Today is Wednesday, I like Wednesdays, I think that's enough reason to celebrate with a nice cigar or two. Helps that it's my day off every week. lol.
Woke up this morning, packaged up an extra heavy box for a good brother here
, stopped by the coffee shop for some good company with my boss and regular customers and an 8oz mocha breve, hit up some of my buds, but struck out, cleaned some of my guns, then approached my humidor. Time for a good cigar anyway. Hmmm... chilly day, something not too long, had a lot of Hemingways recently, not feeling like a NUB today, going to let the S&Bs sit for a while... ah there it is. Illusione 68 4x44.
Pulled it out, grabbed a sweet tea, and headed up to the lake. Powered on my camera to start the review and notice that the battery was almost dead, so I was sparing with my photos this week.
Some pictures of the view from the night before:
I'm not exactly sure how old this cigar is. It's been in my humidor since the 13th of last month, but I never thought to ask the brother I got it from how long he'd had it. Time of lighting was 1:05 p.m. Cut with my Xikar X-8 and lit with a Ronson.
Pre-light Inspection:
Beautiful, cinnamon-ie brown. Well packed, but there is some give. Slight oily sheen to it. Fairly smooth wrapper with only one noticeable vein and, strangely, a slight bulge at about the end of the first third.
Pre-light draw: Tastes strongly of cedar and is absolutely perfect.
Pre-light smell: Get a decent impression of leather and cocoa.
The first third:
The 68 cuts and lights easily. As soon as it's lit it starts producing copious amounts of smoke. First puff is filled with flavor, but I'm not sure what. There is spice, but it quickly smooths out and I start to taste hay and nuts. It doesn't take long to change though and I'm tasting cedar and spice and most definitely leather. Very good so far and a surprising number of shifts in the flavors in such a short amount of time.
The second third:
Towards the end of the first and coming into the second third I start to taste cherry and a creamy, buttery profile. I'm also getting some sort of vegetation in the profile. It's interesting and good. Reminds me of a garnish of some sort, but I can't place my finger on it for all of my ruminating.
I also took a chance hear to jot down in my notes that the smoke is particularly painful to get in your eyes. I don't know why, and it's never pleasant to get smoke in ones eye, but this was worth jotting down I reckon.
The smoke honestly reminded me of a red wine when I smelled it. A surprising scent and I don't often sit there and wonder how a particular stick would pair with a nice Merlot, but with this Illusione I definitely wondered exactly that.
The final third:
The final 3rd hasn't changed a whole lot so far. The spice has kicked back up a couple of notches, but that unidentifiable taste is still very much present. The leather has reentered the picture about halfway through this last third. I'm glad to have it back. While there is no bitterness and the flavors have been great, the added oomph that the leather provided certainly added to the experience. I had no trouble at all in nubbing this little beauty as it was a pleasure all the way up to the burnt finger tips.
Overall Impression:
I loved this smoke. It was a perfect size for today and it was filled with tons of flavor and produced far more smoke than I had expected. I had to do a couple of touch ups, but I attribute that to the humidity of the area where I was smoking. The draw was absolutely perfect the whole way through.
Final smoke time: 1:05 to 2:05 Or an even hour for our math wizards. lol
Would I recommend?: Yes! I most certainly would. 68 is its name, but all things considered I would've called it 69 if I could. Despite the lowly numeric value that this was assigned as a moniker, I would rate this as an easy A. It's going to be a constant presence as an alternative to the Hemingway Best Sellers that I'm so particular too. Different, but equally delicious smokes for about the same price.
Side notes:
I just realized that I'm wearing very similar clothes as the last time I did a review, I just wanted to assure everyone that I do indeed do laundry. lol. I spent the whole week up til today in scrubs.
And here is a bonus picture of my second smoke of the day. Had a buddy coming through town and decided that another cigar wouldn't hurt me too badly.
Woke up this morning, packaged up an extra heavy box for a good brother here
, stopped by the coffee shop for some good company with my boss and regular customers and an 8oz mocha breve, hit up some of my buds, but struck out, cleaned some of my guns, then approached my humidor. Time for a good cigar anyway. Hmmm... chilly day, something not too long, had a lot of Hemingways recently, not feeling like a NUB today, going to let the S&Bs sit for a while... ah there it is. Illusione 68 4x44. Pulled it out, grabbed a sweet tea, and headed up to the lake. Powered on my camera to start the review and notice that the battery was almost dead, so I was sparing with my photos this week.
Some pictures of the view from the night before:
I'm not exactly sure how old this cigar is. It's been in my humidor since the 13th of last month, but I never thought to ask the brother I got it from how long he'd had it. Time of lighting was 1:05 p.m. Cut with my Xikar X-8 and lit with a Ronson.
Pre-light Inspection:
Beautiful, cinnamon-ie brown. Well packed, but there is some give. Slight oily sheen to it. Fairly smooth wrapper with only one noticeable vein and, strangely, a slight bulge at about the end of the first third.
Pre-light draw: Tastes strongly of cedar and is absolutely perfect.
Pre-light smell: Get a decent impression of leather and cocoa.
The first third:
The 68 cuts and lights easily. As soon as it's lit it starts producing copious amounts of smoke. First puff is filled with flavor, but I'm not sure what. There is spice, but it quickly smooths out and I start to taste hay and nuts. It doesn't take long to change though and I'm tasting cedar and spice and most definitely leather. Very good so far and a surprising number of shifts in the flavors in such a short amount of time.
The second third:
Towards the end of the first and coming into the second third I start to taste cherry and a creamy, buttery profile. I'm also getting some sort of vegetation in the profile. It's interesting and good. Reminds me of a garnish of some sort, but I can't place my finger on it for all of my ruminating.
I also took a chance hear to jot down in my notes that the smoke is particularly painful to get in your eyes. I don't know why, and it's never pleasant to get smoke in ones eye, but this was worth jotting down I reckon.
The smoke honestly reminded me of a red wine when I smelled it. A surprising scent and I don't often sit there and wonder how a particular stick would pair with a nice Merlot, but with this Illusione I definitely wondered exactly that.
The final third:
The final 3rd hasn't changed a whole lot so far. The spice has kicked back up a couple of notches, but that unidentifiable taste is still very much present. The leather has reentered the picture about halfway through this last third. I'm glad to have it back. While there is no bitterness and the flavors have been great, the added oomph that the leather provided certainly added to the experience. I had no trouble at all in nubbing this little beauty as it was a pleasure all the way up to the burnt finger tips.
Overall Impression:
I loved this smoke. It was a perfect size for today and it was filled with tons of flavor and produced far more smoke than I had expected. I had to do a couple of touch ups, but I attribute that to the humidity of the area where I was smoking. The draw was absolutely perfect the whole way through.
Final smoke time: 1:05 to 2:05 Or an even hour for our math wizards. lol
Would I recommend?: Yes! I most certainly would. 68 is its name, but all things considered I would've called it 69 if I could. Despite the lowly numeric value that this was assigned as a moniker, I would rate this as an easy A. It's going to be a constant presence as an alternative to the Hemingway Best Sellers that I'm so particular too. Different, but equally delicious smokes for about the same price.
Side notes:
I just realized that I'm wearing very similar clothes as the last time I did a review, I just wanted to assure everyone that I do indeed do laundry. lol. I spent the whole week up til today in scrubs.
And here is a bonus picture of my second smoke of the day. Had a buddy coming through town and decided that another cigar wouldn't hurt me too badly.
