The KC/DW Review Series

[CAJUNBLAZE]

Thanks for all the great reviews. Good reading and adding more to my must try list.

Rich

[King Catfish]

New Year's Day

My sweet sister bestowed upon me a very much appreciated Christmas gift....

(snip)

Nice gift, and nice review. How was your holiday otherwise?

[logan37]

As always, great reviews DW.

[DeeDubya]

Nice gift, and nice review. How was your holiday otherwise?

KC,
Everythings great here. We've been blessed with mild weather this winter so far excepting that we are in an extreme drought. 2008 was the 5th driest year on record back to the early 1800's. Our normal rainfall is around 32", this year less than 16".
It's a good year for tumbleweeds and goats. The tumbleweeds like it dry and the goats don't give a shit about the weather.

How are things in Hatfield, PA? Did Santa find your house?

Have a safe and prosperous new year.

[DeeDubya]

These have been hibernating in my humi for around 5 months now. I opened a box and have smoked 5. I am impressed enough to bring them to the round table of BOTL's. They look much like a Gispert and do have a soft, leathery, toothy, Cuban like appearance. They are considered to be medium to full-bodied. Introduced in 2002 they seem to be now hard to find. I'm not sure why the unavailability.

They consist of a Nicaraguan filler and binder, are wrapped in a unique cross-bred Habano 2000 and Criollo wrapper and then box pressed. All 5 that I smoked drew and burned exceptionally well. I could detect a nutty (almond), toasty and earthy (aged) essence that made for a very flavorful yet not too robust cigar. The larger 52 ring guage certainly helps them burn a little cooler with clouds of thick rich smoke. Average smoking time for me is about 45min, but I usually smoke in the evenings and sometime tend to rush. One could easily last an hour.

At only $3/stick they are a good deal and worth every penny. We'll see where the price is if they again become available.

One a scale of 1-10 I rate this cigar 8.8.

[mrtr33]

I had my first Savinelli when I met up with Silencei2 just before Christmas a few weeks ago. I asked the shop owner for a strong, full bodied Nicaraguan and that was what he suggested, after I turned down the Padrons and LGC's. Nice smoke. It didn't look like the one on the picture. I want to say it had RyRY on the wrapper. Haven't been able to find it, but haven't looked too hard, either.

[DeeDubya]

Well I now have a new "quick break" cigar that is replacing my beloved Hemingway Short Stories and Oliva Special G's. While the Short Stories will always have a special place in my humidor and I will always keep some on hand, it always seems like a waste to puff down a $5 cigar in 15 minutes. When I have time, I can stretch them out to 20 or 30 minutes and truly enjoy all the earthy flavors. But I'm talking about when I don't have that much time yet still have to have a cigar. Along came the little Nesticos.

The Plasencia Nesticos consist of the same 3yr aged 100% organically grown Nicaraguan tobaccos as their larger cousins. I have several boxes of the larger vitolas and smoke them one on occasion always enjoying the truly natural flavors. It's kinda cool thinking that this may be close to what cigars were like a couple hundred years ago, no pesticides, old world traditional drying and aging and best of all they were puros, as blending, especially with foreign tobaccos was not as prevalent.

The little Nesticos have all the good qualities of their big brothers but of course burn just a little hotter thereby slightly changing the flavors with a little more dry grassiness. Still, they are spicey with a good finish, burn evenly, hold a good ash and are less than half the price of a Short Story and slightly less than a Special G.

[logan37]

Nice review DW! I may have to look into these a when my RP Juniors are gone.

[craig]

Thanks for the review! I have a box tucked away from about a year ago, from when Famous was blowing out the Reserva Organica 2001's - I'll have to see what they're like now.

[DeeDubya]

Well, as you might expect, these are not the Cuban Rafael Gonzalez Corona Extras that sell for around $539/bx. However they are considered to be premium cigars and have the appearance as such. A very nice silky-smooth Connecticut shade wrapper and a near perfect cap look good. The long fillers are a blend of medium-bodied Honduran, Dominican and Nicaraguan tobaccos. On toasting I immediately caught hints of leather and cedar. About a third way it began to give up some spicyness with hints of nuts and more leather. Actually, the leather was dominant from here on out. It kept a well-behaved salt/pepper ash and never ran. The ash held firm and I only tipped it twice noticing a well-defined cone. It had a distinct finish and even close to the nub I never got any bitterness or tars.

I will try another tonight and another tomorrow night. I have decided to make it a practice to smoke at least three cigars before giving them a thumb or the finger. This review is per Ashkicker's request but I will re-visit this post in a couple days to note any changes.

On a scale of 1-10 I rate this cigar 8.75.

