About a week and a half ago, I posted a contest thread that I have yet to look at..... "Does it Suck or Not" .....where I was to review the RP R4 and give it a rating from 0~100 ... The closest to guess that rating, without going over would win a R4 (yay) and some other selections from my humidors (bigger yay) ....
..... Well, ..... I smoked the lil' buggar last night. I had to come up with some sort of rating system to give varried aspects of the cigar & as I have never done this, I came up with the following .... my system probably is flawed, but it was used for this review.
Appearance/Feel - 0~5 pts
Aroma - 0~5 pts
Cut - 0~5 pts
Prelight Draw - 0~5 pts
Lighting - 0~5 pts
1st 1/3rd Taste - 0~10 pts
1st 1/3rd Smoke - 0~5 pts
1st 1/3rd Ash - 0~5 pts
1st 1/3rd Burn - 0~5 pts
2nd 1/3rd Taste - 0~10 pts
2nd 1/3rd Smoke - 0~5 pts
2nd 1/3rd Ash - 0~5 pts
2nd 1/3rd Burn - 0~5 pts
3rd 1/3rd Taste - 0~10 pts
3rd 1/3rd Smoke - 0~5 pts
3rd 1/3rd Ash - 0~5 pts
3rd 1/3rd Burn - 0~5 pts
That should total 0~100 pts. If it doesn't, then I've spent way too long in the Jungle and I can't count anymore. :tu
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Atmosphere - Being a couch potato, watching the Chief's preseason game at Arrowhead Stadium, v/s the New Orleans Saints.
Drink Provided - Hot tea. Black long-leaf English, not sweetened.
* (5 pts) Appearance/Feel - Firm and well rolled. Very dark wrapper with thin veins barber-polling the length of the cigar. Dark, clean and well constructed by sight and feel, reminiscent of most RP offerings.
* (3 pts) Aroma - Strong, grassy and very musty. Coffee notes are present in the wrapper as well as maybe a bit of ammonia. First thoughts here are that this stick should really have some time to rest, but not for our purpose. The aroma in the forefront of this stick is the strong musty smell.
* (3 pts) Cut - My Burlwood Palio gave a clean cut through the head of the stick, but the pre-light draw left me spitting tobacco fragments en masse. After some deliberate brushing and wiping, the cut was free of debris.
* (4 pts) Prelight Draw - A hard stick with a smooth, clear draw, very much like other RP varieties. My thoughts here are that this is going to be a powerhouse stogie with lots of smoke, easily pulling through the length of the cigar. The only detriment is the musty notes that are so strong, but maybe they will lessen when I spark it up. I await kickoff to toast the foot & light the stogie .... 7 min and counting.
* (5 pts) Lighting - Kickoff, Baby !!!! Live from Arrowhead Stadium !!!! Chiefs win the toss & I have football fever. Olindo Mare sends the ball flying and my Xikar soft flame torch makes short order of toasting the foot & lighting the stick. Not as much smoke as I had envisioned initially, but a couple of draws and the smoke really begins to flow.
* 1st 1/3rd
(7 pts) Taste
(5 pts) Smoke
(4 pts) Ash
(2 pts) Burn
The musty taste is present but no where near as strong as I initially thought it would be, from the aroma & prelight draw. That musty taste is there, but is mingled with coffee & dark cocoa and a bit of a grassy taste. A good volume of smoke comes through at each draw. The burn is heavy on one side & not correcting it'self....I find the need to correct this issue with my lighter, as not to ruin the entire cigar....rolling the cigar to increase burn on the other side just won't cut it. Ash is moddled grey/black and clings to the cigar well, as do most RP sticks I have had. I can already see (feel) that the R4 is heavy in the nicotine department. There is a bit of tartness that is developing toward the last of the 1st 1/3rd that is quite good, actually, and goes well with my black tea. The burn is trying to tunnel on one side again, but not bad enough to recorrect it with my lighter yet. The ash is still very firm and I let it grow to the beginning of the 2nd 1/3rd.
