Here we go; reviews for cigar #1

SteveH
Cigar: Number 1
Vitola / Wrapper / Binder: 5 1/8” x 56. Toothy dark brown wrapper; oily and with small veins .
Drink / Food: Vino Rioja
Outside Factors: Warm
Construction: Very firm and hefty in the hand
Prelight : Mildly sweet tobacco
Cut: Straight cut using Xikar Xi
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-L.../IMG_00238.jpg
First Third: Cigar lit easily and settled quickly. The draw was quite open (which was surprising how firm and dense the cigar was), so that was annoying as getting smoke was difficult at first. Initial hits of leather and quality tobacco, with a very nice sweet and pleasing aroma. I found the first third to be a little plain, but judging by how straight and slow the burn was, I knew I was in for a long evening.
Draw: OK – too open. Surprising considering how hefty and firm the cigar was.
Burn: Excellent.
Ash/Smoke: Light grey/white ash; grey smoke. Nice thin smoke line from the cigar at rest. The cigar would hold its ash nearly all the way through each third.

Second Third: Nearly 40mins into the cigar, we finally reached the 2nd third ! The draw improved, and strong pepper came into the picture. It totally overtook me; as the cigar was quite mellow up until this point. Towards the end of the 2nd third; the pepper went away, and it was replaced by bitter chocolate and coffee. Nice !

Final third: Really picking up the pace. At this point, we’ve been in each other’s company for over an hour and 15mins, and we’re just reaching the last third ! The cigar got real strong, and a toast/almond combination came through in force. As we got into the band area the burn became hot and bitter. Considering that we’ve been at it for almost two hours it isn’t surprising, and I put it down.

Total Smoking Time: 118 mins
Strength: Strong Flavor: Medium
Overall Impression: A commitment cigar. If you settle down with it – plan on being there for a while. I wasn’t thrilled about the draw at first, it was like drinking through a straw with a hole in the middle. After it cleared up though it was a pleasant cigar. Enough to keep you interested; but enjoyable without having to focus on it too much. There was some nic kick to it towards the end.
Construction: 9 10
Prelight: 3 5
First Third: 12 15
Draw: 6 10
Burn: 9 10
Ash / Smoke: 8 10
Second Third: 7 10
Final Third: 7 10
Overall impression: 16 20
Total Score: 77 100

Emjaysmash
Cigar: No. 1
Vitola / Wrapper / Binder: N/A
Drink / Food: N/A
Outside Factors: Drizzling. No wind or discernable breeze.
Construction: Solid cigar, fairly light in the hand. No soft spots or overly hard spots.
Prelight : Sweet tobacco flavors, slight zest on the finish. Reminiscent of Brandy.
First Third: Flavor: rich tobacco, slight tanginess slight woodiness and herbal (basil) finish. Develops into prominent cedar wood flavors slight leather tones and a zest on the tip of the tongue. Sweet tobacco flavor as a base.
Draw: Free with very little resistance
Burn: Wavy and terrible. Touched up 2 time(s). And just let it go when it became bad. Cigar went out and I had to relight 2 times.
Ash/Smoke: Ash was solid, light and dark gray. Smoke was light/whispy
Second Third: Sudden transition into the second third and the flavors suddenly diminish in strength. Prominent tobacco flavor with slight cedar wood finish. Coffee and herbal notes appear every so often. Towards the end of the second third I get an interesting sort of prune-y taste I associate with Perique pipe tobacco.
Final third: much the same as the second, but coffee was the prominent flavor with wood undertones. Still not as strong as the flavors were in the first third.
Strength: Medium/Full
Overall Impression: This cigar had a lot of nice flavors in it that were well balanced after the first third. I was put off by the horrible burn and relights. This cigar was in my humidor at 65% RH for a few weeks so I’m not sure why it burned so badly.
Construction: 10 10
Prelight: 5 5
First Third: 12 15
Draw: 10 10
Burn: 2 10
Ash / Smoke: 8 10
Second Third: 7 10
Final Third: 8 10
Overall impression: 15 20
Total Score: 77 100


