Any more?
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Yes, 6 more. I imagine they are waiting on me.

I have some done, I just need to send it all to DBall.

I will get it done tonight, sorry everyone.
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Must be hard to smoke cigars :-)
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yea...................because I have no job nor life away from CA.

Honestly, I have one day a week to enjoy a cigar and thats if I'm not traveling somewhere.

I think I am turning in my reviews in a respectable manner of time.
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I agree smitty, I was just wondering because it had been a while that's all. Just looking forward to them.
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It was a joke! :-)
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I figured as much...........

Just frustrates me that I don't have more smoke time.
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Turned #5 in tonight so maby tomorrow?
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I think that's a frustration a lot of us share, so no worries :-)
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I have this issue myself :-)

Enjoying the reviews gents.
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ApexAZ Cigar #5
*************

4/29/2012

Tonight I am reviewing DBall's Blind Taste Test cigar #5. It's 88 degrees so I'll be drinking a cold Perrier along with it.

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Pre-light
This cigar is about 5 7/8" long and has a ring guage around 42. It has a smooth natural wrapper with small veins. It has a triple cap like the others before it. The construction appears good and the cigar is slightly spongy when gently squeezed. The smell of the tobacco is unremarkable to me. Just tobacco with a hint of manure. Maybe a little less sweet compared to the others.

The pre-light draw seems good and I get some floral and slightly minty flavors from the tobacco.

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1st Third
I lit the cigar and had about 2 draws before the sneezing started. Crap. Allergies are a major pain in the butt for me here. I ran in and took a dose of flonase in each nostril in hopes of stopping the sneezing. It did help the sneezing, but now I'm all stuffy. Crap crap crap. The draw is excellent, the burn is clean, and the first ash dropped after about 1/2 of an inch. Now if only I could get some cooperation out of my nose =(. The cigar so far is very smooth, but I'm not getting much flavor from it aside from some wood and some slight sweetness. The strength and body are both mild. As I get deeper into it, the flavor starts to develop into an enjoyable sweet cream.

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2nd Third
After almost 40 minutes I'm working my way into the 2nd third. I had been smoking ultra slow in hopes that the flonase will do its job, which it has to a degree and I'm able to start retrohaling a bit. The smoke is still sweet, but I'm now detecting some slight leather and other flavors that I'm unsure how to describe. As I approach the final third, I also get a little bit of spice. The spice coupled with the sweetness reminds me of a combination of cinnamon and red pepper. The strength is picking up some and it's more medium bodied. The burn needed some touching up after some tunneling, but remained very good otherwise.

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Final Third
After about 60 minutes I reached the final third. I started smoking faster to prevent the cigar from tunneling and I have also been able to breath through my nose somewhat. The flavors have developed into something I am having trouble pinpointing. It's like leather, but not the same as how leather would taste in a NC stick. It's also not quite as sweet as it was in the first 2/3 of the smoke and I taste more pepper than cinnamon. The strength is more medium now and the body somewhere between medium and full. The burn remained perfect, but I did find that I needed to smoke faster to keep it alive. With a little more than an inch to go, it got hot and tasted only of tobacco smoke, so I called it quits.

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Conclusion
I felt that this was a pretty decent cigar given the circumstances. I am sure that if my allergies hadn't acted up my experience would have been different and may have influenced my score. Whether it would have been better or worse is hard to say. I can say that it's pretty hard to taste when you can't smell, but I did my best. I give it a 7/10. This marks the halfway point of the blind taste test and I'm looking forward to the other 5. Thanks, Dan!

Score: 7/10

Total smoke time: 85 minutes
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smitty81 Cigar #5
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Ok, here we are at the half way point now.

Stick #5


Stick 5 appears to be 6" x 38 Ga. There seems to be a double cap on this cigar. A few small veins with no soft spots. Construction seems good as always.

I am going to drink a ginger ale with this cigar.

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Cut the cap on this baby and took a draw. I could taste some dried fruit.

Lit it up and got very little to no smoke but the smoke smelled good.

The first few draws reminded me of a swisher sweet minus the sweet tip.

Flavor has mellowed out to a more hay like flavor. This thing is burning uneven and the ash has dropped off after about an inch.

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2/3rd

I am finding the flavor of this cigar pretty boring, it brings nothing unique to the table IMOP. The cigar has changed from a hay to more of a grassy flavor.
I had to correct the burn and it appears to be burning a bit better now.

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Last Third

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Even after touching this cigar up, I am getting little to no smoke. The flavor is getting a little sweeter. Its a sugar sweetness, hard to explain.

As I am smoking this cigar, I find that it seems awful hard towards the cap. It feels like there are some really thick veins inside.

I was curious as to how this might change the flavor but it didn't really unless these veins or twigs were putting off that sugar flavor?

When I got her down to about an inch, I dissected it to see what was inside. Long filler with pretty big veins.

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I had taken the leaf off of the vein so you can see its size.

I'd give this cigar a 5/10 mostly because it didn't have any unique flavors......
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What they smoked:

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2000 Hoyo des Dieux

ApexAZ score: 7

smitty81 score: 5

Midway through, guys...

As for this cigar... these here are decent, in my opinion. Ones from 50 cabs from the 70's, however, are to die for. :-)
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I enjoy the '00 des Dieux. Surprised this one got such a low score, although the box I got the draws have been perfect so that might be it.
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The Du series seems to be rather mild and the nuances are hard to pick up, especially of you have congestion and cant nose smoke. I love them but they are not straight forward and require some patience to truly appreciate.

Great reviews guys, I look forward to the rest :-)
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I liked it. Allergies just messed with me.
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Me too, I have loved the few '00 Hoyo des Dieux I've smoked.
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Man, I am starting to think that CC's just aren't my thing. Seems you guys love some of these sticks.
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It could also be the way you smoke, I blow at least part of every puff out of my nose. I used to have to put thought in to it but now its second nature, I almost can't make myself blow only out of my mouth. CCs do not seem to have the strong "mouth" flavors NCs do and if you aren't nose smoking you may be missing what they offer. However if you don't like them, you don't like them and chalk it up to everyone is different and that is what makes the world great.
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There are plenty of people who don't like CCs, it just isn't the profile of flavors everybody enjoys. If it is a slope you are serious about, I reccomend taking a break from strong NCs. Smoke only CCs for a while and really pay attention to the flavors. I had one CC that really caught my attention while I was smoking NCs regularly, and everything else was just okay. After I took a break from NCs and let my palate rest, then I smoked CCs almost exclusively and I started to pull tons of incredible flavors out of almost every stick. But the flavors are subtle compared to most strong NCs. (Also what Albert said above)
Either way, you are doing a fine job reviewing CCs in this thread, keep up the good work. This is a great program, thanks Dan.
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