Appearance: The appearance was flawless. Very shiny oily wrapper, beautiful color. Perfect cap and excellent construction. Very few veins, well put together.
Feel: Consistent throughout, no soft spots, very firm cigar.
First 1/3rd: Leathery and spicy in this part of the cigar. A lot of pepper and some subtle coffee bean notes.
Second 1/3rd: This point is where the burn got bad, but still a lot of leather. The pepper went away and some very dark chocolate notes starting to come through.
Finish: This one had a long finish with the leather and dark chocolate staying on he palette. Very good finish.
Stregth: I would rate this a medium to full
Draw: Draw was excellent, when it was actually staying lit. Very firm but not in a bad way.
Burn: Maybe I got a bad one or did not let it rest enough, its been 2 weeks. It was horrible. See the pictures.
Smoke: Tons of thick smoke, again when it was fully lit. Which was rare.
Ash: Well it was looking good, but I put it down for a sec and the very mild wind knocked it to the floor and the ash fell off too soon. I never got a good test afterwards because I kept knocing off the ash to fix the burn.
Overall Impression: I was really excited about this stick. For this first stick...not very good. The construction and appearance were amazing. The flavors started out very good but took a turn for the worse when I had to keep relighting it. I hopefully just got a bad one. I may pick up another one and let it rest longer and see what happens. I really can not give a full evaluation because I never had a consistent burn going.
So I am Chalking this one up as a bad one. I will look to buy another for another review.
Pictures:
1 Nice appearance! 2 Bad Burn 3 This is after the wind knoced it down and the ash fell off. I touched up the burn. 4 Then the burn just did the same thing. 5 Still Bad 6 This is the point where I stopped as it started giving me problems again!
Appearance and Construction (20/20) Flavor Profile (25/30) Burn (15/25 ) Overall (15/25 )
Score: 75
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gespinoza1,
Originally posted by V.O.: Great review and pics! Thanks for sharing.
No doubt the burn has an effect on taste. Maybe you should try dry-boxing next time.
Yea I think I will dry box next time. I picked this one last min so I didn't get a chance. I keep my humi at 65% but Maybe it needed to be a little drier.
Nice review! I'm curious about your comments on the burn problem. Was it going out multiple times, or were you commenting that it wasn't burning perfectly even? Looking at the pictures, personally, I can put up with that level of uneven burn. But, if it's going out, or partly going out and I have to touch it up or relight it - I give up on the stick if I'm at least half way through it. Re-reading your post, I assume the notes on the "burn problem" were about relighting it?
"My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them." Winston Churchill
Posts: 473 | Location: Colorado | Registered: January 21, 2005
Originally posted by Shawn G: Nice review! I'm curious about your comments on the burn problem. Was it going out multiple times, or were you commenting that it wasn't burning perfectly even? Looking at the pictures, personally, I can put up with that level of uneven burn. But, if it's going out, or partly going out and I have to touch it up or relight it - I give up on the stick if I'm at least half way through it. Re-reading your post, I assume the notes on the "burn problem" were about relighting it?
It was more that I had to keep relighting. I say burn problem because one half would stay lit and the other woulnt, causing that canoe typr problem.
I really am usually tolerant to burn problems. I always give the stick a chance. But once it started burning like this, it produced less smoke and less flavor.
Just to note, when Cigar Aficionado uses the term "finish" we do not refer to the end of the cigar. We refer to the flavors left on the palate when the smoke is gone. Long finish, short finish, etc.
I have about 5 of these in my humidor, having picked them up right after the #1 ranking. Well, I tried my first one a few days ago, and was quite disappointed. I thought it started well, good draw, good burn, nice flavor profile, etc. But then the flavors changed for the worse, and I tossed the stick with 1/2 left. Maybe I'll revisit these in another few months.
********************************************* "The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior"
Well I have had 4 of these some with 2 months of aging, Just finished my last one thank god. Everyone had NO draw with no burn, I opened it over and over with no success! I felt that it was rolled loser at the foot up about 3 inches I kept cutting a half inch at a time until I got to 3 inches and then it burnt terrible. What a waste of $28 for a four pack, Never again !! I should send all the cut offs directly to them and ask for a refund. Just my 4 cents !!
"The Most Important Part Of The Golf Swing Is The Golf Club"
Posts: 528 | Location: Iowa | Registered: December 20, 2007
I recently burned through two of these.... What is interesting is that I made some of the same observations as above, but in reverse order. In other words, The cigar started off very 1D and boring. Poor burn right off the bat. and just a blah sort of smoke. After the first third the cigar changes for me. It becomes complex and the burn evens.... a very good smoke by the end of the 2nd third. I won't swear by them, but I will keep a few of them on hand for the rotation.
"Eating and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man's enjoyment of his cigar." ‐‐ Mark Twain
Originally posted by Lennielqgolf: Well I have had 4 of these some with 2 months of aging, Just finished my last one thank god. Everyone had NO draw with no burn, I opened it over and over with no success! I felt that it was rolled loser at the foot up about 3 inches I kept cutting a half inch at a time until I got to 3 inches and then it burnt terrible. What a waste of $28 for a four pack, Never again !! I should send all the cut offs directly to them and ask for a refund. Just my 4 cents !!
I had the very same experience! The cigar was absolutely fireproof. I even left one out of the humidor for a couple of days and the stick still wouldn't burn.
"Deadlines are things that we pass through on the way to finishing."- Peter Gabriel
Posts: 122 | Location: Chicago,IL | Registered: September 23, 2002
Had one again today, and it was the same as the last one. Easy draw, fairly decent burn, and just tons of smoke. Of course, it was 20 degrees and probably 35% humidity outside...
Good flavors in the second half.
~~~ "I'm stupid, but I might not be crazy." - Hanno Breuckner