* 2nd 1/3rd
(6 pts) Taste
(5 pts) Smoke
(4 pts) Ash
(1 pt) Burn
The ash probably would have fallen off if I had not intentionally broken it at this point. After doing tso, I again have the need to touch up the burn to savethe cigar. The wrapper is thick and heavy and not the easiest to correct. The smoke is simply billowing through the R4 & very strong. The "tart" taste is becomming more pronounced, the musty taste is still in the background with the coffee and cocoa tied for third. Another couple of corrections to the burn are needed and I am really hoping that it catches on & this becomes a non-issue.....we'll see. 2nd quarter of the game .... Field goal by Mare .... 3-nuttin', Saints in a very uneventfull preseason game. The smoke is still full, but becomming harsh near the beginning of the 3rd 1/3rd of the stick. The burn is still needing corrections and it's becomming more difficult to do so. The ash much darker now & much more flakey, undoubtedly due to the marriad of burn corrections with my Xikar torch.
* 3rd 1/3rd
(4 pts) Taste
(5 pts) Smoke
(2 pts) Ash
(1 pts) burn
No change in taste as I enter this section of the RP R4. I pull off the band & continue with the same billowing smoke as the preceeding length of the cigar. I'm trying to keep myself from correcting the poor burn here, but can see that it is still having problems. The tartness is still very present and beginning to become a bit on the sour side of the spectrum as I get nearer the nub. The burn needs correcting again to keep it from tunneling on one side and the ash is starting to become brittle & crumble from the repeated attempts to correct this. The smoke never gives out & continues to billow through the head, as everything seems to burn well, excepting the thick maduro wrapper. Towards the nub, the cigar is starting to become more sour & getting rather bitter. I am having a hard time here, tasting anything at all in the way of true flavors. I let it rest to salvage what might be left of my taste buds, at about an inch from tip to tail.
Overall, I think this could use much more age then it has .... maybe would benefit from being stored at a lower humidity than my coolerdor's 68%. I did enjoy quite a bit of the tastes it offered, but was surely a lot of work to keep it smokable.
Final rating score of 66 points.
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Now I finally get to look at my contest thread & see who won. ........... :tu
..... Well, ..... I smoked the lil' buggar last night. I had to come up with some sort of rating system to give varried aspects of the cigar & as I have never done this, I came up with the following .... my system probably is flawed, but it was used for this review.
Appearance/Feel - 0~5 pts
Aroma - 0~5 pts
Cut - 0~5 pts
Prelight Draw - 0~5 pts
Lighting - 0~5 pts
1st 1/3rd Taste - 0~10 pts
1st 1/3rd Smoke - 0~5 pts
1st 1/3rd Ash - 0~5 pts
1st 1/3rd Burn - 0~5 pts
2nd 1/3rd Taste - 0~10 pts
2nd 1/3rd Smoke - 0~5 pts
2nd 1/3rd Ash - 0~5 pts
2nd 1/3rd Burn - 0~5 pts
3rd 1/3rd Taste - 0~10 pts
3rd 1/3rd Smoke - 0~5 pts
3rd 1/3rd Ash - 0~5 pts
3rd 1/3rd Burn - 0~5 pts
That should total 0~100 pts. If it doesn't, then I've spent way too long in the Jungle and I can't count anymore. :tu
------------- ------------- -------------
Atmosphere - Being a couch potato, watching the Chief's preseason game at Arrowhead Stadium, v/s the New Orleans Saints.
Drink Provided - Hot tea. Black long-leaf English, not sweetened.
* (5 pts) Appearance/Feel - Firm and well rolled. Very dark wrapper with thin veins barber-polling the length of the cigar. Dark, clean and well constructed by sight and feel, reminiscent of most RP offerings.
* (3 pts) Aroma - Strong, grassy and very musty. Coffee notes are present in the wrapper as well as maybe a bit of ammonia. First thoughts here are that this stick should really have some time to rest, but not for our purpose. The aroma in the forefront of this stick is the strong musty smell.
