Thanks to mycigarlink, who sent this to me for a review.
Sorry, no pictures, as the camera was being uncooperative.
Perdomo Habano Maduro Gordo is a Nicaraguan Puro, with filler, binder, & wrapper all from Nicaragua, though the blend is made from 3 regions: Esteli, Condega & Jalapa.
This particular sample, the Gorda, is a 6" x 60 ring stickball bat.
Densely packed with no soft spots.
The dark brown wrapper glistens like a snake in heat.
There are 2 prominent veins running most of the length, but overall, a very handsome cigar.
I'm not used to a cigar this fat. I almost felt dirty every time I took a puff(Can I say that? Puff, I mean).
Prelight taste is sweet earthy tobacco.
On lighting, flavors of sweet coffee & cocoa, almost raisin-like, with a touch of spicy bite in the back of my throat & nose.
The draw is surprisingly good, given its girth & density, delivering a healthy mouthful of smoke the entire time.
Soon into it, a cedary woodiness emerges, and the spiciness subsides, replaced by more of a creamy feel to the smoke.
At this point, the burn is a little off, but within acceptable parameters, so I let it continue without correction. The ash is a light-to-medium gray & holdss on nicely. I didn't flick it until after an inch.
This is one slow-burning cigar - it took me 1/2 hour to hit the 1" mark!
The burn becomes more uneven, so I correct it at this point (the first of many). About 1-1/2" in, the flavors become thinner, more diluted with a loss of the creaminess & a faded flat finish. From this point on, it did not keep my attention. OK, but nothing special. The cigar remained fairly consistent from this stage forward, which is to say it lacked enough flavor to keep me interested. The slow-burn continued, as did the regular touch-ups to the off-side burn. The last third presented more sharp charcoal & anise.
I've had this cigar in the smaller (54) gauges & I did not have any of the burn problems, nor the flat flavor finish. I recommend trying this smoke in the smaller Toro & Torpedo sizes, but it just did not cut it in this mega-fatty 60-ring gauge. You could do better with the Perdomo2 Mistakes Torpedo at 1/3 the price.
After 3 hours with this behemoth, I put it out with an inch or so to go.
All I could think was "I coulda had a Padron 2000".
Overall, I was not impressed with the cigar. While it started with some promise, and the draw did maintain excellent quality throughout, the consistent off-burn, flat flavors & $6.50+ price tag garner this one a "C-".
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