It's a Girl

[craig]

It's a Girl

Size: measured 5 3/8" x 42.5 ring
Wrapper: Unknown
Binder: Unknown as well
Filler: Unknown, probably Dominican, but probably not Olor, as there was no stinky odour.

Beverage: fresh-ground Turquino coffee.

Background:
The "It's a Girl" cigars and their sibling, "It's a Boy," are among the most-knocked-off cigars in the USA today; fitting as one gets these cigars due to someone being knocked-up. Changing fashions and laws and health awareness have reduced overall demand, but the reduced demand has had the effect of improving the quality of the cigar. Unfortunately, it is not easy to tell if one is smoking the real thing or a knock-off. The plain pink band with its cursive font make reproduction trivial. Garcia Y Vega, Rocky Patel, Ashton, Davidoff, Baccarat. Cusano, Bering and Fuente are among the better-known brands that produce a knock-off. Some add a second band, e.g., Rocky Patel puts his ego band on his knock-off. Others use subtle variations of the original band. Yet others eschew tobacco altogether, using cigars made of chocolate, bubble bum, or soap(!) to celebrate the birth of a daughter. To each their own.

This particular example came via Logan37 in the premium cigar draft, so its provenance was impeccable. The cigar was enclosed in oversized cello giving a pleasing 'halo' effect.



Pre-light:
The wrapper was thin and had no major flaws, with very light veins and slight colour variation. Given the AMS shade of the wrapper, I'd venture the wrapper was CT Shade. There was no evidence of vaseline, er, I mean, the wrapper looked normal, and was not dripping with an oily sheen.

Despite the loose tobacco that spilled out of the foot, the cigar had a fairly stiff cold draw.

Unusually, the cigar was box-pressed at the foot, but cylindrical everywhere else.



First bit:
The cigar lit easily, and, as befitting a cigar given primarily to folks who do not smoke cigars regularly, it had the classic Dominican mild taste, as popularized by Macadoodle. Despite the loose chunk of tobacco that fell out when removed from cello, the draw was perfect. The burn line was even, although not razor sharp.



Middle bit:
Just like the first bit. ashing in chunks averaging 1.2247" Uncomplicated mild tobacco taste; not bitter, not salty, some sweetness, though not artificially sweet. (Cigars of this ilk often have a sweet cap.)



End bit:
Only in the last inch was there some bitterness; a purge took care of that. Now there were hints of leather and some spiciness as the cigar became medium-bodied.



Conclusion:
The taste may be out-of-fashion in today's ligero-filled market, but overall, a pretty nice unpretentious mild cigar. I can only hope that the pretentiously-named perfecto that Logan37 included with this draft pick smokes as well.