Blind Review #2

Eric

CIGAR #2: Very dark, rough wrapper – maybe Brazilian Mata Fina – 6 inches x 7/8 inches diameter – very oily – decent construction – 1 large vein – absolutely a maduro – very leathery smell – firmly packed – foot has leather & dark cherry smell – 1 inch in the burn is pretty crooked – dirty grey ash w/ brown tint – dark cherry & chocolate flavours – has a Liga Privada essence to it – burn starting to correct itself – ash pretty flaky – lots of smoke – good draw – smoke has a leather & woodsy aroma – burn still goes wonky & then self corrects – flavours are chocolate and light toasted notes
- had to touch up crooked burn – last third has black coffee flavours – leather is back at the end.

Brian

Appearance and construction: Beautiful dark, oily wrapper, without measuring I’d guess a 56/58ish RG. The cigar burned fairly evenly, but I’ve had to do multiple relights so far (not sure why, my RH isn’t too high in my humidor).

Flavors: Pre-draw brings barely any flavors to the table, a slight barnyard tobacco taste. After light the first few draws bring a light spicy black pepper and gingerbread taste. Despite the initial muted flavors there is an underlying strength to this stick. I’m getting more cocoa and coffee hints about halfway through the stick. The underlying spice is still there, but the strength hasn’t seemed to develop like I thought it would. Towards the end the flavors kind of fizzled out and all I was getting was harsh burnt taste.

Overall: While there were some good things about this stick, there were also unpleasant things. The flavors I was experiencing just weren’t strong enough to keep my interest with the majority of them fizzling out even further with 1/3rd of the stick remaining. This really nice looking cigar had promise, but to me fell a bit short.

David

One hell of a great looking, extremely dark cigar covered in oils. A bit larger on the ring gauge than I normally grab for but not so big that I shyed away. From the get go I was greeted with a healthy dose of pepper and an almost bread like aftertaste. Chocolate/cocoa and coffee run the backbone of flavor with a mix of leather, toasted nuts and wood ebbing in and out of the foreground. The burn did need a little help near the middle, but after the 1 touch up things ran perfect to the nub. The final half inch or so of this smoke turned pretty dark – not bitter, but a bit darker than I prefer and I had to let the cigar gods take my sacrafice a little early.

Brians Guess: Ave Maria
Erics Guess: Unknown
Davids Guess: Ashton Aged Maduro

What do you think the cigar is?! Leave a comment of what you think the cigar is and the correct answers will be entered into a contest to win a 5 pack of this cigar! The winner will be announced on Monday – January 30th, 2012.