BBQ Tri-Tip & Gurkha Triple Ligero

[Montano]

I've traveled around the country a bit, and I have never found tri-tip outside of California. So for those who don't know this cut of meat, I apologize. It's a staple here in Cali though.

After what seemed like 4 straight days of rain, we got a break and even a bit of sunshine. That was enough for me to fire up the grill ! What better than a smoke while I BBQ. It seems as though I have gathered quite a few Gurkha's from my football winnings. This one was sitting on top of the rest, so I grabbed it.

A nice looking band, which seems to be the norm for Gurkha. This one also has a cedar wrapper on it. I do notice quite a few flaws on the wrapper. Lots of color blotches, as well as a couple tears.



So I get the meat on the grill, and fire up the cigar. I get a nice woody flavor coming through. Plenty of smoke also, from a nice easy draw. Right off the bat the wrapper tears just below the cap. So far I'm liking this one.



As I get to the second 3rd, I'm getting a nice cedar flavor. The burn is fairly even. I'm really enjoying this smoke, and the BBQ is coming along nicely as well. You can see the wrapper coming apart in the pic below.



The flavor changed to a strong oak soon after I hit the final 3rd. I was a bit surprised by this, as the flavors had been fairly mild up to this point. It soon mellowed out a bit and finished with a nice oak note. The BBQ was removed from the grill and set aside to rest. I found this cigar to be quite decent.