Merchant's Queen de Luxe (7" X 42)
A resurrected brand from days of old, according to my Google search. Cigar Page has introduced this reboot in several sizes of bundled cigars. And the sizes are all great, IMO. Nothing over a 50 ring gauge! Noice.
And, like a sucka, I clicked on the link and ordered 15 cigars (three 5 packs).
Visually, these are nice looking cigars. Maduro wrapper. Box pressed. They obviously didn't use sh*tty wrapper tobacco on these babies. The wrappers are dark and fairly uniform in color. This cigar is heavy in the hand, but has a great draw, which tells me that they put some effort into the construction of this line.
First few draws...straight tobacco, but with a slight (but not unpleasant) grassy flavor that you wouldn't normally associate with a maduro wrap cigar. Not a bad start. Looking at the info on Cigar Page, this blend is a San Andres wrapper and fillers from Ometepe, Jalapa, and Esteli.
About 1" in...typical maduro flavors coming in. Cocoa, coconut. Medium "strength". A little bit of a woodsy flavor in the nose exhale.
Around 2" in...straight CIGAR flavor is dominant, with the coconut more present on the finish. The woodsy nose exhale is still there.
Around halfway...dominant flavors are still the same, but the "strength" has increased a bit, as well as the woodsy flavor in the nose exhale. A couple of minor burn corrections.
A little past halfway...dominant flavors are still the same, but an unpleasant chemical/ammonia flavor has come in on the finish. That tells me it's time to tap out. Let 'er die at around 2.5."
Final thoughts...this might be a great cigar with a few months of humi time. I stripped a few of their cello, and they are currently sleeping. I will very likely revisit, because this was a great smoke until a little past the halfway point.
