Mike and Shawn, except with Ed instead of Shawn: La Estrella Cubana

[Cigar Mike]

Shawn, buddy, don't take it personally, but Ed's going to step in and help me stumble through a review tonight....

So, it's been far too long since me and Shawn has littered the forum here with one of our newbie reviews; either I've been out slaving away doing what I do, or he's been out of the country doing whatever it is he does....

Tonight's choice is a pair of "La Estrella Cubanas" that arrived with our latest "Gift Package of Cigar Awesomeness" courtesy of Scott and the gang. It's a 6" 50-gauge with a nice-looking maduro wrapper. Smells pretty decent right out of the humidor and feels like it's got pretty good construction.

My only concern is that it might be a little dry...been having trouble controlling humidity in my storage case recently, but that's a whole other story....

Time to light....

[ECJ]

Thanks for the invite tonight! Here we go:

Weather: Clear, Calm, 79deg, 51%hum, 2mph breeze

Dark wrap, tight roll, light smelling

Time-lit: 2135

First 3rd:
Lots of smoke on an easy draw
My mouth is watering like crazy, but there are no outstanding flavors. (Not sure I would recognize if there were).

[Cigar Mike]

YEah, I concur so far. This is perfect cigar weather right now.

But, so far, this cigar's just not doing it for me. This is probably the first time I've had to say that on here. It looks and feels like quite a nice cigar, but so far it's just ... bland. Surprisingly bland. Perhaps it's all the spicy food I had earlier? Not likely.

It's got a good draw, good smoke, it just tastes, um.. kind of like ... not much of anything.

Nice, even, slow burn so far, though. 25 mins in, and it is only about 1/3 through.

[ECJ]

Moving onto the second third after about 35 minutes. The draw has tightened up a bit from the beginning and the sharp burn continues with a light gray ash. Still searching for that elusive flavor.

[Cigar Mike]

I'm not finding it, either. In fact, I set it down long enough it needed a re-light, I was so uninspired.

I hate saying bad things about a cigar. Actually, this one's not _bad_, it's just not _good_, either.

[Cigar Mike]

As I was writing that, my girlfriend sent me a text message on skype, which I ignored until I finished my thought. I had to tell her it was cigar time, and would she be awake later so we could talk in a while? She didn't like that too much, but agreed.

A few minutes later, I heard some beeping coming from Ed's computer. "It's my wife," he says, "And I even told her it was cigar time right now!"

It makes me wonder if there's some kind of forum or support group out there for temporary "cigar widows," those poor women that are tragically ignored by their men who can't multitask well enough to use skype AND smoke cigars at the same time...

[Cigar Mike]

Still searching for that elusive flavor.

I wonder if this might be a side effect of storage that's too dry? Is that even a possibility?

[ECJ]

Not much to say about this cigar, but the weather has changed:

77deg with 54% humidity. The wind shifted and picked up to 9mph.

[Cigar Mike]

I think this cigar is literate.

I mean that I think it can read.

Once it saw me post about it's even burn and tasteless demeanor, it went all sideways on me. I've got this crazy spiral burn going on right now, but oddly enough, it's started developing a little spicy flavor. I'm pretty close to the nub, though, so, well, too little, too late, my friend.

Just saw a review online that rated it pretty highly, but those guys raved about Gurkas, too. Just sayin'.

So, well, I'd give it another try sometime in the future. It wasn't horrible, but I'd probably start off with pretty low expectations, unfortunately.

[ApexAZ]

Thanks for the review, gentleman!

[Cigar Mike]

Thanks for the review, gentleman!

It's our pleasure. Really! Thanks for reading and for the feedback!

[ECJ]

One word to describe this cigar is consistent. There was a great burn, nice smoke, and a firm ash all the way through. My mouth never dried out. The last third was definitely the best, finally producing some great flavor sending my taste buds into overdrive. I wish I could explain the taste more but my noob palette can't pick specific things out yet, especially with the short time that the full flavor was there. I smoked it to the nub and may actually try this again down the road since its potential teased me so much at the end. Maybe next time Mike won't offend his at the halfway mark and experience a better burn. :)

Overall, it was a great day. Finishing it up with a cigar and good company is a perfect ending.