TJCobra
Cigar: Lou’s Cigar Taste Test IV – Cigar #1
Vitola / Wrapper / Binder: 8:30P Looks like a 6 x 52 Toro. Dark Brown wrapper. It’s dusk outside so I cant see it in great detail.
Drink / Food: 16.9 oz Bottle of Dasani purified Water. Nothing to eat since lunch about 9 hours ago. After work, I DID stop by the bar with my brother-in-law for a few beers 
Outside Factors: It’s brutal outside. When I got home 30 minutes ago at 8:00 PM, it was 102 outside. So, I’m guessing it is 101 right now. Ugh. Maybe I should move to Afghanistan for some cooler weather.
Construction: Cigar appears to have decent construction. Very heavy in hand and VERY firm. Almost hard. No triple cap on this one (that I can see) and it might be considered a little “lumpy”. Definitely not a perfect roll and not smooth all around.
Prelight : When I first grabbed this cigar out of the bag, I took a wiff and it stunk. I don’t know what it was but I grabbed some other sticks cause I didn’t think I would be smoking this too long. After it sat out a few minutes, I smelled it again and it smelled much better. Kind of a sweet tobacco thing going on. Just a faint bit of stink left on it. I hope one of the other cigars didn’t get its stink on them! LOL!
Cut it with my trusty “burlwood” Palio. Just took a puff pre-light. ACK! Not good. I tasted what I smelled earlier! I hope that the stink leaks out since I cut it!!!! Now to light with my Tatuaje Triple Flame Lotus…
First Third:
8:45P Good Lord. Now I realize why I have never reviewed a cigar before. While the stink seems to have left the cigar, I am not getting any distinct flavors with the first few puffs. Will smoke this a bit to see what develops. Not horrible. Not great. Be back in a few minutes.
8:52 About a half inch in. I think I can say with certainty that I’ve never smoked this cigar. It isn’t bad, but I don’t recognize the flavors. Kind of a toasty, tobacco-y flavor? Man I suck at this. Maybe I need to hawk a loogie and try again…. Nope. Still suck at this. Not bad flavor though…
8:59 More of the same. Leaving kind of a buttery feel/taste in my mouth. The smoke stinks like the initial pre-light but the cigar doesn’t taste bad.
9:01 Whoa. About an inch in and I just got a blast of perfume or something. Blech.
9:05 Cigar has moved from Toasty and Buttery to “Fragrant”. Not my cup of tea. Ash is still holding about 1 ¼ inches but looks like it will fall soon
7/10 I like the toasty/buttery flavor and would have probably enjoyed the cigar had it stayed that way. So, it got some points for trying to not suck.
Draw: Perfect draw. Not loose or firm. Just right.
Burn: It’s burning well and pretty straight. No touch-ups or relights needed.
Ash/Smoke: Medium gray ash with plenty of smoke.
Second Third: Ash dropped. On my laptop :/
9:17 Into the second third. All of the previous flavors have left and I’m getting something different that I cant put my finger on. Draw and burn are still good. Ash is holding again but the aftertaste/retrohale leaves a weird taste that is just kind of “meh” to me. Maybe it’s still the fragrant taste that hit me earlier and burned out my taste buds and sense of smell.
9:-)1 I’ve drank almost the whole bottle of water (or it evaporated from the heat). I’m going to move on to a light beer in a few minutes. Shouldn’t affect the taste I don’t think.
9:-)8 More of the same. Ash held to about 1.5” and I ashed it to save my keyboard. Still a floral or fragrant aftertaste.
3/10 because it wasn’t horrible but not my flavor profile
Final third: More of the same…
9:37 Although I’m not quite in the final third of the cigar, I’m in the final third of what I’m going to be smoking. Just more of the same floral/fragrant aftertaste to me. I’ll smoke it down to about two inches to see if it changes any more…
10:00 Cigar went out… died a quiet death with about 2 inches left. Not going to re-light this one. We are both better to just move on.
3/10

Strength: Medium strengthI suppose Flavor: uhm, it did have some, but not many I liked
Overall Impression: The cigar was rolled fine, burned fine, and had a good draw. I didn’t enjoy the flavors and I think I knew it was doing to be tough to smoke with the initial pre-light smell and the pull I made through the cigar before I lit it. Not my cup of tea. I have no idea what it was. I wouldn’t buy or recommend.
Construction: 7 10
Prelight: 2 5
First Third: 10 15
Draw: 10 10
Burn: 9 10
Ash / Smoke: 3 / 3 10
Second Third: 3 10
Final Third: 3 10
Overall impression: 8 20
Total Score: 58 100
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And the next three:


Hoyodude
Cigar: Cigar #1…The Stewie “F-U”
Vitola / Wrapper / : This is a toro and the wrapper appears to be
either maduro or oscuro. This category originally included Binder but
I have no idea how to determine that.

