Nic's mystery cigar #1

[moki]

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (6" x 50) -- Nic send me a couple of unbanded cigars that he wanted my opinion on. They were both pretty close in size, 6" x 50-52 or so. One was about 1/16th of an inch longer than the other, and slightly fatter in ring gauge... but this could be due to less than strict production standards.

Both cigars certainly looked similar in terms of wrapper; the one I sparked up was a bit lumpy, with distinct ridges running parallel to the cigar under the wrapper: likely stems or improperly bunched tobacco for the binder.

I clipped one, toasted the foot, and had a little draw... WTF? This is a sweetened cigar, or at the very least, sugar water was used to wet the wrapper and possibly the binder as well.

The cigar itself was relatively mild/medium bodied, no exceptional flavors except some bitterness (which is likely the reason the wrappers were sweetened). I tossed it after an inch or so. I realize I should have given the cigar a better chance, especially since Nic was kind enough to send it for me to give it a try... but I just had no desire to keep going.

When I light up the next one (assuming they are the same cigar, which they superficially appear to be), I'll burn it down further, and give it a good chance.

 

[nic]

I've burned about half of my collection at this point, and I've had one do the same. I'm curious to hear what you think of the next. Don't worry about tossing it, if it sucks, it's not worth smoking.

Nic

 

[moki]

I've burned about half of my collection at this point, and I've had one do the same. I'm curious to hear what you think of the next. Don't worry about tossing it, if it sucks, it's not worth smoking.

Nic

Are they the same cigar? If not, what was this one? It appears they probably are the same cigar, and just the manufacturing is not consistent?

 

[nic]

They are the same cigar. And I agree, there is some inconsistenties with them. I'll let you know where they came from as soon as Tony Bones has done his review.

Nic

 

[cvmfour]

:0 Andrew's super rich palette could not take the harsh bumpy road it was destined to travel on with this cigar! :sign: I would have thrown it too

 

[Tony Bones]

Smoked mine that Nic sent last night. Here's the low-down:

- About 6' long
- Tiny veins in the wrapper
- Construction was a little off and kind of lumpy...but not terrible

- Easy clip and ignition. No cracking or splitting
- Woah sweet!
- Definite hints of honey/maple syrup
- Decent amount of smoke w/ a good draw

I smoked about half of the stick and the sweetness calmed down a bit. This was good because sweetness isn't my bag. Little spice toward the end, but the cigar never really built to anything. Finish was pretty much the same as the start, w/ out the overwhelming sweetness.

I'll smoke the other shortly. Thanks for letting me in on this Nic.

 

[nic]

Interesting.

I bought these at a smoke shop in New Orleans, Big River Trading Co. (http://www.bigrivertrading.biz) - who's website isn't work currently. Being in the traveling spirit, I tried 2 in the shop on 2 different occations, and enjoyed both, my opinions of both of them being very much along the lines of Tony. I'm about half way through the first bundle, and I've noticed that some of them have a noticable (but very sneaky!) nicotine kick towards the last 1/3rd, but not all of them.

After chatting with the kid running the shop, I found out that these cigars are sold as cuban alts. I couldn't believe it as he went on to tell me that they've done many blind tests, and no one has been able to tell the difference. "Sure kid...", thinks I. The only thing he knew about them was they are an all honduran puro - which didn't surprise me considering the overly strong sweetness. I like the 2 that I had while I was there, and thought they'd be a good cigar to have around as a "change of pace" considering I tend to smoke primarily heavier Nicaraguan cigars. So I bought the last 2 bundles in the shop, for around $90, about a $1.80 each.

It was the claim that these were "cuban alternatives" that prompted me to do this little experiment. I thought about emailing them a link to the thread, but as I mentioned before, their website is down and I'm not interested in trying any harder then that to contact them.

Anyways, that's it. No deeper meaning or secret intention. This was fun though, and as I have seemed to have a rather acute interest in small independent rollers, and custom cigars (for shops, etc) I'll probably do this again sometime.

Nic

 

[moki]

If these are Cuban alts, I look good in a dress.

The tobacco doesn't taste like Cuban tobacco -- I've never had a Cuban cigar that's dipped in sugar water... the kid is full of it... heh I'm not sure who was doing these taste tests where they couldn't tell the difference, but... no way.