BLEND: Gold Label 2025
WRAPPER: Connecticut Shade
BINDER: Mexican San Andres
FILLER: Dominican, Mexican
FORMAT: 6.5x52 Torpedo
ORIGIN: Dominican Republic
INTENSITY: Mild/Mild-medium
SPICE: 3/5*
NOTES:
Sand | Lemon/white pepper | Suede
I do not remember my first cigar; premium or otherwise. It was a long time ago, and I suppose I lacked the forethought to make note. Somewhere, there exists a photo of me as a young child, in my playpen, wearing my grandfather's fedora and sucking on his unlit cigar. That was a different time. Now, it would have been a flat-brimmed snapback hat. What happened to men? Oh, that's right... perpetual adolescence.
I remember my first kiss. Also, my first trip to each base thereafter. But I won't divulge that information; you're here, after all, for my thoughts on this smoke. Macanudo is my stock response to the question of 'what should my first cigar be?' That said, this ain't my first, and likely yours is well in your rearview, as well. If for some reason you're reading this prior to your first, Macanudo Cafe... but also why?
Stick a Lemonhead candy in your gullet. Then a few more. Then lean over a bucket of beach sand and breathe it in, mouth agape. White pepper. Suede like clothing, not boot weight. A vest, maybe. Buttery but not 'nuff-so. A bit sharp particularly via retro-hale. I don't recall my first retro-hale but I do know I didn't call it that, or anything. Traces of macadamia nut. Mostly skewed toward sour. Consistent, very.
Daisies and daffodils come to mind. Draws a bit empty. Burns evenly but the top-leaf nearby puckers and at times crackles not cracks. Perhaps I really do taste Rice Krispies. Ash grows quite well. Seams hold. Smoke out-put is plentiful, although room-note is substantially less-than. Golden hay on the nose and back-end of palate. Pace is a bit quick. This paired with builder's tea would be nice.
*bearing in mind this is measured by how much of the profile is that of spice, not how spicy it is on some sort of Scoville scale. Hence why Intensity is noted separately in all my reviews.
TASTE: B
DRAW: B+
BURN: B
BUILD: B+
FINAL GRADE: B
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79
::: very :::