After putting fire to the foot and taking a couple puffs, I take a long draw and get a really good black pepper spice on the tongue and throat with the smoke itself a good medium strength. Flavors are somewhat rich and dark, quite smooth on the palate with tastes of vanilla, toasted nuts, and a hint of cocoa. There’s a decent finish that is seems somewhat clean and semi-lasting.
With about a quarter inch of ash having formed, I find it difficult to get good smoke to come through, and suddenly I see a black burn spot forming further down the smoke. A few more quick puffs and obviously there’s some serious tunneling going on and the fire has a serious run down one side, which definitely required touching-up.
Once the touch-up was done, the cigar started burning well again with medium to almost full strength smoke coming through. Medium peppery spice continued to hit the tongue and throat as well with tastes of straightforward, quite strong tobacco on the palate. I wouldn’t say it was rich, but still good nonetheless.
Towards the end, the cigar became a bit hot with a slight bitterness, however I was puffing a bit too hard at that point I think and still having some burn issues. If not for the burn issues, I would have really enjoyed this entire smoke with very good flavor and decent finish on the palate. Many thanks Kurt for sending two of these and look forward to trying the second out that will hopefully have a better burn to it.
