DBall's Newb Blind Taste Test #5 - Page 9

ApexAZ Cigar #7
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5/14/2012

Okay, moving onto #7 in DBall's Blind Taste Test. I'll be pairing it with a double of whisky and a Pellegrino. Even though it's 8:15 P.M., it's still like 100 degrees out, so I'll probably be smoking faster than usual. It's warm. Phoenix summer is here. Ugh.

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Pre-light
This cigar is about 5 3/4" long and has a ring guage around 38. The wrapper is slightly darker than the others and has one large vein throughout it's length. It also has somewhat of a roughly placed single cap (at least it appears so). The construction seems good enough, but the cigar just looks a little rough around the edges and it's very light. The cigar looks and feels old to me. The scent off the foot has a very, very slight tobacco smell. I had to really concentrate to smell it, it was so faint.

The pre-light draw seems fine, and I taste nothing but a slight grass/wood type flavor, which is also very faint.

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1st Third
Like the others, the cigar is very smooth right off the bat. I don't think any have ever had that in-your-face blast of pepper like so many Nicaraguans do. This is a good thing to me. While I don't mind a bit of pepper, the first few puffs can be pretty brutal before things start to settle. On the other hand, I don't taste a lot at first on these either. After about 3/4" I'm finally starting to get some sweet flavor, but unable to pintpoint exactly what it tastes like just yet. About 1.5" in the flavor is kind of a toasty sweet cream flavor. It's very smooth and mild, but somewhat muted. The draw and burn have been perfect, and the salt and pepper ash drops on it's own after about 3/4".

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2nd Third
I start getting into the 2nd third after about 25 minutes. The flavor is starting to really pick up now and it's really tasty. Notes of vanilla come in, as well as some charred wood. It's pretty dang good. It's still very mild and creamy with mild strength. The burn has continued to be perfect.

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Final Third
45 minutes passed before getting into the final 3rd. The flavor continues to get sweeter. It's more of a toasty coffee, vanilla, caramel type mix. I'm digging it. What is it about these that make them so sweet? There must be something in the soil that promotes a lot of glucose or something? The burn continues to be perfect. Things are more medium now and the flavors just continue to fuller, sweeter and better with every puff. It's quite good and sadly it had to end with about 1/2" left.

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Conclusion
This cigar was one of my favorites so far and I give it a 9/10. I really loved it! Thanks, Dan!

Score: 9/10

Total smoke time: 75 minutes
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smitty81 Cigar #7
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Stick #7 is about 5-3/4 long and is about a 36 Ga. cigar. The construction of it is very soft and mushy with a single cap. There are some large veins in the wrapper and overall, this cigar looks pretty rough.

My first impression of this cigar after inspecting the construction of the cigar is that this cigar must be a cheaper value cigar.

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I found the draw to be pretty tight on this cigar. The flavor on the other hand was awesome.

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I'm not gonna take the time to break this cigar down into thirds as it basically retained it's flavor through out the entire cigar.

The burn was OK for the most part but I did have to touch it up a few times as the large veins in the wrapper seemed to keep it from burning real well.
There was very little to no smoke.

The flavor was AWESOME. The flavor was a very nice sweet cream-grassy flavor. I was really digging the flavor of this one.

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I did retrohale with this cigar and based on the retrohale, I took an educated guess that this is a CC because my nose was not on fire afterwords. This was a really smooth cigar.

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I truly enjoyed the flavor of this cigar down to about the last inch or so and then it started getting a bit harsh. I had been wondering if short filler was used in this cigar based on the construction. I did a little dissection with the nub and found short filler indeed.

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After this cigar, I truly feel that I have learned something from this experience Dan has so kindly offered to me.

I feel that the conception I have gathered from my time here is that short filler is for cheaply made cigars. That may well be but 2 of the 3 cigars that I have really enjoyed flavor wise have had short filler.

To me short filler only means one thing which is the second thing I feel that I have learned. It means a tighter draw to me. Both of the short filler cigars I have enjoyed have both had a pretty tight draw which makes sense to me once I stop and think about why that would be so.

I give this cigar an 8/10 based on the draw issues. If it would have been a bit easier on the draw, I would have rated it between a 9 & 10.

Tasty!
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What they smoked:

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1999 La Flor de Cano Selectos

ApexAZ score: 9

smitty81 score: 8

Nice! To call this a "cheap" cigar would be an understatement. A better adjective would be "free". There were vendors literally giving away 5 packs with orders years back (multiple 5 packs with some orders in fact). I took all the 5 packs I got and threw them in some empty 50 cab and buried them in my tower. I'll still take these out at the golf course and be quite happy with how they are smoking. Hell... after reading these reviews, I may go have one now!
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I have a few five packs kicking around and when I feel like my palate is a little off I will sometimes pick one of these guys up and half the time I enjoy them- the other half I figure I was right about the palate being wonky.
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Pretty damn good for being free.
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Had one last night... Honestly, I was floored by how good it was in the first half... reminded me of really old RyJ/Punch with that sweet fruitiness and notes of chocolate. The second half was kinda 'meh', but the first half was crazy good.

