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Blind Cigar Review Thread #2
- Thread starter denverdog
- Start date
jnknzz
Shankopotamus
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2008
- Messages
- 949
Badass!!! I hadn't heard of the brand and didn't notice the "edicion especial." I knew something wasn't right...thought Nasty was playing a trick on me!! Another great cigar from Ashton/Pepin!!! Is there anything DPG can't do?
Derek
==>what a relief!
northernmoris
FFOX Whore
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 2,014
First I want to say thank you for the opportunity to get involved in this. Sorry it took this long to post.
Smoking Results
SIZE: Length:5 1/2 Ring: *52 *actually a 50
APPEARANCE: The appearance was a nice, dark chocolate color
CONSTRUCTION: Was very good, firm to the touch, no soft spots, 1 or 2 prominent veins
Cut: Cut with my Xicar x3
DRAW: Predraw felt a little on the loose side
BURN: Was ok, a little hot towards the end
FLAVOR: Huge spice bomb to begin with, earthy, leathery
STRENGHT: Was a medium to full
SMOKING TIME: roughly 1 1/2 hr
GENERAL IMPRESSION: at bottom
Lay out: Man cave in my garage. Currently carpeted a section with a tv, dvd, xbox, mini fridge and chair and a space heater. I had a bottle of water, I used my new Xicar x3 to snip off part of the cap. The cut was real smooth. The predraw felt a little loose. I torched the foot and blew on it until it was evenly glowing red. Preburn smelt nice, the smoke was nice and thick. It was lit with no problems and off I went. 6:30 pm.
1/3
The first thing that hit me was a huge spice bomb, this lasted for about 20 minutes. Had a very smooth smoke, burn was nice and even at this point. This stick had a lot of spice to it and a earthy taste to start with a tobacco flavor. At this point i'm pulling a lot of smoke, i'm thinking this might be a CC. At 6:45 the spice has mellowed out, and there's a sweet flavor in the background. The sweet flavor lasted briefly(other than the spice this is tasting very familiar). The ash was a peppery color and lasted about a inch.
2/3
Still smoking nice, the flavor has turned one dimensional to me. At 6:50 i'm getting a woody flavor. The ash is still intact and looks a little lighter. At 7pm a hint of the pepper and spice breifly came back. At 7:05 the flavor mellowed out a bit, but was definetly feeling like a full body smoke. At 7:16 for some reason this smoke went out. I purged it and relit the smoke.
3/3
At 7:20 I had to go make a quick PB&J, started to get a little light headed. This smoke was very familiar, i'm now thinging something along the lines of Tat/Pepin. Shortly after I put the smoke to rest.
Guess: My final guess is a Tat., I didn't guess the size. I smoked a Noella a couple days or week ago and this was very similar. Unfortunatly I did not enjoy this smoke, or the Noella. I just don't enjoy the flavor, I know some are die hard Tat, but not me. :blush: As I opened up the envelope it indeed was a Tat Regios. I want to again thank Thinde for the great selection of smokes.
Wrapper: Nicaragua Corojo 99
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Rolled: El Rey de Los Habanos, Inc. Cigar Factory / Miami, FL , U.S.A.
All Tobacco is 1st Generation Cuban Seed
Cigars are Nicaraguan puros, rolled with a Cuban triple-cap
Created by Pete Johnson, buyer for the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills, CA
Cigars are rolled in the classic Cuban tradition by Master Rollers headed by Maestro Tobaquero Jose "Pepin" Garcia at the El Rey de Los Habanos, Inc. Cigar Factory ( Calle Ocha Street in Little Havana ) Miami, FL , U.S.A.
My smoking companion:
Smoking Results
SIZE: Length:5 1/2 Ring: *52 *actually a 50
APPEARANCE: The appearance was a nice, dark chocolate color
CONSTRUCTION: Was very good, firm to the touch, no soft spots, 1 or 2 prominent veins
Cut: Cut with my Xicar x3
DRAW: Predraw felt a little on the loose side
BURN: Was ok, a little hot towards the end
FLAVOR: Huge spice bomb to begin with, earthy, leathery
STRENGHT: Was a medium to full
SMOKING TIME: roughly 1 1/2 hr
GENERAL IMPRESSION: at bottom
Lay out: Man cave in my garage. Currently carpeted a section with a tv, dvd, xbox, mini fridge and chair and a space heater. I had a bottle of water, I used my new Xicar x3 to snip off part of the cap. The cut was real smooth. The predraw felt a little loose. I torched the foot and blew on it until it was evenly glowing red. Preburn smelt nice, the smoke was nice and thick. It was lit with no problems and off I went. 6:30 pm.
