jimmyk26 Cigar #1
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Blind Tasting #1
Initial inspection - This corona sized cigar is wrapped in a medium brown wrapper that exhibits a few veins, but none of the veins are significant in size. When I inspect the cigar's construction, I feel that the cigar's wrapper isn't exactly smooth, but it also doesn't show too much tooth. Upon closer inspection, I see that the wrapper has a light oily sheen with a bit of crystallization (likely plume). The touch examination reveals that there are no noticeable soft spots and the triple cap looks well applied. The wrapper offers up almost no aroma, when I pressed my nose for more I did get a faint hint of manure. The foot on the other hand smells of sweet tobacco and graham cracker. The prelight draw is good and leaves hint of rice paper on the palate.
Initial puffs - Right away my palate is lit up with a burnt wood flavor, it also has a long finish of earth/dirt. The smoke is pulling well.
1/3 - After the initial blast of burnt wood, the flavors have settled down a bit and the charred flavor has backed off leaving the wood and earth flavors lingering on the palate. The finish is remarkably long on this cigar. The burn is pretty much even, despite a run away section early in the cigar. The smoke isn't thick, but there is enough of it to coat my palate for tasting. In the later part of this third there emerged a sweet caramel taste that really surprised me.
2/3 - The ash held until the end of the first third and then feel off right into my lap. At the beginning of this second third I noticed that the draw had gotten a bit tighter and there was a bit of tar building up where I cut it, so I clipped a bit more off the end and have since slowed my smoke rate. The cigar has opened right back up. For the flavors, the backbone of wood and earth remain on the for front, while the sweetness has changed into a slight spice that is noticeable through the nose and lingers on the palate. The burn line has also corrected itself. The spice proved to be short lived, eclipsed by a bitter coffee flavor, that doesn't finish as long as the other flavors.
3/3 - Similar to the first third, the ash held well for the second third and then fell into my lap again. At the onset of this final third, the coffee flavors morph into a semi-sweet hazelnut and chocolate. Also, there is still that over arching backbone of wood and earth that has been consistent throughout the cigar. The cigar is still burning and drawing well. Almost as if it is returning the beginning the only flavors left here at the end are wood and earth. And for the finally the burst of burnt wood makes the final bow.
Final thoughts - This cigar was a bit like a train ride. First there is the backbone flavors of wood and earth that were consistent throughout the cigar which would be the train car that I am sitting in. These core flavors carried me along while I got to look out the windows and enjoy the other other flavors as they passed by. Now I use the train analogy because it also helps show that the experience of the other flavors were brief and encompassed by the backbone flavors, like when you look at scenery out of a window. The fact I really experienced the other flavors mostly on the finish and through the nose highlights the passing expereince. I get the feeling that if I wasn't paying close attention and writing this review the scenery might have passed me buy.
Score: 7.5 - Because the journey was interesting, but I would call the cigar more nuanced than complex. It also smoked fairly well.