MEGA Review: J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robusto

[buzz]

About the cigar:
Brand:	J. Fuego	Color:	Maduro
Name:	777	Wrapper:	Nicaragua
Country:	Nicaragua	Binder:	Nicaragua
Type:	Robusto	Filler:	Nicaragua
Size:	5'' x 50	Price:	$ 3.60
Strength:	Full	Website:	www.jfuego.com

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Information from My Discount Cigar:

The J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robusto cigars are manufactured by Jesus Fuego, a 5th generation Cuban tobacco grand master, who has blended cigars for some of the top cigar manufacturers in the industry. Jesus has branched off on his own and has blended several lines of cigars, including the bold and rich Nicaraguan puro 777 Maduro line which houses the intensity of the Corojo seed and the powerful piquancy of a maduro Criollo wrapper. Called the Triple Siete the J. Fuego 777 Maduro cigar is available in four sizes: Robusto, Belicoso, Corona and Toro and comes in bundles of 25, a sampler of 5, or as a single stick. J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robustos feature a 4-year-old criollo maduro wrapper, a corojo binder and filler tobaccos of a corojo and criollo blend. The J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robusto is a full-bodied blend with a dark ebony, oily and textured wrapper. As you begin your journey of smoking the J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robusto, in the forefront you will encounter layers of flavors such as espresso, leather and a finish of black pepper. But in the background of the J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robusto cigar you get a consistent creamy, semi-sweet chocolaty base. As you continue your smoking journey of this complex maduro you will notice the creaminess becoming more dominant as the spices mellow out and more sweetness comes to the forefront. The construction of the J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robustos ensures that it burns evenly, has a solid grayish ash and a reasonable draw. With over 100 years and 5 generations of experience, and his own company, Tabacos, S.A. in Honduras, Jesus Fuego is climbing the ladder in the cigar industry. Experience and taste Fuego's passion for his craft with the J. Fuego 777 Maduro Robusto today and you will be a convert for life!

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General:	Experience	Date Smoked	Where Smoked	Duration	Smoked
badwhale	Amateur	5/16	Basement	1 hour	Most of it
buzz	Newbie	5/11	Backyard	1 hour	Most of it
craig	Newbie	5/16	In a chair	30 minutes	Some of it
FightingFish	Newbie	5/10	Den	1.25 hours	Most of it
heftysmokes	Amateur	5/17	Patio	1 hour	Most of it
Irish79	Newbie	5/20	Deck	45 minutes	Half of it
kevin7	Been around	5/20	Patio	30 minutes	Half of it
logan37	Amateur	5/19	Front porch	1 hour	Most of it
Mangyrat	Amateur	5/20		1 hour	Most of it
Mizicke5273	Amateur	5/18	Back deck	30 minutes	Half of it
mrtr33	Newbie	5/17	Patio	1 hour	Most of it
prophetic_joe	Amateur	5/19	Outlaw Cigar	1 hour	Most of it
TheGreekTitan	Newbie	5/18	My office	1.25 hours	Nubbed it
VancouverMark	Newbie	5/16	Work	1.25 hours	Nubbed it

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Other Info:	Food	Drink	Entertainment
badwhale	N/A	Sierra Nevada Torpedo	Jack White ~ Blunderbuss (which is growing on me)
buzz	Chicken	Nimbus Oatmeal Stout	Playing guitar
craig	N/A	Coffee	N/A
FightingFish	N/A	Beer	Some
heftysmokes	N/A	Mules	Blunderbuss
Irish79	N/A	Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale	N/A
kevin7	N/A	Very Old Barton 90	N/A
logan37	N/A	Water	Pandora - Beastie Boys station
Mangyrat	N/A	Ice water	N/A
Mizicke5273	N/A	Old Rasputin Imperial Stout	We Bought a Zoo
mrtr33	N/A	Gravity Mtn from TC	N/A
prophetic_joe	N/A	Boulevard Wheat	N/A
TheGreekTitan	2 slices of pepperoni	Root beer	Counting Crows Pandora station
VancouverMark	N/A	Coffee	N/A

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Miscellaneous:
Oscuro shade wrapper. Faint sweet tobacco scent. Kinda lumpy bumpy texture.	I've had this cigar before and enjoyed it very much. I wish I didn't know the identity to see how I would rate it blind.
What an ugly wrapper.	The wrapper is dark and very veiny. There is a big vein that runs almost the length of the cigar.
Well, this is it. Let's see if we can pull off a miracle.

