This is my review of a Don Pepin Garcia Blue Imperiales, 6.1 x 52 Torpedo.
A few weeks ago I asked my wife to send my old desktop humidor and to go into my display humidor and take out 20 or so cigars and gave her strick instructions to not send anything from my top shelf. I have my CC's and what little limited or otherwise "special" cigars to me, on the top shelf. She did pretty good. She picked a nice assortment of stogies that I really like and some that I have been wanting to try. Perfect for my current situation. Brothers here have supplied me with a few gems that as much as I would like to squirrel them away back in my top shelf, I figure they sent them to me because I am here in this shithole, so I might as well enjoy them as they intended and smoke them here.
A cigar that as far as I am concerned will always be readily available, at least a few at any given time, are Don Pepin Garicia Blue Lables. This isn't the WOW factor cigar. It isnt't the one that sent me down a slippery slope as we have all shared. But this is the one........that made something click in my head. When first went through my pre-light routine and smelled this cigar, gears started to turn in my head. After firing it up I was hit with the pepper and cedar and "barnyard" qualities immediately. And it hit me, this this what the cigars smelled like when I was a kid splitting wood or loading steers into a trailer, while my Dad and Uncles and their ever cigar chomping friend woudl smoke. This is what a man smokes.
I'm not saying that was my feeling, then at smoking my first DPG Blue. I'm saying, that is what clicked in my head as to what I thought back when I was a kid. After all as a man are we not at least attempting to live up to that image that was a positive male role model? I think so.
Tonight I was in the mood for a Blue. My wife had included one in the desktop humidor she sent a few weeks ago. When I pulled it out of the humidor, something seemed...different. For one it was a different vitola than I have had before. Second, the band was different. Not as fancy. No idea who bombed me with this, maybe it was Nick when he anniliated me soon after joining BOTL. So I began to inspect my stogie. I pulled it out of it's cello and noticed that it was kept perfectly. Not dry and not spongie. But, I remembered it being more shiny. I remembered the oily, slightly toothy wrapper. This one appeared dusty. Could this be plume? I had heard about plume. I had seen extremely plume covered sticks in the shops in Germany. But this just appeared to have an ever so light dust to it. So I shifted my attention back to the cello. Not as yellow as some other sticks I have seen, but definitley not as clear as the new sticks in my humidor.
So, being the NCO that I am, when my buddy comes walking and asks if I'm ready to smoke, I tell him it's time for stogie school. I showed him what I believed to be plume. I asked him if he noticed anything different about my cello. He did. So I explained what knowledge I do have as to why for both.
I looked up what the possible age for this cigar could be and all I was able to determine was that Don Pepin Garcia Blue was introduced in 2005. The band was changed sometime after then, but when I do not know. But I have not had one of these older lables before.
This bastard took a good chunk of fuel from my torch to get really fired up. But as soon as I took my first couple of draws, it was much different. Everything that was in the previous DPG Blues was there, but it was much more relaxed. The pepper, cedar and barnyard were there, but they were no longer angry and aggressive and demanding to be noticed. The flavors were there and they were confident that I would notice them when the time was right. An almost carmely nuance danced into the mix about halfway. This is also the only time the cigar ashed. For a cigar over 6 inches to only ash once tells me this was a very well made stogie.
The cigar never made any drastic changes. The flavors just got a little louder as the party of flavors got more enthusiatic but they were all getting along nicely.
If this is what aging does to cigars my friends, then I am now in a whole new kind of trouble. Not only do I want cigars for now, but I want them for what they might be in the future.
I smoked it until I thought I might get a blister on my lips. I didn't want it to end. But it did. And I am out of Blues, so let me end this, and get to searching for my next batch! :computer:
Thank you for reading. I know it was long!
-Sergeant Stogie
A few weeks ago I asked my wife to send my old desktop humidor and to go into my display humidor and take out 20 or so cigars and gave her strick instructions to not send anything from my top shelf. I have my CC's and what little limited or otherwise "special" cigars to me, on the top shelf. She did pretty good. She picked a nice assortment of stogies that I really like and some that I have been wanting to try. Perfect for my current situation. Brothers here have supplied me with a few gems that as much as I would like to squirrel them away back in my top shelf, I figure they sent them to me because I am here in this shithole, so I might as well enjoy them as they intended and smoke them here.
A cigar that as far as I am concerned will always be readily available, at least a few at any given time, are Don Pepin Garicia Blue Lables. This isn't the WOW factor cigar. It isnt't the one that sent me down a slippery slope as we have all shared. But this is the one........that made something click in my head. When first went through my pre-light routine and smelled this cigar, gears started to turn in my head. After firing it up I was hit with the pepper and cedar and "barnyard" qualities immediately. And it hit me, this this what the cigars smelled like when I was a kid splitting wood or loading steers into a trailer, while my Dad and Uncles and their ever cigar chomping friend woudl smoke. This is what a man smokes.
I'm not saying that was my feeling, then at smoking my first DPG Blue. I'm saying, that is what clicked in my head as to what I thought back when I was a kid. After all as a man are we not at least attempting to live up to that image that was a positive male role model? I think so.
Tonight I was in the mood for a Blue. My wife had included one in the desktop humidor she sent a few weeks ago. When I pulled it out of the humidor, something seemed...different. For one it was a different vitola than I have had before. Second, the band was different. Not as fancy. No idea who bombed me with this, maybe it was Nick when he anniliated me soon after joining BOTL. So I began to inspect my stogie. I pulled it out of it's cello and noticed that it was kept perfectly. Not dry and not spongie. But, I remembered it being more shiny. I remembered the oily, slightly toothy wrapper. This one appeared dusty. Could this be plume? I had heard about plume. I had seen extremely plume covered sticks in the shops in Germany. But this just appeared to have an ever so light dust to it. So I shifted my attention back to the cello. Not as yellow as some other sticks I have seen, but definitley not as clear as the new sticks in my humidor.
So, being the NCO that I am, when my buddy comes walking and asks if I'm ready to smoke, I tell him it's time for stogie school. I showed him what I believed to be plume. I asked him if he noticed anything different about my cello. He did. So I explained what knowledge I do have as to why for both.
I looked up what the possible age for this cigar could be and all I was able to determine was that Don Pepin Garcia Blue was introduced in 2005. The band was changed sometime after then, but when I do not know. But I have not had one of these older lables before.
This bastard took a good chunk of fuel from my torch to get really fired up. But as soon as I took my first couple of draws, it was much different. Everything that was in the previous DPG Blues was there, but it was much more relaxed. The pepper, cedar and barnyard were there, but they were no longer angry and aggressive and demanding to be noticed. The flavors were there and they were confident that I would notice them when the time was right. An almost carmely nuance danced into the mix about halfway. This is also the only time the cigar ashed. For a cigar over 6 inches to only ash once tells me this was a very well made stogie.
The cigar never made any drastic changes. The flavors just got a little louder as the party of flavors got more enthusiatic but they were all getting along nicely.
If this is what aging does to cigars my friends, then I am now in a whole new kind of trouble. Not only do I want cigars for now, but I want them for what they might be in the future.
I smoked it until I thought I might get a blister on my lips. I didn't want it to end. But it did. And I am out of Blues, so let me end this, and get to searching for my next batch! :computer:
Thank you for reading. I know it was long!
-Sergeant Stogie