1/3
The first thing that hit me was a huge spice bomb, this lasted for about 20 minutes. Had a very smooth smoke, burn was nice and even at this point. This stick had a lot of spice to it and a earthy taste to start with a tobacco flavor. At this point i'm pulling a lot of smoke, i'm thinking this might be a CC. At 6:45 the spice has mellowed out, and there's a sweet flavor in the background. The sweet flavor lasted briefly(other than the spice this is tasting very familiar). The ash was a peppery color and lasted about a inch.
2/3
Still smoking nice, the flavor has turned one dimensional to me. At 6:50 i'm getting a woody flavor. The ash is still intact and looks a little lighter. At 7pm a hint of the pepper and spice breifly came back. At 7:05 the flavor mellowed out a bit, but was definetly feeling like a full body smoke. At 7:16 for some reason this smoke went out. I purged it and relit the smoke.
3/3
At 7:20 I had to go make a quick PB&J, started to get a little light headed. This smoke was very familiar, i'm now thinging something along the lines of Tat/Pepin. Shortly after I put the smoke to rest.
Guess: My final guess is a Tat., I didn't guess the size. I smoked a Noella a couple days or week ago and this was very similar. Unfortunatly I did not enjoy this smoke, or the Noella. I just don't enjoy the flavor, I know some are die hard Tat, but not me. :blush: As I opened up the envelope it indeed was a Tat Regios. I want to again thank Thinde for the great selection of smokes.
Wrapper: Nicaragua Corojo 99
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Rolled: El Rey de Los Habanos, Inc. Cigar Factory / Miami, FL , U.S.A.
All Tobacco is 1st Generation Cuban Seed
Cigars are Nicaraguan puros, rolled with a Cuban triple-cap
Created by Pete Johnson, buyer for the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills, CA
Cigars are rolled in the classic Cuban tradition by Master Rollers headed by Maestro Tobaquero Jose "Pepin" Garcia at the El Rey de Los Habanos, Inc. Cigar Factory ( Calle Ocha Street in Little Havana ) Miami, FL , U.S.A.
My smoking companion:
Kingantz
Growing too fast.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2007
- Messages
- 7,648
Good job on the review and guessing the smoke. I didn't like the Havana VI line when I first tried them, as you said too much of a spice bomb. But, I've come to really like these smokes. I do prefer the smaller ring gauge on the Angeles or Victorias.
Not A Nice Person
Pink.
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2008
- Messages
- 5,276
Got an intriguing lil' cigar from n8warren . . . about 4 1/2" by 32ish. My first thought, based on size and appearance, was that it was a Petite Tatuaje, of which I've smoked a couple this past year:
But a closer look at the construction baffled me a bit:
I know it's hard to tell, as fuzzily as my aging digicam does closeups, but the filler is rolled into tight little tubes, Cuban "old skool" style.
Punched well, but I lit it slightly off-center. The cigar self-corrected effortlessly, and rewarded me with huge volumes of silky smoke for such a little guy. Beginning flavors were a bit underwhelming, with faint hints of leather, muted spice, and wood.
It soon picked up steam, though, and started tasting a bit like I'd imagine a BGM might, with a bit of age on it, even though this is a completely different vitola. Now I'm really confused! From there, however, loads of pepper and Tat-style spice notes started blowing me away . . . and then the nic kick, which I don't really associate with either of my hunches, kicked in and I started seriously buzzing. Hey, nice smoke!
During the last third or so, the raging black pepper spice notes muted down to a softer earth, tobacco, and toast, with a leather aftertaste on the finish. The nub action was smooth and slightly sweet.
When my fingernails finally caught fire, I had to let it go and make my guess.
Although I was initially leaning toward the Petite Tat, this didn't taste a thing like a Tatuaje, except for a few spice blasts through the middle third. I decided, based on the flavor profile and my limited experience, that it had to be a Boli of some kind, with some age on it.
Hoo, buddy! Was I ever wrong! I wouldn't have guessed this in a million years, and I've smoked quite a few other sizes of Opus X. Great little cigar and a lot of fun to review!
