I’m not much for doing reviews but I haven’t found much on this new blend from AJ Fernandez. I’m a big fan of a lot of his stuff and this looked pretty good so i jumped on a box. They come in at 6.5x 56 and come 12 in a box for $79.95 from ci/cigars.com. The box is interesting but doesn’t fit well in the humidor as it is pretty long.
The cigar is nice to look at, dark brown Penn broadleaf wrapper with minimal veins. The cigar looks very well rolled, almost too nice to smoke....almost. The smell coming of this is fantastic, sweet, and chocolaty. The draw was a little loose but not bad.
Upon lighting I was greeted with a ton of tangy cedar, and light spice. This cigar was putting off a ton of smoke both resting and when I was puffing away. After a few puffs the tangy cedar faded into rich, creamy chocolate and nuts with the spice staying constant in the background.
As I hit the 2/3 the chocolate fades away as well as the rich creamy feeling. It is replaced by nutty herbal flavor. Not bad but I miss the richness of the 1/3. The nuttiness reminds me little of macadamia nuts, it’s pretty interesting. The burn remains spot on with no need for a touch up. The cigars is staying in the solid med body range, spice in the background but not in your face.
As I hit the final 3rd the Phalanx throws me a curve ball. It was like I hit the reset button and started all over. It was strange. It wasn’t a slow progression, it was like I flipped a switch and went right back to the beginning. All of a sudden I was right back to the tangy cedar, almost cc like in its tang. Once again this lasted a few puffs before switching back to the rich chocolate and nuts. I’ve never had a cigar do that before. I must say I like it. The cigar stayed in this range until I nubbed it. It never got hot or bitter.
The Phalanx lasted me about 1 ½ hrs, and stayed in the med range although I had a slight nic buzz at the end. It had a ton of flavor and just enough spice to keep me very interested. Really dug this cigar and at about $ 6.65 a stick when bought by the box, its well worth the money. I might have to get some more of these.
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Thanks for the review, I have heard good things about this cigar. If Im not mistaken, all of the sizes are different blends, let us know if you have had the others to compare.
:-)
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