* (3 pts) Cut - My Burlwood Palio gave a clean cut through the head of the stick, but the pre-light draw left me spitting tobacco fragments en masse. After some deliberate brushing and wiping, the cut was free of debris.
* (4 pts) Prelight Draw - A hard stick with a smooth, clear draw, very much like other RP varieties. My thoughts here are that this is going to be a powerhouse stogie with lots of smoke, easily pulling through the length of the cigar. The only detriment is the musty notes that are so strong, but maybe they will lessen when I spark it up. I await kickoff to toast the foot & light the stogie .... 7 min and counting.
* (5 pts) Lighting - Kickoff, Baby !!!! Live from Arrowhead Stadium !!!! Chiefs win the toss & I have football fever. Olindo Mare sends the ball flying and my Xikar soft flame torch makes short order of toasting the foot & lighting the stick. Not as much smoke as I had envisioned initially, but a couple of draws and the smoke really begins to flow.
* 1st 1/3rd
(7 pts) Taste
(5 pts) Smoke
(4 pts) Ash
(2 pts) Burn
The musty taste is present but no where near as strong as I initially thought it would be, from the aroma & prelight draw. That musty taste is there, but is mingled with coffee & dark cocoa and a bit of a grassy taste. A good volume of smoke comes through at each draw. The burn is heavy on one side & not correcting it'self....I find the need to correct this issue with my lighter, as not to ruin the entire cigar....rolling the cigar to increase burn on the other side just won't cut it. Ash is moddled grey/black and clings to the cigar well, as do most RP sticks I have had. I can already see (feel) that the R4 is heavy in the nicotine department. There is a bit of tartness that is developing toward the last of the 1st 1/3rd that is quite good, actually, and goes well with my black tea. The burn is trying to tunnel on one side again, but not bad enough to recorrect it with my lighter yet. The ash is still very firm and I let it grow to the beginning of the 2nd 1/3rd.
* 2nd 1/3rd
(6 pts) Taste
(5 pts) Smoke
(4 pts) Ash
(1 pt) Burn
The ash probably would have fallen off if I had not intentionally broken it at this point. After doing tso, I again have the need to touch up the burn to savethe cigar. The wrapper is thick and heavy and not the easiest to correct. The smoke is simply billowing through the R4 & very strong. The "tart" taste is becomming more pronounced, the musty taste is still in the background with the coffee and cocoa tied for third. Another couple of corrections to the burn are needed and I am really hoping that it catches on & this becomes a non-issue.....we'll see. 2nd quarter of the game .... Field goal by Mare .... 3-nuttin', Saints in a very uneventfull preseason game. The smoke is still full, but becomming harsh near the beginning of the 3rd 1/3rd of the stick. The burn is still needing corrections and it's becomming more difficult to do so. The ash much darker now & much more flakey, undoubtedly due to the marriad of burn corrections with my Xikar torch.
* 3rd 1/3rd
(4 pts) Taste
(5 pts) Smoke
(2 pts) Ash
(1 pts) burn
No change in taste as I enter this section of the RP R4. I pull off the band & continue with the same billowing smoke as the preceeding length of the cigar. I'm trying to keep myself from correcting the poor burn here, but can see that it is still having problems. The tartness is still very present and beginning to become a bit on the sour side of the spectrum as I get nearer the nub. The burn needs correcting again to keep it from tunneling on one side and the ash is starting to become brittle & crumble from the repeated attempts to correct this. The smoke never gives out & continues to billow through the head, as everything seems to burn well, excepting the thick maduro wrapper. Towards the nub, the cigar is starting to become more sour & getting rather bitter. I am having a hard time here, tasting anything at all in the way of true flavors. I let it rest to salvage what might be left of my taste buds, at about an inch from tip to tail.
Overall, I think this could use much more age then it has .... maybe would benefit from being stored at a lower humidity than my coolerdor's 68%. I did enjoy quite a bit of the tastes it offered, but was surely a lot of work to keep it smokable.
Final rating score of 66 points.
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Now I finally get to look at my contest thread & see who won. ........... :tu
