Review ~ Drew Estate Tabak Especial Red Eye (8/10)

    Country of origin: Nicaragua    
    Size: 4.5"x54
    Shape: Robusto
    Strength: Meduim
    Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
    Binder: Nicaraguan
    Filler: Nicaraguan

I usually have a piece of chocolate with my cigar, but in this case, it would be redundant, as the cigar is plenty sweet and chocolatey all on its own.

The write-ups promise such things as: 

"savory espresso notes and a touch of milk chocolate, all perfectly balanced by a sweet, velvety aftertaste."

And make note of:

"three times the ligero typically used to produce a cigar this size."

A guarantee of the full punch that goes long with that much ligero is more than implied.

Those assurances seemed overstated at first, but proved true enough, and it was definitely a most enjoyable cigar, as was the case the first time I smoked one a year or so ago.  

So, lets get right into it. 

Appearance:  Lovely, velvety dark brown, a little rougher veined than some, which, along with the shag foot and pigtail cap, gave it an old world, kind of rustic appeal.

Construction: Well built, medium solid pack, which is to say it has a bit more give than some of my regular go-to smokes, but no soft or "saggy spots or anything like that. It's built well.

Aroma: Sweet and chocolaty, evoking childhood memories of See's Candy in the mall, and the promise of free samples of normally forbidden treats. In a word, delicious.

Cold Draw: A "cool" (kinda like ice cream), creamy, undefined sweet flavour.

Cut: No cut needed - just bit off the pigtail and all was great.  

Light:  Very easy and even light, in large part due to the shag foot.

Draw:  The draw was perfect from the start, which is not nearly as common as it ought to be.

First Third: Immediately after lighting, I'm tasting the same kind of "undefined" sweetness as I noted in the cold draw, but that quickly morphed into a very sweet cream flavour, with just the slightest touches of coffee noticeable on the retrohale. Getting into the latter half of the first third, the sweetness has a more distinct chocolate flavour, and more of the coffee starting to come through toward end.

Second Third: Some of the ligero and espresso notes began to vie for centre stage, along with a touch of caramel (what!), and some  delightful, buttery nuance making an appearance. Into the second half, it's tasting more like a latte and the flavours are blending very nicely in the finish. It's still pretty mild, but I'm not complaining. The mouth feel is sweetly buttery, leaving a very light coating on the roof of the mouth.

Last Third: If they made sweet espresso cotton candy, and it translated well, it would taste like this! The strength is finally evident and the promised punch is delivering deliciously, with a dark espresso and burnt sugar finish. The cream has pretty much completely disappeared halfway through this last third, and there is definite pepper lingering on the tongue. There is quite a bit more of the ligero and espresso on the retrohale in the final stretch, and it keeps making me sneeze (weird), so maybe it's more spicy than seems, but again, no complaints.

Burn: Pretty even burn throughout, with only a couple touch ups, and those may have been cause of the fans running and forgetting to rotate.

Smoke: Lots of billows of creamy, white smoke, with a texture all its own. 

Ash: Very light grey - almost white, and flaky. This isn't the stick for your local herf's long ash contests. It only held about an inch at a time, and I ended up with ash down my front a few times. At least, being as loose and flaky as it was, it wasn't hot! And really, I don't care that much anymore about what anyone is going to think when I make an ash of myself. (OK, OK, I know. That was horrid. I can't help it!)  Not for smoking over your in-laws' expensive carpet, and if you are self conscious about ash on your shirt, maybe save these for at home smokes.

Bottom Line: The Red Eye may not start out of the gate a clear winner, but stick with it, and its definitely a smoke that risks burning the lips as you smoke it as far down as you dare. I give it a solid 8/10. 

Review ~ Final Blend Robusto Maduro 5″ x 50 (8/10)

 

These were a limited run, Famous Smoke exclusive in 2010.
Here is the official description:

Final Blend cigars are the result of a marathon cigar sampling session held in Nicaragua, and as so often happens, the very last blend is what earned these uber-flavorful, medium-bodied cigars their name. The 'final blend' is...a core of Dominican, Colombian and Indonesian tobaccos rolled in dark, oily Brazilian Mata Fina Oscuro wrappers. Earthy, sweet, and spicy flavors weave in and out as notes of cocoa and coffee bean surface for a deliciously complex, MUST-TRY cigar.

