Cigar Number 3: FOH Blind Tasting!

[ChanceSchmerr]

Smoked mine this morning with a dram of Ardbeg Still Young to celebrate Ardbeg Day!

Appearance - Light Colorado wrapper, a thin wrapper leaf through and through. A pleasant easy tobacco aroma, no particular smell to it.

Pre-light - A bit of spice on the tongue, but a still draw - Please don't be plugged!!!!

First Third - Okay, so it's not plugged - Thank God! A little fruit flavour, mixed with a light grassiness and smooth tobacco predominate. The cigar is not imposing, just....pleasant. A tiiiight draw doesn't make it easy though...

Middle Third - It is now alternating between slight sweet hints and boring tobacco. It's still pleasant, but definitely in a boring way. Does not challenge me at all. Draw is still tiiiight

Final Third - More toasted tobacco with a little baking spice thrown in. Cinnamon anyone? The draw improves a little but it's still an effort to smoke it. I'm happy to put it down when I did.

Last thoughts - Well......I'll tell you this - I don't know that I enjoyed it, but it wasn't a chore, besides the tight draw. I'm gonna make a confident guess on what it is, but who knows! The flavours I got were not bad, just not that great or with much depth. Thankfully I had a delicious Ramon Allones Mille Fleur waiting to pick me up afterwards. Now THERE is a damn good cigar!

Score - 78. Lousy draw + boring flavours. At least the Ardbeg Still Young was spectacular - Happy Ardbeg Day, all!!!!

[habanos1972]

Unfortunatly my last cigar was damaged in its long journey, the wrapper was split a good inch, so it was hard to get a good handle on it. The flavors mellow, it started out grassy, and then moved into clove for the finish.

[toasterhead]

FOH Cigar Number 3 Blind Tasting

Julieta no. 2

Storage 65 degrees/ 65% humidity x 3 months, dry box 1 day

1/2 inch crack at foot (present on arrival), no biggie

Wrapper medium colorado, nothing special

Aroma cold, honey sweetness with that "clean habanos" aroma

Draw perfect, slow ignition with Ronson lighter, perfect burn for 2 hours

Opening blast of hay and honey, plenty of smoke

Not much change in flavor but very pleasant, midway some sweet,cake-like spice, mainly clean tobacco

Dark tea and chocolate near the nub

I enjoyed this cigar!

Dave

[Matt Day]

Sorry all mislaid my review notes to had to write this from memory from sevral days ago somewhere but here is just a very quick summary

1st third cream grass cinnamon

White chocolate stone fruits cocoa

Pepper finish

93

[Sutton]

Short bread.

[sirand]

Aroma at cold: hay tobacco.

Perfect construction and draw.

Medium body.

Short bread,milky coffee,coffe,cream.

Out of 3 cigars I enjoyed this one the most.

[theholmesmob]

Here we go, here we go, Here we go....... Smoked Friday evening with a fellow Canberran whilst sitting under heat lamps on the deck watching the 'Memorial' golf.

1/3 - definitely under medium to start. Draw is tight, but not unbearable. Flavours are muted, let's see what happens.

2/3 - flavours are still muted and can say that not that fussed at the moment. Golf is the topic of discussion, not the cigar!

3/3 - draw starts to open and finally something flavour-wise, some sweetness, some burnt sugar type thing happening.

Pity it all happened at the end. Would I buy a box...... Probably not, was a huge time investment with little return....although the company and the golf were great.

Cheers

David

[Guest rob]

As the good man above said, it was a pleasant though forgettable experience.

Mine had a decent though firmish draw. Flavours were muted and non distinct.. though definitely picked up in the final third to show a bit of character and worth.

I'm glad there was good company and a decent bit of golf on tv.... Or this cigar may have seen bottom of the ashtray a whole lot earlier than it did!

[Mnasrin]

enjoyed the first third

second third got a bit stronger than the first.

the last third was not exciting to say the least.

taste-wise: dark chocoloate, raisins and dark-dark cheries.

overall enjoyed the stick for the first third and second third but did not like the last third at all.

enjoyed the whole blind tasting. cheers !

[Fuzz]

Well, chalk up another plugged one. This cigar was probably the tightest cigar I have ever come across. Lit the foot and tried to draw on it, but got absolutely nothing. Felt along the length of the cigar and found nice big ol' knot right in the middle. Gonna have to blind guess this one.

[mbrody]

Draw was fine with good amounts of smoke. Guess I got a good one. Opening under medium, flavors of dried grass and wood with an ever so slight sweetness. Flavors are pronounced. Continue this throughout, but kicked up a notch for a few puffs in the last third. Overall a good smoke. Not completely my cup of tea, but I would not kick it out of bed either. 88 Guess coming...

[rahko]

Completely plugged, time for a coin flip.

On the other hand this might improve my chances of getting this one right!

[CanuckSARTech]

I've been stuck up on base the last few weeks, and will be for the next few also. So, last time I was home, I didn't think far enough in advance to grab this final blind tasting competition cigar.