~Boar
But a closer look at the construction baffled me a bit:
I know it's hard to tell, as fuzzily as my aging digicam does closeups, but the filler is rolled into tight little tubes, Cuban "old skool" style.
Punched well, but I lit it slightly off-center. The cigar self-corrected effortlessly, and rewarded me with huge volumes of silky smoke for such a little guy. Beginning flavors were a bit underwhelming, with faint hints of leather, muted spice, and wood.
It soon picked up steam, though, and started tasting a bit like I'd imagine a BGM might, with a bit of age on it, even though this is a completely different vitola. Now I'm really confused! From there, however, loads of pepper and Tat-style spice notes started blowing me away . . . and then the nic kick, which I don't really associate with either of my hunches, kicked in and I started seriously buzzing. Hey, nice smoke!
During the last third or so, the raging black pepper spice notes muted down to a softer earth, tobacco, and toast, with a leather aftertaste on the finish. The nub action was smooth and slightly sweet.
When my fingernails finally caught fire, I had to let it go and make my guess.
Although I was initially leaning toward the Petite Tat, this didn't taste a thing like a Tatuaje, except for a few spice blasts through the middle third. I decided, based on the flavor profile and my limited experience, that it had to be a Boli of some kind, with some age on it.
Hoo, buddy! Was I ever wrong! I wouldn't have guessed this in a million years, and I've smoked quite a few other sizes of Opus X. Great little cigar and a lot of fun to review!
~Boar
n8warren
To Bill Brasky
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2007
- Messages
- 166
Ok, so here it goes, sorry it took me so long to get this one up. I'm pretty bad at these things, so this could be horrible. The only digital camera I have will not turn on for some reason, so please forgive the lack of pictures.
Setting: I went down to Silo Cigars for this one, sat in a nice leather chair with some ESPN/Local news on and some great conversation with the other guys around. While I smoked, I sipped on 2.5 cups of Tatuaje Black label coffee.
Appearance: This is a nice looking cigar, about 6-6 1/4 inches and around 50-52 ring and . Nice veiny, somewhat rustic looking wrapper, and appears to have a triple cap.
Initial impression: It cut cleanly with my Palio (what a shock) and unlit draw was just right, with some slight cedar taste. It lit easily and evenly, and the first couple puffs had a little bit of a sweet, almost citrus taste. My first thought was that I'll love this smoke.
1/3: After the initial sweetness died down after about 2-3 puffs, the flavors really got muted. I don't know if the flavors were just overshadowed by the coffee, my palate was just off, or if this stick just wasn't a big flavor bomb. I got some nice earthy, tobacco notes, but as I said there wasn't just a ton of flavor and a small volume of smoke.
2/3: The earthy tobacco notes faded into more of a leathery, nutty profile, once again tough to discern, however. Throughout the smoke, I had to really try to figure out what flavors were there, just because they were so muted. I had a slightly hard time keeping it lit, and would have a few little runs in the burn, but it usually self corrected. By this point, I am beginning to think this smoke may be a bit young.
Finish: The final third was the best, with some spice and more leather, the flavor really reminding me of a PSD2, or a young Bolivar. The volume of smoke picked up a little bit and was more acceptable at this point. Had the whole cigar smoked like the last third, I would have been more impressed.
Final thoughts and guess: I'm not one to say, "This cigar has leather and citrus, so it must me Cigar X." but I like to think this cigar tastes like Cigar X so it may be something similar. I can however say "this cigar tastes like this other cigar from the same marca" and really the muted flavors left me with no guess until the final third. Due to those flavors and the triple cap, I'm going to guess either a Partagas or a young Boli. All in all I would give this particular smoke a 7.5/10. I could tell there was a ton of potential, but this particular stick didn't do it for me.
And the verdict is: Wow I was closer on my guess than I expected. It was a PSP #2. I had really been wanting to try this smoke and am glad I had the chance to smoke it with no bias based on knowing what I was smoking! I would like to know if it was recent production or if it had age on it and should have smoked better than it did.
On a side note, I really wish I could have taken some pics, because Damien put the band in an awesome little Joker card DIY sleeve, that was really fun to open! Thanks for sending this to me, Damien, it was really fun!
Setting: I went down to Silo Cigars for this one, sat in a nice leather chair with some ESPN/Local news on and some great conversation with the other guys around. While I smoked, I sipped on 2.5 cups of Tatuaje Black label coffee.
