Gurkha Regent
Size: Toro 6.0" x 50 ring
Price: $8.00 (by the box, and can probably be found cheaper)
Strength: Bold - Heavy
Wrapper: Havana 2000
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Cuban Ligero, Dominican Piloto (this is directly from the Gurkha site, so don't ask me :smt102 )
Total smoke time: 1.5 hours+
Gifted by one of the generous BOTLs from that "other" board.
Well, I had today off work. Somehow I ended up with an extra day that I didn't think I had and the powers that be asked me to use it today. No problem, says me. This morning was perfect with temps in the high 40s to low 50s if I had to guess. After stopping off to pick up my wife's Christmas present from my Dad, I grabbed a breakfast sandwich, some coffee and headed home to smoke. I've been wanting to work my way through some of the gifted smokes I've received and this morning I decided to go with the Gurkha Regent Toro. CigarsInternational.com notes that this line received a 90 from CA. They also list it as a super premium with prices in the $150+ range for a box of 20. Huge thanks to the BOTL who gifted this to me as this is not a price range I venture into much.
Appearance and construction were both excellent with this cigar (no surprise as they are rolled at the Torano factory). It is a severely box pressed cigar...to the point that near the head there were rinkles where the round shape had been forced into the rectangular box-press. Needless to say, the pinch test on this cigar yielded, well, nothing. This sucker was a brick.
After the box press, the next thing you notice is the massive band near the double capped head. Gold embossed witht the Gurkha guy holding his knife, of course, and the word Regent on either side. The color is is a medium chocolate with a mottling of darker colors throughout. There are almost no veins to be found.
I decided to use a punch with this cigar due to the extreme box press, but a regular cutter probably would have worked just fine, especially considering the well applied double cap.
The pre-light draw was on the loose side (strangely enough) with some sweet notes. I toasted the foot with my Colibri...shoot, should have used the built in punch...haven't christened it yet...and the first draw gave me a major hint of what was to follow with this cigar. No stinginess here, lots of flavor AND smoke from the first draw on. The only real negative, if it can be called that, was the ash. A uniform grey throughout, it was flaky and though I can't be sure (ashed it frequently) I don't think it would have held on for more than a couple of inches. I'm guessing this might be because of the box press, but really have no idea.
Burn and draw were excellent from start to finish. No touch ups needed and that voluminous smoke just never stopped.
Moving on to taste, and this cigar had plenty to go around. A strong core of toasted tobacco was infused with some very interesting flavors. From the first note I detected a somewhat fruity flavor which 2 inches in revealed itself as black cherry. Behind this were some nice leather tones.
From the second half on the sweetness slipped away and the leather and "toastiness" seemed to increase while still leaving the hint of black cherry on the tongue.
A well made cigar with lots of flavorful smoke. One I would happily smoke again...but not happily pay for. :wink:
Size: Toro 6.0" x 50 ring
Price: $8.00 (by the box, and can probably be found cheaper)
Strength: Bold - Heavy
Wrapper: Havana 2000
Binder: Indonesian
Filler: Cuban Ligero, Dominican Piloto (this is directly from the Gurkha site, so don't ask me :smt102 )
Total smoke time: 1.5 hours+
Gifted by one of the generous BOTLs from that "other" board.
Well, I had today off work. Somehow I ended up with an extra day that I didn't think I had and the powers that be asked me to use it today. No problem, says me. This morning was perfect with temps in the high 40s to low 50s if I had to guess. After stopping off to pick up my wife's Christmas present from my Dad, I grabbed a breakfast sandwich, some coffee and headed home to smoke. I've been wanting to work my way through some of the gifted smokes I've received and this morning I decided to go with the Gurkha Regent Toro. CigarsInternational.com notes that this line received a 90 from CA. They also list it as a super premium with prices in the $150+ range for a box of 20. Huge thanks to the BOTL who gifted this to me as this is not a price range I venture into much.
Appearance and construction were both excellent with this cigar (no surprise as they are rolled at the Torano factory). It is a severely box pressed cigar...to the point that near the head there were rinkles where the round shape had been forced into the rectangular box-press. Needless to say, the pinch test on this cigar yielded, well, nothing. This sucker was a brick.
After the box press, the next thing you notice is the massive band near the double capped head. Gold embossed witht the Gurkha guy holding his knife, of course, and the word Regent on either side. The color is is a medium chocolate with a mottling of darker colors throughout. There are almost no veins to be found.
I decided to use a punch with this cigar due to the extreme box press, but a regular cutter probably would have worked just fine, especially considering the well applied double cap.
The pre-light draw was on the loose side (strangely enough) with some sweet notes. I toasted the foot with my Colibri...shoot, should have used the built in punch...haven't christened it yet...and the first draw gave me a major hint of what was to follow with this cigar. No stinginess here, lots of flavor AND smoke from the first draw on. The only real negative, if it can be called that, was the ash. A uniform grey throughout, it was flaky and though I can't be sure (ashed it frequently) I don't think it would have held on for more than a couple of inches. I'm guessing this might be because of the box press, but really have no idea.
Burn and draw were excellent from start to finish. No touch ups needed and that voluminous smoke just never stopped.
Moving on to taste, and this cigar had plenty to go around. A strong core of toasted tobacco was infused with some very interesting flavors. From the first note I detected a somewhat fruity flavor which 2 inches in revealed itself as black cherry. Behind this were some nice leather tones.
From the second half on the sweetness slipped away and the leather and "toastiness" seemed to increase while still leaving the hint of black cherry on the tongue.
A well made cigar with lots of flavorful smoke. One I would happily smoke again...but not happily pay for. :wink:
