BLEND: 828 Claro
WRAPPER: Ecuadorian Habano Rosado
BINDER: Ecuadorian Sumatra
FILLER: Nicaraguan
FORMAT: FFOD (654)
ORIGIN: Nicaragua
INTENSITY: Medium
NOTES:
Dessert spices | Dried tropical fruits | Latte/Cafe au lait
It doesn't so much flatten-out as it does poof up and allow you to drift in daydreams on fluffy notes. Before that, in its first-third, it's a still in-balance but spice-led affair. Predominantly sweet cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger sensations. The sort at home in a patisserie or sugary latte. Banana chips and candied papaya enter. Cocoa butter is what begins the fattening and rounding of edges in hefty whipping cream spoonfuls.
Nice buttery cedar structuring, lively and lush. Bending-not-breaking borders offer neat complexities. Suede, more latte or cafe au lait, a bit of dandelion, and honey. Delicate notes but displayed more brawny here than one might expect. Excellent olfactory tickler, this one--sweet floral spiced bits there. Again harmony is tested and passes in another manner, seeing body out-pacing flavor and strength but not egregiously lapping.
A quite particular, audacious blend with an eye-catching goldenrod under-hue. Performance-wise, the ash is a silvery aerated yet stubborn grower. The draw is of a smoothly even tension. There is some wavering to the line and the char seems thicker in some places. Nice pacing to the burn, slows after that opening stanza. Tells a good tale. Excellent smoke out-put. A different sort of experience, yet tethered to the traditional.
TASTE: A-
DRAW: A-
BURN: B
BUILD: B+
FINAL GRADE: A-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79
::: very :::