[Review] Mizicke's Custom Special

**Mizicke5273** · 05-10-2011, 12:13 PM

Mizicke's Custom Special a.k.a. Fix What Your Dumbass Breaks!
[Ashton VSG Wizard from 2007]

Background
This VSG was purchased at Holts in September 07 when I was in Philly for work. This marked the first time I was at a BIG cigar shop and what would lead to many traveling cigar purchases when I am on the road for work. I always search for a local shop before I even leave home, that way I am prepared.

I also picked up my first couple Opus Xs on this same trip from Holts. I was simply in awe at Holt's and walked away with about 20 cigars. I came home with more cigars than I left with. This was the pre-cooler era as well. In fact this was shortly after I first got into cigars, as my humidor had just been seasoned. Hell, I think I about doubled my stash from the visits to Holts on this trip. And what makes this VSG special is that it is the very last cigar I have from that trip. And that is part of the reason I didn't want to toss it when it was so damaged.

What the hell is a Mizicke's Custom Special?! And where I can I get one?
First off, you can't get these; this was a one of a kind. It's that "awesome"

A Mizicke's Custom Special, is the result of my dumbass dropping this fine cigar about 2 years ago. I was rearranging my desktop when I droppded this baby on the floor.

The wrapper was cracked pretty badly and actually missing a big piece at the foot. I just couldn't bring myself to toss it, so I let sit in the humidor for another 2 years. So, in the mean time, my dumbass struck again. This time the casuality was a Cabaiguan Belicoso Fino, last summer. Again, I just couldn't toss it, though it was impossible to smoke, the damage was too severe. Well leave it to me to take a full 2 years or more to figure out this simple solution. Torcedor's glue. I've had a bottle for years, though I never thought about using a donor cigar to patch the VSG. Well, that idea finally popped in my head a few weeks ago. So I set out to take pices of the Cabaiguan's wrapper and glue them to the VSG.

The End Result

This piece of Cabaiguan wrapper barely covers the missing VSG wrapper portion. So yes, I did that good of job when I dropped the VSG.

This portion of the damage was a crack in the shape of a V; the one side was fairly wide but the other a little smaller.

Here you can see all the major damage.

There were also a lot of smaller cracks and some little pieces of missing wrapper as well. For them I used the Torcedor's glue to try and "seal" the areas by applying a few layers. I would wait until the glue dried and then apply another layer to it. This all worked out fairly well; I was able to turn an unsmokeable cigar into a smokeable cigar.

**Mizicke5273** · 05-10-2011, 12:13 PM

The Review

Movie: Canadian Bacon
Drink: Bird Dog Blackberry Whiskey
Location: Back deck

Prelight:
- I used a punch to limit the damage to the wrapper and cap. I think I made the right decision doing that.
- The draw was loose, which is to be expected, but not as loose as I would have thought.

First Part:
- This was tough to light, which I'll attribute to the small cracks and damage.
- For the first few puffs I wasn't able to pick up any flavors. Unfortunately I had to put the cigar down for ~20 minutes and had to relight it.

- Upon the relight, I was able to pick up a smooth peppery taste.
- As the more I got into the First part the pepper continued to pick up and become stronger. There were also some hints of leathery spice developing.
- I had to do some touch ups to the burn, nothing too bad though. I was actually surprised the burn wasn't worse than it was.
- Continued to be smooth.

You can see a crack in the wrapper developing here, though nothing came of it and it didn't impact the burn.

2nd Part:
- The pepper has begun to pick up again....but so have some burn issues.
- The leathery spice flavor has begun to meld with the strong pepper taste. Which is a bit fascinating as I don't think I ever experienced that with flavors in a cigar before. Oh, it is quite good to.

- With about a little less than 2 inches left, I quite taking notes and just enjoyed the great cigar.

Final:
This was an enjoyable smoke to say the least, and it was pretty fun to smoke and review as well. In the end, I think my patch work held up pretty well. I have no idea how much, or if any, the wrapper patches effected the original taste. I'm really happy I was able to salvage the cigar and that it smoked really well without any incidents.

**badwhale** · 05-10-2011, 12:49 PM

Thanks for the review. Next thing ya know, you'll be making barber poles for fuente...

**JiveTurkey** · 05-10-2011, 02:35 PM

How about a camouflage pattern with three wrapper colors?

Mizicke, did the binder on the Ashton also tear? I had a cigar with a split/torn wrapper and I just used a gelatinous pectin solution to seal the wrapper to the binder. There was exposed binder and it smoked normally.

**Mizicke5273** · 05-10-2011, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by JiveTurkey

How about a camouflage pattern with three wrapper colors?

Mizicke, did the binder on the Ashton also tear? I had a cigar with a split/torn wrapper and I just used a gelatinous pectin solution to seal the wrapper to the binder. There was exposed binder and it smoked normally.

The big area at the bottom was both wrapper and binder. Never thought to mention that, good catch there. The rest was just the wrapper, thought the crack at the top was as big as the Grand Canyon.