Brick House Mighty Mighty - Cigar Review

PROLOGUE

"Ow she's a brick house,
She's mighty-mighty, just lettin' it all hang out.
She's a brick house --
That lady's stacked and that's a fact,
Ain't holding nothing back." - The Commodores

Maybe that'll get it out of my system.

Nope.

THE CIGAR

J.C. Newman
Brick House Mighty Mighty
6 1/4 x 60 Double Toro
Havana Subido wrapper

Nicaraguan binder/filler

Purchased at the fantastically seedy Classic Smoke Shop

PRE-LIGHT

Sturdy. Cosmetically as well as construction-wise, from what the eye can ball. Band is of great stock and embossed gold on red/black. Lovely take on a classic shape. Looks perhaps a bit lost on the Double Toro format. Some veins are noticeable to the eye, but barely the hand. Seams are invisible. Very rich chocolate complexion of even tone with an espresso bean marbling over-top and over that, a very healthful oil sheen. A vague hint at a very fine tooth. Deep under there is a brick (yes) under-tone to it all with a tick of goldenrod which caries it all fairly vibrantly. Triple cap is a beast. Foot tobacco goes from dirty blonde to brunette in close doses of each. Medium+ density to the looking.

To the hand, we got some heft here, gentlepersons. Medium+ Charmin squeezing with a tight sharp spring-back. One vein in the 3/3 feels sharp; not a burn issue, just feels, broseph. Balance, for the size of this thing, is really very nice. Now to the schnoz: sweet creamy nuts on the shaft. How's that for erotica? Zetz of cedar is apparent and added at the foot. 

A cold pull is a very subtle one and creamy smooth with an assortment of fleshy nuts and hardwoods. Really, I'm not trying to be dirty. Draw resistance is a medium+ firmness. I Old Timer pocket-knifed off the cap; I suppose I should say that.

LIGHT

10:45am

I'll bite. Let's light a 60RG outside with wooden matches. My remaining schedule is fairly clear. I already spent my AM trying to find out which Gurkha I had in my hand prior to this offering. I had it narrowed down to not being a Buick. Thanks for the gazzilion facings, G. Oy vey.

I digress.

Toasting foot aroma is of creamy paper and sharper woods with a bit of leather laced in. Fairly straight-forward. First hot pull is a spicy hardwood zetz. Second hot one is retro-haled to show some nicely warm semi-sweet spices and nuttiness on the palate. Mouth-feel is goodly cream. A sweet cedar comes into play on the third hot pull. A nice tobacco core is filling out the middlings. 

Burn-line is a thin ribbon and ash is thus far pale and solid. Draw is tight side of medium+ resistance and I feel as though I need a fuller smoke-hole. Off the foot, there is an average white out-put. Creamy tobacco sans much else as insofar as aroma.

ACT I

Smoke off the foot increases and is kindly. Ash flakes a tick but holds. Draw resistance is a slight concern in its tightness. Flavors chug along with primary notes of wood and nuts. Secondary is a nice semi-sweet spice/cream balance. Cedar laces in and out there, as well. Leather backs it all from underneath, and at a nice height. It's just that the flavors are not soaring very high from their lofty starting point. Retro-hale is dulled a bit by cream, and the semi-sweet spices subdue into it a couple ticks.

Burn is not even, but not worsening. Nor is a re-touch required. A nice creamy warm tingle sets in my mouth. I believe it's from a more there mildly spiced cedar, than the subduing semi-sweet spices. Packing softens an inch ahead of the burn, and the draw loosens, but is still of a medium+ resistance. Profile is medium thus far and strength hasn't got past light yet.

More smoke off the foot, but not so much more in my mouf. I don't pull in order to text someone -- 30 seconds? And I almost get no smoke for a beat. Then a crackle...then smoke. Ash is white and pretty, but a tad of flake is too, a thing. Some toast comes in on the finish now. It's a medium finish but really nothing special. Toast, nuts, leather, wood -- somewhat undefined and almost mottled. Burn-line shows signs of self-correcting. Hi-light is a creamy and tingly clean mouth-feel with a perfect moisture level.

