FOH 2021 International Blind Tasting Cigar Number Four : Reviews, post them here.

[El Presidente]

 

FOH International Blind Tasting Competition: Cigar Number 4 .  Preparation 

Review   on this thread Cigar Number 4 and send your pick to Lisa by Sunday 12th of December. 

 

You are encouraged to post your review on Cigar number 4 on this thread.  However, keep your guess to yourself. 

1. You will e-mail Lisa your nomination for that cigar by Sunday the 12th.  Now you can smoke all the cigars and email Lisa the results but we will be revealing cigars 1-5 over successive weeks. You get your picks in by the end of Sunday your time and we will post the results by the following Tuesday (time differences etal).

Important 

This year three of the 5 cigars are aged (5 years +). 

For a bonus half point, you at the time of your email to lisa  need to nominate  if the cigar is one of the three aged cigars.  You only have three chances to nominate a cigar as aged.  If you do not nominate then it will be recorded as non aged by default. 

Once emails are sent there will be no alteration to your selections. Late entries will not be accepted. 

 

Enjoy 

 

 

 

 

[RichG]

Smoked this back on the 18th. Really stellar smoke. Burned this one down to the the very end. 

First Third:

Dark espresso, wood, bitterness.

Slight undertone of caramel sweetness.

Pencil shavings.

Cream, wood, sugar, coffee.

Vanilla bean, coffee, cedar, cream (extremely sweet).

 

Second Third:

Vanilla, tapioca, cedar and butter.

Coffee (light and sweet), creme brûlée, light fuel.

Grass, fading sweetness, cedar.

Sugar is rising back up, amongst grass and cedar.

Burnt sugar.

Sugar, cedar, cream.

 

Final Third:

Heavy cream, wood, sugar.

Flavors are dying, find myself chasing it.

Still worth smoking down to the last.

 

94/100

[Bijan]

Flavours beginning to end.

Rich tobacco on predraw

Earthy fruit

Sweetness, malt, breadiness

Baked apple

Cedar

White pepper

Rich tobacco

Spice

Leather

Paprika

Almost halfway through another hint of fruit

Cedar

Coffee

Tobacco

White pepper

Cinnamon

Ginger

Pine

Pulled out a real stick (twig with tweezers)

Savoury and sweet flavour liver/venison

Tobacco and bitter herbs

80 minutes

[Boxer31]

#4 blind taste

This one was a big surprise - thought I knew it at first glance when I received it but after 3 weeks down the aroma was not what I expected so original thought was no way - plan b. Maybe still had #3 on my mind but now had earthy damp leather smell. Cold draw getting a very smooth cocoa notes with some cream and pleasant woody taste.  

After lightning still taste damp forest but not and cream floating in and out. Very smooth, no rough edge. 

Then started to get a creamy hot chocolate flavor with a some spice - maybe cinnamon. 

Last bit more of the same with some earth/wood creeping back. 

This has to be aged (like I am sure - another guess!). 

A week later smoked a newer version of what I guessed and going to stay with my pick. Solid 94. 

[nKostyan]

Impeccable construction.
The beginning is woody-herbaceous, oriental spices. Next, a game of flavors: coffee, nuts, green beans, sweet pepper, caramel, cream. Periodically, the taste of paper or cardboard. Strength from low-medium to medium, body from medium to above medium. The last third is added mint and spicy tongue tingling, fried tobacco.
A wonderful dynamic cigar with a firework of flavors.

[El Presidente]

Great response on No 4 so far 👍

[Nevrknow]

4 hours ago, nKostyan said:

Periodically, the taste of paper or cardboard

Same here. Flat? Almost campfire like? I'm blaming it on me and my non existent palette but for some reason this one did not agree with me nor I with it.  Today.

I will say it was smooth enough to get to the last 3rd. By no means was it terrible but I guess I hit the 30% of get/don't get on this one.

Next week? Who knows.  It may be the bomb to me. 🙅 

[HuffnPuffff]

For me this was the cleanest, most tobacco tasting cigar I’ve ever had. Impeccable construction and burn. No flavours whatsoever except tabacco. Until the last third when I got some cardboard.
I don’t think I’ve had one of these before.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RichG]

It would have been really slick if Prez slipped an Open Master in for the robusto…or did he!?

[Edicion]

Overall my favorite of them all. 91-92 point cigar for sure - maybe even higher

Rich in flavors

Coffee

Leather

Caramel or sweetness

Floral or fruity 

Whatever it is, worth picking up a box.

 

[Chibearsv]

This one is too easy for me which has me worried. Beautiful sweet and twangy draw at cold. 1st 3rd was sweet, creamy, and twangy. Retrohale smooth and gentle cloves. 2nd and final 3rds more of the same, never hot, never bitter. This was a great cigar.  I almost wish I wasn’t so certain. 
 

[Bijan]

Of the 5 cigars this is the one I'm least sure of. And nothing I have read has reassured me...

Still I'm going to go with my first guess.

 

[Chibearsv]

3 minutes ago, Bijan said:

Of the 5 cigars this is the one I'm least sure of. And nothing I have read has reassured me...

Still I'm going to go with my first guess.

