[RevSmoke]

Caldwell Long Live The Queen Robusto Queen's
(5x52 robusto)
Caldwell’s own description: This Caldwell Long Live The Queen Robusto Queen's Court cigar is made in Dominican Republic. Outside, you'll find a Reddish Brown Cameroon wrapper. Inside, the binder is Indonesian Sumatra, and the filler is Nicaraguan, Dominican. The Caldwell Long Live The Queen Robusto Queen's Court is a Medium-Full Bodied Robusto shaped cigar with a length of 5.00 and a ring gauge of 52.

0.0 - 2.0 = poor/inferior quality
2.1 - 2.9 = fair
3.0 - 3.5 = good
3.5 - 4.5 = excellent
4.6 - 5.0 = superior

1) Aesthetics: Handsome bands contrast beautifully with the caramel colored, slightly oily, wrapper. Wonderful slight toothiness shows the evidence of a Cameroon wrapper.

Score for aesthetics: 4.8

2) Pre-light Construction: No soft spots, nor overly firm bumps appear. Taking a V-cut, and a comfortable draw is evidenced. Been a while since I had a Cameroon on the lips, but it's clear that this is exactly what it is. Pre-light draw seems to evidence hints of that typical Caldwell flavors, but different at the same time. I think I'm going to enjoy this.

Score for Pre-light construction: 4.7

3) Post-light Construction/How it smoked: As expected, the draw is as expected, comfortable - not too tight, not overly free, providing enough smoke to be very enjoyable. White and tight is the best descriptor for the ash. The burn is not razor tight, but it's fairly even. Ooops, I may have spoken too soon as a slight run developed, but a quick application of a single flame torch fixes the issue.

Ash hung on for about an inch and a half, falling un-surreptitiously onto my lap.

Score for post-light construction: 3.6

4) Flavor and strength: At the first draw after the light, and I'm thinking this is really powerful. It quickly mellows, becoming much milder. There is some incredible complexity. There is the rich taste of wonderful tobacco, slight spice comes through. Baking rich banana nut bread comes to mind as that rich sweetness from the wrapper comes through. Given the 52 ring gauge, I was wondering if the bunch was going to overpower The Cameroon, very happy that is evidently not the case.

Horror of horrors, about halfway through, the freshness of this cigar made itself known with some bitterness. A purge cleaned it up and brought back the original flavors. But, a number of other purges were necessary.

This is not a mild cigar, but it isn’t strong either. There is a nice complexity trying to dominate. Slight burn in the retrohale, but nice notes of caramel and cinnamon also make their presence known when doing so.

Score for flavor and strength: 3.3

5) Aftertaste/Finish: The finish is not harsh, lingering only for a moment. It has a tobacco richness to it, with hints of white pepper and caramel.

Score for aftertaste: 4.1

6) Aroma: Rich tobacco and something along the lines of banana nut bread come to mind.

Score for aroma: 4.3

7) General Comments: Like I said above, there was some bitterness that developed, required a number of purges. It has wonderful flavors… BUT… it comes off to me as being obviously young and in need of some serious humidor time…(at least that is what I am hoping). I nubbed this cigar with almost an inch and a half of it left, I was no longer enjoying the bitterness that kept creeping in. A friend with me noted the action and questioned me, “Not enjoying it? Seems like you NEVER toss a cigar with that much left.” And he was absolutely correct.

Overall score for the cigar: 2.4 (this is a lower score than you might expect because of the much more positive numbers above. I base this score upon the fact that after having smoked one (and yes I know that basing a rating on the sample of 1 is not the best practice), I really want to like these, so I will give them another opportunity…but only after a good 6 months in the humidor – or more.

8) Recommendation: I want to recommend these, as there are some incredibly nice flavors evident -AND- I have not had a bad Caldwell to date, I figure these should as well. But, that time has not yet come. Of course, this is all subjectively the opinion of only one man, and that one man has been known to be wrong. If you can get one to try, do so. And if your experience is different from mine, please send me a note and let me know – I have a few more to try.