SSSS #1

B

Beagle Boy

Lowland Gorilla
For those not involved in this blind tasting, we have 10 people who are trying 5 different cigars, one each week. I will reveal what the cigar is at the end of each week.

For those who are part of the tasting, this is NOT about guessing where the cigar is made or who the manufacturer is – so please no guessing in the threads! (you can PM me if you want) This is where you should post your review of Cigar #1. Following this basic layout:

The format of the review will be this:
Scale will be 1-10 (best)

Looks: describe the appearance, what color is the wrapper, is it oily, what kind of cap does it have – is it pretty

Construction: any soft spots, was it an easy clip, is the draw too tight or loose? How long is the ash holding on for, any burn issues?

Flavors and strength: try to describe the tastes & smells – not just "it's good" or "it's a dog rocket". How strong is the cigar

Overall rating: 1 (never want to see it again) to 10 (want to smoke it for the rest of my life, its perfect) and why did you give it this rating

Would you want it in your Humi: I want a box, it’s a good yard cigar, my brother-in-law likes to mooch


And remember everyone - have fun with it!
 
#1 exibits excellent construction, firm from head to foot. The mottled brown wrap is nice, but no sheen. Easy cut. Pre-light draw is fine. Following ignition, leathery sweetness, on the mild side. Post light draw is good and burn was excellent throughout; no touch-up required. Halfway through the first third, a pleasant tartness developed. As I progressed into the second third of the stick, the tartness gave way to pleasant saltiness, interplaying with the continuing sweetness. It developeds more fullness, but still medium in iverall body. In the final stanza some peppery notes displyed themselves.
 
#1, a torpedo shape, exibits excellent construction, firm from head to foot. The mottled brown wrap is nice; no sheen. Easy cut. Pre-light draw is fine. Following ignition, leathery sweetness, on the mild side. Post light draw is good and burn was excellent throughout; no touch-up required. Halfway through the first third, a pleasant tartness developed. As I progressed into the second third of the stick, the tartness gave way to pleasant saltiness, interplaying with the continuing sweetness. It developeds more fullness, but still medium in iverall body. In the final stanza some peppery notes displyed themselves.

sant experience. I always have prerred the torpedo shape and I was looking forward to trying this smoke when I got the package from Beagle Boy. I think this would be an excellent morning smoke, although I fired it up in the afternoon.
 
I,m not sure how I postre this review twice before I edited. In any event, the smoke was good, although I usually prefer fuller body cigars, I'd still rate it a 7.5

Hopefully I will getg better at this, but appreciate the opportunity.
 
Smoked today started Review of Cigar at 3:50 and ending 4:50. Wrapper is dry not oily with no sheen. Color between medium brown to Black in spots.

Smell was earthy almost as if cigar was made on dirt table.

Pre-Draw was good no taste in draw.

Lighting was good easy to light. Toasting foot and no draw needed to light.

First taste was not what I was expecting. Some nutty roasted flavors with small hints of grass. Mild to medium without aftertaste. Not earthy as I was expecting.

Smoke and Burn was good smoking out of center of foot not just around wrapper.

1 1/4in into cigar had little hint of Cocoa light and creamy. This lasted about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

2/3 of cigar was harder to draw with less smoke taste of complex coffee beans with hints of citrus. Cigar stays lit however no more smoke with draw. Reclip cigar a little more smoke for 1 to 2 puffs and again draw heat only required 2 to 3 puffs to produce any smoke.

Flavor moves into a little buttery with out any other flavors. still hot draws without smoke and requiring 2 to 3 draws to preduce smoke. Smoking still good while cigar sits. Now complex woodsy smoke smell no flavor cigar had consistent burn with no touch ups.

Time to smoke was 1 hour and Temp was 64deg and 54% Rh smoked outside. I would not own this cigar or buy for storage in my Humidor.

On a scale of 1 to 10 this cigar would rate 5 not bad just not good enough to store in my humidor. Wouldn't offer this to someone that is starting out into the hobby of smoking cigars.

Thank You
James.
 
Appearance: Stick # 1 is a Maduro appearing Torpedo with dimensions of 6"x52. The wrapper has some inconsistency in coloring, especially at the cap, with a very prominent vein running the whole length of the stick. The overall appearance of the stick is not very attractive basing it on just the wrappers appearance..5/10

Construction:The stick is very solid and light feeling with no real soft spots. Using a Zino twin-blade cutter, the cap came off with no real issues, clean and free of any real foreseen issues. The only thing that is concerning me at this current time is the prominent vein...6/10

Flavor: Upon prelight, a very leather/cocoa taste became apparent. After the first third, the cocoa taste became muted by the leathery taste. The Cocoa flavored returned in the second half and persisted through the finish right along with the leathery taste. Throughout the entirety, the cigar maintained a very creamy and slightly dense amount of smoke. The overall strength of the cigar was actually pretty mild in my opinion..8/10

Overall: Overall, this cigar is pretty good, the appearance is very deceptive, this cigar turned out to be rather enjoyable. The consistency of the flavor along with its near perfect burn made it a pleasurable experience. As far as stocking the cigar, I can't see it finding its way into my humidor very often. I did like the cigar but not enough to buy a lot of them...7.5/10
 
Storage:
Maintained in my cabinet for 4 days @64 RH.

Prelight aroma & taste:
Very mild unable to detect much of anything.

Looks:
Light to medium brown. The wrapper does have a mild sheen, but defiantly not an oily cigar. The cigar looks well wrapped, no noticeable flaws. The veins in this stick are very small. Torpedo, looks to be about 52 x 6.5 (estimation, not measured). This isn’t my favorite size, but overall it’s attractive.

