First, some background on my self and my smoking habits/preference.
I like to smoke outside, usually be a waterfront to breathe the "fresh" NYC air coming from the surrounding waters. The breeze and slight chill make me relaxed as well as looking into the waters, the view of the Verrazano, the sunset/sunrise, the passerby's, all this adds to the ambiance. My preference of cigars are mild to medium bodied, low strength to diminish the nicotine kick (it dampens my relaxation and interferes with my senses). On the same note, I always smoke a cigar with coffee of some kind (never alcohol, as it interferes with my senses as well. There are other reasons, but that has to do with my weightlifting, not cigar smoking, another story for another day.) With that being said, this is my first cigar review, EVER!!!
Secondly, some background on the Indian Tabac Anniversary Limited Reserve Buffalo... copied from Cigarbid.com off the description of the lot.
"The Anniversary Limited Reserve line from Indian Tabac is a delicious and well-made cigar. Handmade by Nestor Plasencia in his Honduran-based El Paraiso factory, each of these beauties comes individually dressed in Spanish cedar, adding a mouthwatering, cedary layer of flavor to the already intoxicating blend. Underneath the silky-smooth, Ecuadorian-grown Connecticut seed leaf you will find a 3-year old blend of Honduran long-fillers. The end result, magnificent. A mild to medium-bodied delight filled with creamy, smooth flavors that intensify towards a soothing, satisfying finish."
Ok, on to the good stuff
I apologize for the blurry pictures, my RAZR phone camera isn't the best photographic equipment around.
This is the bundle of 25 I got off Cbid, winning bid of $31 = $1.24 per stick
Buffalo is the size, 7x47
The Pre-Light Ritual
The FEEL - firm, not too spongy, sure didn't collapse in my fingers, and didn't feel wet. No blemishes on the wrapper, smooth and uniform tan/beige color througout. No odd curvatures nor anything resembling a banana, atleast not that I can tell, but I didn't use a level to determine this, just my eyes.
THE CUT AND DRAW - Used my cheapie cutter I got at my B&M to clip the top. not the cleanest cut, but not the best cutter, so I made do with what I had. Took an initial draw, had a spicy tingle in the back of my mouth, cedary notes (probably absorbed from the cedar wrapper). The draw was loose, which is how I like it. Also hints of nuttiness tipped my tongue.
THE LIGHTING - I have two lighters, a zippo and a cheapie butane that I fanagled with to turn into a 6 inch flame spewing pyronektnic spectacle. The wind was strong, so I tried my zippo first, but no light, so then I opted for my butane flame thrower. Warmed the foot, toasted the edges, then puff puff away.
THE INITIAL PUFFS - A lot of smoke. Thats what I like too (as well as a lot of you guys). Its where the flavor is. I puffed heartily away at this long stick.
THE SMOKE - througout it was lightgray/white smoke througout, and consistent. Smoke was coming out of everywhere from this stick, non stop, even from my ears as I was smoking it. I've only seen more smoke from a California forest fire. (Thats an exageration, but hell, nothing else I can quite compare it to.)
THE HERFING - Ok, what can I say about this cigar? The hard part is the flavors, like I stated earlier, a slight cedar taste, which subsided into a creamy texture after the first 1/4 inch meanwhile still pumping out the nutty goodness. Low nicotine kick througout (but after 5 inches of puffing, it all builds up). Smooth is a good word for it, hints of chocolate here and there, along with my Dunkin Donuts Hazelnut coffee
which complimented my smoke delightfully.
The ash was stiff, and fell off after a good 2 inches.
The fire was hot and red after it fell off, the wrapper and the filler/binder were burning all evenly, no "tunnel burning"
I enjoyed this smoke while looking at the verrazano on a very cloudy and fairly windy day. It got cold and thus you see me wearing gloves.
The flavors were complex, sorry to say I am too much of a newbie to actually give a fully accurate description, but the best I can say is the nuttiness/chocolate tones/cedary undertones were intermingling. At one puff it would be nutty, and the next it would be a creamy chocolate, and then a slightly tingly cedar/woody. Hell, sometimes even all three flavors come at me, and needless to say I didn't want to put this down. I know the general guideline is one puff per minute, but I was puffing this thing as if I were breathing in the carbon monoxide for air. It stayed cool draw until the last 2 inches, which I stopped.
However... since I was outside, it was getting cold, real cold, and I smoked this down to the last 2 inches, and I was facing a dilemma. Nub it to the end while freezing my butt off and holding in my need to use the bathroom, or chuck it and relieve myself of my bladder and the cold and smoke another of the 25 pack I got... I opted for the latter.
OVERALL - A good mild smoke that newbies such as myself, and those who prefer mild smokes can enjoy.
MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - :love: A great find. The value of this stick (especially for what I paid for it) is amazing. I would really heartily recommend this to friends, I even gave 5 of these to a good co-worker of mine who enjoys smoking cigars as well. So with 19 sticks left, I will plan to set 5 aside for aging, and the rest is part of my "go to" stash. I think thess have a great potential for improvement with age.
THE AFTER EFFECTS - with 5 inches of constant puffing, the nicotine finally kicked in 10 minutes after I chucked it, but the kick wasn't very strong (EXCELLENT!!! :love
. I am a cheap bastard by nature, but this is a stick I would have gladly paid 10 or maybe even 15 bucks for in hindsight. Would it rival an AVO or Ashton Cabinet (in terms of creaminess)? I wouldn't know, haven't smoked those two (like I said, cheapskate here), but hell, anyone with similar tastes to mine (good/loose draw; lot of smoke; creaminess; mild to medium body; low nicotine kick) should give this stick a try.
I thank you for reading.
- Dave.
