Blind Cigar Tasting Competition Thread: Cigar Number 3,

[El Presidente]

Third cigar (Piramide) to be smoked by 2nd of May local Brisbane time.

Brief review but DO NOT CALL the cigar. Post the review on this thread.

ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST PM ME THEIR CALL FOR THE second CIGAR BY MIDNIGHT THE 2nd of May Brisbane Local Time. I will then post the results in a spreadsheet. Please PM and do not e-mail me otherwise I may lose the correspondence.

To the winner (who can correctly select all cigars sent) $500 USD/AUD prize .

In the event no one picks all three cigars then the prize will be split as a credit to those who selected 2 out of 3. Keep trying!

I will write up a spreadhsheet and post the results for cigar no 2 on 16th of April. No new players can request cigars.

Good Luck!

El Presidente.

To date:

[dicko]

I'll get the ball rolling. I don't like pyramids/beli's, I just dont like the feel in the hand or mouth and they always seem to unwrap. With my grand experience of 2x monte 4's in this size I may struggle to guess this one!

Appearance- like the other two a bit bumpy, a little oily sheen though, a slight green watermark, a slight indent half way up and predominantly light brown.

Aroma at cold- Outstanding! aramotic woods, slight leather, and a slight 'funk' but in a good way like a beautiful female foot just slipped out of a stiletto!

Initial puffs- woody (armomatics not forrest), slight white pepper through nose.

First third- good smoke volume, med-full. draw is good, maybe just a tad too loose for me. Unwrapped a tiniy bit at the start but its stuck down now.

-nice creamy undertones, still woody, black pepper on the tongue too. I'm getting crushed flowers, hint of earth, dark coffee crushed beans. One word: complex. not overly smooth but its taking me on a journey.

Second third- this is pretty damn strong, in a good way. I'm wondering what this could be, and honestly i have no idea. Its strong but it could be the youth of any of the major cigar houses. Lovely cuban flavours though. A small highlight for me is the aroma of the smoke coming off the sitting cigar, i normally dont like this but this smoke smells of chocolate!

Watching this UK show "The Inbetweeners"...very funny.

-flavours hollowing out slightly (is that a word? lol)

-smoke volume is impressive.

Final Third- end of 2/3 was average but its coming back around, nice salty taste on lips, bit of cream, bit of spice, mainly just good straight tobacco.

Overall- Interested to see what this is. i would buy a box because the potential is there in a big way. 89/90 now.

[CBL]

Honestly I kinda lost interest in the competition since I got the second cigar wrong.... But your review has me intrigued in smoking the last one. If only to experience a good cigar.

BTW. The title needs some fixing:

Blind Cigar Tasting Competition Thread: Cigar Number 3, Post Cigar 2 reviews Here

Some lazy copy/pasting going on here

[dicko]

For sure, I enjoyed it! bit youthful but the quality's there!

looking forward to your review

[CanuckSARTech]

Blind Cigar Tasting Competition, Cigar No. 3, "Piramide" format - final score, 92

So, here’s my review of the third and last cigar in this blind cigar tasting competition....

Reviewed Cigar: Blind Cigar No. 3

Box Date: Unknown (current production)

Factory/Manufacture Code: Unknown

Packaging: Unknown

Price: Never talk money...

Length: 6 1/8", or 156 mm

Ring Gauge: 52

Format: Piramide

Weight: Don't you know it isn't polite to ask a fella this??

Construction/Appearance & Pre-Light: This cigar was actually only 154 mm long (2 mm short of the 156 mm for a "Piramide" vitola), but this could only be a piramide (duh!). The cigar's diameter at the foot was actually a bit squared off (potentially from being in a dress-box?), and was closer to being 54 ring gauge. This cigar was well-packed, while not yet too firm – the density and squeeze-test on the touch with this cigar was perfect. The foot appeared to be quite packed and bunched, with a very noticeable crescent-"C" of ligero apparent within the bunch at the foot (hell, if it wasn't ligero, then that was some of the darkest seco or volado that I"ve ever seen!). But some great tones of tobacco present.

A picture of the foot of this cigar (piramide on the right of the photo), from when I first got these cigars in a few weeks ago....

