It been a long while since I've smoked anything from the Dominican Republic. My preferences have been moving away from Dominican smokes, and I just wanted to give them another shot. I've got a bunch of Opus's that I've been accruing, and decided to roast one up.

Pre-light draw was a bit tight, but I got whacked with spice before it was even lit up.

After lighting, the first few seconds were amazing. Some cigars need to warm up, this needed no time. I immediately got tons of pepper. Wow, I was surprised. After the immediate shock of the pepper, a deep raisin, or even molasses flavor dominated the finish. Rich and full flavored. At this point, I was loving the smoke.

Within an inch of lighting, I noticed a split in the wrapper beginning to develop. Funny, this happened with my last Opus. The burn also began to go a bit crooked. I struggled with it for a few minutes before deciding to go ahead and do some manual repairs. Tried to straiten the burn with a lighter. As I was doing my repairs and smoking the cigar, I noticed it wasn't putting out the volume of smoke that it was earlier. The spice disappeared, the raisin flavors were gone, I was struggling with the burn; not what I was hoping for.

There was a considerable amount of nicotine in the smoke and I did get a bit of a buzz. But without those full rich flavors that the smoke started out with, it was just flat. This is how I remember my last opus X to be, but at least this one had some excitement at the beginning.

The rest of the smoke involved me going through every technique I know to straiten or fix the burn, but I struggled with it right up to the end. It did smoke slowly, but slowly in a bad way. Like it just wasn't lit well enough. And it never regained it's beginning flavors. I smoked it down to about 1.5" only because it was an Opus X, not because I was enjoying it.

Well, I was hoping to be able to eat my words and say this was a great cigar. If it had stayed on it's original track, it would've been a 9.5. But it didn't and I'm not sure I could even fairly rate it considering the great original flavors and terrible construction issues.

My conclusion... I'll have try it all over again.
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Hope your next try turns out better! I have yet to pick one of these up, mostly because I've not found one in stock yet!
:-)
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sorry to hear that such a $$$ smoke wasn't up to par. I definitely think that Opus Xs should be held to a higher standard than most other smokes because of their price and (supposed) scarcity. Personally every one I've smoked has been top-notch in flavor and construction.

oh if only AF would quit bullsh*ting around and just make more of these. I'd buy them. I love some good Dominican tobacco. I just refuse to run all over town hunting these down. :-)
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Sorry to hear you had some burn problems. I've never had any problems with them. I love power rangers.
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I feel your pain. I, too have been saving up on my Opus cigars and the Power Ranger is one I had about 4 of and smoked one 2 months ago and another one last month. Both of these cigars did the exact same thing you talked about. I still love Opus but the Power Rangers have a definite issue with them. You aren't the only one to have this quality problem,,,it seems to be a reoccuring issue.
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Wow. Too bad it turned so quickly. I'm surprised to hear about the problems with the Power Rangers because Fuente cigars are usually well constructed. I would definitely be ticked off because of how much they cost. Well, at least you were able to enjoy part of it.
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I am thinking about buying some wholesale water pipes from this company in China www.Iamaspamming DB.com
but I am not sure if they are legal to bring in to the states? What are the laws on water pipes, bongs, and pipes?
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Holy threadjack batman!!! :-) :-)

This troll has the same post in a different thread, so this is his first and second post. Mods? :-)
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Hope your next one is a lot better, thanks for the review
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That sucks! Powere Ranger are just that...powerful!!! One of the strongest Opus out there. I'd expect to get a nicotine buzz even from an aged one.

As for your burn issues, Opus do better at lower RHs. The wrapper is rather thick, so at those lower RH (62-65%), they will burn much cleaner and straighter. Hopefully the next one(s) you smoke will have better results.
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I do keep all of my smokes at 65%. I'm going away for the weekend, but am going to give it another shot next week. Probably post a review of that one.

And most fortunately, thanks to a great BOTL, I got these at or below MSRP in a WTS on our former board. So I'm not really sweating the price.
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:-):-)

I totally agree. I've smoked a few now and loved their flavor. However, the only place I seem capable of finding them is here on CA from the WTS thread. I found some once in a B&M.
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Hahahahaha, awesome. :-):-)

You know, Adam, I thought I had one of these on Saturday. It was my first Opus but it turns out it was a Perfecxion No.4 (5 3/16" x 43) and I really enjoyed it. I've got a Power Ranger resting so I look forward to seeing if I experience the same issues you did but hope not to. The burn on the No. 4 was razor-sharp all the way to the end. The best I've ever had, as far as burn goes. Maybe I'm just getting better with my mad lighting skillz. Flavor was good & consistent, not so much spicy but definitely good.

Thanks for your review! Hope the next one is better!
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I do have to say that based on the initial flavors, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Of course if my bong shows up from China, I'll be smoking something else. :-)
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