Cigar Asylum Cigar Forum - Alec Bradley Black Market

So I walked into work yesterday and my boss hands me one of these in what appears to be a robusto vitola(5.25x52 according to famous smoke, sounds about right). His reason, "it smells great." Can't complain with that and I completely agreed once I took it out of the cello. Lots of great earthy cocoa and coffee smells to the wrapper, good strong tobacco scent to the foot.

The cigar looks great with a very oily dark wrapper, though I don't believe its a maduro(correct me if I'm wrong). The prelight draw, though a little tight, gives off some great sweet coffee flavors.

The inital light gives off some sweet dark earthy flavors. For as oily as the wrapper was, the cigar does not give off a whole lot of smoke. As I finish up the first half inch, the draw stays at the tighter end of acceptable. Some coffee begins to show up on the finish as well. The burn manages to stay fairly even. Nearing the inch mark nothing new to report, but man this thing just does not want to produce any smoke. Not saying its a bad thing, but its just not as satisfying when you don't get to puff back out a good thick cloud of smoke.

Entering the second third, the coffee backs off a bit and is replaced by a slight dry leather flavor. Its hard to describe the dark earthy flavors I'm getting, but the best way I can seem to put it is likening the flavors to compost, but in a good way. Hitting the 2 inch mark, the leathery flavors darken slightly and take over as the main flavor. Getting close to the halfway point the ash still has yet to fall surprisingly. Normally when I type I get ashes all over my keyboard. Can't complain about it though. And speak of the devil, right after I type that it ashes clear away from my keyboard. Got saved on that one.

Starting the final third, the flavors stay roughly the same, with the leather picking up intensity slightly and with a light spice making an appearance. Luckily the draw has loosened up a a bit as has the smoke volume as it was beginning to bother me a bit. The spice begins to pick up in intensity as I reach 1.75" left. The spice backs off a bit again and leaves the leather as the main flavor yet again as I hit the final inch. Nothing new to report as I reach the nub.

For the price point famous has these listed at($6.75 for the robusto) I'll definitely be picking up a few. These may need to be dryboxed a bit based on how tight the draw was for me, but then again mine could have easily been over humidified as it was a sample from a sales rep who has to go all over the place. Total smoke time ~90 mins