This is my first attempt at a review, so I'm sorry if I'm missing information you're normally accostomed to seeing, or if the formatting is weird, etc.

Andrew was gracious enough to trade me a couple of his Roxy cigars that he personally rolls. I promised I would review them. I have very little information about the types of leaves used other than he labeled it as his Nicaraguan blend.

My taste buds are still fairly new to this, so I'm not great at detecting or describing all of the flavors I see in other reviews, but I did do my best to try and document those that were obvious to me.

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Name: Roxy
Size: I think 5 x 50 Robusto
Country: NY, USA
Filler: ?
Binder: ?
Wrapper: ?

Pre-light
This Robusto was hand rolled by our own BlkDrew here at Cigar Asylum. From what I can tell, he's only been doing this since October of 2011. At least that's when his Rolling Your Own thread was started. The blend was labeled as a Nicaraguan blend, but I am unsure of the types of leaves used for the filler, binder or wrapper. The natural wrapper is smooth with a few small veins. Overall the construction appears to be very good with a firm and heavy feel which is consistent throughout the entire stick and no noticeable soft spots.

Pre-light the cigar has a sweet tobacco smell to it and a sweeter barnyard mixed with tobacco flavor on the pre-light draw. I also get some peppery tingling on my lips and tongue from the wrapper. The draw seems a little tight, but I decided to give it a go anyways.


First Third

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In the first third I get a nice blend of pepper and creamy tobacco flavor with some mild hay notes mixed in. The burn is struggling to stay even and unfortunately, the draw is much too tight. The stick is what I would classify as medium bodied, medium strength, and very smooth. So far, the flavors are enjoyable.


Second Third

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On the second third the draw is getting very tight and I'm having to really work hard at getting enough smoke. This is unfortunate because it's really becoming a tease, as I want more of the delicious flavors to come through. The flavors are moving to a richer, creamier profile with some mix of subtle earth and strong leather. There is still some pepper, but it's subdued and the hay is no longer detectable. The cigar isn't holding any ash, but the burn is improving. At this point, I'm beginning to feel really impressed with the blend, because even $10+ sticks that I've smoked haven't really changed this drastically. The draw is really tough though. I have cut the head a couple times and used a pipe poker to try and open it up a little.

Final Third

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On the final third I've managed to split the wrapper due to pinching the cigar in order to attempt to milk every bit of smoke I can get from it. The draw is still very challenging. The flavors coming across are still very smooth and creamy except now the dominant flavor I detect is a meaty flavor, like salty and smoky BBQ. I no longer detect any earth or leather, just smooth creamy meatiness ( :-) ). This sounds absurd, but it's the only way I can describe it lol. This is very intersting to me as i have only recently discovered this meaty flavor in a viaje skull and bones that i received from Ranger_B as part of the NST program. I had never experienced it before and i really enjoy it. I am still getting some pepper, although its now much more subtle.

After 60 minutes, I didn't quite nub it, but I smoked it as far as I could before it started to become too bitter and called it quits.

Conclusion

All I can say is wow. Andrew, you have some practice ahead of you in the draw department, but after only 2 months of doing this, I can say I'm very impressed. I don't think the draw issues were because of moisture, because the cigar never tunneled. I suspect it was just rolled a little too tightly.

On the flip-side, the cigar was delicious and complex. I can honestly say that I have never smoked such a complex cigar with new and distinct flavors evolving over the length of the cigar. It went from mild hay, to earthy leather, to salty bbq meaty flavor over the course of the smoke, which was very interesting. Perhaps because I smoked this with the intention of reviewing it, I may have been more aware of the flavors. Either way, I enjoyed it very much. Fix the draw issues and you have a premium cigar worthy of sale in any B&M.

I use a scale of 1-10 for rating my cigars. There is no rhyme or reason to this system other than it gives me enough of a range to cover the spectrum of what I do and don't like. Usually anything 7/10 or higher I tend to buy more of. I'm rating this a 6/10 only because the draw was very difficult. Without this issue it would have easily been an 8/10. I will let you get a little more practice under your belt and plan to revist these in a few months with cash in hand.

Thank you for letting me trade some of these. Awesome job!
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Great review Brian! I am sure Andrew will appreciate the constructive criticism you provided and will also feel very accomplished with the praise you gave. I cannot wait to try these!

Is a pipe poker shorter than a cigar draw tool? Perhaps if a draw tool was used would it have smoked better?

Either way, I'm very intrigued by the way you described the flavors! :-)
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Thanks, Cole. I really enjoyed it. Andrew might have some natural born talent for blending tobacco because I thought it was outstanding.

The pipe poker is much shorter than your typical cigar draw tool I think, but it's all I had. Luckily the binder was done so well that the cracked wrapper didn't have any noticable impact. Honestly the only reason the draw was so frustrating was because the cigar was so good. I wanted copious amounts of the flavors and had to really work to get it :-).
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Thanks for sharing...great review brother :-)
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To add to this, I just smoked the test blend that he sent me, which I know almost nothing about, and it burned very well and the draw was good. Slightly on the tight side, but vey smokable. This one had a dark wrapper. Somewhere between a dark Habano or light Maduro. The flavors were very rich and meaty throughout the whole cigar. Not as complex as the Nicaraguan, but still very good.
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Thanks for sharing, Brian! You've got a good review! :-)
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Nice review Brian, I must ask andrew to send me one of these to try.
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Nice review Brian. And I thought it just was me when I got the sweetness on the smell. :-)
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I just wanted to update this because I just had one of Andrews double maddy's and the draw was absolutely perfect. While not the same blend, i thought it would be appropriate to update rhe review since the draw is the only fault I could find with my first experience with his cigars. Good work, Andrew.
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