Despite a poor review I would place this cigar in the “Evening Smoke” category.Well it’s raining here in San Diego so I took the opportunity to review one of my favorite brands Gurkha. Usually I love everything about each Gurkha I smoke. Today on the other hand turned into more of a wrestling match than an enjoyable Cigar smoke.I couldn’t decide between coffee or Scotch, so I took the liberty of grabbing a glass of each. The coffee was black and the scotch was Johnny Green Label. I plopped down on the front porch and got right to work.

In inspecting the Legend I found it to have some unappealing inconsistencies. It’s been in the Humidor for about 3 months so it had a little damage from being shuffled around, nothing that would impair the smoking characteristics. The end cap however was pretty nasty looking, it had faded areas and was not well formed at all.

In gently feeling the cigar I noticed a very dense section about an inch from the tip. I gave it a gentle squeeze to try to loosen it up and cracked it. I knew this would come back to bite me but I continued in my quest to enjoy the cigar.The draw was tight and the smoke was minimal at first. I knew this was because of the dense area so I pressed forward. As soon as the heat started getting to the crack the stick really began to split open. This however did loosen up the dense area allowing for more smoke and easier draw.

I had to wrestle with the cigar a bit to get past the damaged area which very much decreased my enjoyment of the cigar. However once it did the enjoyment factor went up and I was able to enjoy the last 2/3rds of the stick. The flavor at first was a little spicy and robust. About half way through it smoothed out and got mellower while still remaining robust. The flavor paired well with both the coffee and the Johnny Green. I did very much enjoy the flavors that were introduced after I took a sip of the J.G. then a couple big mouthfuls of smoke. It seemed to enhance the subtle sweetness of the J.G. on the back of the tongue. Very Pleasant.

All said and done the experience was almost not worth it. (note that I said ALMOST) I have had 6 or so Gurkha Legends in the last couple months and I have found them to be a little tight on the draw but this one was certainly the most unpleasant of the batch!

This rating is a little rough based on prior experiences.

OVERALL RATING: 63

Appearance and Construction: 8

Flavor: 20

Smoking Characteristics: 15

Overall Impression: 20

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