The holidays are over and Golden Girls re-runs are back on the Hallmark Channel. I'll be panty, gentlepersons. I mean brief. Boxers. Sure.
NOTES:
A Perfecto which hits a 60 ring gauge at its fat-spot, yet burns vastly even from gate-to-wire. Nice. No re-lights and only a single re-touch coming into the taper leave me plenty of time (as burn pace is languid) and room to wander toward thoughts of the 1930s cartoon tough-guys this vitola represents to me. Fun. Grows thick, dense, long ash. Smooth draw with an even medium+ tension to the pull. Seams hold. No hard/soft spots and no egregious softening via burn. Stays cool in mitt and mouf right down to the nub.
Black and red pepper front which settles but too a new cayenne tongue emerges. Then smoked paprika and cinnamon. Excellent pepper-spice piquancy and always gentlepersonly-so. Wine cask makes for nice stiffly sour contributions and spurns out a separate secondary wood note which toasts nicely. Another sour lilt happens after mid-point when mulling spice comes in on the back of an orange rind. Richly bitter on the backs of espresso and cocoa lilt. Dark grains toast alongside some thick leather, triggering a decent umami savoriness. Not a sweet offering, per se, there is, however, a driving under-belly of compost and topsoil sweetened with dark chocolate shavings, root beer, and trace molasses.
Heavy notes, delivered smoothly 'nuff and quite well balanced. Nuances build into richness but fall shy of complex as a whole.
WRAPPER: Ecuadorian Sumatra
BINDER: Connecticut Broadleaf
FILLER: Dominican, Honduran, Nicaraguan
STRENGTH: Medium-Full
FORMAT: Perfecto 4.5x60
ORIGIN: Honduras
FINAL GRADE: B+
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59
Perchance to purchase this Punch Champion (Perfecto) over at Cigars City?
Report a typo, win a No-prize.
"Selling the Dolls" Kaplowitz Radio: January 3, 2018
