DBall's Newb Blind Taste Test #3

[DBall]

jimmyk26 Cigar #3
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Initial impressions - This long thin cigar, roughly 7' x 36-38 ring gauge (a long panatela maybe), is wrapped with a light brown leaf that has a few veins and it smooth to the touch. It also has a bit of a shrink wrap appearance and shows some of the topography of the filler and binder. I don't notice any soft spots and the cigar appears to be well constructed. The wrapper smells of hay and the foot has only a slight, sweet tobacco scent. The pre-light draw is good and it leaves a light, but lingering, spice on the palate.


Initial puffs - I am getting toasted wood and spice at the beginning here. The cigar is drawing well and producing good amounts of smoke.

1/3 - The spice and wood make up the initial flavor profile of this start of this stick. It is burning well and producing plenty of smoke. About halfway into the first third, the cigar has picked up a bit of mustiness and hints of walnut. This cigar also has a dry finish. The burn line wandered a bit at the start, but has since corrected itself nicely.


2/3 - Here the spice has mellowed out and the dominate flavors are now the nut and a creamy almost milk like flavor. These creamy flavors make me want to call this cigar smooth. The cigar continues to perform very well producing plenty of smoke and burning well. Also in this third, the cigar has picked up a slight grassy taste to it, which is not unpleasant. The cigar seems to be mild-medium in strength.


3/3 - In the final section here the flavors seems to have backed off, I am left with a bit of dry nuts and that grassy flavor I mentioned above but not much else. The cigar, however, continues to burn and draw very well. Nearing the end, the cigar has really pulled back on flavors. I am having a hard time picking out much at all here, though it is still producing plenty of smoke and so I puff on.


Final thoughts - This mild cigar started out well and the first two thirds were quite enjoyable, however the flavor faded considerably at the end. One thing that was interesting about the flavors to me was how similar the second third was to my experiences with the EP Carrillo Edicion Inaugrual, a very creamy flavor profile. Despite the diminishing flavors, the cigar smoked beautifully producing plenty of mouth filling smoke and it kept an even burn line all the way to the end. It will be interesting to find out if the disappearing flavors are to due to aging, either too little or too much, or just part part of that cigar.


Rating: 7.0 - The despite the flavors fading at the end, it stared off tasty and the cigar smoked very well. A good introduction for me to the narrow ring gauge cigars.

[DBall]

Brutus2600 Cigar #3
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As soon as I received these cigars a few weeks ago, my eyes fixed on cigar #3. I've not had much experience with longer, smaller RG cigars and I was excited to try this one. Upon initial inspection the cigar has some significant veins, but still has a nice wrapper. Good construction and isn't too firm, but there aren't any soft spots. Looks to be about 6.5 x 34 (a panatela? Correct me if I'm wrong).



Initial light 11: 25 - Initial smell and predraw both carry a strong barnyard and hay aroma. Toasted the foot and lit the cigar, my first impression is that it's a fairly mild cigar. It produces a nice amount of smoke. The ash isn't very tight, and fell off right after the picture.



First third 11:35 - The flavors are developing from muted to a little more prominent and I'm starting to be able to pick them out. I taste hints of coffee and nuts, with just a few chocolate notes strewn in. I'm having trouble keeping it lit too. It's almost gone out a few times earlier, and just went out on me. I just smoked my first lancero cigar last week, and had similar problems with that. I'm not sure if that's just because of the small ring gauge? As stated, I don't have much experience with these size cigars.



Second Third 11:51 - Thought I was getting into a good rhythm and wasn't having issues with the light, but it just went out on me again. I'm afraid this is having adverse effects on the flavors developing. Still getting nutty notes though, with some leathery aroma mixed in as well. A retrohale of just 10% of the smoke from a draw left me coughing, so I didn't get much from that. The ash is a consistent grayish black, and has only holds on for about 3/4" before falling off. As stated before, this is a very mild cigar, but very enjoyable. It's been a great morning cigar paired with my coffee.



Final Third 12:08 - I've managed to keep the last half of the cigar lit without going out, and the final third has finally gotten a little stronger, but I suspect this is just the nicotine buildup. It's still mild though, and not bitter at all, which is nice. I haven't had the "a-ha" moment with this cigar where a single prominent flavor has stuck out to me, just a consistent nuttiness throughout.



Finish time 12: 24 - After what initially seemed to be me going through the cigar pretty quickly (trying to keep it lit) this cigar lasted right about an hour. An overall mild cigar, it's given me a pretty good kick from the nicotine even after just having eaten. Great cigar though, enjoyable to the last bit, and despite the burn issues which dropped it's score, I would definitely smoke another.

Appearance and construction: 1.25 out of 1.5
Smoke and ash: 1.25 out of 1.5
Burn: 2 out of 3
Overall flavor: 3.5 out of 4

Total: 8 out of 10

[DBall]

What they smoked:



2007 Hoyo du Gourmet

jimmyk26 score: 7.0
Brutus2600 score: 8.0

I'm surprised the scores were this low for this cigar... maybe I'm bias because I absolutely LOVE panatella/ninfa sized cigars.

By the way, you were both pretty much in agreement with the flavors again... this just rocks.