Kingantz
Growing too fast.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2007
- Messages
- 7,648
I got out of the office early today, it being a holiday weekend. Came home, loved on my baby girl until the wife put her down for a nap, and am now thoroughly relaxed out back on the patio. Prior to coming out and getting relaxed, I had gone to the surprise humi and pulled out a LG Small Batch No. 2. I was going to fire that baby up when I had a thought, “Shouldn’t I smoke a No. 1 first and then the No. 2 and see if there’s a difference?” Sure!! 
I’ve had this particular SB No.1 for a very looong time and have taken it out my humi a number of times to smoke, but have always put it back and went for something else. But, I’ve always been intrigued by the look of this cigar. I’m not sure if the pictures will do it true justice, however this thing is incredibly oily and the wrapper looks like brown marble, absolutely stunning cigar. I guess that’s why I’ve always kept putting it back, because I love looking at it! :laugh: It has very little give when squeezed, is very heavy in the hand, and with the marbled head punched I find the draw to be quite tight. I pick up my trusty Palio and clip a small amount off to see if that helps, and it does to a degree letting just a tad bit more air through, however this thing is way overfilled. I clip a bit more off the head, and find a very good straightforward tobacco taste in the cold draw, which is unfortunately still tight.
I take my time and toast the foot slowly, really savoring the moment. Not just the cigar, but the soft breeze, birds singing, sun coming in and out of the low lying clouds, just a beautiful day to enjoy. The foot is now burning perfectly with a soft glowing orange emanating from the smoldering embers. I take a whiff of the smoke rolling from the fire and the aroma is quite good. I have to take several puffs to get smoke to come through and first draw is a medium black pepper spice on the back of the throat with flavors of strong earth, wood, coffee, and citrus notes. The smoke itself is a medium to full body with a very nice finish left on the palate.
During the first third, the draw became even more tight than it started out at, and I was having to puff really hard to just keep the cigar burning, much less get smoke out. Because of this, the cigar burned quite hot and had a paint thinner taste coming through. I trudged on in hopes that the draw would loosen up the further in I got. The ash forming was a light gray in color and very flaky with the thick wrapper wanting to burn slow in some spots, but in the end the burn was overall good.
A little past the halfway mark, the draw did open up a little, allowing a good amount of smoke to come through. There was a perfect amount of now white pepper spice coming through in the medium to full bodied smoke with a nice vanilla, dark earth, and roasted nut taste. The finish was good and lasting on the palate.
I have to say I was quite disappointed with the cigar being so overfilled making it impossible to enjoy for over half the cigar. However, I did somewhat enjoy the final third as the draw did open enough to reveal what this cigar truly had to offer. There was a good medium to full body smoke with decent enough flavor that left a nice finish on the palate. This cigar really wasn’t my cup of tea, maybe because of the tight draw causing the flavor to be somewhat lacking. I’ll fire up a No. 2 soon to see if there’s any difference.
I’ve had this particular SB No.1 for a very looong time and have taken it out my humi a number of times to smoke, but have always put it back and went for something else. But, I’ve always been intrigued by the look of this cigar. I’m not sure if the pictures will do it true justice, however this thing is incredibly oily and the wrapper looks like brown marble, absolutely stunning cigar. I guess that’s why I’ve always kept putting it back, because I love looking at it! :laugh: It has very little give when squeezed, is very heavy in the hand, and with the marbled head punched I find the draw to be quite tight. I pick up my trusty Palio and clip a small amount off to see if that helps, and it does to a degree letting just a tad bit more air through, however this thing is way overfilled. I clip a bit more off the head, and find a very good straightforward tobacco taste in the cold draw, which is unfortunately still tight.
I take my time and toast the foot slowly, really savoring the moment. Not just the cigar, but the soft breeze, birds singing, sun coming in and out of the low lying clouds, just a beautiful day to enjoy. The foot is now burning perfectly with a soft glowing orange emanating from the smoldering embers. I take a whiff of the smoke rolling from the fire and the aroma is quite good. I have to take several puffs to get smoke to come through and first draw is a medium black pepper spice on the back of the throat with flavors of strong earth, wood, coffee, and citrus notes. The smoke itself is a medium to full body with a very nice finish left on the palate.
During the first third, the draw became even more tight than it started out at, and I was having to puff really hard to just keep the cigar burning, much less get smoke out. Because of this, the cigar burned quite hot and had a paint thinner taste coming through. I trudged on in hopes that the draw would loosen up the further in I got. The ash forming was a light gray in color and very flaky with the thick wrapper wanting to burn slow in some spots, but in the end the burn was overall good.
A little past the halfway mark, the draw did open up a little, allowing a good amount of smoke to come through. There was a perfect amount of now white pepper spice coming through in the medium to full bodied smoke with a nice vanilla, dark earth, and roasted nut taste. The finish was good and lasting on the palate.
I have to say I was quite disappointed with the cigar being so overfilled making it impossible to enjoy for over half the cigar. However, I did somewhat enjoy the final third as the draw did open enough to reveal what this cigar truly had to offer. There was a good medium to full body smoke with decent enough flavor that left a nice finish on the palate. This cigar really wasn’t my cup of tea, maybe because of the tight draw causing the flavor to be somewhat lacking. I’ll fire up a No. 2 soon to see if there’s any difference.
