punk_lawyer
Habeas Punkus
This is not really meant to be a review but more of a comment on a novelty cigar.
Until today the only Drew Estates product that I had ever tried was a Blondie. That Blondie was wretched. So wretched that I swore that I would enact violence against anyone connected with the production of such a terrible 'cigar'. To say that I had a bad opinion headed in to smoking a Hookah label Melon Burst made by Drew Estates would be an understatement.
In defense of myself as to why I would light up a Hookah flavored cigar, I offer the following: 1) The Syrian attorney who has an office beside me is a huge hookah fan, the device and not the cigar, and she gave me two of these as a gift since she knows of my love of cigars (therefore it was free to me); 2) It has been raining like we are in a Brazilian rain forest in Cincinnati today and, since I generally smoke outside, when the clouds broke for a few minutes this evening, I looked in my humidor for the smallest and least loved cigar. The rain was going to come back soon and I didn't want to waste anything good. The Hookah cigar was small and expendable; and 3) I can at least tell my Syrian counterpart that I tried one of the cigar.
I have smoked from a hookah before. In fact, I have enjoyed smoking from a hookah before. My friends in Turkey were fond of these and the tobaccos were generally mild and mildly flavored. In Russia I enjoyed them at several gathering places. I am no expert on hookah tobaccos but I understand why they are popular in certain parts of the world. A cigar cannot replicate the cool smoke provided by a hookah but I suppose the Drew Estates are looking to try to replicate the flavors.
From the beginning my impressions were pretty negative. The cigar was extremely light, flimsy and extremely soft - this is not a tightly rolled cigar at all. When I cut the end, the cut was unclean even though I used the best cutter in my arsenal. I cleaned up the end and took a dry pull through the cigar. The flavoring was there and it was a little gritty but it was nowhere near as putrid as the Blondie.
Lighting was easy and the burn was even. The smoke was thicker than I expected from such a thinly rolled cigar. I am not going to romance the taste with any typical review words because this is, after all, a flavored cigar. The Melon Burst name is, however, a complete misnomer. Unlike the Blondie that belched some variety of disgusting incense smoke into my mouth with every draw, the Melon Burst's flavor was far more subtle. I could actually taste tobacco...in fact, the taste was similar to what I tasted with smoking from a real hookah. The cigar itself was not well constructed but if you were to grind up the cigar and put it in a hookah, you might have a winner here.
I would be very remiss if I did not include the statement that before the rain chased me back in the house, the cigar left me with an extremely pleasant nicotine buzz. I would never have any desire to buy one of these but at least I didn't end up wanting to hurt the people responsible for making it.
Until today the only Drew Estates product that I had ever tried was a Blondie. That Blondie was wretched. So wretched that I swore that I would enact violence against anyone connected with the production of such a terrible 'cigar'. To say that I had a bad opinion headed in to smoking a Hookah label Melon Burst made by Drew Estates would be an understatement.
In defense of myself as to why I would light up a Hookah flavored cigar, I offer the following: 1) The Syrian attorney who has an office beside me is a huge hookah fan, the device and not the cigar, and she gave me two of these as a gift since she knows of my love of cigars (therefore it was free to me); 2) It has been raining like we are in a Brazilian rain forest in Cincinnati today and, since I generally smoke outside, when the clouds broke for a few minutes this evening, I looked in my humidor for the smallest and least loved cigar. The rain was going to come back soon and I didn't want to waste anything good. The Hookah cigar was small and expendable; and 3) I can at least tell my Syrian counterpart that I tried one of the cigar.
I have smoked from a hookah before. In fact, I have enjoyed smoking from a hookah before. My friends in Turkey were fond of these and the tobaccos were generally mild and mildly flavored. In Russia I enjoyed them at several gathering places. I am no expert on hookah tobaccos but I understand why they are popular in certain parts of the world. A cigar cannot replicate the cool smoke provided by a hookah but I suppose the Drew Estates are looking to try to replicate the flavors.
From the beginning my impressions were pretty negative. The cigar was extremely light, flimsy and extremely soft - this is not a tightly rolled cigar at all. When I cut the end, the cut was unclean even though I used the best cutter in my arsenal. I cleaned up the end and took a dry pull through the cigar. The flavoring was there and it was a little gritty but it was nowhere near as putrid as the Blondie.
Lighting was easy and the burn was even. The smoke was thicker than I expected from such a thinly rolled cigar. I am not going to romance the taste with any typical review words because this is, after all, a flavored cigar. The Melon Burst name is, however, a complete misnomer. Unlike the Blondie that belched some variety of disgusting incense smoke into my mouth with every draw, the Melon Burst's flavor was far more subtle. I could actually taste tobacco...in fact, the taste was similar to what I tasted with smoking from a real hookah. The cigar itself was not well constructed but if you were to grind up the cigar and put it in a hookah, you might have a winner here.
I would be very remiss if I did not include the statement that before the rain chased me back in the house, the cigar left me with an extremely pleasant nicotine buzz. I would never have any desire to buy one of these but at least I didn't end up wanting to hurt the people responsible for making it.
