Review: Perdomo Grand Cru Maduro Robusto

Perdomo Grand Cru Maduro Robusto

Size: 5 X 50
Wrapper: Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Cut: Palio
Beverage: Cherikee Red Pop

Prelit: The construction is Alright. There was one blemish on the foot of the cigar. The shape is typical of a hand rolled cigar. Its not a perfect shape. The feel of the cigar is firm with a few soft spots. The wrapper has a nice toothy texture to it. Some nice grit to it. There is a significant vein the runs from the cap to the band. There is a pleasant, slight cocoa sent to it. As well as a faint hazelnut. It seems to have some promise. As far as cigar band go, this one is fairly lackluster. Its not the worst band I have ever seen, but it doesn't really grab the eye and say "smoke me." On a side not, Cherikee Red Pop is hands down my favorite soda. I cannot find anything like it here in NY. The only place I can get this stuff is in Ohio.


1st 3rd:
The strength seems to be medium-full right off the bat. There are some definite hints of cocoa like the prelit aroma. Burn started off decent, but began towards the end of this third it began to canoe fairly bad. It required a touch up. The ash is a nice slightly dark grey color. It began to fan out and resembled the result of a exploding cigar used in the movies. It was a very strange effect. Small bits of the binder were fouling out of the cigar into my mouth that made it a little distracting. Overall I am not getting much flavor at all. There is the very very faint hint of cocoa, but that is it. Its strange. I can notice strength, but no flavor. The draw is excellent though.


2nd 3rd:

The initial ash fell off at about an inch and a half. But as the picture shows, it fanned out quite a bit. Very strange effect. This cigar is smoking very peculiarly. The draw remains great. There still seems to be a lack of flavor. The hints of cocoa have faded. The strength has gone down considerably. After the touch up, the burn remains good. This cigar has me scratching my head. I don't know what to expect if anything.

Final 3rd:
Strength is finally picking up a little. There is a slight peppery flavor now. It is a nice change from the rest of the cigar. Still it is not much at all. The burn is perfect. The ash has corrected itself nicely. The final 3rd is actually a decent cigar. Easily this is the best part of the cigar. Some spice and nuttiness is making this enjoyable, The Burn is starting to get hot. binder is still falling out though. There is still plenty of smoke and the draw is perfect.

Overall Impressions:
This cigar is quite lackluster. It really surprised me that there wasn't any flavor. After smelling this cigar, I had high hopes for it. But it really did not deliver. I may have to come back to this cigar at some point, but I am not going to go out of my way to buy any.

Scoring:
Construction: 16/20
Flavor: 28/40
Appearance: 8/10
Draw: 10/10
Burn: 7/10
Complexity: 6/10

Total: 75/100

Review: Tatuaje Havana VI Victorias

First off let me apologize for the quality of the images. My camera was giving me problems this evening.

Tatuaje Havana VI Victorias

Size: 6 X38
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan

Prelit:
This cigar had the aroma of nice rich tobacco that was pleasant on my senses. There were some slight hints of leather. The construction was flawless. It was firm to the touch. There were no large veins in the wrapper leaf. It was smooth to the touch. Not oily at all, but was not toothy either. I cut this cigar with my Palio cutter. The initial draw was nice, with no signs of being plugged. I got a definite taste of leather on the initial draw.


1st 3rd:

The strength seemed to be medium to medium full. Right off the bat there wasn't a lot of spice. Leather is still the prominent flavor with a slight nuttiness. There wasn't a huge amount of smoke, but just enough to not make you worry. The burn did start to canoe a little bit, but not to the point that it need a touch up. The initial ash lasted for about 1 inch which is probably due to the small ring gauge. The ash was a nice light grey color. There was a lasting sweetness on my tongue so far.


2nd 3rd:

The burn quickly corrected itself. A peppery spice has become a little more prevalent. The sweet finish has also picked up. There is still a lot of leather flavor. The nuttiness that was there before has now switch to a slight toast flavor. This cigar is very smooth and not harsh at all so far. There still is not a lot of smoke.

Final 3rd:

The smoke finally has picked up. But the burn has started to canoe again. Its worse than before, but since I was almost done I did not do a touch up. The spice has mellowed a bit. Leather flavor is still there. It began to burn a little hot, but not to the point that it was distracting. The sweet finish is still there as well.

Overall Impression:

This cigar had great flavor and the construction was amazing. Yet it is not as complex as some of the other sizes I have had before in this line. Maybe I just prefer the larger ring gauges. But overall this was still a very enjoyable cigar. Well worthy of being my first official review on this blog.

Score:

Construction: 19/20

Flavor: 35/40

appearance: 10/10

Draw: 8/10

Burn: 8/10

Complexity: 7/10

total 87/100

Just Starting Up

Hello everyone,

My name is Andy Corlett and I wanted to start up a review blog of my experiences of cigars. Most of my posts will be about the cigars that I am trying. As far as cigar smoking goes, I am relatively new to the game. I have been smoking regularly for about 2 years now. So there are many cigars that I have yet had the pleasure of sampling. Now after 2 years I can finally say that I have started to develop a pallet that can distinguish certain characteristics. Throughout my smoking experience I have found that the camaraderie of the Brotherhood of the Leaf (BOTL) has been truly amazing. One of my favorite things to do is to visit my local B&M and sit in the lounge and just talk cigars with fellow botl/sotl. So I can think of nothing better than to bring my love of cigars to the masses. I hope everyone that reads this finds some sort of enjoyment out of this. And remember, these are just my opinions. One of the great things about cigars is that there are so many out there. A cigar that I find to be amazing may not be your cup of tea. So with that being said I hope some people can find this to be useful.

Thanks,

Andy