voidone
06-17-2005, 04:25 PM
So we finally got some summerish weather up north which means you can actually smoke outside without wearing your winter gear. You'd be a fool not to take advantage of those days..
I dived into my coolerdor and found me a Alec Bradley Havana Sun Grown Churchill that I got in a trade last summer.
I fired up my espresso machine and (after some curses and tries since I'm trying out a new grinder and a new coffee) made myself a hearty cappucino, grabbed my cigar and my book (A Cooks Journey by Anthony Bourdain) and headed outside.
This large cigar (7x48) seemed to be well constructed with a slightly rough wrapper but with a menacing looking vein going most of it. After clipping it I noticed that it had a slightly firm draw but not really alarming.
The first few puffs were surprisingly mild, considering what I've heard about this smoke. I'm not the best in picking out flavours but I tasted a sweet cedar wood topped with some faint coffee/vanilla and what I'd like to describe as a slightly metallic taste.. but in a good way!
Not the acrid metallic taste you can get from a bad smoke, but rather the slight metallic twinge you can get from fresh spring water. Very nice!
Not even the chapter of the book where Anthony vividly describes his .. ehh.. unorthodox dinner experiences in Morocco can make me loose my appetite for this one.
About one third down the draw loosened up a bit and the pepper came into play. It burned perfectly never requiring a touchup and left a solid light gray streaky ash.
At halfpoint the flavours and strenght really picked up with caramel, slightly cocoa notes and intensifying pepper starting to bite the tip of my tounge. No harsh flavours at all, just lots of thick aromatic smoke.
I decide I need something more powerful to pair this up with so I get myself a small snifter of some old brandy I had in the cupboard. Quite a match I must say, with the fruity firery taste of that old XO.
Coming down to the last third of the cigar and I'm starting to see what people were talking about. The flavour trip of this has gone from fairly mild to medium-full releasing strong flavours of leather cocoa/coffee beans and lots of pepper. From time to time I seem to pick up something close to charred wood. Not unpleasant by far, but just very thick flavours. I can also feel the nicotine starting to creep up on me giving me a nice buzz.
When hitting the last 2 inches it started to get warm, producing mostly leather and spice flavours. I started to detect that harsh note so I layed it down to rest.
Final Verdict:
A very tasty cigar and since you can get them at just over 3 dollars a piece I'd say that they are a damn good buy. I'm definitely going to get a box or two, and see what some more age can bring.
If you buy them and disapprove, I'll trade you :w
---------------------
I'm going to get myself a signature one of these days...
I dived into my coolerdor and found me a Alec Bradley Havana Sun Grown Churchill that I got in a trade last summer.
I fired up my espresso machine and (after some curses and tries since I'm trying out a new grinder and a new coffee) made myself a hearty cappucino, grabbed my cigar and my book (A Cooks Journey by Anthony Bourdain) and headed outside.
This large cigar (7x48) seemed to be well constructed with a slightly rough wrapper but with a menacing looking vein going most of it. After clipping it I noticed that it had a slightly firm draw but not really alarming.
The first few puffs were surprisingly mild, considering what I've heard about this smoke. I'm not the best in picking out flavours but I tasted a sweet cedar wood topped with some faint coffee/vanilla and what I'd like to describe as a slightly metallic taste.. but in a good way!
Not the acrid metallic taste you can get from a bad smoke, but rather the slight metallic twinge you can get from fresh spring water. Very nice!
Not even the chapter of the book where Anthony vividly describes his .. ehh.. unorthodox dinner experiences in Morocco can make me loose my appetite for this one.
About one third down the draw loosened up a bit and the pepper came into play. It burned perfectly never requiring a touchup and left a solid light gray streaky ash.
At halfpoint the flavours and strenght really picked up with caramel, slightly cocoa notes and intensifying pepper starting to bite the tip of my tounge. No harsh flavours at all, just lots of thick aromatic smoke.
I decide I need something more powerful to pair this up with so I get myself a small snifter of some old brandy I had in the cupboard. Quite a match I must say, with the fruity firery taste of that old XO.
Coming down to the last third of the cigar and I'm starting to see what people were talking about. The flavour trip of this has gone from fairly mild to medium-full releasing strong flavours of leather cocoa/coffee beans and lots of pepper. From time to time I seem to pick up something close to charred wood. Not unpleasant by far, but just very thick flavours. I can also feel the nicotine starting to creep up on me giving me a nice buzz.
When hitting the last 2 inches it started to get warm, producing mostly leather and spice flavours. I started to detect that harsh note so I layed it down to rest.
Final Verdict:
A very tasty cigar and since you can get them at just over 3 dollars a piece I'd say that they are a damn good buy. I'm definitely going to get a box or two, and see what some more age can bring.
If you buy them and disapprove, I'll trade you :w
---------------------
I'm going to get myself a signature one of these days...