The KC/DW Review Series

[DeeDubya]

KC,
Thanks for including the index. Very helpful. I had already forgotton that your very first review was the Perdomo Reserva. My son and I also trade out sticks and I forget who got what. He lives in Albuquerque and about twice a week we bust out a stick and smoke while we're on the phone. We catch up on cars, fly fishing, etc. and at the same time do a review.
DW

[King Catfish]

KC,
Thanks for including the index. Very helpful. I had already forgotton that your very first review was the Perdomo Reserva. My son and I also trade out sticks and I forget who got what. He lives in Albuquerque and about twice a week we bust out a stick and smoke while we're on the phone. We catch up on cars, fly fishing, etc. and at the same time do a review.
DW

Yeah, I'm going to try one of those Perdomos again sometime, and rereview it. I think its low score was a result of it being first in the series; I'd bet it would do better now.

Sounds like a great way to spend some quality time with one's son.

[King Catfish]

This evening I tried the God of Fire Don Carlos blend, sent to me by DeeDubya.

The cigar was a solid-packed robusto with a medium-toned, fine-textured wrapper. The red and gold double band showed a picture of Prometheus being tormented by the eagle and the name of the blend, “Don Carlos”. The cigar gave the impression of high class and workmanship, and felt good in the hand. Construction was rock solid, and I feared a tough draw.



The unlit aroma was not strong, but a little sweet and perhaps slightly woody. I lit the cigar, and was immediately greeted with a large volume of mild, woody, leathery smoke that was easy on the tongue and civilized in the throat. The draw was easy as well, despite the hard-packed feel of the cigar. The ash was ghostly white. The burn was a little uneven at first, but this happens to me often; it might be that I light my cigars inexpertly; in any event, the burn evened itself out quickly with no help from me.

The first third made an understated presentation of wood and leather, perhaps with a tiny hint of spice. The flavor was very subtle and I had to concentrate to get a clear impression in the first third. The ash was really extremely white, and fell off after about an inch (and later ashes were much longer). The aroma of the smoke wafting around the cigar was dry, faint, and pleasant. Aftertaste was nearly absent.

As the second third got underway, the leather in the taste began to assert itself a little more; it was late at night when I smoked this stick or I would have liked to try it with coffee. It seemed this cigar would be complimented very well by a nice cup of java. The aftertaste was faint, supporting my hypothesis that this would be a good cigar for the (late) morning, when the palate is more sensitive and a strong, lingering aftertaste would be less desirable. In the second third I was a bit surprised as the cigar started to assert itself more strongly. In the very middle the cigar started to pump out a nice, somewhat dry leathery flavor that I really enjoyed, and it did not seem to suffer too much from its loss of any hint of spice.

In the final third, it occurred to me that this cigar was perhaps a little bit like the Montecristo White but less creamy and more dry, and again I thought I would like to try this one again sometime earlier in the day, with a nice cup of black coffee. The aftertaste was developing that slightly alkaline character that always makes me think of coffee. To my surprise, a very interesting sort of burnt chocolate taste appeared near the nub, and was quite a treat. There was a touch of bitterness at the nub (which I did not mind, and it did not stop me from smoking until my fingers were practically ablaze).

All in all this was a very civilized, classy, memorable cigar that developed moderately well and had a very pleasant taste. It suffered a bit from a weak start and a lack of complexity until well into the last third. I would save this cigar for a thoughtful late Saturday morning coffee alone in a sunny kitchen or porch, not wanting to risk it getting overpowered by conversation, strong drink, or proximity to a meal.

Score 17.85 (x5) = 89.25, gaining half a point for exceptional construction, losing half a point for the weak start, and gaining a half point for good development after the middle, for a final score of 89.75. I would suspect it would score higher when paired with the proper beverage and time of day, as mentioned above.

Thanks again to Deedubya for his generosity and another unique smoking experience. Apparently this stick is limited in production and hard to find. This is the best sort of gift, an experience that otherwise I would not have had.

