DBall's Newb Blind Taste Test #5

[DBall]

ApexAZ Cigar #2
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4/10/2012

I'm finally back from my wedding in Vegas (woohoo!) and looking forward to reviewing cigar #2 from DBall's blind taste test. I decided to pair it with an ice cold glass of Barq's rootbeer.



Pre-light
Cigar #2 appears to be something between a lonsdale and a churchill. It's 7.5" long and if I had to guess I'd say the ring gauge is somewhere between 42 and 46. Similar to the previously reviewed Por Larranaga, the wrapper is light and natural and soft and velvety to the touch. The construction appears to be very good with no soft spots and has a nice triple cap with a pig tail. The smell of the tobacco is sweet with some cedar.

I wet the head, snipped the cap and tested the pre-light draw, which feels a little tight and has no discernible flavors aside from tobacco that stand out to me. Hopefully there won't be any draw issues.



1st Third
I lit the cigar and the draw seems to be fine. The initial flavors I can taste is a mildly bitter cedar and grass taste. It reminds me a little bit of a really mild wheat grass shot. About 1/2" in the flavors settle into a mild bodied charred cedar/wood flavor. The burn is very clean and the ash dropped after about 1/2". As far as strength goes, it seems to be pretty mild to me. The root beer is actually overwhelming my pallet, so I finished it and switched to water in hopes of possibly picking out more flavors from this cigar. I had one draw where I thought I tasted some fruit, like maybe plumb, but that was it.




2nd Third
I'm about 40 minutes in and the cigar hasn't really changed much. As I progress through, I continue to get a mild-bodied charred wood flavor. Occasionally I get a very subtle dehydrated fruit flavor and some slight cream. The strength remains mild and the burn continues to be very straight, while the ash drops between 1/2 and 1". The draw is perfect.



Final Third
I finally reached the final 3rd after about 1 hour and 15 minutes into the cigar. I've been smoking slower than usual, but I haven't had to relight or touch up at all and the pace feels right. The cigar is starting to pick up in body and flavor slightly. I continue to taste the cedar flavor, but now the cream is starting to stand out a bit more. As I get deeper into the final third, I start to taste some raisin and some flavor I'm not entirely sure how to describe. The first thing that came to mind was toasted nuts? Not really sure. The cedar is still there, but now starting to lose some of it's dominance to other flavors. I'm continuing to get some fruit flavors that now resemble cherry, which is a new flavor for me. The draw and burn have continued to be absolutely perfect. With about 1" left it began to get hot and bitter, so I decided to call it quits after just under 2 hours.



Conclusion
Overall I felt this cigar was pretty unremarkable. I don't know if it's the cigar itself or my untrained pallet, but I just didn't get much flavor from it until the last 3rd. It wasn't bad, just not very tasty or interesting until much later in the cigar. I probably wouldn't purchase these, but I would be interested in trying a shorter version if it existed. I'm looking forward to reviewing #3 over the weekend. Thanks, DBall!

Score: 5/10

Total smoke time: 1 hour 55 minutes