danthebugman
BoM Nov '10
This afternoon I decided to take the dogs for a walk and smoke a cigar. After digging around in the humidor for a while I finally ended up choosing this...
13th Floor is a company out of Little Havana, Miami that started up only a few years ago. The Foundation is their first (and to my knowledge only thus far) cigar to hit the market. The cigar I smoked was a Toro measuring 6 x 52, but they come in Robusto (5 x 50) and Churchill (7 x 50) sizes also. The cigar features filler from Nicaragua, binder from Ecuador and the wrapper is Ecuadorian Sumatra.
Pulling the cigar from its cellophane I am greeted with a light earthy, tobacco aroma. The wrapper is a medium brown color with some small veins. Nothing that should affect the burn that much. Seams are tight, triple cap is nicely applied, and the cigar is well packed. The band is also tastefully done and in all, this cigar has a nice presentation.
Scalping the cap with my double guillotine I am met with a tight draw. I took a little more off the top and the draw is still tight. Oh well, we'll see what happens.
I fired up the cigar with a Ronson JetLite and leashed up the dogs. Right away I can already tell that if the draw doesn't improve this will be a disappointing experience. It takes several draws to get even a decent amount of smoke output. The first inch or so was dominated by a pepper flavor, then died down to reveal a very light woody flavor with some sweet spice on the retro-hale. I cannot stress how light these flavors were, the tight draw made it almost impossible to get enough smoke to please my palate. The burn was also all over the place. Had I not been walking the dogs I would have touched up this cigar half a dozen times in the first third alone. At one point it burned such that there was an island of wrapper surrounded by a sea of ash (sorry, no pics as it has proven too awkward to operate a camera and walk my dogs). By about the half way point, the burn had worked itself out and was mostly straight. The draw had not improved and working so hard to get any smoke was taking its toll on the cigar as about every third or fourth decent puff I could get had a sour, bitter component to it. I trudged ahead with it until I got home and immediately chucked it in the ash tray with a little more than the last third left to go.
While I had planned to write a review on this cigar, I almost didn't post it after my experience. Not that I have a problem stating when I don't like a cigar, but I don't feel like this example is a fair shake for this cigar. I do feel like this could be a good cigar and one I would like. I plan to get some more and do a better review later...so for what it's worth there you have it.
Dan
My re-review of this stick can be found on the second page.
13th Floor is a company out of Little Havana, Miami that started up only a few years ago. The Foundation is their first (and to my knowledge only thus far) cigar to hit the market. The cigar I smoked was a Toro measuring 6 x 52, but they come in Robusto (5 x 50) and Churchill (7 x 50) sizes also. The cigar features filler from Nicaragua, binder from Ecuador and the wrapper is Ecuadorian Sumatra.
Pulling the cigar from its cellophane I am greeted with a light earthy, tobacco aroma. The wrapper is a medium brown color with some small veins. Nothing that should affect the burn that much. Seams are tight, triple cap is nicely applied, and the cigar is well packed. The band is also tastefully done and in all, this cigar has a nice presentation.
Scalping the cap with my double guillotine I am met with a tight draw. I took a little more off the top and the draw is still tight. Oh well, we'll see what happens.
I fired up the cigar with a Ronson JetLite and leashed up the dogs. Right away I can already tell that if the draw doesn't improve this will be a disappointing experience. It takes several draws to get even a decent amount of smoke output. The first inch or so was dominated by a pepper flavor, then died down to reveal a very light woody flavor with some sweet spice on the retro-hale. I cannot stress how light these flavors were, the tight draw made it almost impossible to get enough smoke to please my palate. The burn was also all over the place. Had I not been walking the dogs I would have touched up this cigar half a dozen times in the first third alone. At one point it burned such that there was an island of wrapper surrounded by a sea of ash (sorry, no pics as it has proven too awkward to operate a camera and walk my dogs). By about the half way point, the burn had worked itself out and was mostly straight. The draw had not improved and working so hard to get any smoke was taking its toll on the cigar as about every third or fourth decent puff I could get had a sour, bitter component to it. I trudged ahead with it until I got home and immediately chucked it in the ash tray with a little more than the last third left to go.
While I had planned to write a review on this cigar, I almost didn't post it after my experience. Not that I have a problem stating when I don't like a cigar, but I don't feel like this example is a fair shake for this cigar. I do feel like this could be a good cigar and one I would like. I plan to get some more and do a better review later...so for what it's worth there you have it.
Dan
My re-review of this stick can be found on the second page.
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