What's new

Headbanger Reverse Contest, Starting Reviews

Rating - 100%
234   0   0
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
9,446
Location
Mid-Atlantic
Player I, Stick 1, Overall score is 76
Player Sarnone, Gurkha Anniversario perfecto


Appearance and Construction: 19 of 20

This estimated 6 x 56 figuardo was cool looking for sure. A natural darker brown wrapper was very even in color, very smooth like with only a spot or two where the wrapper was raised. Very minimal veins, felt velvety in my hand and solid heft to this. The smell was simply pleasant tobacco.

Pre-lit draw 8 of 10

The draw was very good, felt about perfect. The draw yielded a dry/flat dirt taste. There was little taste and no twang.

Burning and lighting 11 of 15

Lit very easily for this odd looking stick, but quickly turned south. Almost right away the burn was sideways and irregular almost the entire time. This required so many touch ups, I lost count and had me frustrated. The burn rate itself was good. The ash was flaky and was dark grey.

Flavor, taste, changes in profile: 23 of 30

Heavy earth with ever so slight spiciness start (and cloves??). Half way thru still heavy earthiness and some woodiness picked up, staying very mild. This earthiness was dominate throughout and was almost one dimensional with very little change in that dimension. 3/4 of the way I grew tired of this flavor and tired of the burn issues. Not much complexity, just pounded away the same earth flavors. The smoke volume was average for a large RG stick.

Overall Finish: 7 of 10

Average tobacco tasted without anything special. Decent dry earth taste remained on pallet.

Summary: 8 of 15

This stick lasted me 74 minutes, putting it down with about 2" remaining as the burn and monotonous dirty earth made me grow tired of smoking. Overall a very mild and sorry to say a boring cigar. I might buy singles as I like the look of this stick. Due to its size, I would estimate cost around the $7 buck range. I apologies for the harsh ratings, maybe the two sticks just did not work for me. If you like dry/dirty earth stick and this did not have burn issues, add 8 points, otherwise pass on this one. Thanks for sharing this cigar with me.
 

jmatkins

BoM January 08
Rating - 99%
159   1   0
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
10,234
Location
Shrewsbury, Ma
E:\Documents and Settings\John Matkins\My Documents\cigars.jpg

Cigar 1 was Hoyo De Monterrey Excalibur I belive it was a No IV, this is a cigar which I like very much. I bought the box over the summer last year and I now have about 3 left.

Cigar 2 was Romeo Y Julieta 1875 Reserva Real the Bully I think, I always keep going back to these a lot over the last few years I like it a lot and will keep getting these.
Here are the lables I tried to upload them before.
 

Attachments

sarnone

Mithrandir
Rating - 100%
26   0   0
Joined
May 26, 2006
Messages
350
Headbanger, this was an innovative, and fun way for us to have a shot at winning something nice for just a couple of cigars. It was a win-win-win-...well you get the point. You did a great job on the reviews and did all of this in a reasonable amount of time. Thanks for the thrills my friend.:applause:

Sam

ps....BTW, I1 was a Gurkha Anniversario perfecto and I2 was an Ashton aged maduro.
 
Rating - 100%
234   0   0
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
9,446
Location
Mid-Atlantic
Player B, Stick 1, Overall score is NR **
Halon, Rocky Patel 1992 "The sixty"

** This stick is receiving a NR = No Rating. When cutting this huge stick there was significant damage to the wrapper. The parts that were reviewed would place is stick in the lower half of the sticks in the contest, so the following is a partial review.

Appearance and Construction: 16 of 20

This estimated 6 x 60 billy club stick showed an oscuro color, perfectly round mammoth cigar. Some cracks in the feet, very smooth with no holes. Only a few large veins were the only issues here. Sweet and slightly spicy earth smell to this stick. Lost points as my cutters would not work due to the huge RG (about 60 RG).

Pre-lit draw XX

This stick was so large of a RG, neither my Palio nor Xikar cutter could get enough of the cap to make a proper cut. So I tried using a super sharp kitchen knife which caused significant damage to the wrapper. This much damage normally I would have tossed, but tried to make due with what I had. Not much taste on the lips and showed a normal maduro earthy draw as flavors.

Burning and lighting XX

The stick started off nicely, giving me hope this could be smoked in it’s damaged condition. But for the most part it burned at an angle the entire way and required way to many touch-ups for my liking. The burn rate was good. The ash was dark grey, not too pretty and fell off easily.

Flavor, taste, changes in profile: XX

Nice earthy and light spices and leather to start, also very green tasting showing it’s youth. By mid way the dreaded ashtray mouth was already starting. The flavors of earth and leather did not change and the one’s that was there was not too pleasing. The volume of smoke was very good.

