DBall's Newb Blind Taste Test Thread #2

[DBall]

Riff Raff Cigar #1
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Okay, here we go. First off, I want to apologize for the picture quality! These were taken from my phone while driving home from work. It was an overcast day. On to the good stuff!

On my hour commute home, I had to play catchup to Nick's lead. First cigar is about a 5 X 42 from my calibrated eyeball. Nice wrapper. No visible veins but you can see a few under the wrapper. No biggie so far.

I cut the triple cap and tested the draw. Very firm draw. Too firm for my liking. The kind where your cheeks cave in. Pre-light draw gives me notes of hay. Okay, here we go:

The first puff is pepper. Not much smoke due to the firm draw. I am hoping that this will loosen up a bit as I smoke it. There is an underlying hint of cedar as well.

The first third gave me more pepper and cedar with earthy undertones. Not a bad smoke so far except for the draw. Nice even burn.



Second third: More cedar and hints of oak. Lots of sweet tobacco. Still too firm on the draw. Still not a lot of smoke. On the retrohale I noticed something odd. Flavors of toasted coconut. I know it sounds weird. But none the less it was there just for a split second.



Last Third: The wrapper split right around the band area. The cigar finally loosened up a bit. Which is a good thing because I was getting a little frustrated. Lots of sweet tobacco and cedar with a bit of spice.



Here is the split.



Over all impression: Not a bad smoke but it had some draw issues and it split pretty significantly. I kept it in my humi for a week at 61 to 62% RH. If the draw were better, I would buy this cigar. I would probably dry box it for a day or two if I had the chance to smoke one again. I give it an 8.0 due to the draw issues and the splits.

So there it is.