Drink / Food: Boddington’s Pub Ale
Outside Factors: Hmmm…not sure what this means other than what other
things could have influenced my experience? If so I can only say I
just returned from boating and swimming in a nearby lake, have eaten
pretty well today and am in a fairly agreeable state of mind. So
there’s that.

Construction: I am SO trying not to jump to conclusions with this
cigar. The construction of my sample is excellent in that, while a few
small veins are visible, the cigar feels very well packed throughout –
not a soft or hard spot – and looks beautiful. The dark brown wrapper
is velvety smooth to the touch but clearly comparatively thick and
durable. The only detraction I noticed was a curious one – near the
foot there was a patch on the wrapper. It was very skillfully done as
it was cut into the shape of an isosceles triangle and it fit
perfectly amongst the small leaf veins. Nicely camouflaged. But it was
a patch on an otherwise perfect looking cigar. By now I have smoked
past it so there was no consequence to it’s burn that I could tell.

Prelight : Once cut with my trusty Palio I find a perfect draw. There
is a sweetness that I can taste right away.
First Third: First draw is a pepper bomb. POW. I took another couple
peppery puffs and set it down for a few minutes. I might not get too
many who agree with me on this one but I’ve found if I let a cigar go
out, after lighting it and smoking just the tip down, when I relight
it the flavors open up incredibly. It’s very possible this is just me.
Anyhow, when I relit it the pepper had taken a middle seat and rich
espresso with burnt dark brown sugar sweetness and cream are now
driving this bus. It’s also clear to me that this is no light weight
smoke. I feel it in the back of my throat and in my belly. I’m a happy
guy.

Draw: As stated above, the draw on this cigar has been faultless. A
good draw is so important to the enjoyment factor and this one has it
down
.
Burn: Ash has been a little flaky and soft but the burn has been
burning pretty straight. The room aroma is very nice, kind of campfire
with toasting marshmallows. Sort of. In a burning-cigar-smoke kind of
way.

Second Third: I’m getting a new flavor added now, it’s has a woody
dryness but it’s too sweet to be wood….also some floral notes. That’s
it! Woody sweet flowery….hmmm…sounds weird. But that’s with the
sugary/creamy/peppery still kicking. And the strength is building.
There is some real complexity here to my palate.

Final third: Time to carefully separate the Stewie band from the
cigar. Yeah, I’ll be saving these babies. The strength is noticeably
ratcheting up now but the flavor profile remains smooth and decadent.
This is definitely a decadent cigar, whatever it is. It’s wanting to
go out now at about the 1.5” mark but I’m keeping it alive until it
gets bitter. And now, at the inch mark, I’m going to kiss it goodbye.
Finally a little bitter and hot so time to let it die
.
Strength: For me this is a full strength cigar. Not a “knock you down”
strength but definitely full.

Flavor: Very full

Overall Impression: I thoroughly enjoyed this cigar. I’m going to go
out on a limb and guess the wrapper is Pennsylvania Broadleaf, a
recent love of mine, so I’m not surprised. I’m eager to learn what
cigar this was but I think I might have this one pegged so I’m not
going to be coy about rating it. I really loved every bit of it.

Construction: 9
Prelight: 5
First Third: 15
Draw: 10
Burn: 8
Ash / Smoke: 9
Second Third: 10
Final Third: 9
Overall impression: 20
Total Score: 95

Jimbud
Cigar: lou2row’s Cigar No. 1 in 4th (or 5th) Blind Taste Test.
Vitola/Wrapper/Binder: 5.5 by 50 (possibly 52); Beautiful maduro wrapper (perhaps ligero).
Drink/Food: Ice water; before dinner.
Outside Factors: About 86 degrees; patio.
Price: Unknown.
Cut: Using a cheap cutter that has a feature that is breaking me of the habit of clipping too much.

Construction: No remarkable veins or soft spots. I am sure this is a well-constructed cigar even before torching. Triple capped.

Prelight: This is a gorgeous cigar. The maduro wrapper is flawless and has a dark reddish hue. Not quite as dark as an LP9; very similar to the wrapper on the original Padilla Obsidian. When I first saw it, I thought it might be an Obsidian or possible a Donkey Dropping, but it is neither. The foot of the cigar reveals a combination of very dark tobacco and very light—there is some ligero in here. This will be an interesting smoke. Smells of peppery spice, but not overpowering. Well-balanced in the hand for sure. Forgot the prelight draw – Dammit!

