Dominion Black Lotus Maduro - Cigar Review

I'm editing this cigar review during game-seven of the World Serious. It's been rather anti-climactic through seven-stanzas. My wife is growing weary, I imagine, of me yelling my frustrations at the boob-tube. Distractions are squirrel.

Moderate veins with occasional bumps along the shaft and scarce tooth. Darkly hue'd and deeply-so with a nice even complexion. Burns outta-the-gate on a re-touch-fighting wobble which eventually finds even-'nuff on its lonesome. Tightly rolled of nigh-invisible seams and tough-draw of full tension'd chrome-off-fender pulls. Verily sturdily burnt-offerings of heather-grey marbling with tick-dry exterior sans flaking. Whenst rolled-off stubbornly, a coning of char is exposed. Given the draw resistance, the cap unsurprisingly dilapidates a bissell. Excellent smoke out-put culminates in a sweet-meat room-note. Pacing is quite slowly deliberate -- erring towards tedium. Woe is me.

• Molasses
• Vanilla Butter Cream
• Leathery oils
• Black pepper, finely-ground, sauteed
• Cocoa, Dutch-processed*
• Meat, roasted
• Musk
• Manure
• Barnyard
• Alkaline** tendencies 

This Dominion Black Lotus is smooth of texture, as advertised. So smooth as to dull any true delineations of notes. No transitions, all action comes by way of nuances -- and it's all muted nuance, really. The mottled notes twirl around in their entrenched nethers. Finish is of moderate-plus length and richly sweet, increasingly beefy. Rich is as goodly an adjective as smooth. Lush. Lazily-so. A retro-hale is imperative to pull-out many of the flavors listed above. Don't fret -- its smoov through the schnoz as Billy Dee Williams selling malt liquor. All hid, a Shakespearean game of hide-and-seek... with some flavors well-worth seeking... but must they hide so dang well?

WRAPPER: Nicaraguan Habano Maduro
BINDER: Honduran Sumatra
FILLER: Honduran, Nicaraguan

STRENGTH: Medium
FORMAT: Toro (652)
ORIGIN: Tabacos De Oriente, Honduras

FINAL GRADE: B
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59

IN ADDITION:
Via the Dominion Cigars co. website:
"Dominion Cigar is a Canadian National cigar distributor of its own Black Lotus, and forthcoming Flor De Claro cigar lines. Focusing on the Canadian market, Dominion is proud to be the only true Canadian boutique brand, with its own direct distribution network to tobacconists Canada wide. This was no easy task owner Steve Ricker said, as it took close to a year and a half to get the appropriate tobacco licensing in place for each Canadian Province we planned to do business in. Red tape, more red tape and hoops to jump though, before I could truly get started." (Woe is he.)
&
"In mid 2016 Dominion launched a maduro version of its very successful Black Lotus cigar. The blend itself is very similar to the natural, but features a Honduran six priming Sumatran binder, and a Nicaraguan habano maduro wrapper."

*"Dutch process cocoa has a smoother, more mellow flavor that's often associated with earthy, woodsy notes." Serious Eats.

** Did you know that baseball Hall-of-Fame honoree, Al Kaline, was the first Detroit Tiger to have his number (6) retired? True story.

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"THE MONK REPLIED"