I’m sure you all have been trying to figure out what cigar the three of us had in the first blind review at The Cigar Nut. I can see by the comments that almost everyone was right on target! A couple of you started making me nervous, I think we might have to step up the mystery behind the next couple blind reviews! But – the important part first –
The first blind review cigar for The Cigar Nut is the . . .
Blind Review – #1
Here it is – the first ever Blind Review for The Cigar Nut. All of these cigars started in my posession – my wife picked them out, removed the labels and then I numbered and shipped them to Brian and Eric, so I do have a little bit of an advantage knowing what was in my humidor at the beginning. Please let us know if you like the Blind Reviews ( I know I had fun participating ) and we will be sure to have a few more ready to go soon!
Brian B
Appearance and construction: Beautifully dark stick, appears to be a lancero, pig-tailed cap. Once lit the ash is a very stark white and holds nicely to about an inch. Draw was perfect.
Flavors: Pre-draw brings very light hints of sweet tobacco and cocoa. After light first few draws bring more sweetness, almost chocolate notes. Very smooth smoke, hints of almonds and cedar accompany the sweetness. About halfway through the flavors are still very consistent, however the sweetness has died down a little bit and the stick is growing in strength. Still like smoking a delicious chocolate bar however! The final third is getting a little bitter. A purge gets rid of some of that, but with all the original wonderful flavors there is an underlying harshness probably attributed to just the nicotine buildup.
Overall: The name of this stick is consistency. From start to finish I was getting the same great sweet, chocolate, and almond notes. Only towards the end was there a little bitterness. I would absolutely buy more of these sticks and smoke them.
Size: 6 x 52
Wrapper: Colorado Maduro
Binder and Filler: Brazil, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Syria, Turkey, and the United States
Strength: High Mild to Medium
Price: Just under $7.00 usd each or roughly $4.50 ea in box purchase
Behind The Stick:
For those in the cigar world living under a rock, Drew Estate ( best known for their ACID line of infused cigars ) has been pushing their ‘Rebirth of cigars’ slogan and I have to admit, some of the cigars they have been putting on the market recently have been damn good. The Natural series is a totally different type of cigar, the English in specific is a blend of tobaccos from 12 ( yes, twelve ) different countries, Brazil, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Syria, Turkey, and the United States. As the name implies, these are ‘Natural’ cigars and although the intensity of certain flavors ( vanilla, chocolate, coffee, etc ) may lead one to think they are infused, but the fact of the matter is that same as the name, they are natural. I have only seen a handful of reviews on the web and finding detailed information on the line is like trying to pull teeth, the Drew Estate website doesn’t even list the English as part of their Natural line. Lets see if this mish-mosh of tobaccos produces something amazing or if it is more like a 3 year old making dinner.
Some of you who follow me on twitter ( @TheCigarNut ) have seen that – usually – before I head out of work I take a picture of my daily cigar selection and post it, asking for everyones input on what I should smoke that evening. My commute is just under an hour ( with traffic ) so it gives me the flexibility to try a different range of cigars although there is still a good portion of the cigars on the market I simply can not fit into this time frame. My original goal was to find a good 30-45 minute smoke to keep me occupied on the ride home – well it has now changed into a good way for me to hear back from you, the reader on what you prefer and allows me to try some cigars I might not normally go after and keeps me from smoking the same thing day after day after day – thanks to your comments. I will continue to post the daily selection on twitter, but I will also start posting them to facebook and doing a weekly recap on the site – going to try for every Saturday or every Sunday. I’ll run this for the next week or two and see what you all think.
January 3rd, 2012
– First Cigar of the New Year! ( yeah I’m slacking )
Country: United States
Distillery: Breckenridge Distillery
Bottler: Breckenridge Distillery
Distillation Date: Unknown
Style: Bourbon Whiskey
Bottling Date: 2008
Alcohol: 86 (43% ABV)
Price: About $40.00 usd ( 750ml )
Behind The Booze:
As some of you know, my wife and I recently went to Breckenrdige, Colorado for our 1 year wedding anniversary. Aside from falling in love with the town and the surrounding areas and never wanting to leave ( wife and I both want to move there asap ) – I also happened to walk past the Breckenridge Distillery storefront in downtown Breckenridge and found out about their hand crafted spirit which is born at 9600 feet, from Rocky Mountain snowmelt none the less. I was impressed to learn that their unique, high-rye mash is mixed with the natural mineral rich water into a traditional open-top Scottish style fermenter and distilled in a 700 gallon Vendome copper combination pot still. If that isn’t enough to catch your attention, this spirit is aged in 100% new American White Oak barrels for 2-3 years and has recently been awarded the 2011 International Wine and Spirits Competition in the United Kingdom and was named one of the top three Bourbon’s in the world. If you would like to learn more about the worlds highest distillery, please check out http://www.breckenridgedistillery.com/ for more info. Enough with me rambling, onto the damn review!
