Mike and not-Shawn (Ed) Review an Omega

Hello everyone. Cigar Mike and not-Shawn (Ed) are back with another rooftop review. Tonight we are smoking an Omega. There is a "Mu" symbol underneath the "Omega" symbol so we are not quite sure of the official name just yet. Internet is a little shaky here at the moment so if it goes down totally, we will post the full review later.

[Cigar Mike]

"Shaky" is a good term for it. If this thread seems to die out halfway through, well, it's probably because the Internet broke down out here.

That just happens sometimes.

Anyway, this is a decent-looking cigar, it's got what I think is a maduro wrapper and feels like pretty good construction. I think these have been in my humidor since Scott's second-to-last shipment to us out here, so they've had a little bit of time to equalize, although not "age" by any means. I have been having some humidity swings in my box at home, though, so I'm hoping these didn't suffer from the on-again, off-again nature of the storage that I'm dealing with....

Weather
90 degrees
Winds E at 5mph
Humidity 35%

This cigar has a nice dark wrapper with some real rich smells coming off of it. The drink of choice tonight (and every night lately) is Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. We were lucky to get this delicious brew out here. Back to the cigar; First light brings a lot of smoke and a fairly light draw. There is not a whole lot of flavor to talk about and it is drying my mouth out pretty quickly.

[Cigar Mike]

Originally Posted by ECJ

First light brings a lot of smoke and a fairly light draw. There is not a whole lot of flavor to talk about and it is drying my mouth out pretty quickly.

I actually had a really adverse reaction on my first draw. I thought at first I had made a huge mistake on this, and was about to start a rant on it within the first 10 seconds. Luckily, I decided to wait a few minutes. I'm about five or ten minutes into the cigar now, and it's mellowed out drastically, and I'm starting to get some good flavor: a little pepper, a little more smoke.

My first impression was so negative, though, I'm going to have to really try to convince myself to keep an open mind. Literally, the first 2 seconds of this cigar might have shut me down to the brand had I been less patient.

I'm wondering, though, maybe I just wasn't ready for a cigar for the night? It took a little convincing to get me out here - it's been a heck of a day, so maybe my brain and cigar mojo just wasn't lined up quite right at first?

I totally agree with your thoughts Mike. Things have definitely settled down a bit going into the second third.

After the first third:

The good: The burn is nice with a solid ash and it has mellowed.

The bad: Until a few minutes ago my throat was getting hot on the draw and the flavor was kind of gritty.

[Cigar Mike]

One further observation: This cigar _smells_ really good to me. It does not _taste_ good to me, though. I know those two senses are linked strongly enough that smell usually contributes the lion's share to taste, especially with a cigar (I think, anyways?) so this is a little confusing to me...

[Cigar Mike]

YEah, good ash. You're right. That's one of those things I never really think of, but I guess that speaks to the consistency and construction quality of the stick.

I'm halfway through now, and I'm having a hard time being generous to this stick. It's not terrible by any means, it's just not really floating my boat right now. It just seems like it's got a good strong flavor, but it's very subltle and not easily noticed.

I'm still not ruling out the possibility that the fault lies with my non-ideal head-space at the moment, and feel like I've got to add that caveat so as not to scare someone off a brand that might actually be pretty decent.

"Your mileage may vary."

My computer crashed at the halfway mark, but I managed to recover and here are a few final thoughts:

This cigar burned consistently and had a lot of great smoke. The flavor was unmemorable. However, looking at the great build quality perhaps my taste buds are not totally developed enough to identify the subtleties in the smoke. This is not a cigar I would turn down in the future (is there one?) but it is not something I would go looking for regularly.

[Cigar Mike]

Yeah, I totally agree. I have the feeling I have missed out on something on this stick and I am not appreciating it fully. I can't articulate why, though.

However, for tonight, it just didn't do it for me. I'm not ruling this one out for the future yet, but I can't say too many good things about it for the moment.

Anyone else have thoughts about this? I'm guessing this is someone's favorite, and I'd love to hear what other people like about it to see what I've missed!

[DaBear]

Love seein these reviews pop up every now and then. Always a good read.

Keep up the good work and stay safe over there guys!

[Cigar Mike]

Originally Posted by DaBear

Love seein these reviews pop up every now and then. Always a good read.

Keep up the good work and stay safe over there guys!

Thanks for reading!

[shilala]

I don't think you guys "missed" anything. Sometimes a cigar just sucks, and that's okay.
Don't ever think you have to suffer through a cigar that isn't doing it for you. We have a saying around here "Life is too short to smoke sh1tty cigars." Sh1tty is in the eye of the beholder.
I know it's tough to chuck a smoke when you're in mid-review, but I'd do it in a minute and grab something else. I'm awful when it comes to chucking cigars. A lot of times I want to toss it as soon as I spark it up and it's hard for me to get through the first half inch or inch till it gets good.
I've often thought I'd start clipping the foot of cigars to knock that first half inch off of there. My thinking is that it's been out in the air for so long that the foot just ain't got what it takes, that it might just be better if I clipped it back a little. I think I'll ask the guys what they think.

[Cigar Mike]

Originally Posted by shilala

A lot of times I want to toss it as soon as I spark it up and it's hard for me to get through the first half inch or inch till it gets good.

It's funny that you mention that. I lit this cigar and was on the cusp of rant-mode so fast that Ed hadn't even hit flame to leaf yet! Had to laugh about that later....I really wanted to get his honest view on it before I colored his opinion at all.

I think we're planning on doing another tonight. At least I'd like to, you down, Ed?

Originally Posted by shilala

"Life is too short to smoke sh1tty cigars." Sh1tty is in the eye of the beholder.

I really like this philosophy!

[Cigar Mike]

Originally Posted by ECJ

I really like this philosophy!

Scott's also told me: "Smoke what you like, like what you smoke."

Darn near word-for-word what I used to advise people about wine.

[Shawn hines]

Wish I was there

[Cigar Mike]

No doubt, man..... Soon?