Newbie Review #3 Don Kiki Green Label
Things I'm learning as a newbie:
It's amazing, but when you're totally new to smoking cigars every new cigar is a learning experience. One of the things I've learned is that my state of mind is very important to the enjoyment I get from a cigar. Tonight I set aside the time to really enjoy a smoke. In fact, I found myself looking forward to it all day.
So I took my seat on the patio with a bottle of cool water and a double shot of Ancient Age bourbon at my side as well as my creme brulet torch (my new favorite cigar lighter) and a good book. I sat back and toasted the foot of a Don Kiki Green, took a few puffs and watched the setting sun turn the oak leaves from yellow to orange.
Appearance: The DK Green has a light brown wrapper, darker than the La Gloria Wavell I had a earlier this week but certainly lighter than the La Carolina I had a couple of days ago. There were no veins that I could see and the wrapper was smooth.
First 3rd: This is certainly a milder smoke than the La Carolina but it has a bit more flavor than the Wavell. The draw was pretty easy. Almost too easy. The smoke was a bit denser than the Wavell but still pretty light. While the flavors were stronger than the Wavell they wern't very challenging to my newbie palette. At first, the bourbon seemed to make the smoke taste harsh, but that quickly mellowed. Or maybe the bourbon just made me mellow.
Second 3rd: The smoke seems to be getting thicker and tastier. The sun is making the oak leaves glow orange. A trio of geese flys overhead and honks to clear the airspace in front of them. The taste is still pretty mellow and the ash is firm and white. I smoked a good 2 inches before the ash fell off. Meanwhile, up in the hills behind my house, the deer are making such a racket that I assume they're playing leap frog. Deer are not stealthy creatures and the dry fall leaves signals their whereabouts easily. I'm detecting some bitterness from the cigar but it's not overwhelming.
Last 3rd: The smoke is getting thicker and a bit creamier. Warmer, but not unpleasent at all. However, the wrapper is starting to unpeel from the cigar. I've learned from this forum that this may be a humidification issue. The smokes are pretty new and they've only been in my humidor a few days. I have a little pan of water in the humidor to help it soak up some humidity. With the pan in I'm set right at 70%. With the pan out it drops to 60%. I'm sure after a week or two it will stabilize. In any case, the cigars havn't had much time to rest.
The sun has dropped below the hilltops and the deer came down to our little pond to get a drink. There's 6 of them including two fawns that were born this spring. The fawns are putting on weight and have lost most of their black and white fawn colors. Meanwhile I find that I'm so engrossed with watching the deer that my cigar has almost gone out. A quick touch up with my lighter and we're back in business but the wrapper is still coming undone and is a bit flakey. There's starting to be a chill in the air and it's probably time to go inside and make dinner. But I stayed outside and smoked the DK Green down to it's last inch and a half anyway before letting it die.
Overall I'd say the DK green is a mild cigar that as a newbie I really enjoyed. I didn't have the hard draw problem that Cabaiguan Juan had with his, but the flakey wrapper was a bit annoying. Kenyth called these the "Budweiser" of cigars and I can see his point. Like Budweiser the flavor is pretty tame so as to offend no-one. But for a newbie this is probably a good choice for one of his first few smokes. I totally agree with Kenyth about having a few of these around to hand out to friends who don't smoke cigars very often. But I'm already seeing how I'm starting to like something with a little more body and flavor to it.
