**Here I will be singularly focused on the first note to grab my attention, following its evolution and attachments to the end. "Follow that note!"
WRAPPER: Cameroon/Connecticut Shade
BINDER: Dominican
FILLER: Mexican, Dominican
FORMAT: Petit Robusto (4.5x49)
ORIGIN: General Cigar Dominicana
INTENSITY: Medium
NOTE: Cocoa butter
The little note that could. OR COULD IT? We shall see. It is nowhere in the first 1/4" of smoke, which is dominated by citrus and far slighter by caramel. Then light-roasted coffee beans, not even taken to the first crack. Then and only then, we get our cocoa butter at a half-inch of ash. Or is it nougat? No, it's cocoa butter, being squeezed twixt citrus and the rest. Which is how this smoke is breaking-down at this point-- 50/50 citrus and the rest. That rest is sweet pale dollops of melanges.
The retro-hale drops our note a bit more perceivably upon the palate. So that's good. I find it mostly on the back-end thereafter. In the thereafter's, thereafter, if you will. At an inch in, a white pepper comes aboard and boy, it sure is hard to see cocoa butter. Found it! A few puffs further and getting into the second third of this short-statured smoke, it's there on the ::: very ::: front-end. First to the table, as it were. Actually, it sets the table, as I realize I'm actually getting the cocoa butter delivered onto my lips from the wrapper itself more than the draw of smoke. Pre-draw.
Interesting, it stays thatta way as described does our note until the mid-point, when a malty note seems to sidle-up to it. At first, said malted attachment serves to amplify, but then, a new smoky bit grows from it and begins to hide the cocoa butter. Suddenly then, it's back to being present on the draw. I again begin to taste it on the leaf. I should note: this is not a flavored or sweetened tip, of course. I'm simply getting notes (including ours) put on my lips from it naturally-so. And it carries on-into the immediate front of the draw before quickly getting hidden. And then, a couple puffs from there... I no longer see it.
Wavering. Final third. I feel like I'm driving at 10mph through a neighborhood, looking for the correct cul de sac. I'm terrible in that scenario. Hats off to delivery drivers and cabbies. One of the first things I wanted to be when I was growing up was a taxi driver. Never happened for me. I did try my hand at dispatching for a moment, though. I still feel sorry for those drivers, wherever the heck they wound up. WAIT A SECOND! I lick my lips and it's there--cocoa butter. I lick the cap and nothing. Take a draw, and nothing again. Huh?
It's not on the finish ether but beyond there, at the what? The end? Where the finish is done and before the next pull whisks it away. Why smack my lips and call me Cocoa Butter! Maybe the most visible amount yet. And that's how it stays, into the 3/3 and to the tooth-pick and then clay-pipe'd nub. Once in the pipe it is gone and gone forever, perhaps due to lack of mouth-leaf contact? What a trip. I remember cabbies in Brooklyn would always start the meter and then take the longest route possible.
Maybe I'm a cabbie, after all.
TASTE: A-
DRAW: A
BURN: B+
BUILD: A-
FINAL GRADE: A-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79
A further note: I recall hearing stories of some tobacco growers masticating some tobacco leaves. I sometimes do this myself, when I'm smoking and a leaf finds its way into my mouth. And as we know, many a cigar smoker has been known to chomp a stogie. Truly an under-used method of exploration.
:::
*Below is the schedule of this 'Partagas Project.' You have just read 4. You'll notice I reserved this edition for (Something quirky). Well, I've used it also to include this Annotating a Note style of review I've used only ~twice in the past.
1. Intro (about the blend & project)
2. Review (Regular)
3. Review (Sherlock Holmes)
4. Review (Something quirky)
5. Review (Cigar Aficionado style)
6. Review (Limerick)
7. Review (Long-form)
8. Review (Flavor wheel)
9. Review (Kaplowitz Scale review)
10. Review (Doggeral poem)
11. Review (Primary tastes)
12. Overview
*[PLEASE NOTE: regardless of which installment of this multi-post project you come in on, you can find the rest of the entries by employing the Search Kaplowitz Media. function to the right of your screen. Try typing in "Partagas Project"] (These instructions were edited for clarity 4/23/22.)
1. Intro (about the blend & project)
2. Review (Regular)
3. Review (Sherlock Holmes)
4. Review (Something quirky)
5. Review (Cigar Aficionado style)
6. Review (Limerick)
7. Review (Long-form)
8. Review (Flavor wheel)
9. Review (Kaplowitz Scale review)
10. Review (Doggeral poem)
11. Review (Primary tastes)
12. Overview
*[PLEASE NOTE: regardless of which installment of this multi-post project you come in on, you can find the rest of the entries by employing the Search Kaplowitz Media. function to the right of your screen. Try typing in "Partagas Project"] (These instructions were edited for clarity 4/23/22.)
::: very :::