cigar notes part 2
the outstanding:
Man O' War - Armada - (6.5 x 56) - brilliant from one end to the other. I literally would take a puff, and think, damn I'm glad I smoke cigars. I got 3 of these from cigar.com, packed in with the rest of my 'cigar of the month' order. I liked it so well I immediately got online to see about ordering more, and was shocked to find them priced at like $20 a stick. They come in boxes of 32, priced around $500. That is a hell of a thing to pack in as a freebie, but it's awesome marketing. I am going to jealously hoard my remaining two Armadas for special occasions.
Joya de Nicaragua - Dark Corojo Antano - la pesadilla (4.7 x 60 belicoso) - hell of a name. "Dark Corojo" is the wrapper, sort of a deep reddish-brown. "Antano" means yesteryear, a reference to Joya de Nicaragua's glory days before the communists turned everything to crap. "La Pesadilla" is the name for this particular size, and means "the nightmare" - it's a sort of semi-torpedo shape. There is a secondary band that says "doble fuerte" meaning double strength. DELICIOUS, and got better the more I smoked it. Spicy and peppery and sweet, with enough nicotine to numb the tongue - the overall effect of the complex flavor and slight numbness was strikingly like drinking absinthe. These are fortunately much cheaper than the Armada, not that that's saying much.
the good
La Flor Dominican - Reserva Especial - el jocko (4.5 x54 perfecto) - tasty little thing. Perfectos look like the cigars in old cartoons - kind of zeppelin shaped. This was just the right size, and tasted good, without distracting me with overwhelming awesome like the other cigars I've mentioned here.
Cusano 18 Double Connecticut - toro (6.5 x 46)
Cusano 18 Paired Maduro - toro (6.5 x 46)
Cusano 59 Cameroon - toro (6.5 x 46)
All three of these from the cigar.com cigar of the month thing. All totally worth the time & effort.
Man O' War Ruination
Man O' War Virtue
Man O' War (just plain man o' war, no other name)
another cigar.com sampler thing - all three flavors of Man O' War, except the previously mentioned Armada. Of the three, the Ruination is most like unto the Armada, in that it's dark and tasty. The Virtue has the light wrapper and creaminess that I come to associate with Connecticut wrappers. The plain Man O' War didn't strike me as anything special, and I probably won't bother with that one again, but the other two would be worth going back to.
the perfectly acceptable
Nub Plus Habano (5 x 60) - Nub's deal is they make short, thick cigars. This is that same thing, only not as short. They may need aging a bit; I really dug a Nub Habano in a shorter torpedo size, but that one had been stored in an out of the way tobacconist for an unknown time. The couple of these 5x60s I've tried have been merely OK.
La Vieja Habana - totally OK.
Cusano 15th Anniversary - lancero (7 x 40) - ok but not to my taste, maybe? I had high hopes after the double connecticut.
the couldn't finish
Every single 5 Vegas that I tried tasted like licking an ashtray. I also couldn't work through a Cusano Sun Grown LXI, though I tried, given that I liked some of the other Cusanos I got. Other than that, bad cigars don't seem to stick in my mind - there's zero chance of me rushing to a notebook to write down how crappy it was.
Man O' War - Armada - (6.5 x 56) - brilliant from one end to the other. I literally would take a puff, and think, damn I'm glad I smoke cigars. I got 3 of these from cigar.com, packed in with the rest of my 'cigar of the month' order. I liked it so well I immediately got online to see about ordering more, and was shocked to find them priced at like $20 a stick. They come in boxes of 32, priced around $500. That is a hell of a thing to pack in as a freebie, but it's awesome marketing. I am going to jealously hoard my remaining two Armadas for special occasions.
Joya de Nicaragua - Dark Corojo Antano - la pesadilla (4.7 x 60 belicoso) - hell of a name. "Dark Corojo" is the wrapper, sort of a deep reddish-brown. "Antano" means yesteryear, a reference to Joya de Nicaragua's glory days before the communists turned everything to crap. "La Pesadilla" is the name for this particular size, and means "the nightmare" - it's a sort of semi-torpedo shape. There is a secondary band that says "doble fuerte" meaning double strength. DELICIOUS, and got better the more I smoked it. Spicy and peppery and sweet, with enough nicotine to numb the tongue - the overall effect of the complex flavor and slight numbness was strikingly like drinking absinthe. These are fortunately much cheaper than the Armada, not that that's saying much.
the good
La Flor Dominican - Reserva Especial - el jocko (4.5 x54 perfecto) - tasty little thing. Perfectos look like the cigars in old cartoons - kind of zeppelin shaped. This was just the right size, and tasted good, without distracting me with overwhelming awesome like the other cigars I've mentioned here.
Cusano 18 Double Connecticut - toro (6.5 x 46)
Cusano 18 Paired Maduro - toro (6.5 x 46)
Cusano 59 Cameroon - toro (6.5 x 46)
All three of these from the cigar.com cigar of the month thing. All totally worth the time & effort.
Man O' War Ruination
Man O' War Virtue
Man O' War (just plain man o' war, no other name)
another cigar.com sampler thing - all three flavors of Man O' War, except the previously mentioned Armada. Of the three, the Ruination is most like unto the Armada, in that it's dark and tasty. The Virtue has the light wrapper and creaminess that I come to associate with Connecticut wrappers. The plain Man O' War didn't strike me as anything special, and I probably won't bother with that one again, but the other two would be worth going back to.
the perfectly acceptable
Nub Plus Habano (5 x 60) - Nub's deal is they make short, thick cigars. This is that same thing, only not as short. They may need aging a bit; I really dug a Nub Habano in a shorter torpedo size, but that one had been stored in an out of the way tobacconist for an unknown time. The couple of these 5x60s I've tried have been merely OK.
La Vieja Habana - totally OK.
Cusano 15th Anniversary - lancero (7 x 40) - ok but not to my taste, maybe? I had high hopes after the double connecticut.
the couldn't finish
Every single 5 Vegas that I tried tasted like licking an ashtray. I also couldn't work through a Cusano Sun Grown LXI, though I tried, given that I liked some of the other Cusanos I got. Other than that, bad cigars don't seem to stick in my mind - there's zero chance of me rushing to a notebook to write down how crappy it was.