danthebugman
BoM Nov '10
While many of you in the Northeast are snowed in today, it was a gorgeous day here in Southwest Missouri (or Northwest Oklahoma, if you prescribe to that particular geographical thinking :grin
. One can rarely afford to pass up such an opportunity to enjoy a cigar and so my review today is dedicated to those poor souls that are dealing with the "fluffy white precipitation".
I ended up choosing a favorite for today's smoke...the Don Pepin Garcia (DPG) Cuban Classic, or Black Label as it's often refered to.
This particular cigar is from January of 2009 and is the 1952 vitola, which is a Petite Corona measuring 4.25 x 40. It's comprised of Nigaraguan filler and binder and drapped in a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. The wrapper is medium brown in color, minimal veins, some tooth, slight sheen in the sunlight, and smells wonderfully of "Pepin peanut butter". It's really a kind of musty nutty aroma, but reminds me everytime of peanut butter so that's what I call it. The cigar feels well packed and is capped off with an expertly applied triple cap.
I cut the cap with my trusty double guillotine and the draw is spot on. Not much present on the cold draw, just some slightly sweet tobacco flavor.
Toasted up without any problems.
Right off the bat there is the familiar peppery, nutty flavor I've come to expect from the Black Labels. It's not quite as peppery as some of the others I've had though and certainly not what you get from a DPG Blue Label. There is an ample amount of smoke coming off this cigar and through the nose I'm getting a spicey tobacco flavor/aroma.
While you can't really call the burn on this cigar sharp, it's certainly not wondering all over. The ash is a nice white color, but doesn't appear to be partiularly tight. It is however remaining strong (i.e. I can't flick it off at this point) so that's good.
The pepper has died down some and the nuttiness has been joined by a wood like flavor. Not an oak flavor, which I've gotten from some other cigars, but some kind of woodiness. It's light and mixes nicely with the nuttiness. I'm still getting the spicey tobacco flavor/aroma from the retro hale and it's probably more enjoyable than the nut/wood flavor...not that I'm disliking that mixture.
Mmm...I remember why I like these so much :grin:.
The burn has remained the same...not sharp, but not all over. I've done a few minor touchups here and there, but nothing that really needed it. The ash has turned a little crumbly with pieces dropping onto the deck here and there. No large chunks, just a small piece here and there. The flavors are still the same. Not really a complex cigar in terms of drastic profile changes or anything like that, but there are a number of flavors at play in this stick and I think they work well together. A solid medium body cigar for sure.
Here's probably my only complaint...the glue on the band had stuck to the wrapper and tore a small section when removing it. Noting major, just a small tear and as you'll see the cigar burned though it without so much as a hiccup. It's just made me cringe a little. The larger band did it also. Not anything indicitive of the Black Labels as a whole, just happens sometimes.
Diggin' it :thumbsup:.
Here towards the end I'm starting to get some leather creeping into the mix. The smoke production has also tapered down a little, though is still pretty good.
And there you have it. Smoking time was round about an hour.
Overall these are one of my favorite cigars (I personally think they are better than the Blue Labels) and it was a perfect cigar for today. This was my first Petite Corona and I'll definitely have to be getting some more of these as they are a prefect afternoon smoke. MSRP is around $80 for a box of 20, but you can find them cheaper if you're patient and do some looking. A great smoke and not too hard on the wallet...what more can I say :dunno:.
Dan
. One can rarely afford to pass up such an opportunity to enjoy a cigar and so my review today is dedicated to those poor souls that are dealing with the "fluffy white precipitation".I ended up choosing a favorite for today's smoke...the Don Pepin Garcia (DPG) Cuban Classic, or Black Label as it's often refered to.
This particular cigar is from January of 2009 and is the 1952 vitola, which is a Petite Corona measuring 4.25 x 40. It's comprised of Nigaraguan filler and binder and drapped in a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. The wrapper is medium brown in color, minimal veins, some tooth, slight sheen in the sunlight, and smells wonderfully of "Pepin peanut butter". It's really a kind of musty nutty aroma, but reminds me everytime of peanut butter so that's what I call it. The cigar feels well packed and is capped off with an expertly applied triple cap.
I cut the cap with my trusty double guillotine and the draw is spot on. Not much present on the cold draw, just some slightly sweet tobacco flavor.
Toasted up without any problems.
Right off the bat there is the familiar peppery, nutty flavor I've come to expect from the Black Labels. It's not quite as peppery as some of the others I've had though and certainly not what you get from a DPG Blue Label. There is an ample amount of smoke coming off this cigar and through the nose I'm getting a spicey tobacco flavor/aroma.
While you can't really call the burn on this cigar sharp, it's certainly not wondering all over. The ash is a nice white color, but doesn't appear to be partiularly tight. It is however remaining strong (i.e. I can't flick it off at this point) so that's good.
The pepper has died down some and the nuttiness has been joined by a wood like flavor. Not an oak flavor, which I've gotten from some other cigars, but some kind of woodiness. It's light and mixes nicely with the nuttiness. I'm still getting the spicey tobacco flavor/aroma from the retro hale and it's probably more enjoyable than the nut/wood flavor...not that I'm disliking that mixture.
Mmm...I remember why I like these so much :grin:.
The burn has remained the same...not sharp, but not all over. I've done a few minor touchups here and there, but nothing that really needed it. The ash has turned a little crumbly with pieces dropping onto the deck here and there. No large chunks, just a small piece here and there. The flavors are still the same. Not really a complex cigar in terms of drastic profile changes or anything like that, but there are a number of flavors at play in this stick and I think they work well together. A solid medium body cigar for sure.
Here's probably my only complaint...the glue on the band had stuck to the wrapper and tore a small section when removing it. Noting major, just a small tear and as you'll see the cigar burned though it without so much as a hiccup. It's just made me cringe a little. The larger band did it also. Not anything indicitive of the Black Labels as a whole, just happens sometimes.
Diggin' it :thumbsup:.
Here towards the end I'm starting to get some leather creeping into the mix. The smoke production has also tapered down a little, though is still pretty good.
And there you have it. Smoking time was round about an hour.
Overall these are one of my favorite cigars (I personally think they are better than the Blue Labels) and it was a perfect cigar for today. This was my first Petite Corona and I'll definitely have to be getting some more of these as they are a prefect afternoon smoke. MSRP is around $80 for a box of 20, but you can find them cheaper if you're patient and do some looking. A great smoke and not too hard on the wallet...what more can I say :dunno:.
Dan