Other than that, holy dark and oily, Batman! This cigar was definitely darker, easily Colorado maduro, if not just bordering on being maduro (but still a couple of shades under the Cohiba Maduro 5 stuff I have). And, while this cigar doesn't have that "marbled" oily appearance that I like to find with Montecristo stuff that I have, this cigar had something different going on with the wrapper – there was almost a "spatter-paint" quality to the wrapper, where the wrapper itself was a very dark Colorado, but then heavy maduro "spots" were interspersed on the wrapper, almost like with a dot-matrix or a fine-freckled pattern to it. There was SUCH a noticeable oily feel and texture to this cigar – I almost did't want to burn it! But, I knew the experience would likely be divine, so up it went! LOL. This was a very beautiful wrapper, definitely PSP-like – if my guess is right on this one (and I'm 90% sure), I now see that....

Draw at cold was just a bit restrictive; quite nice, actually. (That's what I love about piramides – you can cut off as much as you want or not, to get the draw that you want, and it's a larger cigar, but with a corona-esque sized mouth-opening to the head, depending on the cut.) At cold, there were aromas of cocoa (unsweetened chocolate), with some freshly roasting coffee tones, and some wonderful tones of leather there also, and tastes of creme brulee / burnt caramel.

Opening Impressions: After a lighting up and initial draws, WONDERFUL. Great draw, coffee essences, sweet spices, and a lush mouthfeel to these.

First Third: During the first third, I actually got some ever so light tones of youth from the cigar. While there wasn't any of the dreaded ammoniatic smell, there was some hints of what I'd say fairly goes with the ammonia in my experience – I got hints of what can only be referred to as menthol. Now, I don’t mean a minty taste. But, with menthol stuff and the like, there's that cool icyness that you get to the corners of your mouth, and the insides of your cheeks. Well, with certain puffs in this first third, I was getting that menthol-like coolness of a sensation to the inside of my cheeks. Again, no ammonia, but still a youthful aspect to these at this stage.

I was also getting some other wonderfully bold flavours. Hits of....

I had to correct the burn once in this first third, mostly just for cosmetics. This was after I had a bit of an issue with a wrapper split. This first third had some major tobacco swelling as it was burning. I had a section of the wrapper split open, and this affected the burn slightly. Not major, as the flavours didn't suffer negatively from it.

Second Third: Great. No more menthol-like aspects. Just rich, refined tobacco essences. Chocalately hits throughout (almost could mistake it for a Cuaba EL, if it weren't for the.... tones, and lack of some fruity aspects I get in the Cuaba Piramide). Delicious....

Final Third: More of the same from the second third. Again, no more menthol mouthfeel. A tiny bit of harshness on the back of the tongue with puffs during the last inch of the cigar. But, completely expected a bit worse than this, due to lack of long-term aging to this cigar. For a youthful cigar, I smoked this thing to the hot, bitter nub. Great dense, velvety smoke in this third especially. A bit of a touch-up and another slight wrapper crack near the end of this final third.

Finishing Comments / Overall Impression: Wow. This cigar was a superstar. This cigar seems to be about a year old, but just based on the richness and quality of the tobacco, it seems like it could be two months or two years at this point – this thing just performed, and it makes it so hard to tell with the tobacco quality right now. Man, but if this thing is any less than a year old, it will be wonderfully amazing to see how these do with only about two more years of aging time on them. Just a beautiful experience. I needed this yesterday – a nice time to spend playing in the back yard with my little guy.

Based on all the flavour profile that I got from this, and also regarding the thoughts that I already e-mailed to you Rob with my sleuthing and whatnot, I'm calling this cigar to be a.... Just...just…wonderful! Rob, I'm sticking with my earlier assertions that I PM'd to you, even though I'm a bit in the dark with that other potential. But, I'm sticking with the crossing off of the ones that I didn't think this could be, based on my at cold observations from a few days back. Hell, even if I don't get it, and if this turns out to be something else, I don't care – just sign me up to grab at least a box or two of these (LOL - as if my wishlist with Lisa isn't long ENOUGH as it is!!! ), in whatever quality level that they were (PSP, presumably). Fricken' awesome!

