Cameron said:
I have not smoked a lot of cigars, but so far it was the best I smoked.
Took 45 minutes, but it was Tony the Tiger "ggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!"
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Holy Crap. You smoked the Gurkha Beast in 45 minutes. That thing was massive. It took me over an hour to smoke through it. Well, the GreatKingRat asked for it, so here it my review of the Gurkha Beast.
Gurkha Beast
This was a massive cigar. Around 6 1/2 inches in length and at least a 58 ring gauge. It had a beautiful Costa Rican maduro wrapper that was oily and flawless. There were no appreciable veins and only minor seams showing. Very nice looking cigar. It was packed too, nice and heavy. The pre-light nose was of earth and cedar (since it was cedar wrapped), but there was an underlying sweetness to it as well. The pre-light draw was a little firm.
The cigar took a bit of doing to properly spark. Mostly due to the ring gauge I think. Once lit, the draw opened only a little, staying just a bit too firm for my tastes. Smoke production was OK, but I would have liked this big stick to kick out a bit more of a billow. The burn, however, was dead on. Never becoming uneven and never requiring any corrections or touch ups. The ash was white and very firm, owing the roll of the tobacco. The cigar burned nice and cool, despite the fact that I was having to work to get the smoke. Well contructed cigar...just wish the draw had been looser.
The flavor was the big surprise. The Beast turned out to be more of a teddy bear. That is not a bad thing, just unexpected. The overall flavor profile was more on the medium-side of things. It started out with some good earth and coffee...no spice, no pepper. A "soft" and "friendly" start. The cigar almost immediately picked up some sweetness that prevaded the palate after each mouthful of smoke. As the cigar developed, the cedar came out a bit, giving the cigar an interesting back-note. The sweetness stayed throughout the cigar making it a very available to just about any level of cigar smoker into "large" ring gauge cigars. It ended with a bit of an espresso hit.
Like I said, this cigar surprised me. I was expecting a beast and got a very easy smoking experience. Had the draw been more open, I think I would rate it higher. But for now, I give it a
B+ .