Well, not like it matter's too much, with me coming THISCLOSE but no cigar (pun intended) to getting it right on the first two.

Read.....epic fail. 0 for 2 so far.

So, not having the cigar on hand to actually taste test and review, definitely makes me a likely no-go on this last one too.

But, I'll review my at-cold notes that I jotted down for this final one back when I got them, and I'll PM Rob a wild guess just based on that.

Just wished I had thought enough ahead to bring it up with me to the base.

[dizedean]

Blind Taste No. #3

Mine was a very nice looking cigar. Basic Colorado color.

Aroma at cold was slight tobacco with no other hints.

The cigar took to the match nicely and burned well throughout.

I had good draw and great smoke throughout.

The cigar tased the same the entire time.

I usually don't smoke anything this big and with my ADD and the lack of complexity I lost interest 2/3 of the way through.

The taste was of leather, mild cocoa and a slight sweet-barnyard backdrop.

There was very little spice.

I would call this a mild cigar.

It was not something I would grap for anytime soon.

Might benefit from some age.

It was an 85-88.

I have never smoked this before so my entry is purely a guess.

[MrGlass]

Blind Cigar No 3: Churchill

At this point in the competition, have scored 0 of 2, I'm out of the running. But I don't care - I would love to get at least one right, so here goes...

Opened by inspecting the cigar and spending a few minutes at the Cuban Cigar Website trying to narrow down my options. I think I've narrowed it down to two.

The wrapper is an even colorado, with a nice silky touch. Having briefly read the reviews to date, I noticed quite a lot of people reporting plugs. This stick has a few tight spots that I can feel, and I'm worried already. There is a grassy aroma at cold. The prelight draw is really tight, so I cut further up and massage it to get some sort of flow.

The moment the flame touches the foot of this cigar, I've made my decision - I know that smell. Before the first third is completed, I'm as certain as I'm going to be and I've sent my guess through to Rob. I can't describe the flavours, but I know they do nothing for me. I've persevered through the first third, but that's as far as I'm going. Given the number of plugged sticks people have been reporting, I've been quite lucky that mine could even draw, but the combination of the flavours and tightness don't warrant me spending any more time with it.

[Ghabanos]

Didn't have time to do a full review. But this was best of the three. Just pure smooth top notch tobacco. Loved it. Not a fan of this size sole because of time, but in a robusto size or corona. Perfecto.

Nor draw issues for me.

Thanks rob.

[cottierm]

And the Mysterious Cigar no 3 was...? Rob?

Best,

Michel

[Pilgrims]

I realise am probably late but anyway:

Opening is mellow and good, vanilla and mellow caramel...hay also

Middle third has a little more spice, settling into a nice stride, good balance.

Final third was plagued with tricky draw and I gave up in the end...

88

[IcedCanuck]

This cigar really sucked, I didn't smoke very much of it because it was way too tight. This CC had lots of very tight spots throughout it and I had a bad feeling right from the get go that it wasn't going to smoke very well. It was plugged city! The best part of this review was the glass of scotch I poured for myself. I tried cutting it to see if I could get it to smoke a bit better and still had no luck. Eventually the French in me showed up ... life is too short and I'd rather toss a plugged stick than fight with it. All part of the game. This stick is either way too young to smoke right now or the roller and QA were cracked out of their trees.

[El Presidente]

And the Mysterious Cigar no 3 was...? Rob?

Best,

Michel

Just waiting on one or two more Michel. I will have it up Friday Morning our time

[cottierm]

Thanks Rob.

Best,

Michel

Just waiting on one or two more Michel. I will have it up Friday Morning our time

[Professor Twain]

I smoked my cigar today. It looked great but despite being in my humidor for at least a month, it was hard as a rock. No give when I squeezed it. When I lit this one up, very very tight draw. I fought it for about an hour, reclipping and relighting, but eventually gave up. The flavors that I did get were mild, pale, white pepper.

I very rarely experience or complain of cigars being plugged but this one had a memorably bad draw.

[TexAg]

Smoked mine a while back and let Rob know. Now I finally have a small amount of free time to write a short review.

This cigar was interesting to me. It was very mild and subtle, but there were underlying flavors that I could barely pick up on. Most of the way through, I sensed a slight fruit taste along with smooth tobacco and cedar (mostly from my humidor).

I thought it was pretty good. Would I buy a box, maybe. Definitely gonna want some singles down the road.

[partifan]

The anticipation is brutal! A lot of folks had unfortunate cigars and the draw on mine wasn't all that good, so it is much more up in the open as to what it could be. My money is on Michel getting it right and going 3-3.

[luhabanos]

My quick review of this Churchill:

A beautifully made cigar with a velvety and oily wrapper. A correct draw delivered a cedary smoke, with hints of earth and leather. I consider it to be medium bodied with a great and stronger last third.

I have the impression that I've already smoked this cigar before...let's wait to see the results. Good luck to all!

Cheers,

Luiz