PROLOGUE
I wrote up a sneak-peek of sorts of this stick HERE.
THE CIGAR
MBombay Tobak Mora
8 1/2 x 38 Lancero
w. Dominican Republic
b. Ecuador
f. Ecuador, Peru, Dominican Republic
Sample offering courtesy of Mel Shah, MBombay brand owner.
PRE-LIGHT
Looks and feels leathery -- of the softened varietal. Pig/fan-tail cap, shaggy foot. Veins, but none so large as to impede the burn. Seams are tight and even. Complexion is a mottled thing of natural beauty. A peanut butter-chocolate with more PB around the several spiderweb veins. Shaggy foot is a good 1/2" long; more than 'nuff to highlight in a nice zetz MBombay's Peruvian usage, methinks. There's a slight water-spot in the mid 1/3. Large ornate trademarked band is a flying carpet which flew. It ain't present. Just the one ya see in the above photo. Aforementioned shaggy foot is in monochromatic keeping with the offering's shaft.
Hand-feel is a bit outta balance, but forgivable entirely, given the Mora's format. Texture is smooth mainly, and light, thin oils get worked up as it's fingered. No lumps or ridges. Charmin squeeze testing results in medium density and evenly throughout. Feels maybe a tick light in the heft, but it is a 38RG, only. Thunks full-sounding against my ring.
Schnoz notes along the MBombay's shaft are light tobacco and delicately sweetened earth via a cocoa whispering. Nuttiness, pale sweet and blanched, is added at the foot. I Xikar the cap. Cold tug is a fairly open -medium tension. Very sweet light notes, but too very distinguishable -- cocoa and a creamy hazelnut. Cocoa is firm, not powdery. Not cake-like, though. A chocolate tea biscuit sorta thing. Cold finish is a clean earthiness. More cold pulling shows more of that cocoa/chocolate/tea biscuit stuff. Hazelnut gets middling. Earth under-belly and medium leg'd finish.
LIGHT
All is calm in my carport, wind-wise. I opt for my favorite means of igniting -- wooden matches. Shaggy foot takes a few ticks longer, but is willing and catches evenly. Quite the leathery aroma on toasting the foot. Some white pepper addition. First hot pull shows a tick more draw resistance than the cold ones and is very hazelnut. Chocolate separates from biscuit and is a light but prominent cocoa. Tea biscuit vibe, stripped of chocolate, picks up a graham quality. Hazelnuts leave a very fleshy mouth-feel. White pepper is in on the fun. Second hottie is retro-haled and is a toasting of nuts and roasting of white pepper. Quite graham cracker as it drops to my palate. Hazelnuts are so fleshy as to almost be creamy. Third hot tug brings in some pale exotic spices alongside the white pepper.
Packing has softened a good tick off of burn, but construction holds. Combustion is nice, and now slowing into the wrapper, evenly so. Ash is medium to dark grey tight ladder-rungs. Line is thin. Draw, even. Room-note is a yeasty tobacco, and sweetly so. Some creamy hay as well and perhaps. Very kind and unassuming. Profile is a medium and strength is light thus far.
ACT I
Shaggy foot ash dumps expectedly so. New ash is mainly very pale grey. Tea biscuit note is quite interesting. Graham seems dialing back. White pepper is enough to cleanse the palate and add dimension. Cocoa is playing well with the natural tobacco. Very earth-driven profile. Hazelnuts are prominent. Very accessible delivery of notes. Exotic pale spices on the white pepper keep good interest.
Primarily, there is earth and hazelnuts. Middlings are a new blonde coffee note that plays off the nuttiness from afar. Cocoa is high middling and very tobacco'd. tea biscuit is there. Graham flits in and out. Spices and white pepper is the low middling. A suede note seems to want to back in the under-belly... for now it's working with the earthiness which wraps around from up-top.
Ash is 50 shades of medium grey and still in tight ladder-rungs, but lilts to one side a bit. Line is even with a small spot of slight waver. Room-note is very toasted tobacco with a cocoa sweetness. Packing looks to be re-firming. Profile is still a medium, strength has softly appeared in a -medium manner. Many main notes are dry, cocoa, exotic pale spices, pepper, tobacco, graham, etc... but there is a softness to them as well -- particularly in the earthiness. Not moist per se. Cushioned. This softens the potential harshness therein. Hazelnuts, too, are almost juicy. Very nice. Suede continues to take shape underneath.
White pepper dials back. Earthy note soars. Hazelnuts hold. Cocoa seems to have tangled up remaining pepper and the spices. Fairly complex there. That tea biscuit continues to entertain. Blonde coffee is absorbing much of the graham. Salted clarified butter oils work up on the shaft and into the mouth-feel. Great moisture level there and a very slight spiced tobacco tingle.
