PROLOGUE
I talked some pony (Del Mar, to be exact) over a previous JSK offering in a Lancero vitola. You can read that HERE. I felt it needed a bit of settling. Lettuce see meow --
THE CIGAR
Jas Sum KralRed Knight
Closed-foot, Pig-tailed
w. Ecuadorian Habano
b. Mexican San Andres & Jalapa Seco
f. Undisclosed
Sample offering courtesy of brand-owner Riste Riatevski.
Thank ya, sir.
Hand-feel sees some impediment via ridged vein(s). Tick dry and leathery, but oils do work up whenst finagled and fumbled. 2/3 is a bit softer packed on the Charmin squeeze than first and final acts. Medium to medium+, all told. Lively 'nuff spring-back. Good balance in the mitt, perhaps lacking in some heft, humsoever. I doth heart a Lonsdale.
Schnozzola! Lemme see. Shaft is a chocolatey fruit sweet tobacco with compost underneath. I decide to circumcise the thing and filler at the foot is the same sweetnesses with a red spice-rack backing. Tobacco is notably light in color and density of packing. Clipping the foot now, a -medium resistance pull adds some creaminess to the nosing notes and some leather nut stuffs to the underneath -- which is a tick drier tan compost. Good earth -- topsoil. Another cold pull pulls up more red spice which lasts through to a cold finish where it's braced by a cordial cherry thing.
Ash is pale grey with a shade darker tick or three. Loosely formed and I'm getting my schmatta outta my pocket. Burn is mainly even on a thin line. Seams loosened half a tick on lighting, and pack dot softened a good inch aheada char. Draw is same as ever 'twas and fully satiates my smoke-hole on a sip. Good smoke out-put, not showy but no shrinking violet.
Pace is a bit quick, but combustion all told, is fine. Construction is a tick less fine as more softening of pack happens. Seams do hold, tho -- as does draw. Room-note is somewhat sharp and dark tobacco, nigh foreboding, gentlepersons. Ash drops at 1/2" increments and is warmly dry, coarse. At the end of the opening act, I taste my leather wallet. I cannot find said wallet -- if you have seen it, please to alert me. I have looked everywhere. This is not metaphor. I'm thinking of cancelling my bank card...
At mid-point, Autumn is over and winter is here. I'm sitting over a camp-fire and my nuts are roasting in leather paints. Earth backing is bulging black top-soil. Burn requires some Djeep tending to. Black peppers are coarse-ground and taking over from the red flakes. Spices are warm and red under that. Coffee soda stuffs are gone and espresso is a roasted bean. Palate and tongue are a bit dry. A rich and deeply so tobacco takes over -- almost in a pipe reminiscent manner; the cherry is in there now. Black cherry.
At the end of 2/3, shaft oils up, as does mouth-feel, in a leathery way. Fatty meatiness. Pace slows. Ash darkens another shade, but is firmer in build. Strength jumps up to a medium+ to meet the rest o' profile. Toasted crusty black bread muscles. Pack is very softened, though seams and draw hold fast. Tingling eases up, and brulee takes over the stage. A greater balance is being found along with some nicer nuancing. Complexity isn't huge, but in no way is this JSK boring. Notes are dry, sharp, and very delineated. Cherry addition to tobacco is a dried fruit now. Burn-line is imperfect and threatens to blister some, but is in no need of a second Djeeping. Molasses ain't gone, but is something like powdery.
Burn-line is more even than ever it were. Ash gets some silver streaks and cracks some. Not a profile which falls in my wheelhouse, but I can see how many would disagree. Very smoky toasty flavors, ends up tickling at -full with a new anise flirtation. At the nub, smoke ain't cool, but kind. A neat fresh cream is poured in and coffee beans are ground on the draw and room-note. Softening of pack ceases.
Sample offering courtesy of brand-owner Riste Riatevski.
Thank ya, sir.
PRE-LIGHT
Closed foot, verily...sealed, really. Pig-tail is long and tightly wound atop a well-crafted cap. Betwixt the twos is an uneven-complected shaft of Hershey chocolate to espresso bean hues with reddish under-tones of variable heights. Seams are tight and even. Veins are present and ridged some in the 2/3 -- vertically aligned, so I see no real potentiality for issue re: burn. Minimal spider-web veinage. Trace of scant tooth here and there, some marbling over-top here and there. It's a decent shade darker in the foot half, than in the other. Band is neat-o kean-o, as depicted above.Hand-feel sees some impediment via ridged vein(s). Tick dry and leathery, but oils do work up whenst finagled and fumbled. 2/3 is a bit softer packed on the Charmin squeeze than first and final acts. Medium to medium+, all told. Lively 'nuff spring-back. Good balance in the mitt, perhaps lacking in some heft, humsoever. I doth heart a Lonsdale.
Schnozzola! Lemme see. Shaft is a chocolatey fruit sweet tobacco with compost underneath. I decide to circumcise the thing and filler at the foot is the same sweetnesses with a red spice-rack backing. Tobacco is notably light in color and density of packing. Clipping the foot now, a -medium resistance pull adds some creaminess to the nosing notes and some leather nut stuffs to the underneath -- which is a tick drier tan compost. Good earth -- topsoil. Another cold pull pulls up more red spice which lasts through to a cold finish where it's braced by a cordial cherry thing.
