Construction and burn: I give it strong marks in these categories. The lighting was effortless and the burn quite good. No significant wobble until the last inch, no touchups needed. The ash is good, pretty compact and firm, although I pushed it too far and it did drop in my lap. The ash drop doesn't leave much of a ligero cone. The burn rate was average to above average, lasting just shy of an hour.
Flavors: There was a little bit of pepper at ignition, but that dissipated pretty quickly. The flavors settled into a dark, woody profile -- charred oak, leather, and espresso. The smoke is medium in body, with a dry, clean finish.
The flavors were good but not especially dynamic. There were subtle variations on the basic theme -- the dark bitter notes shifted between espresso and stout, the wood notes were hickory, oak, with some char. The flavors stayed on the dry, tannic side of the spectrum; I never got any sweet notes.
This is a good to very good smoke; I want to see if a larger vitola might be a little richer.
