gerbilmcbeevey
Young Ape
Here's my first attempt at a cigar review. Hope it does justice to the other excellent reviews I've read here.
Whenever I venture into my local B&M's humidor, I always ask the other customers what they are buying and why they're buying it. Since I’m so new to all of this, it seems logical to ask folks who’ve got a little more experience for their advice and opinions. I’ve been turned on to some pretty good smokes this way (Sancho Panza Double Maduro and Arturo Fuente Flor Fina 8-5-8 come to mind). So when I asked the older gentleman next to me what he was getting, he sang the praises of the Alcazar #5. He said he swore by them and they were all he smoked anymore. He smoked 4 or 5 a day on the golf course and lauded the great taste and affordable price. So I ponied up the $2.15 and headed home. This cigar sat in my “humidor” (a 15 year old San Andres cigar box with a hockey puck humidifier) for several weeks, and last night after finally getting the tomatoes and peppers and everything else planted I sat on the deck and enjoyed the sunset and lit this sucker up.
First impressions: this was a dark, almost oily cigar with an earthy (?) scent that reminded me of hay and freshly mowed lawns. The 6 1/2 x 52 size fit comfortably in my hand. I clipped the end and was pleased that my lap wasn’t covered with tobacco. I toasted the foot with a few wooden matches and savored that aroma I like to call “burning the end of a cigar before I finally light it.” When I did finally light it with another match, I was surprised by how easy the draw was. Not too loose, not too tight (I had a Curly Head Deluxe recently that was like sucking on a tree branch. It literally made me tired to puff so hard!). Anyway, the draw was great.
Initial flavor was more of that what I can only describe as earthy taste. Like if you dig a deep hole and you breathe in and you can almost taste the rich, damp soil. Also, I was reminded again of a newly mowed lawn. It wasn’t unpleasant per se, but not what I expected from a cigar. I wondered if it was because I had been digging in the garden earlier, but this was different than that smell/taste.
The cigar burned evenly throughout the smoke, almost in a perfectly straight line across the end of the cigar. The bright, white ash was pleasing to look at when contrasted with the dark wrapper. Halfway through the cigar, it occurred to me that it tasted exactly the same as when I first lit it. Again, it wasn’t a bad taste but it seemed somewhat, I don’t know, simple? I don’t really have the cigar vocabulary to describe it yet. Definitely no leather, pepper, creaminess, spice or any of the other adjectives that seem so common in the cigar reviews I’ve been reading.
I finally let it go out with maybe an inch and a half to go, as I had to head back in and needed to wash up before the inevitable diaper change that I knew was coming (for my daughter, not for me!) My final thought were that this cigar remained exactly the same throughout the smoke. Not a complex smoke by any means (and I’m not even sure if my palate would even understand “complex” right now), but an overall bland cigar. I don’t know if I’d smoke another or not. I’d probably scrape up a few more cents and get another Sancho Panza, or try something new instead. My theory is that “affordable price” should not be my only criteria when picking out a smoke, as tempting as that may be.
So there’s my first review. Hope it made sense to you old pro’s around here.
G
Whenever I venture into my local B&M's humidor, I always ask the other customers what they are buying and why they're buying it. Since I’m so new to all of this, it seems logical to ask folks who’ve got a little more experience for their advice and opinions. I’ve been turned on to some pretty good smokes this way (Sancho Panza Double Maduro and Arturo Fuente Flor Fina 8-5-8 come to mind). So when I asked the older gentleman next to me what he was getting, he sang the praises of the Alcazar #5. He said he swore by them and they were all he smoked anymore. He smoked 4 or 5 a day on the golf course and lauded the great taste and affordable price. So I ponied up the $2.15 and headed home. This cigar sat in my “humidor” (a 15 year old San Andres cigar box with a hockey puck humidifier) for several weeks, and last night after finally getting the tomatoes and peppers and everything else planted I sat on the deck and enjoyed the sunset and lit this sucker up.
First impressions: this was a dark, almost oily cigar with an earthy (?) scent that reminded me of hay and freshly mowed lawns. The 6 1/2 x 52 size fit comfortably in my hand. I clipped the end and was pleased that my lap wasn’t covered with tobacco. I toasted the foot with a few wooden matches and savored that aroma I like to call “burning the end of a cigar before I finally light it.” When I did finally light it with another match, I was surprised by how easy the draw was. Not too loose, not too tight (I had a Curly Head Deluxe recently that was like sucking on a tree branch. It literally made me tired to puff so hard!). Anyway, the draw was great.
Initial flavor was more of that what I can only describe as earthy taste. Like if you dig a deep hole and you breathe in and you can almost taste the rich, damp soil. Also, I was reminded again of a newly mowed lawn. It wasn’t unpleasant per se, but not what I expected from a cigar. I wondered if it was because I had been digging in the garden earlier, but this was different than that smell/taste.
The cigar burned evenly throughout the smoke, almost in a perfectly straight line across the end of the cigar. The bright, white ash was pleasing to look at when contrasted with the dark wrapper. Halfway through the cigar, it occurred to me that it tasted exactly the same as when I first lit it. Again, it wasn’t a bad taste but it seemed somewhat, I don’t know, simple? I don’t really have the cigar vocabulary to describe it yet. Definitely no leather, pepper, creaminess, spice or any of the other adjectives that seem so common in the cigar reviews I’ve been reading.
I finally let it go out with maybe an inch and a half to go, as I had to head back in and needed to wash up before the inevitable diaper change that I knew was coming (for my daughter, not for me!) My final thought were that this cigar remained exactly the same throughout the smoke. Not a complex smoke by any means (and I’m not even sure if my palate would even understand “complex” right now), but an overall bland cigar. I don’t know if I’d smoke another or not. I’d probably scrape up a few more cents and get another Sancho Panza, or try something new instead. My theory is that “affordable price” should not be my only criteria when picking out a smoke, as tempting as that may be.
So there’s my first review. Hope it made sense to you old pro’s around here.
G