PROLOGUE
Fresh off an 'appearance' on Cigar Jukebox (which will air toward month's end) and then a nice lunch involving peanut butter and pretzels -- I am riding high as the folks on our newly envisioned Oregon state flag. To make sense of that last sentiment, please listen to the show. I shall provide links whenst they occur.
For now, I shall continue to feed my lofty mood with --
THE CIGAR
Dunhill 1907
Honduran Olancho wrapper
Dominican Olor binder
Dominican Olor, Piloto Cubano ligero,
& Brazilian Mata Fina fillers
5 x 52 Robusto
PRE-LIGHT
Just a classic-styled band. Brown and golden brown with an embossed coat of arms up-top over "Just the facts, ma'am," "1907 by Dunhill." The stick has simply a beautiful complexion. A red to yellow fiery vibrancy peeks through a brown leather coffee thing. Veins are apparent as well as plentiful, but none so rigid or positioned in such a way as to foretell any issue. Cap is well-affixed and the foot tobacco is a mottled matte finish visual cacophony of browns; packed to a quite zaftik density. Seams are not tight, but even. Some light marbling is tucked under a good bit of sheen.
Hand-feel is a nice bit of alright as a Robusto is always in balance, even as a 50+RG in said Robusto vitola, irks me so. Good touch of oils. You can feel a vein or two, but it's nice knowing there's a cigar in yer mitt. Charmin squeeze is a medium+ and I'm surprised, because the density of the foot-packing seems far more well, more dense. Even throughout, nice springy back-sass to the pinch.
Schnoz notes at ye oldde shaft are a rather bracingly full tobacco with a barnyard underneath. Cedar is at the foot, and a nice dose of it. Cold draw -- I nibble off the cap and a medium+ resistance gives me a ton of golden hay with an inherent sweet note coming from there. Very crisp cold draw. Clean and tidy. Musta known I was paying a visit.
LIGHT
2:50pm
Toasting the foot lets loose an aroma that is very cedar, almost as much hay, and don't laugh -- but my widdle bwain goes to honey wine. First hot pull and I'm awash in tobacco notes which clear via a subtle white pepper and usher in a very nice, gentle cedar. Finish is this cedar and a creamy mouth-feel with a thimble of chocolate inside. On the second hot draw, I retro-hale to find more creamy white pepper. I do so on a pull which ticks down to a medium resistance. Baking spices are added on the third hot one, and we be off to the races, gentlepersons, as chocolate rises on the nascent finish.
Burn is porch-lit bit of tsuris but correcting itself. Ash is 90/10 salt/pepper. Burn-line is a medium. Smoke out-put is a goodly medium and kind to the nose. Foot-smoke and the starter of room-note exhibit a nice cedar. Finish is a cedar/cocoa on a light cream mouth-feel and a faint honey quality. It's uplifting in a way I can't communicate properly, so won't attempt.
Construction is a tick softer at 1/4" off the burn-line and the ash has split a tad, so I'll make with putting the schmatta in my lap as we head on into --
ACT I
Burn is correcting, but slower than the pace of the smoke. Profile, we shall call a -medium this soon into the Dunhill offering. White pepper subdues fast and an earthiness spins up from the barnyard base. Baker's spices are more of a kitchen spice, as a paprika becomes apparent on the draw. It plays quite interestingly with the chocolate note. White pepper is a finer ground sort now, and lines my smoke-hole daintily.
Ash is a ladder-rung affair and almost purely salt. Speaking of salt, there a note of it, sauteed in clarified butter, on my lips. Honey becomes a larger vibe, although by no means a note yet, per se. A very soft set of flavors, primarily cedar and kitchen spices with a bridging of chocolate and white pepper to barnyard and earthy backing. Finish picks up a bit of lip-smacking peanut sensation, but is all cedar and sunlit hay on still creamy mouth-feel. The plugging along creaminess attracted first the chocolate and now that nuttiness, and is a medium+. I'll give flavors a medium+, as well -- they are somewhat understated, but very crisply delineated...obvious in their execution more than essence. Strength is a medium. A light honey plays in and out. Very pleasant. Clean and crisp, but calmly so and not at all sharp.