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[buzz]

Appearance:	Poor	Fair	Good	Outstanding	Perfect
badwhale			X
buzz			X
craig	X
FightingFish				X
heftysmokes			X
Irish79			X
kevin7			X
logan37			X
Mangyrat		X
Mizicke5273		X
mrtr33				X
prophetic_joe			X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark			X

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Construction:	Poor	Fair	Good	Outstanding	Perfect
badwhale			X
buzz			X
craig		X
FightingFish			X
heftysmokes				X
Irish79			X
kevin7			X
logan37				X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273			X
mrtr33			X
prophetic_joe				X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark			X

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Burn:	Very Uneven	Uneven	Even	Perfect
badwhale			X
buzz		X
craig			X
FightingFish			X
heftysmokes			X
Irish79			X
kevin7		X
logan37			X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273	X
mrtr33			X
prophetic_joe		X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark			X

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Draw:	Too Easy	Easy	Perfect	Tight	Too Tight
badwhale			X
buzz				X
craig			X
FightingFish		X
heftysmokes			X
Irish79				X
kevin7				X
logan37			X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273				X
mrtr33			X
prophetic_joe				X
TheGreekTitan			X
VancouverMark			X

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[buzz]

Ash Color:	Black	Dark Gray	Gray	Light Gray	White
badwhale		X
buzz			X
craig		X
FightingFish			X
heftysmokes		X
Irish79		X
kevin7			X
logan37				X
Mangyrat		X
Mizicke5273				X
mrtr33		X
prophetic_joe			X
TheGreekTitan		X
VancouverMark				X

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Ash Structure:	Flaky	Typical	Solid
badwhale		X
buzz		X
craig	X
FightingFish		X
heftysmokes		X
Irish79		X
kevin7		X
logan37		X
Mangyrat		X
Mizicke5273	X
mrtr33	X
prophetic_joe		X
TheGreekTitan		X
VancouverMark		X

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Ash Length:	< 1 inch	1 inch	1-1/2 inch	2 inch	> 2 inch
badwhale	X
buzz	X
craig	X
FightingFish	X
heftysmokes		X
Irish79		X
kevin7	X
logan37		X
Mangyrat		X
Mizicke5273	X
mrtr33		X
prophetic_joe		X
TheGreekTitan		X
VancouverMark		X

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Aroma:	Horrid	Poor	Fair	Good	Great
badwhale				X
buzz				X
craig				X
FightingFish				X
heftysmokes				X
kevin7			X
logan37				X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273		X
mrtr33				X
prophetic_joe				X
TheGreekTitan				X
VancouverMark				X

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[buzz]

Strength:	Mild	Mild-Med	Medium	Med-Full	Full
badwhale				X
buzz			X
craig			X
FightingFish			X
heftysmokes			X
kevin7			X
logan37				X
Mangyrat			X
Mizicke5273				X
mrtr33		X
prophetic_joe			X
TheGreekTitan				X
VancouverMark				X

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Prelight Taste:
Leathery prelight taste.	Spice and some sweetness.
Sweet, as in sugar.	Rich chocolate covered raisins
None.	Nothing much. Slightly sweet cocoa.
Kind of a bitter hint.	Musty with a slight hint of fruit.
Licoricy.	Again I didn't pick up much of a prelight on this one. A little spice maybe but overall nothing much.
Tastes like a cigar to me.

