Slavic #1
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Cigar: Mystery Cigar 1
Setting: Back deck on a 70 deg night. Brilliant out.
Drink: Left Handed Brewery Milk Stout
Initial Impressions: Cigar is smaller than my typical cigar and is very veiny. There is some apparent damage on the cigar and obvious weak spots which make me wonder how this one passed QC.
Cut and pre-light draw: Very tight, hard to get any airflow at all with my initial V-cut. Faint taste of English breakfast tea with an even fainter honey sweetness finish.
Lit easily using my tri-torch.
Draw after lighting: Nearly impossible. V-cut failed, re-cut using guillotine in an attempt to get a better draw. This too failed, but what to do. I smoked the stubborn thing.
^You can see how tightly packed this particular cigar is.
First Third: Held its ash through the first third. Tastes of leather, campfire and finishes very very slightly sweet. I got more smoke from the ash end than through my mouth, this cigar was all workworkwork.
^First third. Note the funky ash angle despite the presence of any wind, nor did I set it down which could've bumped it. Weird.
Second Third: Ash fell off at the very end of the First Third. I had to constantly work to keep this cigar lit. The flavor was a bitter throughout. The taste turned to more of a strong leather smell without the aforementioned sweet component. Smoke smells bitter like a campfire after it's been rained on: heavy and acidic. Draw remains next to impossible. The harshness mellowed toward the end of the Second Third. Ash fell off again, and seems the ash wouldn't last for more than 1". Cigar began coming apart at the aforementioned veins and weak spots.
^Second Third. Damage is more evident here.
Dog/helper took a sniff of the cigar, sneezed and promptly left. This should be a sign.
Third Third: Bfargh. The cigar constantly keeps trying to die on me, supposedly from the too tight wrap. The wrapper on this particular day was given 50 yards of leaf to wrap before he could go home and he attempted to put all 50y into this particular cigar. I hate this roller. I imagine his name is Senor Manuel. I hate Manuel.
The cigar now has a heavy tar buildup with an acidic finish and has absolutely no hint of pleasantness. In my notes I have written, "I hate this poor excuse for a cigar."
Cigar has to be re-lit twice in this portion, despite constantly attempting to draw from it.
^Burn was constantly uneven. Note the weak spot + damage.
Final Impressions: This smallish cigar took a solid 80+ minutes to smoke due to its tightly wrapped nature.
Would I buy again: Certainly not.
Would I smoke again: I would not gift this cigar to an enemy nor would I smoke another one even if free.
Overall Rating With 10 the highest possible and 0 the baseline: 1.5/10
Final Thoughts: Avoid this cigar like the plague.