Construction:
I had to cut the cigar twice, then use a draw tool to even get smoking, it was a constant struggle to smoke thoughout, the draw was far too tight. I would have thought this was simply over humidification if not for the near perfect burn.

Flavor:
Immediately I notice a cedar flavor, it was very striking. After the first inch the cedar flavors that were enjoyable are about gone.
The stick stayed cedary and relatively flat for the most part. At the beginning of the final third, I knew this cigar wasn’t really going anywhere. For those of you that have tried them I would compare this to a JFR in that, the best part of the cigar was in the first inch, nothing special after that.

Strength:
The body is about smack in the middle of mild and medium. Nicotine seems low.

Rating:
3 out of 10, I wouldn’t stock these, it just isn’t my speed.
 
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Nice start guys! - thought I would repost the picture here as a reference

And Spect - I just want to be sure, you are giving this one a 0.6666? (so you are saying that if we should meet, I should ware a cup? :D )
 
I will post my review tonight, I just wanted to post in here so i can hit 'my replies' on top to easily find this thread again
 
Smoke day: 6-4-08
Place: Around a camp fire in my back yard
Weather: 70's, light wind, some clouds, great weather

Cigar: 1 - 6"x50
Appearance: Brown, a bit veiny, but nothing too bad
Prelight: The cigar was firm to the touch, however had enough give that I was happy with it. After I snipped the head off it gave a pleasant draw consistent with what I enjoy, a bit of a drop in the jaw got out plenty of air with little resistance.

Light: I toasted the foot until it was a nice ember and had my first drag, the draw was still just right and the ash started off a beautiful white with very little gray. It was plenty smoky and it stayed lit very well. The first third of the cigar enticed me with tones of coffee and a very even burn.

The second third had a consistent draw and stayed with the ash. The burn stayed nice with no real canoing. It would vary slightly, but when I placed the longer burning part of the ash to the bottom side of the cigar it corrected itself.

As the cigar transitioned from 2nd to 3rd third it got to be a super hot burn. I made a point of smoking it less frequently but it remained a super hot burn. This caused the cigar to become un-enjoyable. The burn also started to slip at bit at this time and I had to purge the cigar, and re-light it at least twice.

Overall the cigar was enjoyable with great tastes of coffee and some hints of Coco so I would give it a 6.5 / 10a
 
#1

Looks – This cigar is a torpedo and has some tooth. It has a mottled wrapper with colors varying from dark to light brown with an oily sheen. There are speckled spots of light brown throughout the wrapper. The wrapper has some large veins in it. Overall I guess I would call it a rustic looking cigar.

Construction – No soft spots and cap is finished nicely. Clipped it with no problems, pre-light draw is good. Lit nicely with a perfect burn right at the start. Ash burns white. There is one particularly large vein that leaves a cool looking black line in the white ash as it burns.

Flavors – Detected a leathery flavor during pre-light draw. Upon lighting noted flavors of leather and chocolate, some tanginess from the wrapper...Sumatran wrapper? As I exhale through the nose I don’t detect any noticeable aromas. The chocolate fades away in the first half inch, leathery flavor continues, an acrid chlorine-like flavor is noted in my mouth and nose and lingers on my tongue. Some nuttiness noted also in the first third.
Halfway through something happened. Flavor disappeared and all I can detect is the acrid flavor. Only lasts for a few puffs. Flavor becomes musty with a hint of spice and burnt rubber (?). I may be smoking it too fast to get it over with because I am not enjoying it. Last third is unremarkable which means I have no remarks because there are no flavors I can detect other than burnt rubber/musty.

Overall – I didn’t enjoy this smoke flavor wise. Draw was good all the way and burn was perfect. This was a medium cigar.

Score: [4
 
I hope those other guys aren't going to take the cigars and not review them...have they been reminded that they owe a review?
 
Well, we are missing a few reviews, but it's time for the reveal -

As I mentioned, I lit one of these up a couple of days ago, and I was surprised, and a little disappointed in the flavor change….

I found these brand a few years back while on vacation – watched them do some rolling, talked with the person running the shop looking for a full flavor stick, and was pointed to this. When I got home, I ordered a sample pack, one of each style and size – but found this to be my favorite. The next time I went to the town, I picked up a small box, very nice stick. The next year, went back again for Mardi Gras, and picked up a big box, went through about a third of the box, but as my storage space increased, the box slid to the back of my humi. I am surprised that so much of the flavor profile has disappeared over the last two years. I am pretty sure it wasn’t the Hurricanes and Hand Grenades that made me think this was a good stick – but I do think that it is a better fresh stick.

I was pretty sure that no one in the tasting would have had this before – part of the reason I wanted it first. It’s : Tres Hermanos Torpedo Maduro by New Orlean Cigar Factory, they describe it as” 54 x 6 1/2" A full bodied robust smoke with a Mexican Maduro wrapper.”


I will post the SSSS #2 thread in a few minutes
 
I did get a PM from one of our tasters that he was out of town, and I did send the link to the review to the others

Right now, the average for cigar #1 is 5.58
 
Spect said:
Mike are you going to post your notes/thoughts on these as well?
Click to expand...

On a couple of the sticks, I sent out the last sticks in the boxes - and part of the experiment is if we don't know what the make of the cigar, what does the group think of the cigar.

Give me a couple of days, I'll light up another one of these and take notes to post. It's numbers 2 & 4 I emptied the boxes on
 
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