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Taste 1st Third:
Dense oil and leather. Strong pepper note on retrohale. Full body and leaves an oily black coffee aftertaste.	Spicy cedar wood, eratic burn and slightly tight draw are kinda annoying. Not a lot of smoke.
Loads of sweetness.	Smooth and delicious. Velvet and vanilla finish.
Dark wrapper. Kind of harsh and bitter on the exhale.	Ick, plastic.
Nothing on the flavor. Bad bitter / tar finish on draw.	It started off with a bitter harsh taste to it.
Janet started off with a very familiar taste, I wan to say Honduran tobacco. An uneven burn developed rather quickly. The burn shortly turned horrible and started to run on the once side. The familiar taste turned almost instantly to a horrible and acrid taste.	Lit well, strong dark sweet tobacco taste, but nothing outstanding.
The smoke started out pretty decent. I had a little bit of a problem getting it to light completely but when I did it gave me a nice spice and slightly sweet woodsy flavor. I enjoyed the initial taste and it stuck around pleasantly through the first 3rd. The cigar had some burn issues but not horrible and I was able to straighten it out with my torch.	I like it. Kinda tastes like strong black coffee to me, or maybe a shot of espresso. Flavorful little feller.
Pepper zing. Woodsy and a bit harsh. A bit smoother towards the end of the 1st 1/3.

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[buzz]

Taste 2nd Third:
Oily, but sweet. Man, this is really dense. It reminds me of a famous madurito or a Habanos Puros Fuerte, but I don't know.	Still spicy, less cedar and more of a plain wood taste, required lighter touch-ups.
Earth to my taste buds. Still some sweetness linger after the mulch.	Harshness has diminished.
Couldn't finish.	1st half of this third was the same as the first. I started to get a little bit of flavor in the second part. I noticed a slight leathery sweet flavor. But the finish was still horrible.
The bitterness is taming down now but still overpowering any other taste.	The 2nd part got much worse. The taste became very harsh and was un-smokeable at this point.
I get some sweetness out of this middle portion, and a splash of spice, which goes away after 3-4 puffs.	So far it is a fairly smooth smoke with a decent, albeit slightly tight draw, and a nice slightly spicy flavor with a little sweet. I am still having mild burn issues but the cigar is tasting pretty good and the atmosphere mixed with it is making this a pretty enjoyable smoke.
Not much change. I still like it a lot. In your face flavor, and lots of smoke to blow at the ceiling. I think I taste cedar.	Much smoother now. Pepper has picked up but also tasting leather. Nice creamy tobacco taste.

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Taste 3rd Third:
Same. Oily, dense, leather and some woodsy. Same profile throughout.	Got hot and harsh (tight draw). Taste went sour so I pitched it a tad early.
Some spices showed up, cinnamon and nutmeg.	A but more flavor began showing. Finally. The tar taste on the finish mellowed out a little bit here and a mild spice came out. Still not a fan of this cigar though.
My taste buds are shot after the first half so not much of anything but bitter.	It's not so much that the flavor profile doesn't change - it just doesn't really WOW me. It doesn't taste bad, there's never a moment of harshness, but it's not something I'm getting excited about.
A little bit of bitterness comes into it now and I am having a little trouble keeping it going due to the slight tightness of the draw. The burn has evened out though and I am still enjoying it. With about an inch and a half left the cigar goes out and I attempt a relight. I am able to get a few more decent mouthfuls of smoke but it is just too hard to keep lit at this point and I have to let it go.	Less coffee flavor, now more woody? Almost like chewing on a freshly broken twig. Minor touch up needed. Really good stick, I liked it a lot.
Lot's of leather and spice. Sweet tobacco taste and cedar seemed to come and go. Seemed to have a nice woodsy aroma and taste as well.