First Third: Black pepper and licorice. Very nice burn so far – lit right up. The ash is predominantly white (with some striations of black). Rich, burnt espresso notes with black pepper. Complex. Getting some smokey bbq sauce flavor and charcoal out of this baby. As the first third ends, I begin to pick up very subtle carmel or butterscotch, particularly in the retrohale. Perfect draw so far. Wife just had me open a bottle of wine to have with the lasagna dinner that awaits, but I digress.

Second Third: The cigar has calmed down just a bit. No touch ups so far. Perhaps some distant notes of orange or black cherry, but this smoke is – as the CI catalogue often says – “not for the faint of heart” (at least IMVHO). Not a razor sharp burn, but no problems – it seem to be self-correcting. It holds its ash well. Still getting some smokey BBQ sauce/A1 sauce. Once again, the carmel or toffee reappears, but in the background and is not sweet by any means, as pepper and charcoal continues to predominate. I would bet these get even better with age….. Interestingly, I suspect if I was smelling the cigar and not smoking it, I would not think it to be as full bodied as it is.

Final Third: It may be my tastebuds have had a workout, but a bit more salty carmel flavor. For a 5.5 inch cigar, this is a slow smoke you should take your time with. Dark, unsweetened chocolate notes, but still getting BBQ, charcoal, and black espresso.

Overall: A strong, very well-constructed cigar. Not a significant change in flavors over the course of this smoke. I am betting the price point is north of $8 a stick. I would recommend this cigar to any LFD/LG lovers (perhaps this is what it is) or really anyone who likes a spicy, full-bodied stick. My rating on this is an 82; although I’m betting those who love full-bodied sticks would rate it higher. Thanks Lou!

Hscmit
Construction:very thick wrapper with several veins, some big some small, slight transport damage

http://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/101_1155.jpg

Prelight:easy draw and some sweet notes

First Third:very mild first few draws, hard to pick out a dominate flavor. About a quarter inch in start getting some cocoa and burnt coffee. There is also an underlying sweetness and some strength begins to develop be the end of this third

Draw: good

Burn

Ash/Smoke: ash is strong, there is slightly less smoke than you would expect from this size cigar

http://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/101_1156.jpg

Second Third:ash fell right at the 1/2 way point on the cigar, purge gave a large flame burst flavors of toasted almond and coffee

Final third: more of the same flavor wise, nuts, coffee and still a undertone of sweetness

Strength: med/ full

Flavor: med

Overall: pretty good, little outside my normal profile but tasty

Scoring

Construction: 9/10
Prelight: 4/5
First Third: 12/15
Draw: 10/10
Burn: 9/10
Ash / Smoke: 7/10
Second Third: 8/10
Final Third: 8/10
Overall impression: 17/20
Total Score: 84/100
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This is awesome - thanks again for the opportunity Lou ! I gotta say; as the n00b in the group; I was worried that my review would stick out like a sore thumb (total misalignment) - the good news is it did - and so did everyone else's :-)
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I don't know what happened to getting the pics to show up. If you and Hscmit want to post them in your comment posts, please do.
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Its ok - maybe just the links are a good thing; cuts down on the number of posts required.
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I like that Steve and I got the same score... Its also quite interesting to see that it ranged from a 95 to a 58 overall. It also seems like I was the only one with burn issues.
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Well the time has come to reveal. Over on cbid, Jimbud made a guess that the cigar was a Joyo de Nicaragua Dark Corojo Antano.













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Jim was right!

This cigar was gifted for the lineup by my JdN and Drew Estate rep, Sam (gunbuyer). I'd like to thank Sam for helping out and wanting to be involved in my blind taste test. If you ever get the chance to make a event that Sam is running, it is a good time,and well worth it. Sam is a book of knowledge on cigars if you have any questions.
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Wow! Excellent!
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Excellent - Im anxious to see #2 !
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Just waiting on one more review, and I think #2 will be ready to go.
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And as a tease, here is a picture of cigar #2:



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Thanks for running this lou
Always a good time
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James, when you said out of your normal taste profile I tended to agree. I like the cigar, but if I had a box it would set for years as they wouldn't be something I would crave.

Which may be a good thing, as I think these will get better with age.
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yes there is potential for aging on this one, if the flavors were a little more rounded I think people might have enjoyed it a bit more
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To update:

Hscmit; all five done

Hoyodude; all five done

Emjaysmash; 1, ,2 ,3 done

SteveH; 1, 2, 3 done

tj2001 cobra; 1, 2 done

Jimbud; 1 done, been ill

We may go with the five in and let Jim catch up if he isn't feeling better by this weekend. Sorry to all waiting.
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