Cigar #1 of this blind review was enjoyed mid-afternoon with some good ol' H2O. I was unable to get pics with this review, but my hope is that I'll have that in later reviews.
Appearance: The wrapper was a medium brown with one obvious sun spot and another very small one. There was also a very small tear about half way up the cigar. Visually, it was slightly lumpy which made me think the tobacco was not evenly packed. There was also a few small veins.
Score - 12.
Ash: The ash was light gray with deep lines of black. There was no flaking to it and it held strong for around an inch. At that point it would start to lean and I never took the chance of it dropping on me.
Score - 8
Draw: I love my Palio cutter. I snipped the cap and the pre-light draw had an almost perfect resistance. The draw remained consistant throughout.
Score - 9
Burn: This is where everything went wrong for me. And I mean, REALLY wrong. Within the first inch, the burn started going faster on one side. Despite multiple touch-ups, multiple purges, and even letting it go out and relighting only the side that was burning slower, this cigar just would not burn well. At its worst, without touch up, it would be off a full inch. There was no tunneling, it just seemed one side of the cigar was more dense than the other. Unfortunately, with the burn this bad, this cigar didn't have much of a chance to score well.
Score - 5
Smoke: The smoke off this cigar was gray and fairly plentiful. The aroma was nice, too. It had the same notes as detected on the palate.
Score - 8
Flavor: Pre-light aroma, much like the pre-light draw, was of tobacco and a grassy/hay component. The first couple of puffs confirmed the pre-light aroma and draw...flavors of sweet tobacco, hay and some cream. These flavors remained prominent throughout the cigar. I could occassionally pick up a light spice on the retrohale, but I did not detect this on the palate. This cigar seemed to have good potential, but the flavors and experience where serverly hampered by the burn. It seemed that just as the cigar would get good, the burn would get off again and I'd have to start all over with the attempts to fix it.
Score - 16
Uniqueness: It's hard to know if the flavors would have changed at all here if there wasn't a constant re-lighting, purging and touch-up game going on. It did show potential.
Score - 7
Finish: The finish was also impacted by the aforementioned games. Too many times I would draw from the cigar and get the cloud of smoke that signified it had partially gone out, and thus leaving a somewhat bitter taste.
Score - 11.
Total Score: 76
This is a much larger vitola than I usually smoke, but I think if the burn had been better, this stick had good potential. I'm hoping this was just bad luck and would love to try another someday to get a better take on this one!
