The My Father: Flor de las Antilles in Toro

This light brown 6 X 52 box pressed cigar looks beautiful.  The box press adds a interesting look to the cigar which gives it more of an elegant feel.  The cigar was named the Cigar of the Year in 2012 by Cigar Aficionado Magazine.  After lighting the first flavors are a creamy light toasty tobacco cedar.  The body is in-between a mild and medium.  The smoke is very smooth with no pepper or spice kick.  After the first couple draws the flavor of the toasty tobacco starts to intensify adding in a syrupy cedar with slight coffee flavor.  The burn is razor sharp and has a nice tight ash and is very well constructed.

The first ash drops off at about the two inch mark.  After the ash dropped off the cigar started to change flavor slightly.  The toasted tobacco and syrupy cedar is still present.  The coffee dropped off completely, it was fairly faint to begin with but has now dropped off completely.  A nice sweet cedary spice has been added and has taken over as the main flavor after each draw.  The "cedary spice" is warm and sweet at the same time and gives a nice combo.  The flavors are combining nicely and almost start to give off hints of bitter chocolate flavor, the chocolate is only present during the draw, and fades after the pepper warming sensation kicks in.  The burn started to go wavy and never really cought up on one side and did require a minor touch up.

The last half of the cigar keeps the for-mentioned flavors but is starting to add in a nutty flavor. The burned evened out after the touch up and never required any more attention. The sweet "cedary spice" and the nuttiness combines for a graham like flavor and is medium in body and not very intense.  After about five or six draws with these flavors the cigar started to get warm and I put it down with about two inches remaining.  The total burn time was 1 hour and 2 minutes.

Price: $6.50
Appearance: 95
Draw: 88
Burn: 85
Flavor: 90
Burn Time: 85

Overall Score: 88

Alec Bradley Maxx Brazil in Toro

This 6 X 54 cigar has an oily dark brown wrapper.  The seems are tight and almost invisible, and has a double cap.  The first light reveals a medium bodied with a chard cedar and slight coffee, with lots of pepper.  The cedar is the main flavor, its slightly sweet and slightly bitter.  The finish is where the cedar and sweetness come together to form the coffee and then the pepper really kicks up.  I would put it at a 5 to a 6 out of 10 on the heat scale.  Its a little difficult to describe, but its not an intense overpowering heat, but its almost like how a red hot cinnamon candy comes across your palette.  Its not the cinnamon flavor but the "cinnamon sensation".  The burn for the first inch and a half is razor sharp and the draw is slightly firm but giving off excellent smoke output.  The cigar continues on at a solid medium in body with intense flavors.

The Ash finally dropped off with it holding on for the first two inches.  The flavor gets more intense but stays in between a medium to full in body.  The cedar is still the main flavor, the pepper zing is still representing itself in the same way.  The coffee and the sweetness is still there but it is fading away.  An earthiness is starting to come in to play that's very smooth and delightful.  The earthiness is almost mineral tasting and is slightly musty.  A mustiness usually means aged tobacco.

Another inch down and the cigar is transitioning into a very, very smooth medium bodied delight.  The cedar, earthiness and coffee are all mixing together with the pepper "red-hot sensation" and the flavor is coming out as a smoky bacon type flavor.  Before you think I've completely lost my mind you should know the "bacon" flavor is very faint, but present.  This is the first time I have ever experienced the flavor and its quite tasty.

I put the cigar down at around the one hour and twenty five minute mark.  The flavors start to get warm and nutty and washed out by the heat.  This cigar reminded me of one that I have had before, but i could not put my finger on it until the last third of the cigar.  Surprisingly it reminds me of Drew Estate's Liga Undercrown.  Its not the exact same experience but they are very similar in my opinion.  I enjoyed this cigar very much and is great for the price.  This turned out to be on of the better cigars I've had during this new year.



Price: $4.25
Appearance: 93
Draw: 90
Burn: 95
Flavor: 95
Burn Time: 93

Overall Score: 93

Rosalones by Joya de Nicaragua 552

This 5 X 52 reddish brown cigar smells of cedar and black pepper.  This cigar has been exclusive to the European market since 2010 but has now found its way over to America. The cigar is almost flawless in appearance and is a bit oily.  The first light reveals a large amount of cedar and black pepper.  This is a rarity that the flavors match the smell, but I'm not complaining. The flavors are a medium to full in body and starting to move to straight full.  The first flavor after a draw is a sweet but overpowering black pepper.  The pepper hits you hard, but no so hard that it hurts.  The cedar is rich and sweet and leaves a oily slick on your palette.  The cigar gives off a gigantic amount of smoke with each puff, an unusual amount, more then I've gotten from most cigars.  The cigar continues to billow plumes of smoke from the tip and does not stop the entire experience.  I made the mistake of smoking this one in the car, it filled the car with smoke in less that 5 draws.  The burn isn't razor sharp but is not requiring any attention.

