Annotating a Note | Bocock Brothers Cigars World Traveler Maduro (Churchill)
WRAPPER: Nicaraguan
BINDER: Honduran Connecticut
FILLER: Nicaraguan
BLENDER: Raydel Lezcano
MANUFACTURER: San Judas Tadeo
FORMAT: Robusto
ORIGIN: Honduras
INTENSITY: Medium
Here I will be singularly focused on the first note to grab my attention, following its evolution (& attachments) to the end.
Chocolate. The note first fully appears as soon as the front-loaded pepper-spice smooths out. It's not an aggressive start but the black peppercorn particularly does hide our note a good bit. I'll say semi-sweet chocolate, but it begins more-so as bittersweet. From there, red fruit syrups sweeten it further along. Meaning, of course, that semi-sweet chocolate has more added sugars than does its bittersweet brethren.
Nevertheless, those fruit syrups stay alongside our note for a good length, interlacing to varying degrees and evolving on their own into a red wine before departing from chocolate at the beginning of the 2/3. Much more vanilla extract comes into the chocolate then, along with a cola flow. Then a retro-haled pull exhibits a resurgent pepper, this time ground black and red flake. It drops to the palate with a caramel cream addition. Our note gets enhanced via that confection.
The returning pepper (then spice). A leathery gambit holds this off the chocolate but not for too long and our note becomes hidden w/ the aid of cumin and paprika. As to again not lead you to believe a pepper-bomb is at hand, I'd rate it all of a four on a 10-point scale. This leads me to believe that the chocolate we're following is on some sort of union-mandated break. The whistle blows. Back to work. A new sarsaparilla churns out from anise, which in turn churned from the peppers. This drags up the chocolate.
And drags it up fudgily-so. As in our annotated note is now displayed in a milk chocolate fudge way. Much the rest of the profile softens this way, and some delineations are bled through and/or lost. This would be a mid-point transition. Coming out of that, the fudge loses some milkiness, firms, and is soon a salted darker-not-dark fudge that makes for a lip-smacking endeavor. Some umami is pulled in from the savory compost underneath. There is bittersweet chocolate back at play now.
That's right, a separate chocolate begins to form right before or at the opening of the transition, alongside newly introduced baking spices. The two cocoa notes do become one and as the final third looms and dark chocolate happens on account of that meeting. A smoky vibe sidles up close but doesn't rub elbows overly-so. Our note is silky and deep. Mature. Dusky. A certain dark-dried fruitiness sets into it. Finally, a slight tar. This is how the note displays on through to the end of the cigar.
As said, that was different. For familiarity's sake, below is my typical way of rating. As, naturally, pertains to this smoke in its entirety.
TASTE: B+
DRAW: B+
BURN: B
BUILD: B+
FINAL GRADE: B+
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59
I reviewed (in the usual manner) this blend in its Robusto expression. Feel free to search that up via the Search Kaplowitz Media. field to your right.
::: very :::