I have always liked the don carlos series. I have only had 1 bad one and it still wasn't that bad. This is my first belicoso.

Appearance and construction 13/15
Nice cameroon wrapper. Points deducted for a slightly tight draw and an overall dull flat appearance. I like em oily so this is kinda plain. The clip is nice and the wrapper has a slightly sweet taste to it.

Flavor 23/25
Awesome flavor. This vitola exhibits much less of the cinnamon and allspice that I find typical with don carlos and other cameroons. The no 4 is loaded with spicy flavors but this one is more cocoaey. The flavor starts out with a big bold espresso flavor and then leads into a decadent semisweet cocoa finish. The experience was fantastic. These flavors are well worth the time and money. Don't waste time on the smaller don carlos, this one is much much better.

Smoking characteristics 20/25
Major point deduction for a bad burn coupled with some harshness. I would say this is probably because the cigar is fresh from the local shop but it should still smoke like the super premium it claims to be. The ash was weak too but this one majorly impressed me with the flavor. Even my fiance took a few draws and enjoyed the flavors.

Overall 31/35
I wouldn't recommend this to a cameroon lover although it is amongst the finest cameroon cigars I have ever smoked. It doesn't have that typical cameroon flavor - its better. This is a chocolate bomb. If you want the typical cammy flavor, the smaller ring guage don carlos are better for that. I smoked this one with a basil haydens and the cigar completely overshadowed the bourbon but in a good way.

Overall 87

I've never had the belicoso, only the #2's and #3's, and they don't burn as well as a Hemmingway Sig in my opinion. Good review bud particularly the part about the cameroon taste being a little on the weak side...the sigs are better smokes for the money

Mike

I've actually never had any of the Don Carlos line before. Everytime I go to grab some, I end up buying something else like Padron or Opus, something along those lines. The Hemmingways, while good and enjoyable, never really wowed me into wanting to spend the extra money on the Don Carlos.

I did just get a Beli in a bomb from TPSO though, so I'm finally going to try it.

The hemmingways are decent smokes but they are not something I'll pay for or go looking for. I have had a couple of the Don Carlos and they were alot better. Pricey, but better.

dem some pricey sticks.

Had one of these on vacation last week...kind of a disappointment. Not bad, but not worth the money. Liked the Don Carlos Corona better.

Is it just me or are these fairly weak smokes?

quote:

Originally posted by El Presidente:
Is it just me or are these fairly weak smokes?

its a full flavored smoke, but medium bodied.

quote:

Originally posted by O Man:
Had one of these on vacation last week...kind of a disappointment. Not bad, but not worth the money. Liked the Don Carlos Corona better.

I know what your saying. The don carlos corona has more flavor. To me, it is much less enjoyable. It is more wrapper than this one and tastes more like a cameroon to me. I enjoyed the flavors in the beli much better even though they were less pronounced. I guess what I'm saying is, on the corona, the wrapper overpowers the filler and on this one there is more balance.

I've gone through 10 or so Hemingways (sigs)a Don Carlos Presidente, an 8-5-8 Maddie and an Anejo Shark.

Out of these I really dug the Anejo the most, the 8-5-8 was better than the DC (IMHO) and the Hemingways are dull for the first 3/4 stick. I have one more DC Presidente so I'll hold judgement, but if its like the rest, only the Anejo floats my boat (and since they are way byond mor happy pricepoint for an NC, I'll not be buying too many for awhile!)

the beli is actually my favorite in the don carlos line. they do have a tendency to burn bad which is definately a turnoff for such a pricey super premium stick, but the flavor is awesome. they definatelty need some humi time, not saying they aren't ready to smoke right off the truck, but a month or two does wonders for the burn. I wonder if tpso or doc has better luck with these, and if they keep them at a lower humidity...i've only got one humidor and a coolerdor, and both stay at 68-70%, and i'd be willing to bet they burn better at 65%...

I was thinking about writing a review of these since I've been smoking so many but, unlike a newb I decided to search 1st, post later.

I've gotta say I'm with smokum here; the Belicoso is my favorite vitola in the line. I've never thought of these as smokes with inherent burn issues either and I've smoked boxes of them. Draw on these smokes has also always been top notch for me. I do however keep my humi at 65% so as smokum speculated, maybe that makes all the difference. The biggest thing I notice about this smoke is how clean of a finish it has. There is no charcoal/burnt finish at all. I think they have a good amount of spice (spice now not peper) and none of the overpowering cedar flavor that ,IMO, the Torano's have. No formal review or anything but I would have to give them a solid 90pts (possibly a couple more). Not to put words in P's mouth at all but, it seems like without the burn issues he would have had a similar score as well. Just my .02

I recently smoked one of these also- after my 5 year fuente embargo was lifted- and agree 100% with the clean finish thing going on. I expected to see this term used more as it has been used more often in the CA interviews, but it is a term that really describes the difference in mouth feel of a top notch cigar from a lessor one. I have yet to have a DC that had any problems(I too do 65), and they all would rate in the high eighties with me- maybe a touch more! Also in regards to the archives on this smoke, or any others, I keep a pretty good smoke diary with multiple entries for each smoke. There are many times that a old review and new one are vastly different. Not as much right now- but about 3 years ago blends seemed to change considerably. A lot of my go to cigars- toranos, padrons, bauza,and now don carlos, were culled out of the thousands of bands for consistancy of blend.

quote:

Originally posted by syrinx:
I keep a pretty good smoke diary with multiple entries for each smoke. There are many times that a old review and new one are vastly different. Not as much right now- but about 3 years ago blends seemed to change considerably. A lot of my go to cigars- toranos, padrons, bauza,and now don carlos, were culled out of the thousands of bands for consistancy of blend.

Thats a good idea. I did that for a while too. I often wonder if, now that my tastes have more or less developed, upon going back and trying them all again I would enjoy some of the smokes I wrote-off initially.