Just had my first Bolivar today and wow!

R

Rev2010

Maturing Primate
So, I have been curious about Bolivar for some time now and really can't explain why. Guess they just "looked" yummy. Anyhow, I posted a few days back asking opinions about three brands, this being one of them. It seems Bolivar have not such a great rep. Even reviews I've read of them are pretty inconsistant. I can only comment on this single one I had today. I had this one from JR Cigars:

http://www.jrcigars.com/index.cfm?page=itemDetails&ItemCode=BF6544

I must say, I'm wow'd by this cigar! The taste was rich, yet smooth, and full of flavor. It was full bodied but not overpowering. What impressed me the most was how the flavor kept exactly the same through the whole smoke! Most cigars I've tried start out one way, change a bit near the middle, and usually get harsher (probably due to the heat) near the end, and often the changes are a great thing. But, this one held it's course impressively. I'm only about a half a year into cigar smoking so I can't yet really describe different flavor notes and all that, but it tasted great and the draw was absolutely perfect. I will definitely buy more from Bolivar. A lot of the negative reviews I've read cite poor consistency among their stogies so who knows... maybe I'll run into some poorly made ones and my opinion will change. But, for now I'm really excited about them. Anyone else have positive experience with Bolivar?


Rev.
 
I like them too - esp the toro size. I also have seen the bad rep and construction complaints, but I have not had a bad one yet. And I also enjoy the aroma of these smokes. So, yeah, I smoke lots of Pepins, Tats and Padrons, but the Bolivars also have a home in my humidor.
 
I smoked one maybe a year ago that was AMAZING I think it had been sitting at my B&M forever because I bought like 20 more after that and never got that same experience. :hn
 
AriesOpusX said:
I smoked one maybe a year ago that was AMAZING I think it had been sitting at my B&M forever because I bought like 20 more after that and never got that same experience. :hn
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Yeah, mine must've aged a bit as well as the batch in the box had a beautiful pinch of bloom on a number of them, mosty near the head. And yeah, it was plume, not mold... I know the difference. Anyhow, like I said, mine smoked amazingly :ss I'm just hoping the future Bolivar's I smoke are as good. Just like you mentioned, I see many reports of inconsistancy between each of their stogies. Maybe I got truly lucky with my first one, but I'm certainly looking forward to the next :)


Rev.
 
I smoked my first last night. It was the biggest "churchill" I've ever seen - 7" x 52rg. It was delicious though, I don't know what else to say. Had a good, mellow, nutty flavor that was extremely consistent, and the burn was spot-on.

Now to break into my Bolivars from a certain other country :D
 
These and the LGCR5 were go to cigars for a long time. I prefer cofradias over many of the "other" Bolivars.
 
Had my first Bolivar Lonsdale (Dominican) a couple days ago. Looked great. Great draw. First 1 1/2 inch had almost no flavor at all. Seriously, beyond 'bland'. It was just starting to get interesting when it went out. After I relit, flavor was better, but I had to fight the burn constantly. Crooked as hell. Went out again, relit, flavor was still good, but the burn was even worse. Couldn't set it down for two minutes, or it would go out, which it did for a third time. I clipped it off square, but never got it to relight, so I gave up. It was a disappointment, and a complete pain in the ass. It was the first of five I got in a combo (Evil Cigar Co.), so I will smoke at least a couple more of them before I make up my mind.

So, there it was, sitting in my ashtray, and I got to thinking about someone else's article about dissecting cigars, so I thought it might be interesting. I smashed the head flat, and then tried to tear it down the middle lengthwise. To my surprise, cigars are a lot tougher than I thought. I finally got it to tear, but I really had to work at it. Having split, cracked, and flaked wrappers, I knew they were usually pretty delicate, but the binder and filler sure aren't. It was actually more interesting than the cigar was. I also cut open the stub of a Gurkha perfecto that was a much more interesting cigar, but had even worse burn than the Bolivar. I don't think there's any problem with my humidor. I've had others out of the same one just within the last few days, and they didn't have any burn isses at all.
 
PerpetualNoob said:
Gurkha perfecto that was a much more interesting cigar, but had even worse burn than the Bolivar. I don't think there's any problem with my humidor. I've had others out of the same one just within the last few days, and they didn't have any burn isses at all.
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What is the humidity level in your humi and what hygrometer are you using? If you seem to be getting a lot of stogies with hard draw you might be overhumidifying. The tobacco swells making the draw harder. The Bolivar I smoked had perfect draw, not too tight, not too loose - personally I hate loose draw the most. Anyhow, at the time I smoked it I think my humi was holding 69%. Currently it's now holding 68%. So far each smoke I've had out of my humi (which has never gone below 68% and never higher than 70%) has been great with only slight differences in draw that were still in the 'perfectly acceptable' range. But then again you could've just gotten some bad apples.


Rev.
 
Rev2010 said:
What is the humidity level in your humi and what hygrometer are you using? If you seem to be getting a lot of stogies with hard draw you might be overhumidifying. The tobacco swells making the draw harder. The Bolivar I smoked had perfect draw, not too tight, not too loose - personally I hate loose draw the most. Anyhow, at the time I smoked it I think my humi was holding 69%. Currently it's now holding 68%. So far each smoke I've had out of my humi (which has never gone below 68% and never higher than 70%) has been great with only slight differences in draw that were still in the 'perfectly acceptable' range. But then again you could've just gotten some bad apples.


Rev.
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I have two Evil Cigar Co. humidors, exactly alike. I bought the first one and liked it, so I got another one. I never salt-tested either of the hygros, but I swapped them and they have both held very steady right on 70%, after about 24 hours. I also took them both out for a couple of days, and they both settled within a point or two of what my digital indoor/outdoor said the ambient RH was, so I'm fairly confident that they are fairly accurate. They could all three be off by the exact same amount, I suppose, but it seems unlikely. The only draw problems I've had lately were cigars I smoked within a couple of days of getting them in the mail, so I chalked those up to "user error" (me!). I've considered getting some digitals to put in them, but right now they're both stuffed full (boo-hoo!), and I literally don't have enough room for them.

Since I've only been doing this for a few months, I've bought a lot of combos and samplers to get a wide variety, so I haven't smoked a lot of any one thing yet. In my budget range, I expect there to be a certain amount of variation in cigars, so I'm not ready to write off a brand or line of cigars, just based on one cigar. If I was buying cigars that were $10-20 apiece, yeah, I would expect them to be more consistent. If the flavor is good enough, I'm willing to put up with some minor burn issues, but not so much with draw problems. It doesn't matter how good the smoke is, if you can't get it out. To me, that's like someone advertising, say, boxes of Rockys for $10, but they're permanently out of stock. Doesn't matter how good or cheap something is, if you can't actually get it.
 
I have Booker to thank for introducing me in the slippery slide with Bolivar it is now one of my favorite smokes :tu
 
I have tried the Bolivars and they are a bit too strong for me. But, then again, I tried them when I first started smoking cigars so the results may be different now.
 
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