Final Score: 92, with two years' age, definitely has the potential to be a SOLID mid-90's performer!

Total Smoking Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Paired Beverage: Ginger ale

Date & Time Smoked: Thursday, April 21st, 2011, 7:55 pm to 9:25 pm

Thanks for reading my review. Hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers.

[Ghabanos]

That was a great review. I want one now too...

[laficion]

Mystery Blind Taste Cigar No.3

Friday, 4.00pm---22nd of April, 2011.

Taster, laficion (Guy)

Paired with "Ron del Barrilito" Rum, 3 stars, 6 to 10 years old, Puerto Rican Rum.

Vitola- Piramides

Colorado wrapper that was a bit bumpy and also had quite a few stains of glue but on the whole correct. Very enjoyable smell at cold from the foot of the cigar.

Frist Third : great barnyard and animal but was a bit harsh on the first puffs, again, like the first cigar, the burn was going one sided.Retro- hale was earthy and nice.

Second Third : The cigar started to open up on some very interesting tastes of coffee but was easily overtaken by it's dominate earthness.

Last third: Hints of spices enjoyablely joined in to mix with the earthy and leather touches. I would say the cigar was rather full in body but lacked from a bit more complexity.

However, the cigar was very enjoyable and had a nice force to it. I did need to relight it a few times because

it did burn sideways during the whole tasting time . Again, I didn't note this cigar.

Well Rob, you gave us hell for all 3 cigars, congratulations on the last one, rough but I'll admit,

the Rum was excellent .

The blind test was fun and hope to do it again, Thanks to everyone for playing the game. HIC !!!!!

My call was PM'ed to Rob.

Ciao

[investandprosper]

I'm definitely participating in the next one of these

I have a good idea on what this one is. Great reviews guys.

[Rogers72]

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

Rick Blaine - Casablanca

Wow. This experience for me was a Masquerade Ball. A beautiful stranger saunters her way across the room toward you. You meet her on the dance floor and press your hand firmly into the small of her back. You feel your souls collide. Your lips move up the nape of her neck and you taste the unforgetable taste of her perfume. You gaze into her eyes. You dance the most sensual tango the world has ever known. This is no stranger. This is the most familiar lover that you have ever known. The Ilsa Lund to your Rick Blaine. You may have lost her for a while but you'll always have the memory.

My example is gorgeous. Medium Colorado, slightly veiny, beutifully packed. Aroma at cold is forest floor. I clipped to reveal a perfect draw. Fired it up to find plenty of smoke. Just on the mild side of medium. The strength dances back and forth from 4/10 to 6/10 throughout the smoke. Brilliant. First class tobacco with light wood and a shitload of what the French call je ne sais quoi. That character that distinguishes this Marque from all others. I won't go into more detail because it would certainly tip my hat. Perfect burn throughout. I give it a 93 now although I know it's fairly young. Would have been into the high 90's with a few years.

This was an affirmation of faith to me in the individuality of the Habanos Marques. I know with 100% certainty what this smoke was. If I am wrong, I will eat my crow. PM sent to Rob.

[dB69]

Previuosly I have smoked two out of five possible piramides, but I am 100% sure what this mystery cigar #3 was. The cigar is also one of the very few cigars that I have smoked under the age of one and the sample tasted excactly the same like my formerly smoked ones.

The just smoked mystery cigar was "Double-0-Nothing". Way too mild. Boring. Bland. Dull. Flat. Tasteless. Waste of time. No body at all. Are there any other words to describe a failure?

I would rather smoke a Marlboro Lights cigarette and would become much happier with it.

I will absolutely never buy these cigars (again). If I am wrong with my answer, then I will never buy any piramides...

[Professor Twain]

I took this quiet Easter morning to sit by my pool and enjoy this cigar. The Blind Tasting Competition has made me realize that I rarely sit down and do nothing but enjoy a cigar. I have gotten too much into the habit of having cigars while I do yard work, email, etc. It's a glorious Florida day and I gave all of my attention to this cigar, pairing it with some very good Kona coffee.