To expand a bit on cigars in general, I am beginning to see that I like different kinds of cigars for different situations: The God of Fire fits into that category of a thoughtful smoke one has alone and provides with the perfect setting for full enjoyment. Other times I like a cigar with a more assertive character and a strong start, best for conversation with a couple of good friends and depending less on setting and complimentary beverages or food.

[DeeDubya]

Very thorough review KC. I would say that pretty much reflects how the GOF was for me. I've only smoked one and that's been a few months back. I'll do exactly what you suggested and have one around mid-morning with a cup of single roast bucamonga.

I've been smoking regular sticks lately and nothing that hasn't been reviewed or is worth reviewing. I'll try and dig out a stick worthy of a review for the weekend. Also, I'll shoot another GOF to you one of these days. Actually I think I might have given mine a little higher rating but then it could have been mindset when I first bought them. So, I'll have to smoke another also, you know, just to be sure.

Cool ashtray.

[King Catfish]

Very thorough review KC. I would say that pretty much reflects how the GOF was for me. I've only smoked one and that's been a few months back. I'll do exactly what you suggested and have one around mid-morning with a cup of single roast bucamonga.

I've been smoking regular sticks lately and nothing that hasn't been reviewed or is worth reviewing. I'll try and dig out a stick worthy of a review for the weekend. Also, I'll shoot another GOF to you one of these days. Actually I think I might have given mine a little higher rating but then it could have been mindset when I first bought them. So, I'll have to smoke another also, you know, just to be sure.

Cool ashtray.

Thanks. I have a few sticks lined up for you to review. I'm waiting for Monday to send them out.

My wife is a sculptor, and she made me two nice ashtrays for my stogie habit.

[King Catfish]

Don Lino Africa Duma (5x50)

Today I decided to have a Don Lino Africa Duma (5x50) that I picked up in a trade with a close buddy.

A little research turned up the following: The cigar has an aged Cameroon wrapper, and a mix of Dominican, Nicaraguan, and African filler tobacco. I could not discover the pedigree of the binder tobacco. Apparently the vitolas are named with the Maasai words for various animals, inspired by a Safari trip taken by the maker (Nestor Miranda).

The cigar was a medium-dark brown maduro, somewhat coarse and on the veiny side, with a definite oily sheen. The cigar was firm but not hard, and I was predicting an easy draw. The unlit aroma was mild but pleasant; it smelled as if it would have a nice, pungent flavor. (Some pondering and web-surfing afterwards brought a couple of words that are pretty close to the smell I remember from the unlit cigar: a good, clean “compost”, or hardwood forest loam.)



The band was very apropos to the Africa theme, with zebra-skin stripes and a large “A” with a snakeskin pattern. The background on the band was golden woven grasses. I decided to pair this cigar, for no particular reason, with a couple of fingers of cheap Scotch and a nice amber lager.

I managed a good cut and toasted the foot; when I did so a nice little whiff of the cigar passed by my nose, but was gone before I could qualify it. When I lit the cigar, the smoke tasted dry at first, with great volume. The draw was even easier than I expected. The initial taste was assertively dry and sort of dusty and earthy, and the aftertaste was in full swing by the third or fourth puff, a vaguely chocolatety taste perhaps also redolent of coffee (the chocolate did not linger). The wrapper was tangy and maybe a little sweet on the lips. This cigar passed my “first test”; that is, it came out of the gate with some personality. For all this assertiveness, the smoke was easy on the tongue and throat.

Into the first third, leather was soon ascendant, with that pleasantly dry, dusty, earthy background taste singing backup. (I don’t want to get outlandish here, and perhaps the whole African oeuvre was getting into my head, but that dry, dusty taste reminded me of the road dust in Mogadishu (yes, I was there). Perhaps that was something that the cigar gains by power of suggestion because of its African theme; however, if it’s intentional on the part of the maker, then it’s quite a stunning achievement. I leave the reader to decide on his own.

The burn began even but not razor-sharp. There was a round, alkaline coffeelike taste in the middle. I was very pleased from the beginning, because the cigar was assertive and complex from the very start. The ash was medium gray and bumpy and not pretty, even black in small patches; it fell off very short and was a bit flaky. The cigar needed a touch-up light to even up the burn at the end of the first third.