*edited to fix dunkin donuts coffee picture
I like to smoke outside, usually be a waterfront to breathe the "fresh" NYC air coming from the surrounding waters. The breeze and slight chill make me relaxed as well as looking into the waters, the view of the Verrazano, the sunset/sunrise, the passerby's, all this adds to the ambiance. My preference of cigars are mild to medium bodied, low strength to diminish the nicotine kick (it dampens my relaxation and interferes with my senses). On the same note, I always smoke a cigar with coffee of some kind (never alcohol, as it interferes with my senses as well. There are other reasons, but that has to do with my weightlifting, not cigar smoking, another story for another day.) With that being said, this is my first cigar review, EVER!!!
Secondly, some background on the Indian Tabac Anniversary Limited Reserve Buffalo... copied from Cigarbid.com off the description of the lot.
"The Anniversary Limited Reserve line from Indian Tabac is a delicious and well-made cigar. Handmade by Nestor Plasencia in his Honduran-based El Paraiso factory, each of these beauties comes individually dressed in Spanish cedar, adding a mouthwatering, cedary layer of flavor to the already intoxicating blend. Underneath the silky-smooth, Ecuadorian-grown Connecticut seed leaf you will find a 3-year old blend of Honduran long-fillers. The end result, magnificent. A mild to medium-bodied delight filled with creamy, smooth flavors that intensify towards a soothing, satisfying finish."
Ok, on to the good stuff
I apologize for the blurry pictures, my RAZR phone camera isn't the best photographic equipment around.
This is the bundle of 25 I got off Cbid, winning bid of $31 = $1.24 per stick
Buffalo is the size, 7x47
The Pre-Light Ritual
The FEEL - firm, not too spongy, sure didn't collapse in my fingers, and didn't feel wet. No blemishes on the wrapper, smooth and uniform tan/beige color througout. No odd curvatures nor anything resembling a banana, atleast not that I can tell, but I didn't use a level to determine this, just my eyes.
THE CUT AND DRAW - Used my cheapie cutter I got at my B&M to clip the top. not the cleanest cut, but not the best cutter, so I made do with what I had. Took an initial draw, had a spicy tingle in the back of my mouth, cedary notes (probably absorbed from the cedar wrapper). The draw was loose, which is how I like it. Also hints of nuttiness tipped my tongue.
THE LIGHTING - I have two lighters, a zippo and a cheapie butane that I fanagled with to turn into a 6 inch flame spewing pyronektnic spectacle. The wind was strong, so I tried my zippo first, but no light, so then I opted for my butane flame thrower. Warmed the foot, toasted the edges, then puff puff away.
THE INITIAL PUFFS - A lot of smoke. Thats what I like too (as well as a lot of you guys). Its where the flavor is. I puffed heartily away at this long stick.
THE SMOKE - througout it was lightgray/white smoke througout, and consistent. Smoke was coming out of everywhere from this stick, non stop, even from my ears as I was smoking it. I've only seen more smoke from a California forest fire. (Thats an exageration, but hell, nothing else I can quite compare it to.)
THE HERFING - Ok, what can I say about this cigar? The hard part is the flavors, like I stated earlier, a slight cedar taste, which subsided into a creamy texture after the first 1/4 inch meanwhile still pumping out the nutty goodness. Low nicotine kick througout (but after 5 inches of puffing, it all builds up). Smooth is a good word for it, hints of chocolate here and there, along with my Dunkin Donuts Hazelnut coffee
which complimented my smoke delightfully.
The ash was stiff, and fell off after a good 2 inches.
The fire was hot and red after it fell off, the wrapper and the filler/binder were burning all evenly, no "tunnel burning"
I enjoyed this smoke while looking at the verrazano on a very cloudy and fairly windy day. It got cold and thus you see me wearing gloves.
The flavors were complex, sorry to say I am too much of a newbie to actually give a fully accurate description, but the best I can say is the nuttiness/chocolate tones/cedary undertones were intermingling. At one puff it would be nutty, and the next it would be a creamy chocolate, and then a slightly tingly cedar/woody. Hell, sometimes even all three flavors come at me, and needless to say I didn't want to put this down. I know the general guideline is one puff per minute, but I was puffing this thing as if I were breathing in the carbon monoxide for air. It stayed cool draw until the last 2 inches, which I stopped.
However... since I was outside, it was getting cold, real cold, and I smoked this down to the last 2 inches, and I was facing a dilemma. Nub it to the end while freezing my butt off and holding in my need to use the bathroom, or chuck it and relieve myself of my bladder and the cold and smoke another of the 25 pack I got... I opted for the latter.
OVERALL - A good mild smoke that newbies such as myself, and those who prefer mild smokes can enjoy.
MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS - :love: A great find. The value of this stick (especially for what I paid for it) is amazing. I would really heartily recommend this to friends, I even gave 5 of these to a good co-worker of mine who enjoys smoking cigars as well. So with 19 sticks left, I will plan to set 5 aside for aging, and the rest is part of my "go to" stash. I think thess have a great potential for improvement with age.
THE AFTER EFFECTS - with 5 inches of constant puffing, the nicotine finally kicked in 10 minutes after I chucked it, but the kick wasn't very strong (EXCELLENT!!! :love
. I am a cheap bastard by nature, but this is a stick I would have gladly paid 10 or maybe even 15 bucks for in hindsight. Would it rival an AVO or Ashton Cabinet (in terms of creaminess)? I wouldn't know, haven't smoked those two (like I said, cheapskate here), but hell, anyone with similar tastes to mine (good/loose draw; lot of smoke; creaminess; mild to medium body; low nicotine kick) should give this stick a try. I thank you for reading.
- Dave.
*edited to fix dunkin donuts coffee picture
