I'm not sure what exactly you guys are referring to as "getting started" or the "first part", but my experience with most, adn probably every cigar is that it takes about 5 puffs before you get rid of the "just lit" taste. There's most always some sort of taste left from whatever you light it with. Until recently, i jsut revised my lighting procedure with my torch so that i don't get the 1/2 inch of black char at the foot when i lite it, but even still it takes about 5 puffs for the cigars true flavors to hit. I have no idea how CA comes off putting so much stock into the first 3 puffs of a cigar.
About the only exception to my findings that the first several puffs of all cigars suck are the opus and other like-blended AF cigars...and even a few of the Ops no. 5s have started off poorly.
So, i say all that to say that i don't even consider the first 5 puffs of a cigar when i'm evaluating it's flavor.
But that's just my findings. Maybe i really suck at lighting a cigar.
Regarding the tat blacks tho, i will say that while i smoked the only one i've had so far, i kept saying WOW the whole time, and every time i said WOW, it was said with more conviction and with more ferver. I really need to smoke another one, it was sssoooooo good.
My wife kept saying geez honey, that must be really good.