The second half of the cigar brings a nice coffee.  The coffee flavor is faint and is over powered by the pepper and cedar but it does remain after each draw.  The pepper is at at solid 7 out of 10 and dominates the draw flavors but the after taste is all cedar and coffee.  The body is Full but does shift from medium to full which I found interesting.  The flavors are nice and easy to pick out and is very enjoyable.  The burn is staying the same  as the last update, not even, but not presenting any problems. The cigar however does have a little bit of "young-ness" to it.  Its a bit fresh and does hit the back of your throat with a little harshness.  I believe that I will let my remainder of these cigars rest in my humidor for a couple months to see if the harshness and the pepper mellows a little bit.  The cigar is a bit of a powerhouse.  Now, I will tell you, I do enjoy mild to medium body cigars the most.  However, this cigar is a good change of pace.  If you have never smoked a full body cigar before, this would be a good one to transition to because of the ease of the capture of the flavors on your palette.  Its not overpowering completely, but it definitely isn't a medium bodied cigar.

The last two inches get warm and the flavors start to wash into a toasted nut.  The flavor is a welcome change from all the Pepper, even though the coffee and cedar are staying present with the nutty-ness.  I enjoyed this cigar as it was a change of pace from what I normally enjoy smoking.  I think this cigar would pair very nicely with a spiced rum or perhaps a lighter bourbon.  I'm looking forward to what this cigar can become with a proper amount of time resting in my humidor.  I ended the cigar with around an inch and a half to go at the 48 min mark.

Price: $4.00
Appearance: 97
Draw: 92
Burn: 89
Flavor: 91
Burn Time: 89

Overall Score: 91

Don Pepin Garcia Blue Label in Generosos

This 6X50 Toro sized cigar is medium brown in color.  It has a slight lumpiness to it and has a good tight pack.  First light reveals a bitter wood with some black pepper spice.  The wood is the dominant flavor and the spice stays long after the draw.  These flavors are staying true through the first inch of the cigar.

The next inch drops the bitter wood completely and adds a dry, dark, roasted coffee flavor.  Its very easy to pick out and is dominating the flavor every draw.  The pepper is present but only the sensation as their is a warming sensation that's going all the way down my throat with every draw.  I would describe this sensation as how it feels when you take a shot of liquor.  Nothing to strong however.  Note: There is NO LIQUOR flavor just the sensation.  The body is a medium to full approaching medium as the coffee is very prevalent and dominant.  The smoke is smooth despite the "liquor sensation"

The last half of the cigar is still being completely dominated by the dry, dark, roasted coffee.  The "liquor sensation" is still there but not as present as before.  A nice sweetness has set in and has cut the body back to a solid medium never approaching the full body range again.  With about two inches left, and an hour in, I took a final puff of the cigar as the flavors were starting to burn hot and were being washed out. A overall enjoyable experience.

Price: $7.45
Appearance: 88
Draw: 86
Burn: 92
Flavor: 91
Burn Time: 90

Overall Score: 90

Sample Date: 7/16/13

New Scoring Format

I will be instituting a new scoring format for my overall score of cigars.  I will be taking the draw, burn, appearance, flavor, and burn time and giving them a score from 1-100.  Then I will take the score from each category and take the average as my overall score for the cigar.  This way I believe it will show my feelings of the cigar more accurately.  Below is the new format

Price:
Appearance:
Draw:
Burn:
Flavor:
Burn Time:

Overall Score:


UPDATE: Next week I will be doing my first reviews of Bourbon and Rum....keep reading!!

Stock Inventory

Every couple months or so, I like to take all my cigars out of the humidor and take inventory on what I have.  I set up some paper towels and align all the cigars by brand and place them together. I inspect each and every cigar and make sure that they are well taken care of and are resting in good health. I find that this is important to make sure your cigars last and age properly without beetle infestations and it insures there is no mold out break.  I keep my Humidor at 68-71 in Temperature and any where from 64-68 percent humidity.  At this temperature and humidity its a good bet that you will not have any mold or beetles but its always good to make sure.  Above is a picture of my current collection.

Hoyo De Monterrey Reposado Encedros in Sueno

This cigar measures in at 5.2 X 52.  It has a dark brown oily wrapper and came with a sheet of cedar wrapped around it.  This cigar goes through a process called Imersion.  After rolling, they wrap the cigars in cedar, put the cigars in sheets of cedar, put them in a cedar box, and then pack the boxes with cedar shavings.  After this they put the cigars in a cedar vault for 90 days.  So if your thinking that these cigars may taste like cedar.  You would be correct.

The cigar after first light tasted like.....you guessed it..CEDAR.  A sweet cedar and earth mix.  The smoke is mild to medium in body and has a soft sweet aged tobacco finish.  The smoke gives no hints of pepper and is very very smooth.  It is a slow burner only going down about a half inch or so in the first 18 minutes.