LIGHT
Toasting the foot gives a ton of woodsy aromas -- hard and soft, seasoned and nigh wet. Woodsy, see? Eager to burn and easy to light. Although a tick jagged of a first line, it's settling as I type. First hot tug is a very woodsy and earthy tobacco with a rich creaminess. Texture is a voluptuous body of that cream with a zetz of red spice-rack tingle. Cordial cherry lasts a flash at end of draw, then spices and cream rebound in a sweet spicy finish of -full length'd legs. Second hottie is a scorching red pepper retro-hale which calms to a black pepper scorch, which calms to a smack of red spice. Which is to say it takes a spell to calm. Also, define "calm." When it does: sweet cream. Third hottie is same as the first -- perhaps a bit of syrupy molasses added to the sweets. This JSK is a lot about the feels -- rich body and cushioned hot tingle. Tastes are a bit non-descript, but nice.Ash is pale grey with a shade darker tick or three. Loosely formed and I'm getting my schmatta outta my pocket. Burn is mainly even on a thin line. Seams loosened half a tick on lighting, and pack dot softened a good inch aheada char. Draw is same as ever 'twas and fully satiates my smoke-hole on a sip. Good smoke out-put, not showy but no shrinking violet.
ACT I
Syrupy stuff is a coffee soda concentrate. Spices are forming into the same baked apple offering as my previous Jas Sum Kral. Very Autumn, again. Espresso comes in independent of the coffee soda, to bitter up chocolate to a baking type and the cherry subdues. Bye, cordial. Woods are toasting and sharpening. Mesquite and Hickory with some hard wood shavings. Tobacco is darkening. Cream is building and toasting, too. Savoriness soars in a meaty way. My nasal cavity is a Cajun kitchen, y'all. Not any saltiness and sour bits are scarce, so balance is not grand but not egregiously terrible at all. Texture of smoke is heavy and while creamy, not entirely soft; there are some jagged bits of gruffness. Finish is long and holds all the complexities and most nuances, of this offering.Pace is a bit quick, but combustion all told, is fine. Construction is a tick less fine as more softening of pack happens. Seams do hold, tho -- as does draw. Room-note is somewhat sharp and dark tobacco, nigh foreboding, gentlepersons. Ash drops at 1/2" increments and is warmly dry, coarse. At the end of the opening act, I taste my leather wallet. I cannot find said wallet -- if you have seen it, please to alert me. I have looked everywhere. This is not metaphor. I'm thinking of cancelling my bank card...
ACT II
Darkly roasted almonds add to the bitter sect, but sans bite. Sweet bits ebb. Smoky. I'm getting blackened Cajun seasoning and when I wipe my mouth, it seems my napkin is made a' leather. Black bread comes in fresh outta the oven. Cream is brulee-ing. Burn is wonking a good bit off a lagging side of top-leaf. Ash has darkened a shade. Smoke out-put has stepped up even more. Profile is a medium+, strength is a -medium.At mid-point, Autumn is over and winter is here. I'm sitting over a camp-fire and my nuts are roasting in leather paints. Earth backing is bulging black top-soil. Burn requires some Djeep tending to. Black peppers are coarse-ground and taking over from the red flakes. Spices are warm and red under that. Coffee soda stuffs are gone and espresso is a roasted bean. Palate and tongue are a bit dry. A rich and deeply so tobacco takes over -- almost in a pipe reminiscent manner; the cherry is in there now. Black cherry.
At the end of 2/3, shaft oils up, as does mouth-feel, in a leathery way. Fatty meatiness. Pace slows. Ash darkens another shade, but is firmer in build. Strength jumps up to a medium+ to meet the rest o' profile. Toasted crusty black bread muscles. Pack is very softened, though seams and draw hold fast. Tingling eases up, and brulee takes over the stage. A greater balance is being found along with some nicer nuancing. Complexity isn't huge, but in no way is this JSK boring. Notes are dry, sharp, and very delineated. Cherry addition to tobacco is a dried fruit now. Burn-line is imperfect and threatens to blister some, but is in no need of a second Djeeping. Molasses ain't gone, but is something like powdery.
ACT III
A very excellent chew sets in, somewhat due to softening of pack, but too to the vitola. Smoke don't bother even my sensitive eyes as the stick sits in my lips. It is sharp, but not abrasive. Tobacco is somewhat aromatic now -- again, quite pipe tobacco-y. Black bread is all crust and hosts the remaining almond as a vibe therein. Espresso beans. Smoked lean meat. Oils are pulling back, falling off. Black pepper is bonkers on the retro-hale. For all the sharp coarseness, there's no "throat" and 'nuff cream remains to brace. Baking chocolate comes and goes; cherry mainly goes. Tongue is dry, palate is less so. Cajun spices have muted.Burn-line is more even than ever it were. Ash gets some silver streaks and cracks some. Not a profile which falls in my wheelhouse, but I can see how many would disagree. Very smoky toasty flavors, ends up tickling at -full with a new anise flirtation. At the nub, smoke ain't cool, but kind. A neat fresh cream is poured in and coffee beans are ground on the draw and room-note. Softening of pack ceases.
PAIRINGS
Blackberry or Cherry Manischewitz.
SMOKE TIME
75mins
FINAL GRADE
****B+****
EPILOGUE
I still can't find my wallet.