Badwhale Challenge contest!

[craig]

Will has six small cigars to smoke. He doesn’t know anything about them - the bands have been removed. He’s going to review each one. Once the six reviews are up, I’ll post a dozen or so brand names. First person to correctly match the six cigars to the brand names wins. If nobody gets all the matches, then somebody will win.

Winner gets the same six small cigars. Winner is encouraged to append his/her review of each cigar to Will’s review (doesn’t have to be long).

Once Will has smoked all six small cigars, then the contest opens. At that point, one entry per person (unless I say otherwise). Edited entries will be disqualified. You must have properly posted an intro to enter. Prize pack sent regular parcel post (no tracking). If the prize pack gets lost/confiscated/destroyed in the mail, then the prize pack will not be sent again. Prize pack contains cigars not currently sold in the USA.

[badwhale]

Thanks Craig. I'll get crackin' soon.

One question...do you want all six smokes posted at once, or should I just post them up as I burn them?

Will

[craig]

As you burn them is good. Take your time, there's a wide variety of smokes there - you might not like most of them ;-)

[TachyCoventry]

Interesting little contest, great idea!

[Cigarbear]

Great idea! I can't wait for the reviews

[buzz]

Great idea for a contest - this should be fun. Will Will be allowed to post pictures of the cigars?

I realize "Will Will" above looks a little odd, but I am really not sure how I was supposed to handle that one... perhaps I should have used "Will badwhale".

-Buzz

[badwhale]

Great idea for a contest - this should be fun. Will Will be allowed to post pictures of the cigars?

I realize "Will Will" above looks a little odd, but I am really not sure how I was supposed to handle that one... perhaps I should have used "Will badwhale".

-Buzz

Me? Post pictures?

[craig]

Interesting! I've had a couple boxes of these. I had similar impressions of the first box, but the second box was much better. The boxes were eventually combined when the first box ran low. I thought all of the cigars in the first box was gone now, but maybe one remained? In any case, these cigars were a farm puro, and had a still-very-unique characteristic that made me try them. However, they are also a "not buy again" for me.

BTW, you don't have to smoke the cigars in order, and most would be overpowered by a lot of beverages. Small cigars tend to be blended as morning/daytime cigars.

On to the next!

[badwhale]

slightly modified formatting...

Smoke ??? ~ 5 1/4" x 40 +/-
Drink ~ Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale ; Tunes ~ None

Prelight: Colorado shade wrapper (mediumm brown). Broke a bit up at the cap but ended up being easily managed. Kinda bumpy and lumpy...not the most awesome construction. No triple cap. Not much prelight flavor, and spicy on the cut prelight flavor.



Light: Pretty easy. Medium to tight draw

1st 3rd: Light to medium body & medium to full flavor. Nutty and woodsy, maybe some leather. Has a grassy flavor to it. Leans toward a harsher side, but not dominant. Decent.



Ash: Medium gray & flakey. Holds on for 1/2"



2nd 3rd: Same flavors. Harshness comes and goes. Nice through...Woodsy, nutty and grassy on the draw & exhale. Different. This tunneled on the end of this 3rd and required a touchup.



3rd 3rd: Lots of smoke. Nice medium draw now and same flavor profile. Gets a little burny, hot and more harsh near the end.



Overall Impression: Nice smoke, more my speed for a morning or midday quick smoke.

Thanks Craig for BWC#4

[craig]

Maybe the contest should be called "Craig's dog rocket contest!" ;-)

As is becoming obvious, these are not all primo smokes. I picked them to offer a very wide variety of tastes - but tastes that are not typical of the cigars that Will has been reviewing (at least recently). Yesterday's was probably the most full-bodied. I'm having fun (and smoking the same cigar right now).

(As an aside, the reason that the cigars are all small is because of the weird postage rates here. If I keep the package DVD-thin, then the postage is reasonable. Otherwise it is triple the postage!)

BTW, for harshness, purging the cigar may help (blowing back through the cigar gently). For fun, light the purged air and see how long the flame can be kept going (works best on big-ring full-bodied cigars). This particular cigar can have harsh bits, though.

As always, the narrower the ring, the slower one has to smoke.

Here's the list for folks to start thinking about:
Bolivar
El Surco
Hajenuis
Jose L. Piedra
Macanudo
Partagas
Plasencia
Por Larranaga
Quintero
Rafael Gonzalez
Rocky Patel
Romeo Y Julietta

Also, where there are duplicate brands, these are the version not currently sold in the USA.


edited. quite a bit.

[badwhale]

I would not call either 2 dog rockets. I'm just callin' it as I taste it. I did try the purge thing, and like I said with #4, it was in & out with the slight (I repeat) slight harshness. Yes, they are certainly a different profile that what I normally review.

#1 had much better construction, and I didn't study the others yet.

The overall impression is always the telltale sign of my liking / disliking of a cigar.