Appearance: This is a nice looking cigar, about 6-6 1/4 inches and around 50-52 ring and . Nice veiny, somewhat rustic looking wrapper, and appears to have a triple cap.
Initial impression: It cut cleanly with my Palio (what a shock) and unlit draw was just right, with some slight cedar taste. It lit easily and evenly, and the first couple puffs had a little bit of a sweet, almost citrus taste. My first thought was that I'll love this smoke.
1/3: After the initial sweetness died down after about 2-3 puffs, the flavors really got muted. I don't know if the flavors were just overshadowed by the coffee, my palate was just off, or if this stick just wasn't a big flavor bomb. I got some nice earthy, tobacco notes, but as I said there wasn't just a ton of flavor and a small volume of smoke.
2/3: The earthy tobacco notes faded into more of a leathery, nutty profile, once again tough to discern, however. Throughout the smoke, I had to really try to figure out what flavors were there, just because they were so muted. I had a slightly hard time keeping it lit, and would have a few little runs in the burn, but it usually self corrected. By this point, I am beginning to think this smoke may be a bit young.
Finish: The final third was the best, with some spice and more leather, the flavor really reminding me of a PSD2, or a young Bolivar. The volume of smoke picked up a little bit and was more acceptable at this point. Had the whole cigar smoked like the last third, I would have been more impressed.
Final thoughts and guess: I'm not one to say, "This cigar has leather and citrus, so it must me Cigar X." but I like to think this cigar tastes like Cigar X so it may be something similar. I can however say "this cigar tastes like this other cigar from the same marca" and really the muted flavors left me with no guess until the final third. Due to those flavors and the triple cap, I'm going to guess either a Partagas or a young Boli. All in all I would give this particular smoke a 7.5/10. I could tell there was a ton of potential, but this particular stick didn't do it for me.
And the verdict is: Wow I was closer on my guess than I expected. It was a PSP #2. I had really been wanting to try this smoke and am glad I had the chance to smoke it with no bias based on knowing what I was smoking! I would like to know if it was recent production or if it had age on it and should have smoked better than it did.
On a side note, I really wish I could have taken some pics, because Damien put the band in an awesome little Joker card DIY sleeve, that was really fun to open! Thanks for sending this to me, Damien, it was really fun!
thinde
Lobstah; the other white meat!
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2008
- Messages
- 4,512
Good review. You might find this link interesting. I have the search tool down but sorry I don't know how to enter those neat LINKY inserts. This should still work though.
http://www.cigarpass.com/forumsipb/index.php?showtopic=14348
http://www.cigarpass.com/forumsipb/index.php?showtopic=14348
n8warren
To Bill Brasky
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2007
- Messages
- 166
That is interesting....I feel smart! At least until i find out it had some age on it already lol!Good review. You might find this link interesting. I have the search tool down but sorry I don't know how to enter those neat LINKY inserts. This should still work though.
http://www.cigarpass.com/forumsipb/index.php?showtopic=14348
Breedy
Busted
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2007
- Messages
- 2,121
Let me first apologize for very low quality pictures, my wife took the camera to work with her again, despite my request to leave it. As weather is turning south and I have a hectic month ahead with holidays and all I had to use my cell phone for the pictures.
Setting: My garage, cold but dry. My wife also called to inform me that she hit a patch of ice and bent her rim prior to me doing this review.
Mystery Cigar: This cigar came to me from Not a Nice Person, it was wrapped in tissue paper and had a cedar wrapper as well. I am not sure if this was meant to through me off or not. Initial impressions were that of a very well constructed cigar, no veins, wrapper was med-to light in color, and seemed heavy for its size. Approx dimisions were 5.75 x 50ish. Smell was that of a NC and general wrapper apperence leads to me to believe that this is not a CC
Light: Cut was flawless as was pre-light draw. Again, this leads me to believe that it is a well made higher end cigar.
Cigar: Lit with no problems and immediately produced large amounts of white smoke. Initial draw was wood and dry with a hint of spice. The spice waned after a few puffs and settled into a dry wood taste. The smoke smelled of the oak I associate with a Dry red wine.
The dry oak/woody taste was dominate through out the first third of the cigar, the barest hint off spice remained on my palate. The taste was not overpoweringly dry, but was not quite as creamy as I expecting.
The second third was that of fine tobacco but still had the woody aroma. Not really much going on at this point, burn was excellent, as was smoke production. There just didn't seem to be much deviance from the first third to my palate.
