“Everyday Smoke”

After my last Gurkha Review, which was unfortunately poor, I’m pleased to announce a winner! The Black Puro was velvety smooth with a hint of spicinesses through the nose and on the tongue. I had remembered them as being a little more full bodied but this particular stick was a perfect lunchtime smoke.I was around 70° with a slight breeze on a beautiful day here in San Diego so the whole experience was just about perfect.

This smoke was full of roasty flavor with a hint of coffee. It produced generous amounts of smoke and the drag was almost perfect. I would classify it as being right in between medium and full bodied. It did however have a slight soapy overtone, (you know that feeling you get in your mouth that’s almost like you just chewed wax or soap…) but it didn’t detract from the flavor at all. The burn was almost perfect with only the slightest variances in the wrapper and ash.

All in all it was a great smoke and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys flavorful slightly spicy cigars.

OVERALL RATING: 89

Appearance and Construction: 13

Flavor: 23

Smoking Characteristics: 23

Overall Impression: 30

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I have yet to go to Cigar International’s Cigar Fest, but I think I just might have to this year! The event looks epic and it’s only available to CI customers. If you aren’t one, I highly recommend buying something and getting on their mailing list!  I’m pretty sure you can just register with them if you just want the info.Here’s what Cigar International had to say about Cigar Fest 2008,

CigarFest® is back, the king of all herfs! This annual mega event features 25 top cigar makers with samples of their finest blends - including the industry’s biggest and brightest cigar stars. In case you’ve missed the last four years, you’re in for a treat. Before setting foot on the show floor, you’ll get a humidor stuffed to the gills with 20 premium cigars not to mention other goodies….more than worth the price of admission alone! Then the floor is yours, with access to 20+ additional cigars, micro-brew samples, live music, a Southern BBQ, raffle prizes, and 2,000 fellow CI cigar lunatics having a grand old time.

Looks like a great time to me!

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“Evening Smoke”

I have had 6 or so of these Cienfuegos lurking in the depths of my Humidor for 3 months or so. I figured for variety’s sake I would break one out. The result of this experiment was remembering why they were lurking in the depths of my Humidor in the first place! All said and done they tasted fine but the burn was as erratic as a Jr Higher drinking Red Bull!

This smoke started off promising as I inspected the wrapper and overall construction. the wrapper had a very nice feel, slightly oily with very minimal veins in the leaf. The burn started out fine but almost immediately started migrating. I chose to not let the burn get in the way of enjoying the taste but I couldn’t help but notice the erratic wavy patterns it continued to leave.

The flavor was rather light and smooth with absolutely no harsh overtones. This Cigar didn’t have any distinctive flavors that really jumped out however it did leave a mild sweetness on the tongue after each puff. It didn’t pair too well with the coffee I was drinking, a glass of ice water probably would have been the best. I would recommend this for anybody that enjoys mellow aromatic cigars.

OVERALL RATING: 75

Appearance and Construction: 14

Flavor: 20

Smoking Characteristics: 18

Overall Impression: 23

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So I don’t even know what I was browsing for and I don’t really care. Whatever I was looking for doesn’t matter too much now that I found www.socialcigar.com !!! Check it out…it’s genius.

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“Evening Smoke”

The Padilla Obsidian was a perfect match with a cup of hot black coffee and a nice cool day. It was well constructed. However, it was a little light-feeling for such a dark large cigar. The end cap was well formed and cut nicely; the body was rugged. The wrapper was slightly oily, thick and flavorful.

She started off like a bat out of hell with some spicy overtones and a twang on the lips. After about 1/2 inch and a couple sips of coffee it mellowed out a bit and made for a very enjoyable smoke. The draw was actually a little too open for my liking, but produced generous amounts of smoke. The flavor was “roasty” (I really just made that up but that’s the best word I could come up with. The cigar was almost reminiscent of roasted coffee or some tasty toasted bread, hence “roasty”). It definitely had high nicotine content and some girthy punch so be careful if you’re not well-versed in the ways of the cigar. If you’re a newbee make sure you have a full stomach and a decent amount of time to smoke it. The initial burn was a little erratic but evened out nicely after about an inch. The cigar produced a decently clean strong column of ash that fell off naturally after about 2 inches.

