I started this post describing my cigar history, likes, etc; and then realized that is something that should be in my profile. I just spent a bit of time amending my profile again - it has more about me and cigars now. (check it out if you want)
Cigarbid has been good to me and bad to my wallet this month; I have been madly dishing out lowball bids on lots that have high counts (several of the item available) of brands I haven't hear of before. Last week's wins included a box of 25 robustos for an amazing $13. I had 7 items and $9.50 shipping so with shipping these cigars ended up at about $0.50 a stick.
Considering the box I was opening was so cheap, I didn't expect much as I slid open the lid. When I looked at the cigars I was initially disappointed even so. The wrappers were rough, full of big veins, and had still been used in a very wide wrap to conserve the crappy leaf. The cigars had crinkle, and the foot of a couple had nice gaps where the filler had contracted more than the wrapper and binder - underfilled and varied humidity over the YEARS. That is right, as I was inspecting the ugly bastage I saw some bloom. Many of the cigars had the lovely white dust across their wrappers. The wrapper of this 5 x 50 is too light to be maduro too dark to be Colorado - is that Sumatra? Javan? I need to read up on wrapper lingo for sure. Squeezing revealed what I supected taht they are slightly underfilled, but not badly so. The description of this didin't say the composition but I suspected a short filler sandwich, but upon dissecting the last inch found out it was a mixed filler; it has at least one long leaf (besides the wrapper and binder) along with medium and short filler and I am sure whatever they swept off the floor that day. I made a good careful cut with my Xicar cutters and got JUST CAP, however with the afforementioned sparse use of wrapper the wrapper started to unravel anyway. A little lick anchored the wrapper down, and after a brief time of tasting I knew this wasn't a wrapper to savor unlight as I like to do with corojo.
My Nibo triple torch had it burning evenly from the start, however this was the only time during the 4" I burnt it down that it was even.
So many things wrong with it before I tasted it; its a wonder I did try it. I was very suprised to really like the flavor. It had a LOT of mild to medium flavor. I had never experienced soo much flavor while at the same time being mild; it was an oxymoron or contradiction of smoke; quite unique. I guess this would be full flavor and light body? I could use pointers for my future reviews.. I have a hard time describing flavors but here is what I think I noticed; cedar, burnt chocolate, dry spice, maybe some anise, and some dirt/earthiness (probably from being floor sweepings). The flavors I described were very subtle and hard to differentiate than most other cigars I have had, and I suspect that is because they intermingled as the cigars aged. One thing I do know is I really did like the flavor for the most part. The only thing in the taste I didn't like was some bitterness that tended to make the smoke a bit chewy (I think) This bitterness was worse when it was hotter, so I smoked it as slowly as I could - yet overall it tended to burn fast. The smoke wasn't thick. I didn't do my usual pathetic attempts at blowing smoke rings as I do when I have sticks that billow thick creamy smoke. Taking bigger draws only produced hotter smoke instead of thicker. On my 5 point scale I give the construction a 2, smoke a 2, appearance a 1.5 - yet overall this sucker tasted so nice its still an overall 4. Perhaps part of what gave me such a kick is that I have had many cigars that cost 10x what this gem did that didn't taste as good to me.
The cigar was a 1 Plus Robusto
Matt
Cigarbid has been good to me and bad to my wallet this month; I have been madly dishing out lowball bids on lots that have high counts (several of the item available) of brands I haven't hear of before. Last week's wins included a box of 25 robustos for an amazing $13. I had 7 items and $9.50 shipping so with shipping these cigars ended up at about $0.50 a stick.
Considering the box I was opening was so cheap, I didn't expect much as I slid open the lid. When I looked at the cigars I was initially disappointed even so. The wrappers were rough, full of big veins, and had still been used in a very wide wrap to conserve the crappy leaf. The cigars had crinkle, and the foot of a couple had nice gaps where the filler had contracted more than the wrapper and binder - underfilled and varied humidity over the YEARS. That is right, as I was inspecting the ugly bastage I saw some bloom. Many of the cigars had the lovely white dust across their wrappers. The wrapper of this 5 x 50 is too light to be maduro too dark to be Colorado - is that Sumatra? Javan? I need to read up on wrapper lingo for sure. Squeezing revealed what I supected taht they are slightly underfilled, but not badly so. The description of this didin't say the composition but I suspected a short filler sandwich, but upon dissecting the last inch found out it was a mixed filler; it has at least one long leaf (besides the wrapper and binder) along with medium and short filler and I am sure whatever they swept off the floor that day. I made a good careful cut with my Xicar cutters and got JUST CAP, however with the afforementioned sparse use of wrapper the wrapper started to unravel anyway. A little lick anchored the wrapper down, and after a brief time of tasting I knew this wasn't a wrapper to savor unlight as I like to do with corojo.
My Nibo triple torch had it burning evenly from the start, however this was the only time during the 4" I burnt it down that it was even.
So many things wrong with it before I tasted it; its a wonder I did try it. I was very suprised to really like the flavor. It had a LOT of mild to medium flavor. I had never experienced soo much flavor while at the same time being mild; it was an oxymoron or contradiction of smoke; quite unique. I guess this would be full flavor and light body? I could use pointers for my future reviews.. I have a hard time describing flavors but here is what I think I noticed; cedar, burnt chocolate, dry spice, maybe some anise, and some dirt/earthiness (probably from being floor sweepings). The flavors I described were very subtle and hard to differentiate than most other cigars I have had, and I suspect that is because they intermingled as the cigars aged. One thing I do know is I really did like the flavor for the most part. The only thing in the taste I didn't like was some bitterness that tended to make the smoke a bit chewy (I think) This bitterness was worse when it was hotter, so I smoked it as slowly as I could - yet overall it tended to burn fast. The smoke wasn't thick. I didn't do my usual pathetic attempts at blowing smoke rings as I do when I have sticks that billow thick creamy smoke. Taking bigger draws only produced hotter smoke instead of thicker. On my 5 point scale I give the construction a 2, smoke a 2, appearance a 1.5 - yet overall this sucker tasted so nice its still an overall 4. Perhaps part of what gave me such a kick is that I have had many cigars that cost 10x what this gem did that didn't taste as good to me.
The cigar was a 1 Plus Robusto
Matt
Moki had asked for people to mail him cigars they wouldn't smoke themselves, and he CLAIMS he is going to smoke and review them.