Mine had a nice light colored wrapper, drew perfectly, and was really a tasty treat. For me the cigar had a very nice combination of a pleasant woody taste, a mild spicy taste, and a someone stronger citrus taste, reminiscent of lemon peels. I could taste that slightly tart, slightly sweet, lemony flavor on my lower lip after I had been smoking for a while. The cigar didn't really change or develop but was good to the last puff.

I'm sending Rob my guess... 0 for 2 so far but this has been a lot of fun.

[Habanos2000]

I'd like to briefly jump to the end of my review and say what a wonderful cigar #3 proved to be! I'm not much of a pyramide smoker, but this one really impressed with its quality.

Smoked 4/23/11, 60 degrees F

Nice colorado wrapper, with some slight veins. A bit of sweetness prior to lighting up. The body of the cigar was firm head to toe and the foot showed a nice bunching of leaves.

1st third... After clipping the cap at about a 70 degree angle, the draw was just about perfect in resistance. The initial smoke showed a medium to just over medium body with light earthiness and tinges of cedar. Further along I was picking up definate suggestions of chocolate. What a creamy, lush smoke! I am really enjoying this cigar! The first ash dropped 26 minutes in.

2nd...Body still medium, and keeping it smooth and even throughout. Still thoroughly enjoyable. The flavor is now clearly that of melted milk chocolate, coating my tongue and mouth. There are hits of white pepper here and there, just enough to keep it interesting. This is such a nice smoke that I'm probably drawing on it too often, but I can't help myself. What a great cigar!

Final... Had to touch up the burn after the 2nd ash dropped 1 hour in, but other than that this baby was on autopilot! Just a hair over medium in body now, but still smooth smoke with chocolate and saffron, cedar and moss flavors. I could smoke this all night long, but alas at 1 hour and 21 minutes had to put it to rest.

I have a pretty good idea of what marque this cigar is. Either that or I'm about to find a new favorite long smoke! I couldn't get enough of this and ended up with a final score of 91. I'm sure with some age on it, this baby would easily get into the mid 90's for me.

I really enjoyed the competition and look forward to trying this again in the future!

[mbrody]

I enjoyed cigar #3 this weekend and it was my favorite of the 3 in the competition. Construction, draw were perfect. This example was ready to smoke now, moreso than the previous two mystery cigars (not a mystery anymore!). Burn was excellent and there were copious amounts of smoke. Flavors were consistent throughout the smoke, with only the tail end of the final third showing a bit of youth. Not overly complex, but kept my attention. Overall, an 89 (borderline 90) with potential of 92 with some time. I have a guess in mind...Thanks Rob for the fun...

[sepp]

As been said by others already, this was the best smoke of the three mystery sticks. Nice Colorado wrapper good basic tobacco aroma at cold. Pre light draw not tight at all but not to loose either.

Good burn and dark grey "stacked quarters" firm ash through the smoke.

1st third had a leather and earth base that was a touch spicy. Hmmm.

2nd third leather earth and horse barn, spice went mild. Hmmm.

3rd third actually nubbed this sample, leather got thick on my palate.

The aroma at cold and pre light draw told me I was going to enjoy this sample much more than either of the previous two. I did. Great mouth feel with copious amounts of smoke. Barnyard at cold and leather and earth throughout, Heaven! And a touch of spice to throw me off...

Uneducated guess on it's way.

Thanks to the czar House for the fun and education!

[BolivarSmoker]

Mystery Cigar # 3

Best cigar of the comp for me.

The cigar was ugly as hell which lowered my expectations (and maybe lead to the nice suprise). HUGE veins, and a patch of green tobacco visible in the center of the foot. No oil whatsoever.

Clipped at a slight angle and was welcomed with a near perfect draw.

1/3 - Low side of medium. Creamed coffee, chocolate....brilliant. Nice tangy finish.

2/3 - Straight medium body. Still like a nice cup of coffee, although with a little less cream as the 1/3. Still very nice.

3/3 - Coffee and cream, what can I say. This cigar was dominated until the end by coffee/cream. Loved it.

PM sent to Rob.

[olotti]

Mystery cigar #3. I must say after reading some of the reviews I'm looking forward to this and being 0 for 2 well I'm just going to enjoy the cigar. Accompanied by a Sailor Jerry's and Coke mix.