At some point that year I ended up with one in one of their samplers, but it wasn't really on my radar at the time. Since then, it's been hanging around in my humidors, getting shifted from one to the other in my various re-organising as my collection has expanded, and I never got round to smoking it, as I never really read or heard much of anything about them and it wasn't high on my list to try.

Well, today, it just sorta jumped out at me, and I picked it up. Initially, I thought maybe my hygrometer was out of whack, because the thing was rock hard, and pretty lightweight, so I thought it was too dry, but all other sticks in that humi were as expected, and, on closer inspection, it didn't look dried out, cracked, or in any other way compromised. It was smooth, dark, with a nice sheen, lightly veined, and almost velvety to the touch and on the lips. Smelled wonderfully rich and just a little sweet, giving me hope that it would be a worthwhile smoke.

It was!! Alas, it may well be the only one I ever get to enjoy. About halfway through, I looked it up, knowing I wanted to find more of them, only to find the sad news of the aforementioned limited run.

As always, I employed the "light and cut" method, though, in this case, it was light and punch. It took a little while to light all the way to the centre, as the thing is really incredibly packed, but it was easy to light evenly, and the pre-smoke aroma was pleasantly earthy and dark.
The first couple puffs gave a hit of "crisp" (not sure how else to describe it), dry leather, moving quickly to a rich, deep, oily leather with thick, dense, chewy smoke that totally coated my mouth. Midway through second third, hints of espresso started creeping in, with slight chocolate in the aftertaste.
Strong espresso on the retrohale, and increasingly more creamy chocolate notes adding to leather and coffee toward end of second third.
Into the last third, it had morphed into a warm, mocha latte, with a slight, mellow, almost nutty nuance, though the leather notes were still peeking through on the back of the tongue.
Perfect draw throughout, very slightly uneven burn, but nothing a couple touch-ups couldn't fix, white/grey semi-solid, slightly flaky ash.

All in all a very nice, medium strength smoke, and I'll be on the lookout should they ever return! I give it a solid 8/10.

 

Review - Alec Bradly Tempus - 08.April.2010 (8/10)

This is the second Alec Bradley I've tried.
Superb construction and beautiful to look at.
Again, used the light & cut method.
HUGE punch for such a small stick!
Same "stealth" factor as with the Prensado, but I was prepared this time.
It didn't want to stay lit, but that could have been due to inattention on my part, as I was caught up in multiple conversations.
Slightly more distinctive flavours in this one than the Prensado... some woody accents and definitely more pepper, but not too much.
Great little smoke and seems like a perfect "go to" stick for when I've little time to devote to a smoke. Probably won't make it to my top 10 list, but that certainly doesn't speak ill of it!
It has to pretty much be 11+/10 to make my top list.
This one gets 8/10

Review - Alec Bradly Prensado, Maduro, Box Pressed - 05.April.2010 (8/10)

I was introduced to this gem at the first Tulalip Cigar Meetup I attended, and it is a great smoke!
Beautifully constructed, firm and springy, smooth leaves, smelled great!
Nice light, despite some "lighter issues" that caused an uneven light. It quickly evened itself out without extra help until about 2/3 through, at which point it had some trouble staying lit. I had to relight it twice.
Cap didn't try to fall apart when chomped on, like many seem to, which is nice.
Bold and smooth from the first puff!
Not at all as spicy as I expected, but that was not a detractor.
Interestingly, there seemed to be no distinctive flavours.. or anything that really stood out, which would normally turn me off of a cigar, but it didn't. Truly an expert blend!
This cigar was deceptively strong! It seemed to taste milder as it progressed, but it packed a MAJOR punch! It hit me hard and damn near knocked me on my arse! I was pretty buzzed; That's for sure!
Definitely should have a good meal with plenty of red meat prior to smoking one of these.
Nice, firm, long ash. Medium to dark grey.
I smoked it down just a tad too far and the taste suffered for it. Should have stopped at right about 2", but went a bit past that.
Not my "perfect" cigar, but excellent, nonetheless.
8/10