El Titan de Bronze Cigars Nicaragua in Review

BRAND: El Titan de Bronze
BLEND: Nicaragua

WRAPPER: Broadleaf
BINDER: Mexican
FILLER: Nicaraguan

FORMAT: Robusto (554)
ORIGIN: Nicaragua
INTENSITY: Medium/Medium-full
SPICE: 2.5/5

NOTES:
Scorched Hickory | Cordial Cherries | Hazelnut Latte

Pretty straight-forward here. Add in a bit of black pepper and manure. All held rather tightly together on a frozen rope of a line drive back up the middle. Now add some black tea. A sturdy dependable smoke, a good hand. No fancy stuff, decent doses of solid stuff. Anise. Underplayed, not sedate.

Razor-thin burn-line; tick of a wave to it. Grows an excellent long sheath of white ash. Draws well. Big smoke out-put smells like oatmeal raisin cookies. Seams are a bit uneven and there's puckering around some veins. Add a slight vegetal saltiness. Subtle underneaths with overt near blatant up-tops.

TASTE: A-
DRAW: B+
BURN: B+
BUILD: B+

FINAL GRADE: B+
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79

::: very ::: 

El Rey del Mundo Cigars LE King of the World VSOP in Review

BRAND: El Rey del Mundo
BLEND: LE King of the World VSOP

WRAPPER: Ecuadorian Sumatra
BINDER: Nicaraguan
FILLER: Nicaraguan, Dominican

FORMAT: Toro (652)
ORIGIN: Honduras
INTENSITY: Medium/Medium-full
SPICE: 2.5/5

NOTES:
Chocolate & Peanuts | Berries & Grapes | Oak & Cedar

Positively jammy cold draw. Big fruit front calms into place surrounded by its ampersanded brethren. A clustered profile but while narrow, maintains delineations well. Tastes some like a small old still life painting of a bowl of fruit; framed in hardwood--needs a feather dusting. Apricots.

Then, buckwheat honey, black pepper, Leather & Suede. Any of these &s would make for great names of trendy downtown boutiques which all bewilder me as to how they make their monthly Nut & Rent. Trust fund kids, likely. I digress. A complex smoke with an atypical profile. Vive le difference.

TASTE: A-
DRAW: A-
BURN: A-
BUILD: A-

FINAL GRADE: A-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79

::: very ::: 

La Sirena Cigars Original Trident in Review

BRAND: La Sirena
BLEND: Original

WRAPPER: Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro
BINDER: Nicaraguan
FILLER: Nicaraguan

FORMAT: Trident (750)
ORIGIN: Nicaragua (La Zona)
INTENSITY: Medium-full
SPICE: 3/5

NOTES:
Ginger | Milk Chocolate | Cayenne

Sand ginger powder is an interesting thing. It's a type of ginger, of course, but one that's a tick less gingery. More woodsy-citrusy. Sweet-earthier. That's all over this. With accompanying notes of milk chocolate, other exotic spices, clarified butter, and a lovely cayenne kick. Really an eye-opener smoke.

Nuanced and sating, but also bright and quite delineated, complex. A real zinger like the barbs exchanged twixt Dorothy and Sophia on Golden Girls. Now my mind wanders to Miami and vibrant tropical floral notes. I never got how their family was supposedly Italian yet obviously Jewish.

What's the old Hollywood adage? "Write Yiddish, cast British." I think so. Now I truly wander. I'll digress. this is truly a shayne maidel of a cigar in spirit. Although there are blemishes which make her approachable at a dance. A somewhat janky burn and some awkward seams. It all sweetly works, tho.

A shayne maidel is a pretty girl. It's particularly apt here if said woman has a rapier with and perhaps slight ketsem yofi... that means birthmark; but literally it means mark of beauty. I call it character. Perhaps flavor. All apply. Such a smoke, epes! I'll stop now. Fuhgettaboutit!

TASTE: A
DRAW: A-
BURN: B
BUILD: B+

FINAL GRADE: A-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79

::: very ::: 

Bolivar Cigars Aniversario LE in Review

BRAND: Bolivar
BLEND: Aniversario LE

WRAPPER: Ecuadorian Habano
BINDER: Brazilian Arapiraca
FILLER: Colombian, Brazilian, Paraguayan, Argentinian

FORMAT: Toro (652)
ORIGIN: Honduras
INTENSITY: Medium-full/Full
SPICE: 2/5

NOTES:
Peanut brittle burnt in an oven, then placed in a smoker. Crumbs from a corner piece of brownie. A separate dark chocolate syrup flows and grows. A bit gruff, somewhat aggressive. Stiff leather over compost grounding. Some pipe tobaccos ghost pipes. This cigar ghosts the palate. Lo-o-o-ong finish.

At the far end of that finish, a dose of brown sugar drops and bleeds into the next draw and the next draw and the next draw, etc. Somewhere in the core is a ruby red grapefruit, baked--and on top of that is where the sugar goes. Excellent burn and draw. Isn't aggressive then is again. Some guys like that.

There's some dusty spice hither-thither.
This one might age exceptionally well.

TASTE: B+
DRAW: A-
BURN: A-
BUILD: B+

FINAL GRADE: B+
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79

::: very :::