The cigar kept the same flavor for the first half of the cigar.  It started move a little more quickly after the first inch. The ash held on until the half way point and fell off in a solid chunk.  The burn is not razor sharp and has waves but never required a touch up.  Every time I thought the burn would start to go completely wonky it caught it self up.

The final half of the cigar turned up the...CEDAR flavor adding in a slight sweet coffee.  The smoke was thick and plentiful and left your mouth coated with a syrupy like thickness.  It made my mouth salivate after every draw putting a nice oily syrupy slick on the palette.  The body is up to a medium to full, landing somewhere in between the two, never going completely full in body or strength.  I ended the cigar with just around an inch and a half or so left where the flavors started to get washed out.

Price: $4.75
Appearance: 95
Draw: 88
Burn: 90
Flavor: 89
Burn Time: 86

Overall Score: 90

Alec Bradley Tempus Quadrum

This cigar is 5 1/2 X 55, and has a box press.  This size is exclusive to the cigar industry giant: Cigars International.  The cigar is a dark brown, slightly reddish looking stick, with very obvious seems spiraling the entire cigar until it hits the cap.  The cigar is almost weight less and has a light pack.  First light shows a extremely sweet cedar and light coffee taste that is very tasty but fades quickly after the draw and leaves little to no after taste.  The body is mild to medium and the draw on the cigar is loose, giving out huge amounts of smoke.  I will have to make sure I do not take to many puffs as I do not want to over heat the cigar.  Usually with a loose draw overheating can become an issue and produce flavors not intended by the blend.

The second third comes at around 30 minutes, which is a considerable amount of time.  The cigar is burning slowly and I'm starting to get a raisin flavor that's complementing the cedar and coffee very nicely.  The smoke out put is starting to calm down a little bit and the cigar is giving me the impression that its want to go out.

At the half way point the cigar has indeed gone out.  I taped the ash off to find that the cigar has completely tunneled and is not burning properly.  I give it a quick relight and the same flavors from the second third are still there however, a chard tobacco taste is very present and takes over the draw flavors.  This chard tobacco flavor comes every time you have to do a relight on a cigar and can last the entirety of the stick.

Now, I am about a quarter inch down from the half way point and all the flavors remain but the chard tobacco has really kicked up and gotten very bitter tasting overshadowing any of the nice raisin, cedar and coffee I was getting early on.  The cigar is getting really hot, and mushy. The huge amounts of smoke are present again, but the cigar is require a touch up every five or six minutes to keep burning evenly.  At this point the cigar is not appetizing at all and I let it go out.

Price: $8.00
Appearance: 89
Draw: 83
Burn: 82
Flavor: 88
Burn Time: 85

Overall Score: 85


I have three more of this cigar and will re-visit it later on, as for this one: Very Disappointing.

H. Upmann 1844 Reserve in Robusto

I started the H. Upmann 1844 Reserve Robusto on a cold Illinois night overlooking a local pond while
chilling in my car. With sports radio in the background and my wife at a meeting(meaning no
interruptions) I cut it up and started slowly lighting the foot with a natural flame. I have had three H.
Upmann reserves before and every time I have had one the draw was so poor they were un-smokeable,
blocked up, tighter then any thick milkshake. I swore I would not give these another try after wasting
money on these several times before, but I decided to give it one more chance. So before I even
started I knew I would have to cut the cap a few times. I ended up cutting it three times before I found
the pre- draw to be suitable.After lighting up my first puffs produced very good smoke, not blocked at all!!! Immediately the

flavors were deep tobacco with sweet woody undertones and a spice on the tongue and lips. The smoke
was fairly thick and surprisingly smooth, a kind of smooth you only get from cigars that cost five to six
more dollars then this stick did. I found this at my local tobacco store for $5.50 I personally enjoy this
flavor very much so I was excited for what was to come. I started smoking at 5:38pm and by 5:57 the
burn was only down about half an inch with the burn line being a little uneven.

After the first inch or so the burn evened out beautifully,The construction was beautiful and the burn continued to be very slow but still very even. At the half way point I was at the one hour mark. The flavor had dropped off the
spice and became very sweet and nutty keeping the wood and added a light coffee on the finish. The
ash held on nicely and fell off by itself (in my makeshift McDonald cup ashtray) after nearly two
inches of a strong hold.

After the first two inches the flavor immediately went back to a pepper feel on the lips and in the back
of my throat with the sweet wood dominating the flavor and the coffee was gone never to return again.
As I got down to the band point the flavor started getting a little harsh and became non appetizing. I
finished with just under two inches to go at just over an hour and twenty five minutes in.
All in all this was a very good stick for the price and I enjoyed it.

Price: $5.50

Appearance: Good, small seems, dark and chocolate looking wrapper

Flavor: Good, nothing outstanding, not complex

Construction: Good, no issues, razor sharp burn line

Overall Score from 1-100.....

89