Ok, just trying to refine my review and get ready for the blind taste test here with DBALL.
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This is a review of the 5 Vegas Miami. The size is what they call the M-5 which is 5.5x55. The wrapper is a Corojo wrapper.
I'd say this stick has a good construction. No big veins, triple cap, smooth wrapper. No soft spots which was weird because the draw seemed loose.
Stick had a light smell of manure.
Draw was loose before lighting up. The flavor of the draw before light up was lite, slightly sweet maby like hay?
Ok, starting off......
First the aroma of the smoke. It reminded me of a sort of aftershave that one might smell at a barber shop. Kind of a lite old spice kind of smell...I liked the aroma.
The first third had a lite cedar/hay like taste. I got some very light hints of a sweet fruit. Thoughts of cotton candy immediately came to mind.
Draw is still loose and there is very little smoke.
I do want to touch on the burn of the cigar right quick here.
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A good burn was something to be desired with this stick. I put some blame on the stick and some on the higher RH that it was stored in. I just got my humidor down to 65%. It has been in the humidor for a few weeks now but at around 68-70% RH. I have more of these so we will tell in time if it was my fault. I have a suspicion it is.
It seemed that every time it developed any sort of a head of ash, the smoke went out and it didn't want to draw to well. Knock the ash off and touch up, then it had lots of smoke and drew well. This seemed to be the norm for the first 1/2 of the stick.
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Back on track.
Starting at about half way, the draw improved a lot. It got a bit tighter like I enjoy it. The flavor went from lite cedar/hay to a deeper tobacco flavor, not a harsh one though. No more fruit flavors........
I put it down for about 6-7 minutes to do some work and it had went completely out. So I purged and re lit.
Starting the last third.
The smoke is staying cool which is good.
After the purge, the flavors went back to the lite cedar/hay flavor with a few hints of the cotton candy (sweet fruit) here and there.
The burn has really improved on this last third of the smoke. The ash still seems to be killing the smoke though. The ash is very light and flaky.
I wonder if the burn problems are from the quality of the cigar or if I'm not lighting right. I have been going around the edge of the wrapper to touch it up but that hasn't seemed to help get the burn corrected. I just found that if I put the flame directly pointing at the wrapper/head of ash and go around, It seems to stay burning better. Might be my fault as I'm still learning.
OK, the last 2 inches of this cigar were interesting. At first, the cedar/hay was present and the cotton candy (sweet fruit) started to become more present. Then it would get a little more strong like a tobacco flavor and then turn harsh.
I would purge and relight. The cotton candy didn't last to long and it bounced from cedar/hay to tobacco/harsh.
I finally just killed it. It was around a 2 hour smoke and it did give me a decent Nic. buzz.
I'd say it's a lite-medium smoke but more on the light side.
I did enjoy this smoke and if it wasn't for the burn issues I'd have rated it higher.
7/10
(I was driving so couldn't get pictures but any suggestions to improve my review would be appreciated)
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