WRAPPER: Ecuadorian Sumatra
BINDER: Brazilian Arapiraca
FILLER: Dominican, Nicaraguan
FORMAT: Robusto (549)
ORIGIN: General Cigar Dominicana
INTENSITY: Medium-full
NOTES:
Leather | Baking spice | Chocolate
Eyeballs as a fair bit rustically and leathery. Tastes a fair bit leathery, too. Chocolate; semi-sweet and milk varietals--maybe even some corner brownie. Kindly attainable baking spice array. Walnut pieces. Fleshy. A tick oily and more than a tick creamy on the palate. What you'd expect insofar as finding the widest audience possible, but not what you'd maybe expect in avoiding the gimmicky even flavored nature sometimes employed in similar corporate duets. Quite legit.
So a real cigar. Kudos. I've obviously been putting off trying this one. That said, it does flatten some for lack of structure but some strong cowboy coffee in the second-third at least adds nuance. I feel as though there's a missing wood note. There's also a big fruity red wine in the far behind. Perhaps a cork popped in the house next door. Strength is a building thing and I wonder if that might put off some nascent cigar smoker whisky drinkers. I like it fine. OK, a hair beasty-bitey.
Nice smooth draw. Ash builds well. Burns a bit jaggedly-so but not so much as to require a touch-up. Quite veiny, a bit loosey-goosey at the seams. No biggie. Nice smoke out-put and a fair bitter-sweet aroma doesn't hang around much--at least compared to the finish. A bit of barnacles there, and peppered-leathery oils threaten pungency as meatiness steers there. As the steer steers, if you will. Do buffalo(s?) fall under the steer header? I once had some buffalo nickels socked away. I always seem to want to spell buffalo wrong.
TASTE: B+
DRAW: A-
BURN: B
BUILD: B
FINAL GRADE: B+
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79
::: very :::