I’m not sure why, but the ash started to get much whiter in the beginning of the second third. By the end of the second third, the ash was back to medium gray. It was difficult to know what to think about the less-than-spectacular burn and this strange, changing ash. The cigar was getting sweeter, especially on the tip of the tongue. The taste was evolving away from the leather and toward the sweet, but the sweetness, once it appeared, remained through to the middle of the last third, although not very strongly. The overall body of the cigar was pleasantly strong.

The final third started as a continuation of the sweet and dusty/earthy latter second third. Then the leather popped back up a bit. I had to resist a touchup light early in the final third, but the uneven burn remained irksome (but not disastrous). The aftertaste, a bit shy to this point, started to get a bit stronger and was a bit alkaline. The taste for most of the last third was deteriorating and the smoke started to taste hot and bitter. Unlike many of the cigars I reviewed, I did not push this one to the finger-burning nub. I tried to purge the cigar early in the last third (creating a messy shower of flaky ash all over the place); this took away the bitterness somewhat and restored some of the leatheriness for a few puffs, but by this point the sweetness and the dusty earthiness were gone. For a few minutes after I let the cigar go out, I had a slight aftertaste that reminded me of unsweetened bakers' cocoa.



I was unable to decide what food and beverage pairing would be best with this cigar. I have a few more, and I will try the next one with a red wine and perhaps a mild cheese, just on a hunch.

Score 17.7 (x5) = 88.5, gaining a full point for complexity and personality from the very start and a quarter point for super smoke volume, gaining a quarter point for uniqueness, and losing a half point for a problematic burn, a quarter point for a flaky, messy ash, and another half point for a back-and-forth inconsistency of taste. I also deducted a two full points for a lackluster finish. Final score of 86.75. Definitely worth a try, but not a humidor staple.

EDITED TO ADD: This was a very long, slow smoke, almost 2 hours.

[King Catfish]

I had such a good time this afternoon reviewing the Don Lino that I decided to review another. This time I decided on a Perdomo Slow-Aged 826 in the Glorioso size (6x52). This one had been sitting in the humidor for a few months. I went back to the amber lager and Scotch to accompany this medium-to-full bodied cigar.

The cigar is garbed in a Connecticut natural wrapper with a slight sheen of oil. A bit of research told me that the filler consists of four different Nicaraguan tobaccos, including a ligero. The cigar had a light, neutral smell before lighting. Wrapper color was even and the texture fine and smooth with no visible veins. The cigar was firm and perfectly rolled. The band is understated and black, white, and gold in color, with old-style (1920s?) lettering.

I managed to crack the cap a bit when cutting, but it looked manageable. Upon being lit, the cigar delivered an admirable volume of smoke that was creamy, tasty and on the sweet side at first. Flavor was bold right away, and was somewhere between leather, wood, and coffee. The wrapper was pungent on the lips, and the smoke was tangy on the tongue. Draw was medium, but soon eased up.

The first third added an aftertaste of coffee that had been in the pot a bit too long, just a bit bitter. The ash was very white, and fell off after about an inch. (A later ash was much longer.) The wrapper persisted in its taste on the lips. Burn was a little uneven but managed to correct itself enough to avoid a touch-up light. The woody taste of the first few puffs disappeared, and the cigar settled into a (slightly) creamy, smooth neutral taste (with some marginal coffee overtones) that remained consistent. Smoke volume was very nice throughout. The rest of the cigar was more of the same. The crack expanded a bit at the nub but was not a huge problem.

I thought the first third went by a little quickly, so I started watching the clock and found myself mistaken. This is a nice, long smoke, in excess of an hour.

This is a good, workmanlike cigar; I would like to have it after a good cheeseburger with a stout or a dark lager. At approximately 2 dollars each, a five-pack or two of this one will be finding its way into my humidor at some point. These should be perfect for a barbecue or a game of horseshoes in the yard on a sunny day.

Score 16 (x5) = 80, adding a half-point for nice smoke volume, decent start, and good construction and losing two and a half points for being one-dimensional, failing to evolve, and lacking any distinguishing character for a final score of 78.