Construction- Spot on. Very firmly packed, nice bunch at the foot. The wrapper itself is very soft to the touch but has a couple veins running throughout. Not overly oily.

Draw-Just perfect. I was a bit skeptical the draw would be this good because the cigar is so firm but the first pull yielded just the right amount of resistance. Perfect for me anyway.

Smell/Draw at cold- Predraw I get old leather and good amounts of great tobacco. A little vegetal but I''m attributing that to youth as I'm guessing this is an 10' like the others.

Opening- Voluminous smoke. Med body. Nice creamy finish. light light spice through the nose.

1/3rd- Med sometimes med-full. A light spice with a creamy finish and a full mouth feel. A little acidity also noticed like you would find in a dark coffee. Hardly any spice through the nose. A touch of nicotine is also noticed. Also I'm finding the taste of just plain ol good cuban tobacco, mmm tasty.

2/3rd- More of the same, no real complexity to speak of. Still a bit of a creamy finish. I'm a little underwhelmed at this point, not disappointed but I was hoping for more. I know I've smoked this before.

last third- Still the same as the first third. A little more full bodied but it's kind of lost it's way a little which I attribute to being a young cigar. Nothing other than that to speak of .

Overall- I have a pretty good idea what I think this may be, of course I thought I was darn close on the first two so we'll see what happens. Overall the start was good and then the cigar just kind of went blah on me. Not a terrible smoke just no real development from the first third. I think after a couple years you may see it pickup the complexity a little more. Now I would give it a 87-88 in a couple years maybe low 90's but who knows. This was a fun excercise and I hope to do it again sometime. PM'd Prez with my guess.

[Van55]

Mystery Piramide

I lit this one up on April 23 on a very pleasant day whilst enjoying spring breezes on my deck.

A. Appearance and construction: The wrapper was medium brown, dry and toothy. No oil to speak of. It was rustic and veiny. A small (1 cm) patch of wrapper had been removed apparently with the unbanding of the cigar. The cigar was solidy packed, but not over-filled. Perhaps is was a little mushy at the foot, but the remainder was fine. There was a small split of the wrapper in the top third that did not affect the smoking experience. Pre-light draw was just a bit on the firm side. There no particularly remarkable aromas at cold or flavors on the cold draw.

B. First third: Initial impression was that this was a strong cigar. It was just shy of full-bodied and left lots of stinging tingle through the nose. First flavors were not particularly notable or distinctive. Perhaps some citrus, but mostly cigar tobacco smoke. The volume of smoke was lacking. Had to double toke every time to get a mouthful of smoke. My impression = "lacks character." Quite dry in the mouth. The thickness of the wrapper on one side caused an uneven burn that had to be touched up. Young cigar. I flicked the ash off at about an inch to see that a tunnel had developed. There followed a bitter, nasty taste that relighting didn't help much. I thought "this is just not a good cigar."

C. Second third: I purged the cigar hoping to refresh the taste. No such luck. The flavors were serious, somber and not pleasant. Still there was too little volume of smoke for my taste. Maybe there was some unsweetened chocolate and charred espresso. The ash dropped at just before the final third. Still tunneling, which seemed to cause a quite unbalanced effect on the flavors. Needed a re-light. Again the smoke turned unpleasant and bitter.

D. Final third: This third began with overtones of camphor. Maybe mentolated camphor. Lifie's too short. Pitched it, having wasted too much time and attention on a cigar from which I got precious little enjoyment.

I would give this cigar 2 smoke rings or a 75 on the 70-100 scale.

Guess sent to El Prez.

I would NOT have paid $40.00 plus shipping for this trio of cigars had I known what I was going to get out of smoking them. Still, I wouldn't have missed the experience, which was well worth the price of admission. If the point to be made was how inconsistent Cuban cigars can be within the same box code, it has been made in spades. If another point was that 2010 dated cigars need time, that point has also been made. All three of these cigars were, in my opinion, too young to be enjoyed to the fullest.

