BLEND: 1675 Edicion Morado
WRAPPER: Mexican San Andres
BINDER: Nicaraguan
FILLER: Nicaraguan
FORMAT: Toro (652)
ORIGIN: Nicaragua
INTENSITY: Medium-full
NOTES:
Coffee beans | Hickory | Unsweetened chocolate
Rigid and smoky. Coffee beans are a full city roast and their oiliness is crucial to this otherwise dry blend. Hickory carries much of the smokiness and has a maturely-sweet attachment. A powdered molasses. 100% cacao chocolate. A cigar for an old-world palate before the brightly-colored overly sweet-salty boxes took over. A cook shopping only on the outer parts of the market, not the Shake 'n Bake Hamburger Helper inner aisles. An immigrant kitchen, a mother-country spice rack.
A bit of produce section is some dark-leaf'd herbs. Anise. From the dairy section, burnt butter enters as the first-third exits. Throw in some black peppercorn and a fennel hint. Well balanced and staunchly delineated. No nonsense. Straight-forward but not blindly-so. Stops to smell the tarragon and bay leaves. Stops again to appreciate the wood grain and knotty sweetness--a bit like sucking the marrow from a bone. Not deeply nuanced but complex within its tight confines. Black cherry?
Excellent draw and even-enough burn-line. Ash grows a bit dry but builds well, with no flaking, and no aeration. A razor-thin mascara line proves well-aged leaf. Seams are noticeable and shy of tight but hold fast. There is some veininess but not enough to hamper burn or hand-feel. Moderate plus smoke out-put yields a black bread in a wood oven aroma. Finishes on long clean legs with a slightly-sweetened woodsiness. Sophisticated. Dried figs as the curtain closes on the second third of its act and the final scene of this review.
TASTE: A-
DRAW: A-
BURN: B+
BUILD: B+
FINAL GRADE: A-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79
::: very :::