Aesthetics: 4.5
handsome cigar, dark but not unnaturally so, ncie triple cap, no prominent veins, overall great construction. There is a wrapper tear/fracture that goes up about 1.25" but it's not looking unravelly
Pre-light Construction: 4
well rolled, capped, cut perfect, draw *just* over the line on the tight side. Very firm stick
Post-light Construction/How it smoked: 4
tight draw for maybe the first half inch only, warmed up and opened up quick and for the remainder of the smoke
NOTES Flavor and strength – 1st 1/3:
struck dumb by the difference from the first sample. D was my favorite so far, so much so that I could remember it's letter and looked forward to the second. Flavor wise this is completely different, I will definitely have to smoke a third to get to an overall impression of the thing. This is extremely bland, papery, ashy, a little spicy hint (capsaicin) in the nose. NCs to me have a typical sour note and think a Nic has a sour pepper and a Dominican has a sour marshmallow, this base sour that I almost always fail to mention as it seems to my mind the palette the cigar is painted on but it came to mind to mention it here as a I struggle to pick something out to report on. This one is the sour marshmallow.
NOTES Flavor and strength – 2nd 1/3
very much the same continuing
NOTES Flavor and strength – Last 1/3:
same, no change
Flavor and Strength: 2
medium, flavor was not really there.
Aftertaste/Finish: 1
this finish is lip smacking paper ash and stayed with me entirely too long. Too much caffeine during the Super Bowl had me up all night and my mouth was dry slimy and ashy all night
Aroma: 2.6
room note, smell, smelled like a cigar
twangy smoke
General Comments:
This wasn't good. I was really looking forward to it but it was a 180 degrees from the other I had, as I recall anyhow. The construction was great and smoking effortless so it'll score just shy of abysmal
Overall score for the cigar. 60.3 (tally from above) 2 (my overall impression on 5 scale)
Recommendation: not
I will definitely be having another of these and posting a third review, if not all 5, before I give an overall impression of 'the cigar'