Tweet
I've been smoking my fair share of Maduros recently, but I had almost forgotten about this 601 Blue label (courtesy of jdawg) resting in my humi until today. It's cold outside but heck, this looks too tempting so I grab the cigar, my lighter and head for the foggy Glasgow night for a stroll/smoke.
Appearance:
nice darck chocolate maduro wrapper, with a bit of an oily sheen (less than what the opening picture would lead to think), feels almost velvety at the touch. Firm with a little give and no soft spots. A bit of a vein in the lower part of the cigar, but hey, it's a tobacco leaf; if it didn't have any veins I'd be worried. Decent double cap.
Pre-smoke and 1st third
Instead of my usual double blade cutter I try a punch G-Man kindly sent as a freeby; perfect draw. The cigar has that typical maduro aroma and a bit of barnyard smell. I put it to my lips for a pre light draw... this is going ot be spicy
.
Takes a little bit to light evenly but then BOOM a blast of spice both on the tip of my tongue and in my throat, toasted notes and some cooca. The spice eases (but just a bit) and the cocoa develops into a more intense mocha. every now and then hint of nuttiness appear. There is a little sweetness but it is really a hint. The burn is perfect and the ash (light gray, just slightly flaky) stays on for a good inch and a half. Plenty of smoke with a nice maduro aroma and a hint of fruitiness, almost like pear drops
.
2nd third
The spice eases down a bit, the dominant flavour is mocha till about halfway then some wood appears in the background. On an off there is a hint of caramel. The smoke is smooth and the ash just stays on and on. The burn goes a bit wobbly butnothing serious.
last third
Flavours are a bit less intense, still it is a complex of cocoa, wood and a "vegetable" sweetness, maybe licorice. After 2 and a half inches the ash finally drops off and the burn is once again perfect. Keeps smooth till about the last inch, after that it goes a bit hot.
My impression
This is a very interesting stick. For a maduro I found it had less sweetness than I expected, but isn't worse off because of that. Generally all the maduros I've had (to name a few: CAO, Indian Tabac, CI Legeds Maroon) tend to have a marked caramel note, this does not. In a way it's maybe less "playfull" than other maduros I like, I wouldn't grab this and smoke it while driving for example, but it has a more austere, adult taste. Considering I usually don't like spicy smokes too much, this was a real surprise and one I'll be having again. The only critique I have is that it feels a bit dry to the mouth so something like a nice coffee paired to this will probably enhance the experience even more. Not fundamental, but I also quite like the band (I'm a sucker for attractive cigar bands,) original but not over the top.
On a more trivial note, I tried rubbing the wrapper to see if any "dye" would come off, but no, this is all natural
.
... BTW, I didn't review this to plug jdawg's five packs (see here), rather I smoked this to decide if I wanted one of the 5-packs for myself.
IMO if you want to try a full flavoured spicy maduro this is worth its price, and possibly more, you can't do wrong with these.
Appearance:
nice darck chocolate maduro wrapper, with a bit of an oily sheen (less than what the opening picture would lead to think), feels almost velvety at the touch. Firm with a little give and no soft spots. A bit of a vein in the lower part of the cigar, but hey, it's a tobacco leaf; if it didn't have any veins I'd be worried. Decent double cap.
Pre-smoke and 1st third
Instead of my usual double blade cutter I try a punch G-Man kindly sent as a freeby; perfect draw. The cigar has that typical maduro aroma and a bit of barnyard smell. I put it to my lips for a pre light draw... this is going ot be spicy
.Takes a little bit to light evenly but then BOOM a blast of spice both on the tip of my tongue and in my throat, toasted notes and some cooca. The spice eases (but just a bit) and the cocoa develops into a more intense mocha. every now and then hint of nuttiness appear. There is a little sweetness but it is really a hint. The burn is perfect and the ash (light gray, just slightly flaky) stays on for a good inch and a half. Plenty of smoke with a nice maduro aroma and a hint of fruitiness, almost like pear drops
.2nd third
The spice eases down a bit, the dominant flavour is mocha till about halfway then some wood appears in the background. On an off there is a hint of caramel. The smoke is smooth and the ash just stays on and on. The burn goes a bit wobbly butnothing serious.
last third
Flavours are a bit less intense, still it is a complex of cocoa, wood and a "vegetable" sweetness, maybe licorice. After 2 and a half inches the ash finally drops off and the burn is once again perfect. Keeps smooth till about the last inch, after that it goes a bit hot.
My impression
This is a very interesting stick. For a maduro I found it had less sweetness than I expected, but isn't worse off because of that. Generally all the maduros I've had (to name a few: CAO, Indian Tabac, CI Legeds Maroon) tend to have a marked caramel note, this does not. In a way it's maybe less "playfull" than other maduros I like, I wouldn't grab this and smoke it while driving for example, but it has a more austere, adult taste. Considering I usually don't like spicy smokes too much, this was a real surprise and one I'll be having again. The only critique I have is that it feels a bit dry to the mouth so something like a nice coffee paired to this will probably enhance the experience even more. Not fundamental, but I also quite like the band (I'm a sucker for attractive cigar bands,) original but not over the top.
On a more trivial note, I tried rubbing the wrapper to see if any "dye" would come off, but no, this is all natural
.... BTW, I didn't review this to plug jdawg's five packs (see here), rather I smoked this to decide if I wanted one of the 5-packs for myself.
IMO if you want to try a full flavoured spicy maduro this is worth its price, and possibly more, you can't do wrong with these.
Comment