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Great reviews once again! Awesome to see how they both come to similar conclusions, I love this thread!:-)
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Nice ones gents. This is pretty fun.
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The selectos I had from the freebie fivers all tasted like red vines licorice and musty cardboard to me. My wife claimed they gave me dragon breath from hell. Guess it goes to show that taste is subjective :-)
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Originally Posted by akumushi:
The selectos I had from the freebie fivers all tasted like red vines licorice and musty cardboard to me. My wife claimed they gave me dragon breath from hell. Guess it goes to show that taste is subjective :-)

Even now, though? When was the last time ya tried one? :-)
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Originally Posted by DBall:
Even now, though? When was the last time ya tried one? :-)

It's been a of couple years, but they were over a decade old when I last smoked them. At that point a cigar is either too far gone or should by all accounts be ready to smoke. I'm sure there is a wide variance in the conditions some of these were stored in. If you got ones that had been treated nicely over the years then they probably taste much better than mine did, as the ones I had were in pretty miserable shape when I got them and were no better after a couple of years in the humi. IMO, they were beyond salvation. The same can be said for a lot of the "sale" sticks. Some people got phenominal boxes of aged smokes at bargain basement prices and some people payed too much for moldy tent poles. It was an absolute crapshoot. At least these were free, so I'm not complaining, just saying that even for free smokes, the fivers I had were pretty hard to gag down. YMMV :-)
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Great stuff. While I thoroughly enjoy reading reviews that are almost bi-polar, I also enjoy seeing two blind reviews that are very similar, both picking up on similar tastes.

Keep them coming. :-)
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The 1998 LFDC selectos are great for morning cigars:-)
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This has been a very cool thread to read
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ApexAZ Cigar #8
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5/21/2012

I'll be pairing #8 with a Sunbru by the local Arizona brewer Four Peaks. The nights just keep getting warmer, so I'll probably continue to smoke at a slightly faster pace.

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Pre-light
This cigar is about 5" long and has a ring guage around 42. The wrapper is light and smooth with only small veins. Slightly spongy, the overall construction feels good with a triple cap. The cigar looks and feels old to me. The smell of the tobacco is not much different from the others: a mix of manure and tobacco.

The pre-light draw is pretty good and I taste a mix of wood and cardboard. Nothing too exciting really.

1st Third
Ugh, it's freaking hot outside. The first few puffs don't have a lot of flavor, which has been pretty typical of all of these so far. A little bit of sweetness, but not much else. Some very faint sweet cream and leather come through for an over all very mild smoke. The burn is perfect and the ash drops after about 3/4".

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2nd Third
20 minutes in and I hit the 2nd third of the cigar. The strength and body continue to be mild, although the flavor is starting to build slightly. The sweetness isn't as prevalent. It's more of a toasted nut and earthy type flavor. It's hard to describe really. The burn, draw and ash all continue to be flawless.

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Final Third
I hit the final 3rd about 40 minutes in. The strength and body are both medium now and the cigar reminds me more of a Dominican in flavor, which I think is mainly due to the fact that it isn't as sweet as some of the others have been. So far it hasn't developed into what I would consider great, but not bad either. I taste an earthy leather more than anything. I don't really get any toasted nuts anymore. Burn was perfect all the way through!

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Conclusion
BTT # 8 was decent. Not as exciting as some of the others before it, but still pretty good. I give it a 7/10. Thank you, Dan!

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Score: 7/10

Total smoke time: 55 minutes
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smitty81 Cigar #8
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Cigar # 8 will be enjoyed with a ginger ale on this fine summer night. Temp is in the low to mid 80's with a slight breeze. Thunderstorms to the south of us so some nice clouds to watch and the sunset is making everything look pinkish/orange. Beautiful night that has made me appreciate this fine cigar all that much more.

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This cigar has a nice construction. Nice and firm but not hard. This cigar has no big veins in the wrapper and it looks like a good quality cigar that someone would be proud to put their cigar band on.

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The first draw is always my favorite, it's like opening a present on Christmas morning.

The first draw was a strong green flavor. I actually enjoy the green flavor many of these cc's have. (see, I'm already guessing it's a cc)

This green flavor last up to about the beginning of the 2/3rd of the cigar.

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The 2/3rd of this cigar has went from tasting green to tasting slightly creamy with a little bit of sweetness in the background. Nothing real strong here, just nice and relaxing like the night I had outside.

I did retro hale and for the first time ever, I finally got something out of it. I was able to pick up a different flavor. The flavor I picked up during the retro hale was VERY brief and it took me a few times to decide what I was smelling/tasting. I finally decided on grandma smell.

I'm not talking about moth ball grandma smell but rather the take a bath in your perfume kind of grandma. That smell when you go to church and walk past a group of old ladies. It was even a perfume I would expect a grandma to wear, very floral.

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OK, the last third of this cigar has also taken a change in flavor. I am now getting that floral taste like I got with the retro hale earlier. This is the first cigar I have ever had that has had a floral taste to it and honestly, while it wasn't a bad flavor, it really isn't something that I would like to taste in a cigar. Maybe if it was a different kind of floral it wouldn't be as bad. Its almost as if someone took a very fragrant flower, stem and all and wrapped it up into a cigar. This cigar was so interesting to me.

While I may not have liked it, it was an awesome new experience for me. There were distinct flavor changes that I noticed, Some flavors that I enjoyed and a new flavor that I have never experienced with a cigar. This was a "fun" and interesting cigar to smoke.

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A picture to cap off my very enjoyable night. I wasn't going to have a smoke tonight but I am so glad I did.

I am having a tough time grading this one. Based on flavors, I wouldn't rate it real high but it always kept changing in flavor and that was very interesting and enjoyable to me. Not to mention this cigar practically had a perfect burn.

I will say a 7.5/10
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