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[buzz]

Grading:	1st Third	2nd Third	3rd Third	Overall
badwhale	B+	B+	B+	B+
buzz	B	B-	C-	C
craig	C-	-	-	D
FightingFish	A	A	A	A
heftysmokes	B	B+	B+	B
kevin7	C	F	-	D
logan37	D	C-	C+	C-
Mangyrat	B-	B	B-	B-
Mizicke5273	C-	F	-	D
mrtr33	B-	A-	B	B
prophetic_joe	B	B+	B-	B
TheGreekTitan	A-	A-	A-	A-
VancouverMark	B-	B+	B+	B
Average	B-	B	B	B-

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Thoughts:	Smoke Again	Buy a Box	Recommend
badwhale	Yes	Probably not	Yes
buzz	Yes	Probably not	Yes
craig	Definitely not	Definitely not	Definitely not
FightingFish	Definitely	Yes	Yes
heftysmokes	Maybe	Probably not	Maybe
Irish79	Maybe	Probably not	Probably not
kevin7	Definitely not	Definitely not	Definitely not
logan37	Probably not	Definitely not	Definitely not
Mangyrat	Maybe	Probably not	Probably not
Mizicke5273	Probably not	Definitely not	Probably not
mrtr33	Maybe	Definitely not	Maybe
prophetic_joe	Yes	Probably not	Yes
TheGreekTitan	Yes	Maybe	Yes
VancouverMark	Yes	Probably not	Yes

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Last Words:
Full throttle, into the mountainside...	For the price this is a good Nicaraguan cigar. Don't seem to be very consistent though.
I didn't like this one. Tasted like Memories of Backwoods to me.	Can the next Mega Review be five of these!?
I thought by the cut and color this was an anejo, but there's no 5x50 listed and it didn't taste like the anejo I smoked the next night.	I was rushed for this review due to poor planning on my part.
I think I got an off 1 cause I can smoke bout anything but I think there was twine in mine LOL No biggie cause its been the best review thing I have ever participated in.	The only match that I can come up with is Diamond Crown Maximus. This has an Ecuadoran wrapper so I based my country guess on that. Even though the binder and filler are both DR.
This cigar reminded me of my last diamond crown experience, a big let down.	Not sure if this was a one off that was bad, but it was terrible. This was a very bad experience, that did not last long and I did not take too many notes as a result.
Not a bad cigar, but something I probably wouldn't reach for. The larger ring gauge and what seemed to me like an "oversweetened" cigar just don't really do it to me. Finally, I can stop smoking these shit sticks and get back to something I'll enjoy smoking...... Just kidding. Thanks for this - looking forward to the next one. I really hope the bribe I sent was enough.	This has been a pretty decent cigar. I enjoyed the experience and the flavors. The burn and draw issues were an annoyance but a minor one. This is not my favorite of the ladies but I would give her another dance.
I was almost a little sad when I nubbed this stick. Fantastic job Buzz and Jamie!!! Thanks for this go around and count me in next time.	Good cigar. Can't wait to find out the identity to pick up a fiver!

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[buzz]

Pictures:

[buzz]

Editor's Note:


These cigars were purchased from My Discount Cigar. We picked them up for $89.90 with free shipping (bundle of 25). The cigars came nicely packaged, but were in a bundle despite the picture of a cedar box. I didn't see any damage to the cigars and the cello and bands came of easily.

[buzz]

Blowholes:	Brand	Country	Price	Points
badwhale	J. Fuego	Nicaragua	$5.03	4607
craig	- voted off -			0
FightingFish	La Flor Dominicana	Nicaragua	$6.47	3037
kevin7	601	Nicaragua	$4.93	1117
Paddy	- voted off -			0
TheGreekTitan	J. Fuego	Nicaragua	$5.03	3757
VancouverMark	J. Fuego	Nicaragua	$5.03	2107
Total:				14,625

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Whiny Bitches:	Brand	Country	Price	Points
heftysmokes	Diamond Crown	Dominican Republic	$7.65	595
Irish79	Diamond Crown	Ecuador	$8.12	2298
logan37	Diamond Crown	Ecuador	$9.92	568
Mangyrat	Diamond Crown	Ecuador	$10.14	346
Mizicke5273	Hoyo De Monterrey	Honduras	$6.47	713
mrtr33	Diamond Crown	Dominican Republic	$9.92	368
prophetic_joe	Diamond Crown	Dominican Republic	$8.12	1548
Total:				6,436

