stearns
04-26-2009, 10:15 PM
a bit of background on this stick. i walked into a small internet-based store called edward james store in my home town, after hearing they had a small selection of cigars. inside, there was a small, perhaps 4x4 walk-in with random cigars. on the ground, in a box, there were unlabeled cigars from PAMs, to an LFD Culebra, to nc dunhills, to a partagas 150, nothing with any pattern. i grabbed a handfull and took them to the front to figure out a price, he said he could only sell me some, for $4.50 each. i ended up with a henry clay, lfd culebra, and this interesting upmann. its been in my vino since.
come today, trying to pass time between the end of the draft and the sox game, and for some reason this seemed like a good call. made a cup of tea, lit it up, and walked out to my balcony for one of the last times, im moving across the street for the next school year, leaving in 2 weeks.
there wasn't much of a prelight draw due to the closed foot, but it smelled like nothing but tobacco, had a pretty bad crack near the foot, and was as toothy as a cigar can be. proceeded to smoke away
very, very smooth off the start. almost a bit toasty, if that makes sense. the burn was crooked, but did not require any touchups, completely fixed itself with some skillful smoking
the ash on this cigar was one of the most interesting aspects of the experience. i literally spent half of the time i was smoking it staring at the ash. it appeared to be flaky, but held on very strong. the toothy aspect of the wrapper created the most spectacular little white dots on the ash, something that i have never seen to this extent before (i think its something to do with extra potassium in the soil when the plant is grown? im not positive). i tried my best to take pictures that best represented this.
the flavors kept similar throughout, besides getting harsher as it went, in a seamless journey. the burn corrected itself and kept true, as did the ash. i smoked it down to about an inch, and ditched it when the harshness was getting to me.
overall, i did enjoy the smoke very much so, despite its lack of complexity. part of the joy was from not really knowing its origin, for all i know it could have been very aged, or something that they sell to crappy stores because nobody else would buy them, however i've never seen another upmann in this bouquet shape, it was fun to smoke.
would i buy again? for the $4.50 i spent on them, i'd probably buy one or two, it really was a very smooth smoke with a toasty, slightly nutty nose. enjoy the pictures, and thanks for reading
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3622/imgp08484129603.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5466/imgp08504146469.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6620/imgp08524162472.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7593/imgp08534172648.jpg
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8868/imgp08544183676.jpg
stearns
come today, trying to pass time between the end of the draft and the sox game, and for some reason this seemed like a good call. made a cup of tea, lit it up, and walked out to my balcony for one of the last times, im moving across the street for the next school year, leaving in 2 weeks.
there wasn't much of a prelight draw due to the closed foot, but it smelled like nothing but tobacco, had a pretty bad crack near the foot, and was as toothy as a cigar can be. proceeded to smoke away
very, very smooth off the start. almost a bit toasty, if that makes sense. the burn was crooked, but did not require any touchups, completely fixed itself with some skillful smoking
the ash on this cigar was one of the most interesting aspects of the experience. i literally spent half of the time i was smoking it staring at the ash. it appeared to be flaky, but held on very strong. the toothy aspect of the wrapper created the most spectacular little white dots on the ash, something that i have never seen to this extent before (i think its something to do with extra potassium in the soil when the plant is grown? im not positive). i tried my best to take pictures that best represented this.
the flavors kept similar throughout, besides getting harsher as it went, in a seamless journey. the burn corrected itself and kept true, as did the ash. i smoked it down to about an inch, and ditched it when the harshness was getting to me.
overall, i did enjoy the smoke very much so, despite its lack of complexity. part of the joy was from not really knowing its origin, for all i know it could have been very aged, or something that they sell to crappy stores because nobody else would buy them, however i've never seen another upmann in this bouquet shape, it was fun to smoke.
would i buy again? for the $4.50 i spent on them, i'd probably buy one or two, it really was a very smooth smoke with a toasty, slightly nutty nose. enjoy the pictures, and thanks for reading
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3622/imgp08484129603.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5466/imgp08504146469.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6620/imgp08524162472.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7593/imgp08534172648.jpg
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8868/imgp08544183676.jpg
stearns