Stogie_Bear
Chulo Savage
Date: 9/18/2014
Review: ProblemSolverJC Blind Review 5-B
Size: 6x50/52
Appearance/Construction: Dark chocolate colored maduro wrapper, course grain but oily feel with nice medium sized veins all the way up. Tight roll with minimal give and rebound on the squeeze. I can feel a knot on the top of the last third so Im interested in seeing how the flavor transitions there. Good looking triple cap.
Aroma Pre-Light: Leather and coffee . Maybe caramel?
Cold draw: Good draw, with the slightest bit of resistance so itll make for a nice slow smoke. Ive got a little spice and leather taste on the lips, reminds me of chewing on the strings on my baseball glove as a kid. Love it. Caramel and leather on the cold draw.
Light: I chose a V-cut for this stick, lit with a cedar plank. Lit well, and even.
First impression: I got a lot of bitter pepper on the first few puffs. I usually lightly blow the dust out from the foot after cutting, so I know its not that. Im about a half inch in now and still very peppery. Its a lot of white pepper and the taste is overwhelming everything at the moment. This may just be a relatively new stick, so Im going to let it sit for a minute or two and calm down before I fully move into the first third. Im about a quarter inch from the light
Aroma Post-Light: Pepper and what I can only describe as orange rind, but harsher smelling. Definitely a citrus note in there somewhere for me.
First Third: Ok, I let it sit and soak in the burn for at least 3-4 minutes as I finished up my notes above. Looks like that helped a lot, actually. Much smoother smoke now that the foot is burned off. I was able to retrohale and got lots of coffee and spice through the nostrils but the flavor off the draw has faded dramatically. Im getting medium bodied smoke with a taste of salted caramel and spice still, but not the overwhelming spice from the light. I can tell this is an intended flavor combination, instead of just a bitter light. Tight white ash, and fantastic even burn. Great construction on this stick. There is an average amount of smoke, leathery on the exhale.
The spice really held on for the first 1 ½ inches of the stick, but its finally starting to fade all the way out as I ash for the first time since lighting. The ash is solid and held together on the drop from the stick to my shirt, to the desk where I picked it up and put it in the ash tray. Id say thats a pretty good ash! The smoke is very smooth now and Ive lost the caramel as well. Im picking up some more leather and wood flavors as I move into the second third.
Second Third: A very woody, earthy flavor dominating as I transition into the 3rd inch of this stogie. The burn is starting to get a little wavy but nothing too serious, no correcting needed at this point. Flavor profile is leaving a little spice in the back of my throat and starting to show that bitter (the good kind) citrus rind on the exhale. This stick has settled right between medium and full bodied for me.
As I reach the last bit of the second third the smoke volume has remained the same and the flavor is beginning to move back to lots of pepper and spice, with a little bit of dark roast coffee. Ive already lost what little bit of citrus I was tasting. The burn evened up again, and the ash is still solid and white in color. Construction is still very good, not unraveling or loosening anywhere. There isnt a lot of depth to the flavor profile as I transition to the final third. It seems like most of the complexities with the flavor were in the first half of the stick. Also, Im already starting to feel some heat on my tongue.
Final Third: Wow, Im beginning to think that the knot I was feeling in the pre-light inspection was a chunk of dark chocolate haha! The flavor has opened back up, in the first 15 minutes of the final third, with lots of dark chocolate and coffee. The spice that came back in the second third and is still there, as well as the little bit of heat on the tongue. There is an earth and sea salt taste as the wrapper gets increasingly soaked from my incessant chewing.
Im starting to lose the spiciness again, the chocolate is gone as I burn through the previously mentioned knot, and the heat is in and out. With the spice and chocolate gone, there are some more leather flavors coming out again. The smoke is starting to decrease in volume, although I havent changed my smoking rate at all.
Im about 1 inch out and the heat has come back and intensified in a major way, so this is the end of the line for me.
Overall Impression/Final Notes:
I thought this was a decent stick for a post-dinner smoke. Pepper, wood, and earth prevails with the brief occasional notes of caramel, chocolate, and citrus rind. Regardless of the spicy pepper and wood flavors throughout most of the cigar, this is still a nice smooth and plentiful smoke on the exhale.
Side note: As the bottom of this stogie is heating up, there seems to be the normal expansion of the wrapper that you see with most cigars. With this particular stick, there is the cut end of a binder vein starting to protrude where my thumb is just an interesting to note because I havent seen that before (you can see it on the wrapper and in the shadow on the pic).
I think with a 6-12 month nap this stick will mellow out on the spice and pepper, and probably the heat towards the end.
Im disappointed in the flavor complexities that were either covered by white pepper or missing, and that the heat stopped me from smoking down to a nub.
Smoke time: 1h50m
Scoring:
Appearance and Presentation: 18/20
Lighting and Burning Properties: 13/15
Construction Properties: 27/30
Taste Properties: 29/35
Total: 87/100
This stock was revealed to be the H. Upmann The Banker 652!