At about the half way point I expected this cigar to maybe change a little bit, but it continued to be fairly one dimisional, by no means bad. Just simple, not very complex.
The last third was pretty much the same, the spice on the finish started to pick back up. I also ran into some problems with the wrapper cracking as a passed were the band normally would have been.
Conclusion: This was a well made cigar, initial apperance scream AF to me, but the color of the wrapper seems off to me. After smoking the closet cigar I could relate this to was a Perdomo ESV "91 which I did a review on early this summer.
I don't think it was an ESV '91 do to general construction and the wrapper being a bit to dark. This could be a Perdomo, but smoke production and construction seem to indicate something a little higher end.
If I had to put a price point on this I would have to say it should be around 10-12 dollars. A good smoke, not great. I would smoke one again, but couldn't see myself having this as a "go to" smoke or even special occasion cigar. It just seems to fall into that "good but not great, and probably a little to spendy" range.
The Big Reveal: "drum roll"...... Wow Boar, you were right. The Cigar was a GOF 2006 by Carlito Double Robusto. In his note Boar said he "wanted to see how one of these smoked without the hype." Having read a couple of reviews on the GOF line I see what people mean. A good cigar, but for the price I can't see myself chasing these.
Thanks Boar.
will post the crappy pictures soon
Setting: My garage, cold but dry. My wife also called to inform me that she hit a patch of ice and bent her rim prior to me doing this review.
Mystery Cigar: This cigar came to me from Not a Nice Person, it was wrapped in tissue paper and had a cedar wrapper as well. I am not sure if this was meant to through me off or not. Initial impressions were that of a very well constructed cigar, no veins, wrapper was med-to light in color, and seemed heavy for its size. Approx dimisions were 5.75 x 50ish. Smell was that of a NC and general wrapper apperence leads to me to believe that this is not a CC
Light: Cut was flawless as was pre-light draw. Again, this leads me to believe that it is a well made higher end cigar.
Cigar: Lit with no problems and immediately produced large amounts of white smoke. Initial draw was wood and dry with a hint of spice. The spice waned after a few puffs and settled into a dry wood taste. The smoke smelled of the oak I associate with a Dry red wine.
The dry oak/woody taste was dominate through out the first third of the cigar, the barest hint off spice remained on my palate. The taste was not overpoweringly dry, but was not quite as creamy as I expecting.
The second third was that of fine tobacco but still had the woody aroma. Not really much going on at this point, burn was excellent, as was smoke production. There just didn't seem to be much deviance from the first third to my palate.
At about the half way point I expected this cigar to maybe change a little bit, but it continued to be fairly one dimisional, by no means bad. Just simple, not very complex.
The last third was pretty much the same, the spice on the finish started to pick back up. I also ran into some problems with the wrapper cracking as a passed were the band normally would have been.
Conclusion: This was a well made cigar, initial apperance scream AF to me, but the color of the wrapper seems off to me. After smoking the closet cigar I could relate this to was a Perdomo ESV "91 which I did a review on early this summer.
I don't think it was an ESV '91 do to general construction and the wrapper being a bit to dark. This could be a Perdomo, but smoke production and construction seem to indicate something a little higher end.
If I had to put a price point on this I would have to say it should be around 10-12 dollars. A good smoke, not great. I would smoke one again, but couldn't see myself having this as a "go to" smoke or even special occasion cigar. It just seems to fall into that "good but not great, and probably a little to spendy" range.
The Big Reveal: "drum roll"...... Wow Boar, you were right. The Cigar was a GOF 2006 by Carlito Double Robusto. In his note Boar said he "wanted to see how one of these smoked without the hype." Having read a couple of reviews on the GOF line I see what people mean. A good cigar, but for the price I can't see myself chasing these.
Thanks Boar.
will post the crappy pictures soon
Not A Nice Person
Pink.
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2008
- Messages
- 5,276
Heh . . . great review, interesting outcome. I've only had the Don Carlos GOF myself, and thought it was fantastic . . . but have a couple of these in the humi still. Can't wait to compare my "band on" notes to yours and see if I'm a slave to the hype or not! :laugh:
~Boar
~Boar
Seanholio
Don Quixote
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2007
- Messages
- 1,219
Setting: My garage, cold but dry. My wife also called to inform me that she hit a patch of ice and bent her rim prior to me doing this review.
Great review, sorry to hear about the rim, but at least it was only the rim, right?