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Bolivar Especiales No. 2 RE 2009 Germany

Kingantz

Growing too fast.
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
7,648
An incredibly beautiful day here in the South with the sky a baby blue and a soft breeze keeping the 87F temperature feeling a little lower than it is. Very relaxing afternoon, perfect for putting fire to the newly released Bolivar Especiales No. 2.

The wrapper is a light brown and has a patchwork of coarse, prominent veins running throughout, yet is smooth and somewhat oily between with fine “hairs” visible on the tobacco leaf. There’s a good weight in the hand and a slight give when squeezed.

I punch the somewhat rough cap with the medium gauge ring on my Swiss Army knife and find the draw tight, however enough air flows through to get simple raw tobacco flavor on the tongue and sniffing the foot, I get a sweet, fresh tobacco smell.

I put fire to the small foot and have a good, even burn going in no time with the aroma teasing my nostrils. Its rather difficult taking puffs as the draw is so tight, however I try anyway and get smoke through well enough. I take a long, slow draw and find a nice cinnamon spice on the back of the tongue with the smoke itself a good medium strength and thickness in the body, buttery on the tongue. Flavors are rich with a woodsy, leathery, earthy taste and hints of sweet cocoa and toasted nuts. I can however, tell the tobacco is quite fresh.

The burn wanted to lean to one side, but only very slightly. A very dark gray ash forms that is quite rough looking, yet holds well until tapped off. A third in and the draw remains tight, however taking slow, long draws produce more than enough medium strength smoke. Exhaling slowly through the mouth and nose gives a nice tingling in the nostrils with a very good spice. Flavors seem somewhat complex with wood, worn leather, cocoa, toasted nuts, and hints of the black licorice and coffee I find typical for Bolivar. The finish really lets me know how young the tobacco is as it’s very weak, metallic, and very short on the palate, not much at all by way of flavor.

Heading through halfway and on, burn issues started showing as if there was some tunneling going on as the fire went below the wrapper. That with the continuing tight draw created not so great flavors in the smoke. Towards the end, the draw opened up letting an ample amount of medium to full strength smoke to flow through well and flavors picked up again, however a charred wood taste was coming through. The finish actually picked up as well starting to be somewhat lasting and hitting the palate fairly well.

This was a very good smoke through most of the first half even with the draw being somewhat overly tight. Rich Bolivar flavors came through with good body and spice, however the finish just wasn’t there for my palate, at least not until the end. I believe that with a good draw, this cigar would have performed much better, and with a bit more down time to allow the tobacco to blend in more, I’ve a feeling these will turn out to be excellent smokes.

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Nice review brother. I was gifted a fiver from my man Jay and we smoked one two weeks ago and agree that they need some down time. The draw was right on for us although they were wet and need time in the humi for the tobacco to mature and the flavors to settle in. That being said I feel that these will be some nice smokes in the future and are worth picking up to rest. I am tempted though to dry box another next week if they are still wet and see if the tastes changed before leaving the others for a while. I will keep all posted.
 
Interesting stuff, nice review Greg. I am sort of let down reading it though as I was hoping for a bigger bang even being as young as they are. I will still probably hunt some down since I love bolis and lanceros but I will let em rest longer than I planned now.
 
Good call insight. I think getting a fiver is not a bad idea as I feel this is not one of those cigars that I am "hoping" will get better with age as we have all gotten sticks we tried and may have not enjoyed and hoped they will eventually get better, but I would say this one despite tasting young I can tell has the quality tobacco and aging potential in it if you know what I mean. Just my 2 cents and I hope this helps anyone.
 
Nice review, one of these days I'll get my hands on one to try.
 
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