My first review. Not a special stick or anything here, but I wanted to get some experience developing my palate and really thinking about and tasting a cigar's complexity.
I received this San Cristobal Clasico at an Ashton even I went to Monday. It's rested in my humidor since then. I decided to do a late night smoke with this and I paired it with a bourbon and coke (my usual drink of choice).
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12: 20 - First third
Removing it from the cellophane I immediately felt the beautifully smooth oily wrapper with only some minor veins. Spice and the smell of old wood on pre-light draw. Used a guillotine cut on this...might've been better with a punch cut. Pre-draw is kind of loose, but not too loose. On light the cigar produced a good amount of clean white smoke, with a bluish smoke coming from the lit foot of the cigar. The first notes I noticed were leather and cinnamon with that old woodsy, almost forest/outdoor taste. As I lit up the cigar it was deja vu feeling of camping and I think that's why.
While the ash isn't tight (fell off every 3/4") it's very uniformly white and the burn is perfectly straight around the entire cigar. Starting to get hints of coffee along with the spices. Woodsy taste is going away. Can't get more than an inch of ash on this cigar however (the second ash just fell on my shirt).
1:00 - Middle
I was wrong about the draw. I'm getting the perfect amount of smoke without having to draw too hard or restraining myself on the draw. Still getting notes of coffee and spice throughout. Very consistent (and good!) taste. Thinking coffee would've been a better pairing, but considering it's 1am I'm not really in the mood for coffee
:-)
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1: 20 - End
The woodsy campfire taste has started creeping back in, enjoyable and not too overpowering. Getting towards the end of the cigar it's started to get slightly bitter, but with an inch and a half left I wasn't planning on nubbing this cigar anyway.
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Would I buy again? Yes, it was enjoyable. I would like to try a larger RG of this line and will probably look to pick one up next time I'm at my local B&M.
Borrowing Don Fernando's raiting scale (I like his reviews!) here is my take on this cigar:
Appearance: 8 / 10
Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 8 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Smoke & ash: 6 / 10
Aroma first part: 8 / 10
Aroma second part: 8 / 10
Aroma third part: 6 / 10
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