Burn has evened on a still medium or so line. ash is flaking here and there, but has not clumped yet. I roll it off at an inch and it's a loosely held together, cool talc. A suede note appears underneath and acts like another backing sans replacing the first couple, quite complex under-tones. All notes are low, but somehow uplifting. Like good Blues music.
ACT II
Softening of the pack has ceased. A nicer dose of honey is on the retro-hale, and is now a note. White pepper continues to subdue. A sudden bit of citrus rind is on-board. A few puffs later, a stiff cup of joe and note of hardwood. Suede is now leather and a higher backing than earth, and we got us a multi-dimensional canvas. Nice.
At the mid-point, kitchen spices ramp up, and there is an entering and exiting and entering and exiting, etc. of black pepper. Hardwood is seasoned. Burn wavers and un-wavers and no touching-up is required. Black pepper enters more, exits less. Kitchen spices subdue. Some intricacies are lost when it stays. A slight rind of citrus holds tight between the end of draw. Creaminess on the mouth-feel is more a clarified butter now. Finish is cedar and hardwood with peppery residue and quite longer than in the opening act.
Ash picks up a bit more pepper hue and is seemingly a notch thicker. I roll off an inch and yup -- oilier. Construction and draw are unchanged but I mention them anyway, since I pay myself by the word. Room-note is a woodsy affair with this 1907 offering. Crisp, kind, and I still wouldn't dare bring it into my little red house. Women, can't live with 'em...and I openly refute the rest of that old gem.
ACT III
I allow the hypothermia to dull me on my freezing cold porch and suddenly, I'm well into the final act. Leather has stiffened and the backing is now a drying earth, alone. Perhaps a hint of barn. Coffee ticks up to an espresso and cream returns to beg a latte vibe, but not overtly. Pepper subdues and lets shine through those kitchen spices and paprika is sprinkled into the cream. Actually, there is still a coffee note alongside the espresso frou-frou -- perhaps a friend has joined me. Perhaps they'll pick up the tab? Cedar attaches to the coffee. White and black peppers play amongst themselves, off to the side. Very dimensional, this 1907.
My maternal grandfather was born in 1907. In England. I think of him, and the shirt he bought me when I was maybe seven. He bought it on the street of his Chinatown New York City neighborhood. I still have it. A very, very nice smoke. Medium+ profile across the board. at the band, light honey and citrus rind come back in. Excellent balance. Fantastic complexities and many nuances.
Ash flakes onto my schmatta and I reach for a toothpick.
NOTES
Best Honduran involved offering I've had in a good tick. I thank the Mata Fina for this.
All told, a very pleasant Dunhill experience -- especially compared to my only previous one. Which really only loosely involved Dunhill. A friend of a friend loved Dunhill cigarettes. We went over to his townhouse (he did not live with his mother; his mother lived with him) to watch the pilot episode of Enterprise. Upon the cinematic unveiling of the newest ship, he voice this criticism, and I grossly paraphrase with just the gist intact:
"I don't like it. All the other Enterprise ships gave me a hard on when I first saw them -- this one -- nothing!" He may or may not have pointed to his nethers. I can't be certain, as I was reaching for my coat.
This cigar was nice btw
PAIRINGS
A spot of tea. Cucumber sammiches. No, really.
FINAL GRADE
****A-****
LESS SCHTICK MORE STICK
Mellow: As a gent with a monocleCoarse: Smoooooove
Sweet: Mildly so
Spicy: Even at its pepperiest, nope
Savory: Nah
Strength: Medium+ like a Sir
Draw: Smooth, even
Burn: Lovely
Construction: Good
Primary note: Cedar, predominantly. All others -- postdominantly(?)
EPILOGUE
4:05pm
PORTLAND MEADOWS
noon pacific post time
1:2,5
2:3
3:1
4:5
5:5,3
6:7,5
7:2
8:2,6
9:1 20/1
10:1,7
As always and ever more, thanks for reading gentlepersons -- and don't bet the dough dough.
POSTSCRIPT!!! Pick up the Dunhill Sampler (of which this 1907 is 1/3) from CIGARS CITY now. Enter the code KAP-SENT-ME for an add'l 10% off.
POSTSCRIPT!!! Pick up the Dunhill Sampler (of which this 1907 is 1/3) from CIGARS CITY now. Enter the code KAP-SENT-ME for an add'l 10% off.