Get your Blind Tasting Cigar No 2 in :-) Review it here.

[AndrewNR]

I've come into this one already opinionated... Being channeled Shakespeare it would seem..

Aroma at cold was a slightly dusty almond bread..

Appearance was fair, looks like a good cigar should.

Draw at cold was good, well constructed, strong. Spice, brute tobacco.

Initially leather, strong tobacco.

Slightly creamy thick smoke.

Little bit of toasted bread, Rich tobacco, medium to full bodied, little complexity and development.

Spent allot of time waiting for a mouth full of cherries in a stick of mediocre hamfisted tobacco.

Whiffs of lemon zest from the end made it intriguingly refreshing and kept what little of my attention there was.

Start of first 3rd surprised me, all of a sudden it seemed to softly richly turn into something.. then it was back to more of the same.

In the end the big cigar that left me with little to say..

It was nice.. I suppose, But not to my taste.. For whatever it is.. I'd be far more content sucking on a Quintero.

[dicko]

Nice chocolate aroma at cold at the foot but downhill from there. First third was a spicy nose (straight black pepper) and hints of cream. The rest was just strong youthful tobacco. I suspect one of the big guns going through a sick period.

[Dimmers]

Yes has been really interesting reading all our varied tasting notes.

My 2 cents - I found this to be simply an amazing cigar. Lovely dark wrapper, oily sheen. On smoking it was sooo smooth and refined (Prez fresh stock …really?!?!). Creaminess and dough, some sweet notes. No harshness at all, very balanced. No woody notes, no spiciness or signs of overt strength that some other have spoken of.

Strength never hitting above medium. Just beautiful. Also I noted those white dots all over the ash for the duration of the smoke (every time this has happened to me previously, the cigars have been excellent…no idea if this is simply co incidence?).

I have a few guesses. If I have smoked this cigar before, this will rank amongst the best examples I’ve had.

[scroggers]

OK I smoked cigar #2 a couple of days ago. Overall I really enjoyed the cigar alot of smoke from the first puff. it opened with a very little spice and had real earthy flavor. After about the first inch any spice diappeared and it turned to a more toasty flavor. kind of bready with stil some hints of earth and tobacco. The cigar delivered all the way to the end and i have no idea what it may be. It is either a really good example of a cigar I smoked and didn't enjoy or a cigar I have never had before. I thought the robusto would be easier to identify but no such luck. email being sent

[AntiVirus]

Finally smoked the second cigar of the blind tasting.

Started off nicely quite a bit of spice and a nice sweetness was coming through as well.

Then things went downhill, the spice went and there was nothing really happening.

This continued until the final third where I decided that I had had enough of this now under performing cigar.

To go with this there were problems with the wrapper which was nice dark and oily but it was quite flame retardant and the draw was a bit too open.

Overall what started out as something quite enjoyable went downhill and never recovered.

I think I know what it is but I'm not 100% sure.

[CanuckSARTech]

Done my cigar. Meh.

As I just said in my PM to Rob about my call of the cigar, my palate is crap right now, after some dental work earlier - plus, the added bonus of finding out that I have to get all four wisdom teeth pulled later on this month, after having one actually crack half of the top on me. So...I'm anything but pleased right now.

But, due to not having a lot of time right now, I'm not really doing a full Keith-style review on this one. Just some basic notes....

Noticed that this thing actually had a 52 to 53 ring gauge. Non-box pressed. VERY red and velvety / fuzzy wrapper. Soft and squishy, yet well-filled at the foot and head. Some red licorice tones at cold.

After lighting, noted that it had a great draw. Very blue smoke, and lots of smoke volume, but meh on the flavour front. Med light body, lots of smoke, but felt like there was something there that wasn't ready to be revealed with this cigar. Definitely seemed like this one was in a "funk", and needed some aging time for it to all come together. Very velvety and tactile wrapper.

First third had light tones of red wine - maybe a cabernet? Dark, rich tones seemed to be hidden in there, but overpowered by the youthfulness, and only medium light bodied. Second third brought out lots of harshness on the back end. Some light brown sugar sweetness in there ever so lightly. Final third showed hints of sweet spices, cloves maybe? Became lighter in body actually, but with good smoke volume still. Some light leather and nut tones in and out. Too youthful and blah though - had to set it down when I was just into the first part of the last third.

Overall, meh. Only about an 86. There could be some promise there, if the flavours were more out front. Definitely a cigar that needed some immense aging to come together.