5:20pm
As a former man of considerable heft, now svelte as I am, I allow myself one 'cheat day' a month. "Fat First," as I calls it. Today's was special, as it followed Halloween. Let's just say I owe my kid a bunch of candy. Let's also just say I will be typing parts of this review in the Powder Room.
Oh, but --
THE CIGAR
Nomad Cigar Co.
Therapy - Connecticut
Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper
Mexican San Andrés binder
Nicaraguan fillers
4 1/2 x 50
Courtesy of:
(Much appreciated, sir.)
PRE-LIGHT
Coffee with cream even complexion. Looks a lot like a Connie wrapper. A couple of not quite thick veins, one crimped in the 2/3. Seams are minimally visible with slight lapses into greater visibility, sans potential construction issues. Nice reddish rich tobacco coming out of the foot shows a medium density. I squeeze the Charmin and that medium is confirmed. All evenly so.
The stick feels nice in the hand, like a brown paper bag with a slight peach fuzz adornment. Shortness of length makes a good cheat for great structural balance and the 50RG is as large as what feels nice in both my hand, and smoke-hole.
Schnozolla time: a mellow yet rich tobacco from the shaft, with notes of cedar, coffee, and white toast. Sniffing at the foot I get more and crisper cedar, some white pepper warmth -- off-set with a floral vanilla. I nibble off the well-constructed triple cap and the cold pull has just the right amount of minimal resistance; displaying notes of it tastes like my Grandfather's apartment smelled. Quintessential cigar of that era. Mellow sweet tobacco with a growing rich fullness. Notes foreground to that of golden hay, vanilla, cedar, a truck stop coffee, maybe a hint of chocolate milk. Nice.
LIGHT
Easy willing light. Notes of woodsy earthiness as the foot toasted, a bit of bread perhaps too. First hot pull in a rather subdued truck stop coffee with woodsy floral earthiness on the draw with a nice white pepper coming to the palate at the finish. Hay notes wait there for it, as does some toasted bread. The coffee stays from draw to finish, but never in a staring role. Second hot pull is retro-haled to show roasted white peppers and a sharpening cedar that sets my mouth-feel moisture just right in a vanilla creamy sorta way. Very full smoke output. On the third pull, some floral notes are more visible and the cream delineates from vanilla as it toasts. I almost get a slight sense of nutmeg sprinkled very sparingly on that toasted cream.
Construction-wise, the burn is not even but it is fast, but I suspect it'll slow and even, The ash piles on in flaky rungs of pale grey. Burn-line is medium+ and as I write this, it evens nicely, slows, and that toasted cream mutes to a nice frothed milk.
ACT I
Lots of kind smoke. Very aromatic but not at all confrontational. Room-notes of bread baking in a wooden oven with a hint of graham vanilla sweetness. Flavors of cedar, occasional nuts as pale as a red-headed fella's, Leather attaches to the earthiness and hay. Finish is boiled peanuts, truck stop coffee, and a slight sweetness that I believe comes from the cedar notes now, instead of vanilla -- which is subduing somewhat.
Profile is a -medium with maybe a tick up for body on a count of a very subtle but surprisingly complex dose of earthiness ranging from floral grass to hay to wood and also home baked hearty white breads. Peeks of graham. It's amazing what you find when you step out of the daily 'flavor bomb' fracas.
Ash clumps off at a good inch and is powdery but dense enough. Burn is even with a quickly self-correcting slight ribbon here and there. I wish the offering was packed just a hair denser, as tunneling looks like it might result if you over-smoked. But that would kinda be on you, kind gentleperson. Burn-line is medium.
No change in flavors, but it is a very nice stick. In-between pulls the burn calms, but springs to life immediately on a pull, and voluptuously so. Floral grasses pick up as we enter --
ACT II
This thing just feels good in your smoke-hole. Cedar sharpens and white peppers go to the draw as well. The mouth-feel sharpens but doesn't dry...it cleanses. It's a bit less creamy now and the coffee is darker -- the same coffee -- less cow juice. The bread is less sandwich material and more what you'd pull off one of those round loaves and stuff in yer face. There's oak, too, that is mainly on the finish with boiled nuts and roasted white pepper. Occasional graham. The coffee doesn't have the legs it used to and stays on the draw, mainly.
Construction holds, nothing to see there. The ash rungs tighten and look less flaky. Tranquil. This Nomad offering is tranquil. Why are my own therapy sessions so dramatic?
I really regret that this Connecticut is apparently so overlooked as compared to its Habano and Maduro kin*. There are flavors here. Nuances and subtleties. You know, flavors that don't wield axes. I believe these flavors wield racing forms and maybe a newspaper opened up to the crossword puzzle. These flavors use ink to write the letters into the squares -- that's plenty ballsy enough for me.
I retro-hale the last pull of Act II and ouch. Sharp not spicy. Cedar and a diminishing white pepper. Flavors remain the same, but all is subduing and blending (not mottling) a tad. The peanuts roast some.
I'd say the - side of medium profile'd across-the-board.
ACT III
The cedar starts to bite a little here but just as it does, more cream splooshes into the joe and toasted bread rises. Floral hay is gone for the most part. Earthiness remains with traces of sturdy leather like a catcher's mitt. I remind myself the Mets are playing for their World Series lives now. This therapist in my ashtray tells me to stay out on my porch and not scream at my TV set just yet.
A great chew sets in. Vanilla comes back as does a floral note backed with faint honey. Coffee goes nowheres and has always been quite nice. Hay and bread and leathery earthiness. Ballpark peanuts. Finish is medium+ and all flavor notes dance there-- the Twist.
Now if you'd be so kind as to excuse me, imma run a toothpick through and puff quietly for another five minutes.
NOTES
With far less touted ado, this stick does what many other fail at doing as hyped -- evoking the Greatest Generation. This is what those men smoked, and the only green involved was the wrapper, gentlepersons.
I like my cigars like I like my women: mild, not sickly sweet, and with a long shaft. That might be taken wrong. I generally like them longer? I like to feel full? I feel as though this is making me look bad.
While it bears the name of its wrapper as is dictated by tradition, the Therapy Connecticut is really a great display piece for my personal favorite tobacco via its San Andrés binder. The Connie lovingly corals and adds notes of restraint rather than any jockeying strength. Fantastic blend.
While it bears the name of its wrapper as is dictated by tradition, the Therapy Connecticut is really a great display piece for my personal favorite tobacco via its San Andrés binder. The Connie lovingly corals and adds notes of restraint rather than any jockeying strength. Fantastic blend.
PAIRINGS
Would ya look at me funny if I said French Toast? Would you like me more if I said Freedom Toast? 'Merica. How's about an Egg in a Basket? Gimme a racing form and a crossword puzzle and a ballgame where the Mets win easy on the radio.
If we're being serious, any beverage from a diner menu (cola, coffee, milkshake).
If we're being serious, any beverage from a diner menu (cola, coffee, milkshake).
FINAL GRADE A
EPILOGUE
6:10ishpm
(whattamy a clock?)
OMFG-d the game, she gets bad now in the 12th. Can't tell if KC roars back or Mets choke. That's a lie. Hand Mama Cass another ham sammich and get her up in the bullpen.
* Mr. Rewey assures me I'm wrong here, but I just don't see it mentioned as much as the other 2/3.
* Mr. Rewey assures me I'm wrong here, but I just don't see it mentioned as much as the other 2/3.