I read most of the reviews above this one after smoking the piramide and making my own toasting notes. I kept wondering if some of the guys had smoked the same cigar that I did. Canuck called the cigar a "superstar" noting flavors of unsweetened chocolate and "menthol" I got those same flavors at different points, but considered the cigar a dud rather than a superstar.

Rob, thanks for the fun!

[PigFish]

...I would NOT have paid $40.00 plus shipping for this trio of cigars had I known what I was going to get out of smoking them. Still, I wouldn't have missed the experience, which was well worth the price of admission. If the point to be made was how inconsistent Cuban cigars can be within the same box code, it has been made in spades. If another point was that 2010 dated cigars need time, that point has also been made. All three of these cigars were, in my opinion, too young to be enjoyed to the fullest.

Rob, thanks for the fun!

Well, that sums it up nicely! I have yet to smoke the #3 cigar. Frankly I am a little afraid to! I have just decimated a wonderful box of '02 La Puntas, where every cigar has been a charm and every time I try one of these sample sticks, I want to give up smoking!!! I will hit it tonight or tomorrow. I am looking forward to it about as much as angioplasty! -Piggy

[cigaraholic]

For me this was a good cigar, not great but good. I'm glad I don't have a box of these aging because I don't see them turning into something special.

Burn was fine and construction was excellent, lasted 80 minutes.

A little over medium bodied, it seemed to get a little stronger in the middle than went back down.

Visually it looked like one brand to me but it had a flavor that I always associate with another.

I would have done better it this competition if we had to guess without smoking the cigars.

It's been fun, can't wait for the next one!

[ChanceSchmerr]

I smoked No. 3 last night during a meeting of my Whisky Society. Kinda bummed that I was so completely out to lunch with my first two calls - but hey, at least I know two cigars that I won't have to trip over myself trying to secure a box of! All in good fun and I will definitely want to be a part of future blind tastings.

Appearance - Dark, Oily wrapper, with a great weight in the hand. Flawless!

Accompaniment - Yamazaki 18 Year Whisky. Absolutely delicious.

First Couple of Puffs - Rich Cocoa. A Good Punch but no pepper to speak of.

First Third - Had to cut a little deeper as the head was quite dense, but afterward I was rewarded with a perfect drawing cigar with loads of dusty cocoa. The strength of this cigar is formidable, but there is no pepper whatsoever in there - quite a fascinating thing, havn't seen this in a cigar in a while! Enjoyable to say the least.

Middle Third - the Ash lasts until halfway through the cigar - construction is magnificent! the burn is razor sharp and the draw remains perfect, with just a hint of resistance. The taste develops a little further, with some lifts of sweetness and wood overtones, but cocoa reigns supreme here.

Final Third - More of the same, I kinda wish there was more development of the flavour, but at least it's a flavour I enjoy! Cocoa, cream with a little Sharp wood notes here and there. The strength has remained consistent.

Overall impressions - I am certain of this one .......but I was certain about the last one and couldn't have been more wrong. It's a pleasant smoke which I think needs another year or two to develop some complexity, but it definitely isn't a sin to enjoy these right now. I'd go with a 90 score for this one.

PM sending to Rob!

Thanks again for putting this contest on, Prez - I look forward to the next one!

[soltino]

The third and final cigar!

Well this one opened with a pretty unpleasant set of flavours, tasted very young and unbalanced... after the first few puffs I really didn't hold much hope for the smoke. Thankfully though, the first third settled down into light cocoa and solid tobacco. No real power to the cigar at all, wispy smoke, but pleasant nonetheless. The second third was more or less same and after that I just lost interest. Too little smoke, too little flavour.

Overall this smoke had a nice flavour but was pretty weak. PM sent to Rob

[CBL]

The last cigar in this great little experiment, a pyramid. Construction is beautiful, you can see the entire leaf wrapped around the cigar. The wrapper itself is rustic looking, a little rough but that adds to its charm.

Pre-draw gives a light sweet taste.

1/3:

The start is mild with some cream & notes of coffee. The smoke itself is very light.

The tastes are full with a tiny hint of sour tang. Every time I rush the smoke it punishes me with a harsh taste, this cigar clearly needs to be smoked slow.

The ash is loose and grey and there's a strong pepper through the nose.