Will

[craig]

Just pulling your leg ;-)

[badwhale]

Smoke ??? ~ 5.0" x 36
Drink ~ Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale ; Tunes ~ None

Prelight: Colorado to Colorado claro shade wrapper (medium light brown). Faint tobacco scent, and decent construction. No triple cap and a slight sweet tobacco taste on the prelight cut taste.



Light: Pretty easy. Very tight draw

1st 3rd: Sweet leather notes, and I guess grassy flavor? Kind of hard to describe with the tight draw. Weird oily aftertaste. Light body, and medium flavor.



Ash: Medium gray and charcoal layered well with tiny white ash bubbles. Holds on for 1"



2nd 3rd: Twangy sweet and slight oily bitter. To be honest, the tight draw is turning me off to this smoke, otherwise the flavor profile is interesting. Tannic? Is that the right word? Overall leaning to the grassy oily side.



3rd 3rd: Oily and slightly bitter sweet notes on a very slow draw. Not bad.



Overall Impression: Interesting, however I'm not a fan of a really tight draw.

Thanks Craig for BWC#3

[craig]

1. Cut cigar
2. Check draw
3. Dry box if necessary.

:-)

This particular box has a few cigars that have tight-assed draws - although not plugged, just inconsistent. Unfortunately, #3 was one of them. It smokes differently when dry - the tannins are much less evident.

[badwhale]

Smoke ??? ~ 5.0x40
Drink ~ Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale ; Tunes ~ Scissor Sisters ~ Return to Oz

Prelight: Colorado to Colorado maduro shade wrapper (medium brown). Looks like triple cap construction, and a little bumpy and veiny but nice construction overall. Strong sweet tobacco scent. Leather on the cut prelight taste.



Light: Easy. Medium to tight draw.

1st 3rd: Nutty and woodsy. A little spicy. A slight oil twang to it like a strong coffee aftertaste. Nice. Medium to mild body with medium flavor. Beer overpowers it, but it seems like it would be a great morning with the coffee smoke.



Ash: Medium gray with some darker mixed in and flakey. Holds on for 1"



2nd 3rd: Woodsy, nutty, some oil and a salty aftertaste. Mellow with enough spice to move it out of the "creamy" category. I think this is my favorite BWC sofar...



3rd 3rd: Mostly the same as described above...again...nice.



Overall Impression: Seems like a good morning smoke (although I normally aren't a morning smoke person), or something for later on the milder side, but very flavorful.

Thanks Craig for BWC#5

[badwhale]

Apparently I dropped the image ball on this one...

Smoke ??? ~ 5.0x36
Drink ~ Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale ; Tunes ~ Nirvana ~ In Utero

Prelight: Solid medium brown (Colorado) wrapper. Kind of rough construction...bumpy and veiny. Musty sweet tobacco scent. Plain tobacco flavor on cut prelight taste.

Light: Easy. Medium draw.

1st 3rd: I get a lot of that walnut skin oily bitter. Not overwhelming, but dominant. That kind of leaves quickly, and goes into an oily, nutty & sweet tobacco flavors.



Ash: Medium gray decent stacking. Holds on for 1"



2nd 3rd: Had to relight here...more of the same, like the second description of the 1st 3rd. Nutty with a sweet and oily mix. If you give a good draw, you can pull a little spice flavor. Tasty! Had to relight again near the back of this 3rd.

3rd 3rd: Needed some more relights and purging down near the end. Flavors are mostly there, but getting hot. Need to milk it down here.



Overall Impression: BWC5 is still the front runner, but I'd try some more of these next in line.

Thanks Craig for BWC#2

[craig]

You have good taste, sir.

[craig]

One more to go!

[EGQ]

I'm surprised Will didn't craft his own "Badwhale Culebra" out of the 5 smokes...

[badwhale]

Unfortunately, this one has limited pictures for a different reason. I did not notice upon receiving, but this baby took a beating in transit, and the wrapper and binder were busted up and down the cigar. I didn't really notice it until I took it out of the celo....I tried to light it, but I got no draw whatsoever, so, I made do, and clipped it down at the last third to salvage some flavors for the review......

Smoke ??? ~ Shit, I forgot to measure it...it was about 5x36 or 38
Drink ~ Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale ; Tunes ~ None

Prelight: The wrapper had a kind of greenish twinge to it, but also had a light brown color. Not much prelight flavor or scent. I should also note that this had a pre-clipped end, or no cap.



Light: Easy. Light draw

1st 3rd: Couldn't get it to draw with the broken wrapper and binder....Oh well.. Clippy Clippy....

2nd 3rd: N/A

3rd 3rd: This won't be the greatest rendition, as I started it down here, but here goes: Mild body. Hay flavors and maybe a little nutty. Hard to say....Very light. No bitterness, but I really can't be more descriptive...



Overall Impression: Sorry I couldn't do a better job.

Thanks Craig for BWC#6