Overall Finish: XX

There was no finish as I had to let this stick go at the half way point with about 3" remaining. The stick was not tasty and I believe some of that had to come from the wrapper damage caused when trying to cut the cap. Those flavors that started in the first third we not too good. Add the greenness to the mix, I believe this stick was doomed from the start. Not going to be a top three stick and toward the later part of the contest, I gave up.

Summary: XX

Even though there were problems and only smoked ½ way was smoked for 50 minutes, showing I did try. This stick was much more impressive in it’s size then it’s smoking. Thanks for sharing this cigar with me.
 
Rating - 100%
234   0   0
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
9,446
Location
Mid-Atlantic
Player A, Stick 1, Overall score is 85
earnold25, Rocky Patel 1990 Robusto

Appearance and Construction: 19 of 20

This estimated 5.5 x 46 stick was a beautiful box pressed maduro that was smooth to the touch. The wrapper shows light oils with no major defects, a little veins and no bad spots at all. The smell was a like hay with light spices and aged maduro earthiness.

Pre-lit draw 7 of 10

The draw was quite tight. Not much in the flavor department when drawing. There also was not much taste on my lips either, way too light for a maduro.

Burning and lighting 15 of 15

The stick lit very easily and the initial draws were perfect. I think there were zero touch-ups required. The burn started off and continued very straight the entire way. The burn rate was perfect. The ash was mostly white and held on to the 2" point twice.

Flavor, taste, changes in profile: 24 of 30

Normal maduro flavors, medium earthiness and a modest spicy to start and very smooth telling me this had some age on it. Mid way was more of the same, slightly stronger earth and less spice. There was not much complexity to this cigar like almost every other maduro in the contest. There was a nice smoke volume the entire time. Even purging yielded no increase in flavors nor did it improve them.

Overall Finish: 8 of 10

Average finish to this, nice maduro flavored smoke. Not great, but not bad. Some woodiness in the pallet later on too. This cigar stayed mild the entire way.

Summary: 12 of 15

This stick lasted me 73 minutes, putting it down with about 1" remaining. This was one of the best constructed sticks smoked, burned great with a nice long ash twice. Like most of the maduros, was very one dimensional and did not change much in it’s profile. Was an above average stick that I might buy a 5 pack, but not a box. I would estimate cost around the $5 buck range. Thanks for sharing this cigar with me.
 

earnold25

Eran
Rating - 100%
44   0   0
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Messages
737
Location
Raleigh, NC
So, guess i can tell what mine were. I was player A.

1. Rocky Patel Vintage '90 - Robusto
2. RyJ Reserval Real - i forget the size, but as this was the lowest score, who cares :)

And I guess my noob palette has changed quite a bit, because when I first started smoking, I loved the Reserva Real's. Now, the first inch or so is nice, but then it starts to taste like an ash tray!
 

Halon

BoM August '07
Rating - 100%
74   0   0
Joined
Dec 16, 2004
Messages
2,921
Location
Sterling, CO
I was player B.
First stick was a Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 "The Sixty".
Second was a Tatuaje Noellas Reserva.
Sorry you couldn't get the '92 going. It's really a great cigar.


TYLER
 
Rating - 100%
234   0   0
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
9,446
Location
Mid-Atlantic
Life has taken over recently and I have not made enough time to post the final stick number. I hope to accomplish this soon and yes player C can be a knucklehead.
 

tobby4

June '05 BoM
Rating - 100%
57   0   0
Joined
Dec 12, 2004
Messages
11,978
Location
Atlanta
Alright, well if you have not figured it out yet, I am the freaking asshole who kicked your ass in this competition...

I am sorry about your losses..

Now, I would tell you what the winning stick is, but lets let Steve post what his guess is first...

The second stick was more to get at Steve then to try and win the competition..

The second stick was a 7 year old Opus X Reserva... I know Steve hates strong sticks, and I dont like Opus so I thought I would try and make him vomit...

It was pretty humorous when I got a phone call after 15 minutes of lighting..



Seriously though, this contest has been fun and Steve you did a much better job doing the reviews then I think any of us thought you would do..

Thanks..
 
Rating - 100%
234   0   0
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
9,446
Location
Mid-Atlantic
Yessir, congrats to you Clay, you are the big wiener (as usual). The first stick of yours was a righteous cigar and was well aged.

I believe the winning stick was a Montecristo #1 with about 10 years of age.

I will post his last stick, but it did knock me on my ass. I smoked that Opus for over an hour and did let it go with maybe 2" remaining, so I did try to smoke it all.
 
Top