2/3:

A little taste of mint comes trough and there's still notes of coffee. The cigar becomes extremely mild with just a tiny pepper on the palate.

3/3:

Becomes very bitter and needs various relights.

The cigar dies way too soon, harsh and disappointing.

88/100

---

This was a great exercise and I think the main thing we can take from it is that young cigars can be enjoyable..... but hardly are

If the plan to use aged cigars in the next competition goes trough, I won't hesitate to join in again! Hopefully with some better results!

[SeanL]

This competition reminds me yet again of how varied Cuban cigars can be in quality, even within cigars from the same box.

Having said that, on to my capsule review of the third cigar...

The cigar had a nice wrapper, falling somewhere toward colorado. There were a couple of prominent veins and the overall appearance would probably best described as rustic, although if the veins were much more prominent the description would become something along the lines of "reminiscent of Frankenstein's monster". The tobacco at the foot looked nicely packed and there were no unusual soft or firm spots. The aroma at the foot was a nice basic tobacco with a hint of barnyard. A cold draw yielded a nice tobacco flavour and a draw that was firmer than I would normally prefer, but not enough to be problematic.

The foot toasted evenly and without issue, settling into a nice and even burn with a moderately thick burn line. Some patience was required due to the firm draw, but it didn't take long to get underway. The initial puffs showed tobacco and some pepper, but not much else. The cigar fell squarely into the medium catagory right from the get go. After things were underway, two other flavours became apparent: wood and salt. The saltiness was not very strong, but it was there. I have some cigars in my humidor that have a similar saltiness in the first third, and if these turn out to not be the same, I'm starting to wonder if this is a common train in young CCs.

The second third still maintained an even burn and firm draw. Tobacco still remained the predominant flavour, but the profile changed a bit and something new emerged and edged out the woody notes: nuttiness. Think along the lines of walnuts. The saltiness remained in the background.

The final third was the most difficult. The burn started to wander and the draw tightened up some more, leading to believe there was something of a tight spot in the bunching process. The nuttiness that emerged in the preceding third vanished and the woody tone returned. The cigar remained medium bodied and flavour throughout the entire duration.

Final thought: I am pretty sure this is the same cigar I have a box of. If they are not, I need to work harder at this. This means I have to smoke more cigars? Poor me...

[Fuzz]

Third and final in the mystery series!

Size: Piramide

Construction: Okay, a few hard spots.

Wrapper: Much like a teenager's face, bumpy and splotchy. I'd say the wrapper colour would be claro... if I could see anything besides the green spots.

Aroma Pre-Cut: A little woody, touch of leather.

Pre-Light Draw: Easy, but not loose.

First 1/3: Mineral taste. A touch of woodiness. Plenty of smoke, but thin in body. Burn is nice, no need for touch up.

Second 1/3: Predominant mineral taste, with woody highlights. Strength is mild to medium. A little nuttiness, kinda like scorched almonds, creeps into the last part of this 1/3.

Last 1/3: No real change. Finishes medium in strength and still pumping out copious amount of smoke.

Rating: 80/100

Though the 3 cigars haven't been great, it was still fun to participate in the tasting. Thanks to Rob and the Czar team for running this.

[aes8]

My system just crashed while I had a nice full review going on. Can't wait to replace this POS with an iPad.

Here it is short and sweet:

Setting: Peppermint Hippo - West

Paring: Starbucks French Roast Espresson, home brewed

Prelight: Nice arouma, good draw. Showing hints of oil on the wrapper.

First 1/3: Light with some richness, razor shapr burn, and nice balance, very enjoyable.

Second 1/3: Still smooth and rich, some chocolate comes in, still smooth and balanced.

Third 1/3: Starting to burn under the wrapper a bit but not worth a touch up. Chocolate and subtle richness still there. A nice cigar subtly complex, but not overwheling.

I have my choice narrowed down to two, very similar cigars. I was able to eliminate some of the usual suspects off the list soon after lighting up. I'm fortunate this vitola is not produced in many of the marca I don't purchase because that would put me at a disadvanted in identifying their flavor profile.

Off to email Rob before this POS crashes again.

Best cigar of the lot for me.

90/100