like Snapple, Cigars quickly increased in sales due directly from his promotion of them. The rest was related to the booming economy of the 1990's

Early along I tried several brands and settled on the Hemmingway Classic/Signature lines along with the Ashton line as my mainstay buying by the box mostly. I am a moderate seasonal social smoker smoking maybe 1-2 per month in the winter and more in the summer as opportunity arrises.

AVB was gratious enough to gift me a 5 stick line up each a representation of seperate Gurkha lines.

The cigars arrived in good condition and I stored them in my igloodor that runs 68% on Climaxx beads for a few weeks to stablize.

The sticks and basic notes are below with brief notes. They are are arranged from IMO least desirable to most desirable according to my taste and experiences smoking the cigars.

First off, someone said in the chat room that they can't tell the different Gurkha's apart from the taste and bands and I would have to agree. I am still only able to identify the cigars only because AVB labeled them as several of their sticks look similiar. The following assumes they were labeled correctly and I was able to identify them correctly.



1 to 5 (worst to best)


1. Gurkha Expitition 1887 Ltd. Toro
Appearance: good
Construction: good
Draw:easy
Aroma:good
Burn:even
Strength:mild
Ratingecent/Worthy
Smoke Volume:Average
Ash Color:light gray
Ash Structure:solid
Smoked to: Band
Problems:Got soft
notes: cream


2. Gurkha Class Regent Toro
Appearance:good
Construction: good
Drawerfect
Aroma:good
Burn:even
Strength:mild
Rating:Ho-Hum
Smoke Volume:Average
Ash Colorark Gray
Ash Structure:Typical
Smoked to: Band
Problems:none noted
Notes:Construction better than the Expedition and Master Select Torpedo (#3). Slightly stronger than the expedition but still mild. expedition was smoother.
Noted on CI website that this was rated a 90 by CA. Not sure when but I wouldn't go that high.


3. Gurkha Master Select Torpedo
Appearance:good
Construction:fair-plugged
Drawlugged badly
Aroma:good
Burn:even
Strength:mild
Rating:Ho-Hum...Plugging was distracting which resulted in a lower rating.
Smoke Volume:Thin
Ash Color:no notes
Ash Structure:no notes
Smoked to: Band
Problems:nothing noted besides plugging
Notes:worthy of a second attempt to confirm ratimng


4. Gurkha Aged Cameroon Perfecto
Appearance:good some unevenness
Construction:fair-wrapper unraveled
Drawerfect
Aroma:fair aroma left behind afterwards.
Burn:even
Strength:medium w/ strong ending
Rating:Ho-Hum
SmokeVolume: Average
Ash Color: Dark Gray
Ash Structure: Flaky
Smoked to: 1/3
Problems: Tunneling, Split Unravel
Notes:Nice construction design. Flavor nothing exciting, Entire Wrapper came off half way through which was disapopinting at best. Turned strong on ending. Supposed to be their top of their line but I found nothing exciting about it. It was ok.



5. Gurkha Master Select Connecticutt Robusto
Appearance:good
Construction:Good
Drawerfect
Aroma:Fair
Burn: Uneven
Strength: Medium
Rating Ho-Hum overall but nice in the middle making it #5.
Smoke Volume:dense
Ash Colorark Gray
Ash Structure: Solid
Smoked to: 1/3
Problems: None noted
Notes: Rough Start and terrable finish (tar glob?). Hints of Vanilla in the middle (nice) and pepper and Chocolate towards end. This one I could actually taste something.
See also:a detailed inch by inch report.

I would have to say that this tasting left nothing to desire outside of #5 at best. Very dissapointing when discussing the experiences AVB has had with this line. I was expecting a different experience.

Maybe my tasting was just screwed up but I called them the way I experienced them. Given 5 different sticks, the rating lineup could be different but to summarize, outside of #5 (flavor), there is just nothing that distinguishes each from the other dramatically and 3 out of the 5 were plagued by construction problems that is disturbing.

Not really dog rockets but no gems to treasure IMO outside of maybe #5 (the
Gurkha Master Select Connecticutt Robusto).

Sorry AVB!

 

[moki]

Give one of the Gurkha Legends a shot if you find one -- I was impressed.

 

[AVB]

Everybody is different. The constrution problems bother me though. You had more difficulty with those 5 then I've had in the last 3 boxes. At least you know you can skip these if they ever show up in the passes.

Good reviews I'll look for more of them from you.

 

[Gunpowder]

Everybody is different. The constrution problems bother me though. You had more difficulty with those 5 then I've had in the last 3 boxes. At least you know you can skip these if they ever show up in the passes.

Good reviews I'll look for more of them from you.

I was pretty hard on judging these I'll admit. They are not dogsticks and most of the scoring negatives were construction related.

Actually I am hoping to try the Gurkha Legend, and retest the aged Perfecto and the Master select Conn. Robusto again some day.

Construction bothers me also. They appeared in good condition when I took them out of the igloodor and I let them stabalize for a few weeks before testing them. Makes me wonder what conditions they experienced while being mailed to me that might have damaged them.

I feel really bad about dissing your prefered smokes AVB especially when I have not noted anyone else having the construction problems ???

 

[Robbmt]

Was gifted a few and liked them well enough to grab 5 of those five stick samplers from C-bid. Construction flaws have been noted in 10 percent or so already. However usually a fair smoke in the flavor/price ratio.