June 8, 2010

• Some Stogie Reviews

       I’ve enjoyed a cigar from time to time (and believed myself to be an “aficionado”) for a good four or five years now. But it wasn’t until I watched a video on StogieReview.com about how to cut, light, and smoke a cigar properly that I actually tasted anything when smoking a cigar. I watched this video for the first time all the way back in May of 2010…..wait, that was like three weeks ago. Well, after watching the video I could not contain my excitement. I have watched hundreds of videos, read thousands of reviews, and smoked scores of cigars in years past, but this one takes the cake. It was a couple of guys who knew exactly how to train someone in cigar smoking, and knew their stuff when it came to the various methods of cutting and lighting a cigar. Over a period of about 30 minutes, they brought cigar smoking down to a science. I made a mad dash for the smoke shop after watching the video, where I purchased a NUB Cameroon 460, and commenced the art form described in the video one step at a time. It was at that moment I experienced the maker-intended flavor of a cigar for the first time in my life, and let me tell you it was an intensely jovial moment for me.

       This morning I stopped by the local tobacco shop and picked up another NUB Cameroon 460 (this will be my third), a Rocky Patel Sun Grown (Rocky Patel cigars are highly praised by every reviewer who gets their hands on them, and I’ve enjoyed my fair share), and, the cigar I always get if I can’t decide, an Onyx Reserve No. 7. After a full day of fishing with Rachel and my brother, running errands with our old neighbor Bill, and playing with the kids I plopped down on the deck with Rocky Patel (the cigar, not the man himself, unfortunately) and had some R&R time.

       That cigar was fantastic. Right out of the gate it sent a robust peppercorn flavor surging into my mouth which dissipated almost as quickly as it came. As I rolled the smoke around in my mouth and nose, a strong coffee taste coated the inside of my mouth. As I began to release the smoke, a blast of creamy milk chocolate saturated my taste buds. I felt like Violet from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory did when she grabbed that three-course-dinner gum. “It’s tomato soup! I can actually feel it running down my throat!” Remember? Well, the cigar didn’t taste at all like tomato soup, but in the same way I could actually feel hot coffee and melty milk-chocolate morsels in my mouth. It was truly amazing. Each draw brought a subtle increase to the coffee taste and a blast of milk chocolate flavor. I totally forgot to check the time when I started, but my guess is it burned for a good ninety minutes, and the flavor remained mostly the same throughout the smoke (although there was a very brief mixed-nuts flavor somewhere between the first and second third). If you like a good frappuccino, you’ll probably like this cigar, and if not I recommend you try it anyway.

      Once everyone was in bed, I couldn’t sleep, nothing was on TV and the internet became boring, I decided to go ahead and have my Onyx. In the early days of my cigar smoking escapades, the Onyx Reserve No. 7 struck a chord with me. I tried many cigars of all shapes, sizes and colors, and when I reached for a black cigar the Onyx was the one I grabbed. Maybe it was the great conversation my friends and I shared while smoking, or maybe it was the crazy girl that walked up to us asking for weed, but that cigar tasted so good that first time I immediately decided that it would be my go-to cigar when the situation required a grab and go cigar run. I’ve had this cigar many times since then, and I’ve always enjoyed it. But tonight when I cut, toasted, lit and smoked this cigar correctly for the first time, I hated every moment of it. When I slid the cigar out of the plastic wrapper and took a whiff, it smelled like poop from a dog who’s diet consisted of water and fish food. I wrote it off, though, because some cigars just smell funny. After taking the first few puffs I couldn’t help but wonder what I had seen in this cigar before. It tasted terrible. I decided to tough it out for a while, with high hopes, and about an inch into the cigar all I could taste was lighter fluid. The kind you start a campfire or fill a Zippo with. I didn’t light the cigar with any fuel of the sort, so it had to be one of the cigar’s flavors. This flavor lasted through most of the cigar, although it did gradually fade as the the cigar burned down, but it was without a doubt the primary flavor. With this cigar I “could actually feel the lighter fluid in my mouth.” It was off-putting to say the least. I don’t think I’ll be getting one of those again.

       Now here I am, blogging about my experiences. I’d review the NUB, but I haven’t lit this one up yet, so I’ll save that review until after I burn this one. It tastes much like the Rocky Patel Sun Grown, but with a much creamier coffee flavor, and without the chocolate. The coffee flavor in the Rocky Patel wasn’t strong, but it tasted like espresso or really dark coffee, and the coffee flavor in the NUB tastes more like regular strength coffee with a little sugar in it. I’ll leave it at that, I guess. Maybe I’ll post a full review (with a third by third flavor break down and pictures) of the NUB when I’m done with it. That’s all for now, thanks for reading.

  • 2:29 am
  • 3 Comments