Review: ProblemSolverJC Blind Review 5-B
Size: 6x50/52
Appearance/Construction: Dark chocolate colored maduro wrapper, course grain but oily feel with nice medium sized veins all the way up. Tight roll with minimal give and rebound on the squeeze. I can feel a knot on the top of the last third so Im interested in seeing how the flavor transitions there. Good looking triple cap.
Aroma Pre-Light: Leather and coffee . Maybe caramel?
Cold draw: Good draw, with the slightest bit of resistance so itll make for a nice slow smoke. Ive got a little spice and leather taste on the lips, reminds me of chewing on the strings on my baseball glove as a kid. Love it. Caramel and leather on the cold draw.
Light: I chose a V-cut for this stick, lit with a cedar plank. Lit well, and even.
First impression: I got a lot of bitter pepper on the first few puffs. I usually lightly blow the dust out from the foot after cutting, so I know its not that. Im about a half inch in now and still very peppery. Its a lot of white pepper and the taste is overwhelming everything at the moment. This may just be a relatively new stick, so Im going to let it sit for a minute or two and calm down before I fully move into the first third. Im about a quarter inch from the light
Aroma Post-Light: Pepper and what I can only describe as orange rind, but harsher smelling. Definitely a citrus note in there somewhere for me.
First Third: Ok, I let it sit and soak in the burn for at least 3-4 minutes as I finished up my notes above. Looks like that helped a lot, actually. Much smoother smoke now that the foot is burned off. I was able to retrohale and got lots of coffee and spice through the nostrils but the flavor off the draw has faded dramatically. Im getting medium bodied smoke with a taste of salted caramel and spice still, but not the overwhelming spice from the light. I can tell this is an intended flavor combination, instead of just a bitter light. Tight white ash, and fantastic even burn. Great construction on this stick. There is an average amount of smoke, leathery on the exhale.
The spice really held on for the first 1 ½ inches of the stick, but its finally starting to fade all the way out as I ash for the first time since lighting. The ash is solid and held together on the drop from the stick to my shirt, to the desk where I picked it up and put it in the ash tray. Id say thats a pretty good ash! The smoke is very smooth now and Ive lost the caramel as well. Im picking up some more leather and wood flavors as I move into the second third.
Second Third: A very woody, earthy flavor dominating as I transition into the 3rd inch of this stogie. The burn is starting to get a little wavy but nothing too serious, no correcting needed at this point. Flavor profile is leaving a little spice in the back of my throat and starting to show that bitter (the good kind) citrus rind on the exhale. This stick has settled right between medium and full bodied for me.
As I reach the last bit of the second third the smoke volume has remained the same and the flavor is beginning to move back to lots of pepper and spice, with a little bit of dark roast coffee. Ive already lost what little bit of citrus I was tasting. The burn evened up again, and the ash is still solid and white in color. Construction is still very good, not unraveling or loosening anywhere. There isnt a lot of depth to the flavor profile as I transition to the final third. It seems like most of the complexities with the flavor were in the first half of the stick. Also, Im already starting to feel some heat on my tongue.
Final Third: Wow, Im beginning to think that the knot I was feeling in the pre-light inspection was a chunk of dark chocolate haha! The flavor has opened back up, in the first 15 minutes of the final third, with lots of dark chocolate and coffee. The spice that came back in the second third and is still there, as well as the little bit of heat on the tongue. There is an earth and sea salt taste as the wrapper gets increasingly soaked from my incessant chewing.
Im starting to lose the spiciness again, the chocolate is gone as I burn through the previously mentioned knot, and the heat is in and out. With the spice and chocolate gone, there are some more leather flavors coming out again. The smoke is starting to decrease in volume, although I havent changed my smoking rate at all.
Im about 1 inch out and the heat has come back and intensified in a major way, so this is the end of the line for me.
Overall Impression/Final Notes:
I thought this was a decent stick for a post-dinner smoke. Pepper, wood, and earth prevails with the brief occasional notes of caramel, chocolate, and citrus rind. Regardless of the spicy pepper and wood flavors throughout most of the cigar, this is still a nice smooth and plentiful smoke on the exhale.
Side note: As the bottom of this stogie is heating up, there seems to be the normal expansion of the wrapper that you see with most cigars. With this particular stick, there is the cut end of a binder vein starting to protrude where my thumb is just an interesting to note because I havent seen that before (you can see it on the wrapper and in the shadow on the pic).
I think with a 6-12 month nap this stick will mellow out on the spice and pepper, and probably the heat towards the end.
Im disappointed in the flavor complexities that were either covered by white pepper or missing, and that the heat stopped me from smoking down to a nub.
Smoke time: 1h50m
Scoring:
Appearance and Presentation: 18/20
Lighting and Burning Properties: 13/15
Construction Properties: 27/30
Taste Properties: 29/35
Total: 87/100
This stock was revealed to be the H. Upmann The Banker 652!
