Another brisk day in good ole Delaware...
I had a Drew Estate Java today, obviously. I coupled it with a couple of Folger's Black Silk. I like that coffee, my wife--not so much. This cigar was a little soft. I think I'm having slight humidification issues--I'm using beads in my tupperdore and always leave one corner open, but the humidity still hangs around 73%.
The wrapper is dark, beautiful and flawless.
The foot smelled of cocoa, chocolate, and a hint of coffee.
Clipped the cap clean with my Cuban Crafter's guillotine cutter. ( I know, not as snazzy as a Xikar, but it does a good job.
:-) )
Prelight draw smacks of coffee and a hint of cocoa. However, the draw is perfect. Tight, but not too tight.
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1/3
This stick started rough. Very earthy, but it faded quickly. The flavors in this cigar came in spurts, and at some points were difficult to detect. Throughout the first third the flavor that was dominant was coffee and earth. It was neither unenjoyable nor enjoyable, honestly. Because of the breeze it took a while for me to get a good smell of the smoke that this cigar produced. When I finally did get a good whiff, it was chocolate-y/cocoa-y, pleasant, really.
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2/3
The ash built up to about an inch and a half before the wind blew it off. A shame, really, the ash was a solid and pretty dark grey. In the second third, the coffee flavor remained but the earth flavor dwindled away and was replaced by cocoa--NOT chocolate-like cocoa--but cocoa. It was during the second third that this cigar developed a burn issue. I would love to have blamed it on the breeze, but the breeze wasn't really strong enough to create problems. Toward the end of thise third, this cigar was putting out bursts of peppery spice.
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3/3
Pretty much more of the same, except the bursts of peppery spice became more pronounced. There was nothing wow about this cigar, pretty much par for the course for me with Drew Estate, although, please don't let that cause you to think that I didn't enjoy this cigar. It's a hell of a lott better than the Kuba Kuba IMO, and I did like it well enough.
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The finish on this cigar was coffe-ish.
In the end, I will smoke more of these because these are a decent cigar. It's not a top pick, by any means, however. Most of it was blah, but the flavor that I did get was consistent throughout the cigar. This is the second time that I have had one of these, and my first experience with this was better than this one. It may have had to do with the fact that I am sitting in some wintery breezes while I'm smoking--I don't know.
I would HIGHLY recommend trying one of these before passing judgment. And don't let the Drew Estate band throw you.
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