TacoSauce NC Diary

[TacoSauce]

Puro Desnudo N8 Queen Corona (+): My second tasting from a 5-pack. Pre-light aroma has a light baseball glove leather smell. A slight sweetness from the cold draw. I notice that this cigar is massively under-filled. The packing is sparse and there is a spot half-way down the stick with a big depression suggesting that half of the tobacco is missing in that area. This worries me since I recall I had to toss the first Queen Corona I tasted due to construction issues. After lighting, the cigar opens at a medium+ body and the flavor is light leather, velvety wood, and a sizable cayenne pepper punch. Very tasty. The first half of the cigar burns through in about 12 minutes -- very fast due to the under-filling.  The ash falls off every half-inch or so -- mostly onto my lap. At the half-way point the ash falls off again revealing an area mostly devoid of tobacco. I was easily able to re-light and get the stick back on track. Flavors were unchanged during the second half, but the whole profile got a bit more bitter. Total burn time was an amazingly fast 35 minutes. I can see some promise with the flavor from this blend, but construction has been poor so far.

[TacoSauce]

Dapper Desvalido Dilsa Lonsdale (++): This is my second tasting of this stick. The first time I was highly impressed and so I bought a second single to see if a box purchase was justified. In the interim I had tried the non-Dilsa version of the Desvalido blend I was not impressed. The pre-light wrapper gives off an intese peppery varnish aroma and the cold draw has a note of peanut shells. After lighting, the cigar opens at medium-full and the predominate note is burnt peanut shells and wood bark. No sweetness. This profile lasts for the first two thirds. In the final third some sweetness joins and the flavor melds together in a nice way. However, this only lasts for about 3/4 inch, then the body ramps up to full and some ammonia creeps in. This is surprising since this stick has been in the humidor for almost a year. I tossed the stick with almost 2 inches remaining because it was too intense. This tasting wasn't as good as the first one. And while I think there is a lot of nice flavor here, the overall lack of sweetness and high intensity makes me less excited about trying this stick again.

[TacoSauce]

Foundation Cigar Co. Foundation Highclere Castle Edwardian Petite Corona (+): A great sized petite corona. Pre-light aroma reminds me of paper grocery bags and the cold draw has the faintest note of the smell of powdery bubble gum. After lighting, the cigar opens witha mild body and the core flavor is just smooth, mild tobacco. There really isn't much flavor on the palate. The only notable flavor is on the retrohale and it is a slight cooling sensation. This cigar is very close to smoking nothing. Great construction, and not "bad" in any way, but there is nothing here for me.

[TacoSauce]

Rocky Patel Vintage 2006 San Andreas Robusto (++): A solid-feeling, slightly reddish stick which, according to the label, has a San Andreas wrapper. I really enjoyed the Churchill in this blend. Pre-light aroma had a strong petrachor note that was also the most dominant note on the cold draw. This was crazy different compared to the Churchill, which had a floral orange-blossom pre-light note. After lighting, the cigar opens above medium body and the flavor is a deep earth and a heavy dose of cedar pencil shavings. This was the consistent flavor profile throughout, however the body increased to medium-full by the half-way point. At points around the middle of the cigar, I was reminded of a heavily charred QD50. This was a completely different experience compared to the first Churchill that I smoked -- I'm not sure which experience is more representative of the blend in general.