DPG Vegas Cubanas

[Whee]

Time for another volume of Illinoishoosier's Review Corner. Tonight, we will be smoking a DPG Vegas Cubanas Generosos. As always, leave comments. Too many pics, not enough pics, too much talk, missing info, too much info...you get the idea.

On to the review.

Don Pepin Garcia Vegas Cubanas
Generosos 6x50
Wrapper: Habano Rosado Claro
Filler: Cuban Seed Corojo

Here it is plotting it's revenge..<foreshadowing>


I like the appearence of this stick. Light brown, smooth wrapper with a few small veins running through it. Stick is very light and has a little give when squeezed. The aroma is a very strong woody, leather with a little bit of pepper. The draw is loose and I get a creamy spice on the pre llite draw. Initial flavor after lighting is grassy and ashy.

The obligatory 5 minute pick..

The burn starts out nice and even with lots of creamy white smoke. The ash is light gray. Not a lot of flavor at this point. I noticed a small split near the head, just above the label.


Ash fell off while resting in the ashtray about 13 minutes in. Noticed another split near the head, just under the cap. I am a biter, but not enough to split wrappers usually. There is not much flavor at this point to speak of. Very, very mild spice coming through with some leather.

At 20 minutes, the wrapper starts to seperate near the head...

The flavor is starting to pick up a little here. Reminds me of ..gingerbread cookies? Maybe I just have Xmas on the brain. But that is the spice I taste, not real good with naming the various spices. Starting to fell a bit of a bite on my throat now.

It starts to get ugly at the half-hour mark.

Burn is a little crooked. The draw is still loose and the ash is light gray. Still putting out a decent amount of smoke. The splits have not gotten any worse. As you can see above, they appear to start near the label above the two points and go towards the cap. Have already lost a little piece, afraid I may lose the whole thing. Finally starting to get a little leather taste to hang around after exhale.

Had to correct the burn at 40 minutes. It almost went out on me. Looks like I've got a tunneler...right down the middle. On a positive note, I am getting a tea flavor now.

I've hit the 50 minute mark and I am not liking this thing at all. The tea flavor is now coming through in the aroma as well. Maybe some cinnamon. But harshness is starting to overtake it. I hate to say it but....


WE'RE DONE!
I took the label off and while giving a squeeze to remove it, this happened:


This has been resting for about 4 months at 65/68 and then in my chairside humi for about 2 weeks at 62. I have had wrapper issues before with DPG's, so I try to dry them out a bit before I smoke them.

I was really disappointed with the flavor, or absence of flavor, of this stick. The spicy tea at the end was nice, but there just wasn't enough of it. the wrapper coming apart didn't help the experience either.

I'm sure it was a bad stick, but I have to give this one...

1.5 illinoishoosiers out of 5