At the close of the opening act, we are very earthy and this earthiness is toasting well. All other flavor notes hold. Finish is lengthening warmly and sweetly. Mouth-feel is thickening a tick. Burn is evening out on a -medium thickness line. Ash is unchanged. Toasting and thickening actions notch us up to a medium+ profile, but on somewhat delicate notes. Strength is a medium. Some blending is occurring within the coffee/cocoa/nutty realm. Draw tightens a bit again, nothing which restricts flow of smoke to smoke-hole. still in medium to + range. Graham gets some cinnamon vibing. A new light honey note ebbs and flows in the middling now.
ACT II
Remaining white pepper and exotic spices are now sweetened with the light honey note. Flavors all mingle with one-another, yet stay mostly delineated. Coffee has dropped down. Suede has, as well. Earth wraps the profile. It's not swampy but not dry. Dew-y? Sweet hay is in there with it. Cocoa ups a tick. This is how we cruise for a stretch. Ash doesn't quite make an inch. I brush it off my lap with a schmatta. Burn pace slows. Smoke out-put is average.
Coffee leaves and a white tea comes on to replace it as our nod to warm beverages. Spices go there and dang, gentlepersons -- fairly interesting. Very subtle nuances in this Mora. If one ain't fawning over it, one might simply say "earthy." But much more is happening. Graham and cinnamon vacate. That tea biscuit forges onward in mildly excelsior ways. Ever taste pink or Himalayan salt? That. And there, I described the mid-point transition. One more thing -- cocoa is a lightly toasted powder now.
Coming out of that, suede sits back in the Mora's underneaths. Earth still is there... and everywhere, really. Burn is dead-even. Hazelnuts are less fleshy, more roasted. OK, gentlepersons: Earth, hazelnuts, cocoa, tea biscuit, white spices of far-off lands, white tea, Himalayan salt, clarified butter, suede, earth. There ya go -- and mainly in that order. Earth note gains more tobacco in the top-note realm.
Combustion becomes a bit hesitant at the end of center-act. A tug whilst looking in my Dollar Store hand-held mirror clues me in on some filler not igniting. Top-leaf near it lags, and I re-touch via Djeep. Quite roast-toasty of an earthy profile now. Suede goes to leather under-belly. Profile and strength hold.
Why has Lifetime taken off Frazier midday reruns? Why is Logo awash with The Nanny? Why must I suffer so? Woe, thy name is moi. The MBombay recovers nicely off that retouch, but flavors seem to be dialing back. Earth/tobacco and leather sandwich the remaining notes of tea and tea bisquit, spices, and cocoa. Toasting continues. A tick of top-leaf lifts up along a seam at char.
ACT III
Tea biscuit toasts somehow into a rye bread note. I didn't see that one a'comin', gentlepersons. Earth and bread drive. There is a diminishing of spices and cocoa. A hardening of leather. I squish my sammiches when I grill them in a frypan. That. Tea ducks down. A retro-hale drys my sinuses on a zetz of roasted pink salt.
Draw loosens to a medium. Loose tick of wrapper done smoked through easily. Just as I'm about to get a bit on the bored side of meditationing, a caramelized sugar soars to the forefront of this Mora. After a couple/few more tugs, a smoked meat is introduced from clear outta left field, it's too laced in the room-note all around me. Spices return. I puff greedily as the band comes into view.
Smoke remains cool. Profile robustly shows me the door at a medium+. I stay seated in this imaginary over-stuffed leather couch; pretend to not take my cue to leave. Someone done slipped meat in my sammich and served it with a nice dessert. Sugary and silky black coffee comes in. Notes are smoothly delivered. A whispered surprise: "Gotcha." Nub is pouring smoke and a soft chew sets in-between my lips. I reach for my toothpick. Pull on a newly heightened hazelnut with hickory accompaniment. Strength up-ticks woozily, nicely.
SMOKE TIME
80mins(approx)
NOTES
Wait a sec... clearing head... I lost my train of thought, gentlepersons. Completely. Whatta fine cigar, that Mora.
PAIRINGS
Spiced tea. Dr. Pepper. Loganberry Manischewitz.
K A P L O W I T Z SCALE
Appearance WConstruction W
Combustion O
Flavors/Body T
Strength L
FINAL GRADE
****A-****
EPILOGUE
A bit into the 3/3 of this MBombay offering, I messaged a pal. Said message to unsaid pal read: "More and more, I'm convinced the 3/3 is what separates a good stick from a fine one." This was during a lull wherein I thought this cigar was spent. Then, well, ya read the above review.Now if you'll be so kind as to allow me my leave, I'm gonna strike when the iron is hot and whilst my indirect and vague wishes are being granted... I shall have my dark-skinned petite secretary on the morrow. Perhaps.