RealFreakinCigarReviews

Initial Thoughts

So back to my day.... as I said earlier, today was pretty much picture perfect, the only notable exception being that I didn't ride my beat up Harley to work.  I'll note that it is in fact the battle worn hog so that some readers won't claim that I'm frontin' to be someone I'm not.  At any rate, there are some things that should be somewhat intuitively obvious.  For example, if you happen to be the 16 year old animal rights activist, you've probably seen your dad make spaghetti, and noted that at no time in your entire life, has he EVER put in two entire bags of spaghetti.  Silly me.... I thought the destructions for making the aforementioned pasta were clear, but clearly I was wrong in asking my daughter to finish up dinner (vis-a-vis cooking a reasonable amount of spaghetti, as opposed to say maybe enough to fill a 50 gallon drum).  But I digress... and then there was of course the matter of the horse, but thats another story.

So, at any rate, I'm outside here, licking my wounds, feeling relatively sorry for myself, but am hopeful for a great cigar and a decent to excellent scotch.  The scotch isn't bad ... lots of flavors and nuances.  However, this is a cigar site, not a spirits or self help site; nor is it a woe is me site.

Sniff test on the cigar gives a fairly strong "tobacco" smell with notes of hay.  I know, back to my horse... construction appears to be excellent, although the ginormous label covering a full third of the cigar prevents me from actually seeing a fair amount of the stick.  For the record, I think the label is seriously butt-ugly.  Pre-light draw is a little tight.

The Smoke

This day just keeps getting fucking better by the second.  I toasted the cap after using my punch cutter (which apparently my six year old felt the need to take apart and remove the spring), and took my first couple of puffs.  I was greeted with a fairly faint nutty and peppery taste.  Followed by some weird popping sound, and much to my chagrin, the foot of the cigar is splitting.  Thank you EVER so much Mr. Local Tobacconist who shall not be name for having your fucking humidor over-humidified.  So, obviously this review is gonna be a bust, but since I've started it, I'm gonna finish it.  Uneven burn, bad experience and all, then I'll find someone in town who actually knows what a hygrometer is.  Ok... flavor-wise, I've got plenty of pepperiness, slight hint of toasted something or another, but in all reality, due to the decidedly "wet" condition of the stick, I can't give any credence to the flavor profile.

At the 1/3rd point, hard to tell since the burn sucks on such a galactic level, the flavor is intensifying a little.  Surprisingly enough, I'm having some success in correcting the burn with just rotating the cigar.  The wrapper continues to split down the middle like a low budget condom.  Seriously... I'm takin a picture....well, since I can't quite get the flash and settings to work, I may not be able to get a picture. 

At the half-way point, I'm getting some hints of leather, along with peppery yet ever so slightly sweet.  And the poor burn and wrapper zippering/explosion continues.  On the plus side, the scotch is pretty damned tasty, so I'll try and look on the positive.

At slightly past the 2/3rds point, I think I'm getting a taste of what the cigar is ACTUALLY intended to taste like.  Smooth, nice flavor profile -- peppery with hints of leather and toasted nuts.  Almost as if to say "this is what ya coulda had..." Story of my life.

The Rating

As I said, I'll re-review this cigar.