Newbie Review #8 Cuban Crafter's House Brand

[Dru Lee Parsec]

Newbie Review #8 Cuban Crafter's House Brand

This cigar is not the Cameroon that I had earlier, this the Cuban Crafter's brand with the white and gold label. I had the 6" x 52 Toro which had a slight box pressed squareness to it. But the press wasn't as extreme as the La Carolina that I had a couple weeks ago. It was square with round corners rather then the tight sharp corners of the La Carolina.

Executive summary: Yes! Wow! What a great smoke

Pre-light: Easy draw but not as easy as the DK Green which offered almost no resistance. The taste of the unlit cigar was like smoking a tootsie roll. It had HUGE chocolate notes.

Let's see what the web site says I should notice:

The Filler is a sun-grown Cuban-Seed Habano. The Binder is a superior quality Habano 2000. They are all draped in a dark Habano Wrapper leaf from Ecuador, and are meticulously finished the original way, with a long curly head and a fine cuban tail.

FULL BODIED. Their distinguished taste is full-bodied and intensely flavorful with well balanced floral flavors and leather undertones. There are hints of spices and nuts. Their finish has strong traces of chocolate and coffee.

First Third: It lit easily with my Creme Brulet torch and strangely enough, the chocolate taste wasn't as profound as the unlit cigar. But it was GOOD, Oh My Gosh. Certainly there was some chocolate there as well as a light leather-like aroma. I didn't detect a sweetness like I did with the DK Red but I finally could taste what they're describing as the "Floral undertones"

The ash was strangely dark with a lot of black in it. I haven't seen ash that color in a cigar before.

Second Third: IT CHANGES! Yep, I've heard of complex cigars that change as you smoke them. By the second third the chocolate was now a subtle flavor and the leather and nuttiness flavors were coming out. I was also getting a bit of spiciness but not overwhelmingly so. There was a bit of uneven burn though. At one point it was about 3/8" off from one side to the other. Rotating the cigar didn't seem to help and touching it up with my lighter didn't seem to help it either.

I'm starting to detect a creaminess as well. And maybe even a dark fruitiness? What a chameleon of a cigar! It's offering up a whole range of flavors.

Last third: The leather flavors are right there up front as well as the spiciness. The nuttiness is still there as is the floral notes. I didn't want to put this one down. I probably smoked it down to the last inch and a half. I would have gone more but it was having trouble staying lit. The last third wanted to go out all the time.

Now, I should say that I was smoking this outside and it's cold and rainy today with an outside RH of 96%. So it's WAY more humid out there than in my humidor. So that may be why it was going out. The cigar may have been picking up the moisture from the air.

As I was down to the last bit the smoke was a lot warmer both in actual heat and in flavor. There was a real depth and darkness to the flavors.

I've read how aging a cigar makes the cigar even more wonderful. If that's true then I'm real tempted to buy a couple of boxes of these and build a coolidor. If the cigar is this good brand new then I can't imagine how all those flavors will combine as it's aged for a couple of years.

Newbie Appropriateness : Hmmm. This is a pretty complex and dark stick. This may not be a stick for a brand new cigar smoker, but once you've learned to appreciate more flavors then I'd say "Yeah, Go for it"

This was an excellent smoke that had a lot of flavors to offer. I really liked it.

[Kenyth]

The one I had was horrible. The roll on the cigar was so bad it rendered it unsmokable. It looked like someone rolled up a magazine, hole in the middle and all. I haven't touched another since.