[ashauler]

Thank you my friend!!

[DeeDubya]

I'm not a big fan of claro's but this is a pretty good cigar. I think that I didn't like some of the others I had tried because of the mild strength and grassy flavors. These are definately medium strength and have a much better finish.
This is the first out of the box so instead of rating it now I'll come back after a couple more and give them some marks. Right now their tasting pretty good.

They are a blend of Dominican tobaccos rolled in a Connecticut jade wrapper. A very smooth, silky wrapper I might add. It burned even with a white, firm ash. I did detect a little grassiness but it could be a mental thing I have about claro's. Nice for a change. I'll keep them on my list of things to do.

[DeeDubya]

I've been through many boxes of Henry Clay cigars. Mostly Brevas and Brevas Conservas which are a smaller (46 & 48 I think) ring guage. This is my first box of the pudgy little Rothchilde. And, the reason for this review , I had been overlooking the best of the vitolas in the family. What I love most about the Henry Clay is the thick, creamy smoke and rich chocolate/coffee/pepper flavors. No they're not flavored, just really great tasting earthiness brought around by the robust Dominican Ligero tobaccos.

Wrapped in a dark Connecticut broadleaf these are heavy cigars, both in strength and in actual weight. I haven't actually weighed a box but it is evident in the hand. Yesterday I opened both this box of Clays and a box of Cabaigaun Robusto's, nearly identical size cigars in the same size box. Well, I would guess that the Clays weighed nearly twice as much. Significant because the Cabaiguan's are a hefty little stick in their own right.

Henry Clay was founded in Old Havana in the 19th century and were once one of Cuba's leading brands. They moved the factory (picture on the box) to the Dominican Republic after the embargo and continued to roll cigars in the traditional way. Named after a US Senator from Kentucky, Henry Clay continues on to make him a legend.

Edit to say that Henry Clays come bundled within the box. Kind of like "box pressed" they are "bundle pressed" and many are squashed slightly out of shape. Some are flat, some are triangular, some are square, some are oval. Don't try to round them out by rolling or pressing. Just be happy and smoke them like they are.

[mrtr33]

Just picked up an HC Brevas Finas because of the above review. Looking forward to it!

[DeeDubya]

Just picked up an HC Brevas Finas because of the above review. Looking forward to it!

Come back and tell us about it right here. Clay's are different, definately not for beginners.

[mrtr33]

Come back and tell us about it right here. Clay's are different, definately not for beginners.

As requested.....

Henry Clay Brevas Finas
6.5" X 48
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican

First of all, there's nothing specifically spectacular about the Henry Clay brand. The label on the cigar is rather generic, there are no fancy shapes or marketing gimmicks - even the box looks rather plain.

I can attest to the heaviness felt when picking up the cigar. I didn't weigh it either, and it's a subtle weight difference - not something you would probably notice unless it was pointed out to you, but heavier all the same.

The wrapper has an oily sheen to it. The smell is distinctive of leather and dark tobaccos. The cigar is well constructed - no protruding veins, firm to the squeeze. The snip went without a hitch - the draw was a little tighter than I normally like, but still bearable. The cigar lights up easily, and away we go.

Because the draw isn't very loose, I'm always worried that if I don't keep puffing away at it, it will go out. And I hate relighting cigars. For perhaps the first inch of the cigar or so, not much was going on with this cigar. It wasn't bad, it just didn't do much for me. Lots of billowing smoke, gradually building up to a flavor profile.

By the time I got to the middle of the cigar, it's characteristics had been defined. Still lots of smoke, and a rich maduro flavoring. I would probably characterize it with as a medium-full in terms of body, and probably just as much in flavor. There's nothing outstanding about this cigar, but it's not your normal cigar: there's a lot going on in there. Different flavors hit different parts of my palate - the tastes are subtle, flavorful, but don't linger in my mouth after exhale. I don't get a nicotine buzz, but am very relaxed while smoking it and working in the garage.

The ash holds on only for a solid inch before I voluntarily knock it off. It's mostly gray in color. The tightness of the rolling is evident in the ash as well. The burn didn't have any outrageous runs - it burned pretty even for my tastes. I think I smoked this cigar for about an hour or so before it started to go out a bit more - maybe I was neglecting it too much as well.

Overall, this isn't the most glamorous cigar I've ever smoked, but I would pick another one up in a flash. Very surprised for a Dominican cigar. Was not what I expected at all, and definitely not as plain as the label insinuates.

[DeeDubya]

Good review. I'd say you're right on. The Clays take some getting used to. I rarely get a tight draw on any of them. But, they are pretty inconsistant in shape and texture so it doesn't surprise me. But hey, they're a $3 cigar.