PROLOGUE
I've given this stick some press, gentlepersons. Meaning I believe it brings something very worthwhile to the table. I wrote about it in a horse racing post HERE and also a Kaplowitz Scale Review HERE. Being the curmudgeon I am and am increasingly so, I see "New," and ask "Why?" insofar as what necessitated this new offering. Lettuce see what necessitated --
Bombay Tobak Gaaja
THE CIGAR
6 x 54 Toro Box-press Colorado
w. Ecuador Connecticut desflorado, Variety Hybrid Mejorado 2004
b. Ecuador HVA Seca Mejorada
f.Seco: Perú Hybrid Habano
Viso: Ecuador criollo 98, Paraguay Hybrid Habano 2000, Dominican criollo 98.
Ligero: Dominican HVA Mejorado
PRE-LIGHT
Silky smooth unimpeded hand-feel. Feels a tick light, but has great balance in-hand. Evenly complected Colorado. Charmin test squeeze is a bit soft-sided, but springs back well. No soft-spots. Box-press is rounder on one side than other. On the plus side: box-press is sharper on one side than the other. No veins to make mention of, so I won't; trace amount of spiderweb varietals -- silky smooth all told and as stated.
Schnoz notes off the shaft are sunny tobacco and minimally so, served on creamy underbelly. Some white spices in the distance. The foot is a tick seasoned with ginger and offers a graham addition. Cold pull is a sweet-tasting medium+ tension. White chocolate and graham cause the sweet; ginger and white pepper, the spice. Bitter and sour are two forms of citrus. Salty and savory (umami) have yet to check in. There's a slight mineral that begs salt on the cold finish. Cold mouth-feel is clean and soft.
LIGHT
Toasting the foot gives off some soft wood shavings aroma and sweetly so. A very light aromatic tobacco, as well. Lights nicely and evenly sans both ado and adon't. Opening hot tug is a white pepper zetz front which is delivered in a silky manner. Nigh immediately spins off a sweetness even as the warmth stays aboard in a bracing manner.
"Opening features a smooth even draw delivering a sweet flavored forefront with some sour backing via an acidity on a quite creamy medium body. The acidity dials back a few pulls in and [at that moment,] an umami comes into play alongside the sweet creaminess." Is my previous Gajja experience. Interestingly different. Creamy smoothness prevail thru both. Second and third hotties now serve to finish out and over-all reinforce my original observations. Nice consistency, that.
Burn is even 'nuff and its line is of medium thickness. Nice crystal bits in the ash of mainly pale to medium marbled grey sheathing. Draw is nigh brilliant, but the pack density has softened noticeably. Back to combustion: the foot-smoke has really up-ticked its out-put. Room-note is very like the draw with a sweet savoriness. A leathery cookie baking in a wood oven. Pace is a tick quicker than I remember of the previous offerings, but not fast. Profile is medium insofar as body and flavor. Strength is mild.
ACT I
Umami savory, yes -- via a well-worked and supple leather. Sour notes are added to in the under-belly by way of some blonde coffee. Salt is added to savory on the retro-hale along with a white pepper and new exotic spice from the older white. Very balanced. Rich and well-mannered. A sip fills ya smoke-hole up to over-flowing. Fantastic draw. Finish is lengthening and mainly sweet with a slight bit of bitter. Bitter is a very nice draw addition and really now, this Mbombay offering doth hath nailed finely balanced. Strength is up a tick, gently. Citrus peel bitter notes ebb and flow but never come to a bite, as a deepening of chocolate keep that realm in check. Coffee brews stronger but still lends well to the sour portion. Umami gets a savory cereal grain boost. Sweetnesses get a boost from strengthening chocolate, as well. Too, the graham gets a sugar addition.
I can't stress 'nuff the balance here. Body and flavor lift in even tandem to a medium+ range; strength to a mild+. Texture is a creamy tingle. The ash stays on longer than on previous offerings and as I type, perhaps it is its insulation which wobbles the burn some.
I can't stress 'nuff the balance here. Body and flavor lift in even tandem to a medium+ range; strength to a mild+. Texture is a creamy tingle. The ash stays on longer than on previous offerings and as I type, perhaps it is its insulation which wobbles the burn some.
ACT II
Soft wood shavings give cereal grain the leathery boot. Chocolate is big, exotic spices brace it. Graham cracker, lots -- a high under-belly of the stuff. Profile is strengthening and rising, but not fluctuating. Burn has all but self-corrected a rather largess tick of lagging top-leaf. Mouth-tingle is considerable and of white pepper spiciness some ginger. Beautiful complexities on the retro hale, gentlepersons. Like all Bombay offerings, this Gaaja is of an exotic bent -- and perhaps more so than much of its brethren. Too, less overtly. Too, too, it is a heady flavorful thing.
Smoke pours and burn slows. Box press is now a vague oval. Seams have loosened and at the char threaten to pull away, loosened by a slight crack. Shaft has oiled up and so hath the texture some oils added to cream. More tingly and less exotic than the prior two offerings, perchance familiarity erases exotic. A round-eye on his second year of living in the Orient. Moisture in my smoke-hole is a tick spitty. Resting foot-smoke subdues to the point I think it might go out, but a draw satiates smoothly and immediately, offering cumulus plumes.
Seems as though heights have reached a cruising altitude. The in-flight movie should be a Bollywood thing starring Brad Pitt wearing a Joe Dirt 'do.
ACT III
The heightening salted mineral aspect plays nicely here and doesn't rock the balance boat at all. Room-note is an umami-fest and is actually working up my appetite. Methinks this Bombay to be a perfect smokeable apéritif. Umami sensations and ginger-salted minerals delivered sweetly on graham notes, jockey for the lead down the stretch on a medium bodied creamy texture with a slight sour note coming off the chocolatey pace. Some bitter notes are present, just 'nuff so to brace the sweets. Again, nigh supremely balanced, this Gaaja. I could use a more pillowy delivery, in doses. There is a flirting with occasional sharpness.
Less ashy of an affair than in my two previous goes, my schmatta hath not left thine back pocket. Disheveled top-leaf never shows through to binder and gets smoked through sans affair. Nub is firm and too, vastly rounded. Smoke is cool although my palate is a tick toward parched. Strength wraps up at a bulls-eye medium. At nigh-band, body picks back up in sweet creaminess and yum.
PAIRINGS
Loganberry Manischewitz.
SMOKE TIME