About an inch into it, some coffee heads in. It brings a sugary note with it. Nice flavors, but close to one another, and somewhat similarly delivered. Delineation is not always clear here. Foot-smoke slows. I really have to work the thing to get a passable amount of smoke-hole filling. Ash clumps in my $0.99 Walmart tray and it's of a surprisingly light density. Reduces to a talc when fumbled with. A bit warm. Suddenly, I get a BLAST of smoky smoke on my next pull. Almost an explosion. Was the ash insulating the burn that much? Odd. Very coffee now, as it joins in with the primary notes and jockeys for the lead. Black pepper in on the retro-hale now. OK, OK. 

ACT II

On the onset here, I feel like someone pulled the old Folger's Coffee Switcharoo on me, but with this Brick House. Burn is fast and alive. Primary notes are a new earthiness, cedar, and black pepper-led re-emerging semi-sweet spices. Secondary is leather and nuts. Backing is a wrapping around of earth with a touch of red clay. Retro-hale is a coarse but still nice black pepper and seasoned cedar mix. Finish is a soft subtle sweetness of the ghost of draws past, with a tingly cream mouth-feel. I re-touch the burn to help a tick of top-leaf along and VOOSH. Lively! We're pedal to the medal with the half-way marker within an inch of sight, at a half hour into a Double Toro. OK, OK.

Profile is a goodly medium and testing. Strength is a -medium, maybe. I roll an inch of ash and it's the same consistency, a tick warmer, and some brownish tinting has set in. Very smoky now. Draw resistance is a dead mid med. Balance is wonky when I set it in my tray. Again with draw, it's settling back in, and not always with the ready voosh. Burn has corrected, but is not quite even. A seam opens a bit, ahead of the burn. 

Flavors begin to toast and lightly char on the finish. Not much change other than that. Very inconsistent draws, as far as out-put. Brownish hue leaves the ash. Very much a soaring of a simple tobacco core now. A new dose of light brown sugar is very nice. Coffee rises in its wake. Burn goes screwy but accepts a re-touch in a far less psychopathic manner.

ACT III

Tea? Wood notes attract that upping of sugar? OK, OK. Tea is on the sweetening and lengthening finish. The new wood thing is occupying the core. Sweet warm spices sprinkled with a finer ground black pepper are on the retro-hale. Strength is up-ticked to low-end medium. Profile is pushing medium+ boundaries about as far as possible. Draw has at long last evened its out-put.

Flavors have developed a smoked quality, as has mouth-feel -- moisture level rises but nicely. Ash adds in some pepper-hued bits. Room-note toasts deeply. A nice chew sets in; a great chew for it's girth. Tea has a bit of not bite, but sharp. A tea-bag, not a brewed cup. Smoke pours from foot and cap. It ain't hot but it ain't cool. Tingle on the mouth is up a notch, but I likey. There's an inch and some left, but still, it does not want to balance in my tray. Softening ahead of burn has ceased. Oils set in the finish and feel, as now doth approacheth thee band-eth -- only an hour and ten minutes-or so in. Fast smoker for its format. I'll probably get another ten+ out of it, but for the sake of reviewing: 

fin.

NOTES

I'm not entirely sure what just happened, gentlepersons. But I mayhaps strangely would not be at all opposed to it happening again.

Toothpicked nub won't stay lit or deliver even smoke-to-smoke-hole.

PAIRINGS

A Venn diagram? Topographical map? A cup of hot tea, spiced. Coffee humsoever ya like it did. Breakfast stuffs.

FINAL GRADE

****B-****

LESS SCHTICK MORE STICK

[Letter grades are graded on a scale of K A P L O W I T Z.
K being the least, Z the greatest.]

Appearance I
Construction L
Combustion P
Flavors/Body I
Strength L

EPILOGUE
Funny how even the cigars you don't smoke, retain a memory. The last and only other time I had one of these, it passed through my hands quickly. As a gift for a friend and newly-minted dad.

...
"She knows she got everything
That a woman needs to get a man, yeah, yeah.
How can she lose with the stuff she use,
Thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six -- oh what a winning hand." - The Commodores