 

It’s pretty amazing how differently these cigars are reviewed. I’d pay up for 1 & 4 and I wouldn’t even look to buy 2 or 3. Haven’t gotten to #5 yet. Hoping it’s a good one for me. 

[Boxer31]

Stopped watching the video after first 2 before trying to guess at 3-5 then watch video. thought #4 was a little better than 3 but 5 was outstanding.  Funny reading the reviews and 2nd guessing!!
After doing this want to try if with scotch too. 

[RDB]

Lovely quality cigar. Great construction and burn. A very straight tobacco flavour… touch of spicy black pepper and green pepper too. Hint of currant, crystallised sweetness, but this is at the edges of a fundamentally dry, savoury cigar. Medium plus body, and over medium strength. Pretty sure I know what this is, but ready to be wrong.

Tbh it’s not my favourite profile for a smoke, but I love this competition for making me think hard about what I do and don’t like.

[Bijan]

1 hour ago, RDB said:

Lovely quality cigar. Great construction and burn. A very straight tobacco flavour… touch of spicy black pepper and green pepper too. Hint of currant, crystallised sweetness, but this is at the edges of a fundamentally dry, savoury cigar. Medium plus body, and over medium strength. Pretty sure I know what this is, but ready to be wrong.

Tbh it’s not my favourite profile for a smoke, but I love this competition for making me think hard about what I do and don’t like.

Thanks so much for this review 🙂

I found it savoury and voted that way but was really doubting myself based on a lot of the other reviews.

I'm still least sure about this one out of the 5 cigars though.

[ChangBang]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:13 PM, HuffnPuffff said:

For me this was the cleanest, most tobacco tasting cigar I’ve ever had. Impeccable construction and burn. No flavours whatsoever except tabacco. Until the last third when I got some cardboard.
I don’t think I’ve had one of these before.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is what I got from the cigar - straight tobacco flavor...but almost to the point where I think I know what it is(0/3 so far so what do I know lol)  I'm guessing aged purely by the fact that I only have guessed 1 aged one so far so the last 2 will be "aged" for me lol.

[cigaraholic]

I learned one thing from the video review.....don’t play poker with Rob👻

[EMC12]

1/3 - med

Tobacco

Hay

Rich/Creamy

Sweet spice

Mocha

2/3 - med+

Grass

Cream

Leather

3/3 - med+

Earth

Creamy Mocha

Cedar

Savory spice

Vanilla?

Hint of Pepper

 

93-94

[El Presidente]

Get your picks /reviews in by Sunday folks 

[Zaxeiler]

I’m with some of the reviews here - this one feels impossible. Mine was a very tame, middle of the road, slightly sweet bread. Makes narrowing very difficult…

[mbrody]

Been fighting some cold/flu for days and going to attempt my first cigar…was going to just guess without smoking, but what fun would that be? Here goes…after a dose of mucinex. Cedar and barnyard on the nose. Easy draw, clean leather. Firm construction so hopefully she smokes well. Well rolled, very attractive and thin wrapper. Opens up strong, medium plus body. Tones back down.hard to nail the flavors, but am enjoying. Must be something I have smoked. If not, I need some.Ginger spice? Floral? Honey? Leather? Coffee?Second third showing a little grass. Grass continues through final third. Very good!

[Chas.Alpha]

Cold draw was a bit of citrus, light and easy.

1st impressions: citrus and tobacco. Mild to over mild. The band was a bit wonky, so I almost thru it to the “suspect thread” before I realized that it was just Australia being Australia! Very light to medium flavors, but staying with the citrus twang. Middle half stayed light to over light body/flavor.

The last half picked up (considerably) to a fuller body/flavor with added notes of leather and cake, leading me to believe that it might be something else than what I originally thought. 

The last bit came on with cinnamon, citrus and leather. Full flavor. I’ll be interested in what the reveal holds...

[slowsmoke]

This, was an excellent cigar.  The wrapper aroma was sweet grass and barnyard.  Draw was perfect.  Stepping out back to light up, I promptly dropped it on the concrete and cracked the wrapper near the head.  Ugh.  Still burned fine, aside from a minor touch up halfway, no tunneling or wonk.

Perfectly medium bodied.  Rich tobacco, smooth, mellow, never a harsh edge.  Lots of rawhide/suede.  Some baking spices.  I rarely get cream in a cigar, but I think there was some here.

The finish was a mouth coating, toffee milk-coffee thing, incredibly good, twangy, found myself salivating and savoring it after every puff.

I found very little progression or change, it was pretty much the same the whole way, and I have no complaints about it.  It did finally get a little bitter in the last third, as the cracked wrapper began unraveling, so I put it down rather than start to lose all the great flavors.

I am having a hard time with my guess.  I somehow own a lot of Robustos but don't actually smoke many.  I have roughly narrowed it down to two in my mind, one of which I have smoked about 5-10 and like well, the other I have only smoked a couple and never really craved more.  If it turns out to be the latter, I have a new cigar to start collecting 😅

 

[sjbliven]

Cigar 4

Pre light draw was a little green. No box press.

1st 3rd- burning well, honey, graham cracker, turning to roasted nuts with a little charcoal.

Not much evolution, but the 2nd and final 3rds retained the roasted nuts, with charcoal sneaking in and out. 

This one burned flawlessly, with tons of smoke from start to finish.