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Standings:	Brands Correct	Countries Correct	Total $ Off	Total Points
Irish79	3	2	$8.08	11,756
TheGreekTitan	3	4	$6.27	11,013
badwhale	3	4	$10.53	10,447
logan37	3	4	$8.44	8,856
VancouverMark	3	3	$6.94	8,056
Mizicke5273	2	3	$5.56	7,194
FightingFish	2	4	$19.29	7,638
kevin7	2	4	$9.93	7,007
heftysmokes	2	2	$10.44	6,956
prophetic_joe	2	2	$11.47	6,846
craig	2	2	$10.77	5,783
Mangyrat	1	1	$18.36	4,914
mrtr33	1	1	$16.23	4,627
Paddy	0	0	$37.95	2,205

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Irish79 held on and claims the title of MR5 champion of champions! The Blowholes finally were able to win a round by getting the identity of Irene correct. The Whiny Bitches have come out victorious, with a total point count of 51,149 to the Blowholes' 48,778. The Whiny Bitches will therefore receive 4 prize packs while the Blowholes only receive 3. The prize pack winners are (in order of cigar selection order): Irish79, logan37, Mizicke5273, heftysmokes, TheGreekTitan, badwhale, and VancouverMark. There are 34 total cigars available for the prize packs: 7 My Fathers, 9 Tatuajes, 4 Avos, 5 Camachos, and 9 J. Fuegos. Prize pack selections will occur in a different thread.

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[logan37]

Looks like I shit the bed this round(there ya go Ash). Well done Blowholes for getting one round. It figures that the one you win is a yardgar. Keep it classy San Diego!

Thanks Buzz and Jamie for yet another, kick ass MR!

[prophetic_joe]

Yeah awesome MR. most of these were smokes I had not had before so I was pretty worthless and not much of a help. Thanks to the rest of the Whiny Bitches for getting our team the overall win. Congrats to the prize winners and Congrats Irish for claiming the championship.

Thanks Buzz and Ash it was really fun.

[Irish79]

Great Mega Review Buzz & Ash! We sort of coasted at the end, except for PJ. It would have been a lot closer if PJ & Logan didn't claim a few bonus points in the final challenge.

[buzz]

The final points breakdown:

Blowholes	Felicia	Ginger	Halle	Irene	Janet	Total
TheGreekTitan	978	1,980	2,250	2,048	3,757	11,013
badwhale	988	990	1,814	2,048	4,607	10,447
VancouverMark	773	990	2,138	2,048	2,107	8,056
FightingFish	988	0	1,565	2,048	3,037	7,638
kevin7	1,023	846	1,973	2,048	1,117	7,007
craig	751	846	2,138	2,048*	0	5,783
Paddy	882	0	0	0	0	882
Totals	6,383	5,652	11,878	10,240	14,625	48,778
Whiny Bitches	Felicia	Ginger	Halle	Irene	Janet	Total
Irish79	1,000	1,846	4,064	2,548	2,298	11,756
logan37	1,250	2,240	2,250	2,548	568	8,856
Mizicke5273	1,132	990	2,250	2,109	713	7,194
heftysmokes	1,132	1,681	2,250	1,298	595	6,956
prophetic_joe	1,000	0	2,250	2,048	1,548	6,846
Mangyrat	457	728	2,250	1,133	346	4,914
mrtr33	882	728	2,250	399	368	4,627
Totals	6,853	8,213	17,564	12,083	6,436	51,149

* craig's points for Round 4 only counted towards his personal point total, they did not count toward the total team score.

[prophetic_joe]

Great Mega Review Buzz & Ash! We sort of coasted at the end, except for PJ. It would have been a lot closer if PJ & Logan didn't claim a few bonus points in the final challenge.

I had to make up for botching it and dropping the ball on Ginger.

[craig]

Thanks for putting this on, I really enjoyed it.

However, as the Blowholes won round five, we get to vote someone off.

Which means .....





We still lost. :-)

Congratulations to the whiners!

[mrtr33]

Nice job Blowholes!

I really suck at tasting cigars.