This Padilla was a very enjoyable and the price was right! I got a 20 pack of these from joecigar.com for $39.99 (Normally $99.95)

OVERALL RATING: 88

Appearance and Construction: 14

Flavor: 23

Smoking Characteristics: 20

Overall Impression: 31

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In browsing the net looking for cigar information I happened to discover a friend in the industry: “Cigar Jack“. He has a bunch of good reviews and knows his stuff. He seems to be the only other guy out there doing even remotely what we’re trying to do here so pay him some respects. www.cigarjack.net

I added his site to our blogroll so you will be able to find him! Enjoy

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It’s way too late, and after leaving the office at 11:30pm what do I do? I go to my computer. The good news is the “Cigar School” page is up and running! Be patient as we add more information but for now it’s pretty sweet. Feel free to leave feedback on items you would like to see discussed. -Cheers

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“Everyday Smoke” 

The final cigar I smoked today was the Camacho 1962 Robusto. It was a pleasant end to a grand evening. The construction was great and very consistent, my only qualm was the cigar wasn’t quite dense enough and it burnt too fast. The end cap was very nice and felt good in the mouth. This Camacho had just enough flavor to make it interesting but not enough to be very strong. The flavor, while being very earthy, was almost forgettable. Some Cigars are very easy to classify in regard to their flavor, this Cigar was not. It had no definitive characteristics but the flavor was smooth and tasty, the draw was great, and the burn was near perfect. I would say it fell somewhere between Mild and Medium.

I say the burn was near perfect due to the fact that this little baby loosed a column of ash on my sweater and pants before it was even an inch long. I believe this was a long filler cigar but as I said before it was not very dense even to the point of it being a bit spongy. Because of it’s lack of denseness the ash was not very solid and the burn was much too quick.

The Camacho 1962 comes in a fairly large size variety perfect for any occasion. They are good for a quick smoke or fine for an evening sitting with friends or reading. I was drinking wine with this cigar but I’m thinking Scotch or Coffee would have been more appropriate.

OVERALL RATING: 79

Appearance and Construction: 12

Flavor: 20

Smoking Characteristics: 22

Overall Impression: 25

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“Everyday Smoke”

In preliminary inspection of the 5 Vegas Gold I noticed a few key points. The cigar felt good between the fingers, slightly spongy while remaining solid. The wrapper however was rather large veins in the tobacco leaf and some slight inconsistency. The end cap was formed well and cut easily, the draw was also very good and put out plenty of aromatic smoke. I was sitting outside of a Starbucks and 2 people out of the 7 or so that came by commented on how good it smelled.

Initially the cigar was rather bland with a hint of something nasty when I first lit it. However this did not last long and the cigar came more to life as I worked through it. Once the flavor stabilized it was very smooth and smoked cool. There were no very distinctive characteristics to note in regards to it’s flavor but it was pleasant.

In my opinion this is a great cigar for an everyday kind of smoke or an excellent cigar for someone who is just beginning the journey into Cigar Aficionadoness. (I’m pretty sure I just made that word up)

Though it had pleasant smoking characteristics and great draw it did burn inconsistently and the ash was rather odd. This is contributed to the quality of tobacco used in the rolling process. Long filler quality tobaccos should produce a nice long column of ash with neat edges. You can tell a lot about the quality of the tobacco used and the richness of the soil by the characteristics of the ash. I’ll go on about that in another post sometime. In regards to this cigar you’ll notice the ash is broken up and bending oddly, most likely because scraps of tobacco were used instead of long fillers.

OVERALL RATING: 73

Appearance and Construction: 10

Flavor: 20

Smoking Characteristics: 18

Overall Impression: 25

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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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