Smoked cigar #2 from Chazbo tonight. It was a 5" 54rg with a dark brown slightly toothy wrapper. It had a very heavy feel to it. Preflight draw was light tobacco with a bit of cedar. The burn was perfectly smooth, with initial ash holding for close to 2". Light leather taste through the first half wit hints of cedar and a littletangyness to it. Through the 2nd. Half the tang faded to a mellow smoke. Superb burn and I enjoyed down to the nub. because of the toothy wrapper I'm guessing mid range, but would absolutely smoke another. My first thoughts on it were visage so I'm gonna stick with thar, but wouldn't be surprised to find out it was an Ashton VSG.


So what did I smoke?

Dan,
That would be an Asylum 13. ( $6 at my local. )
Strange that you picked up all that pepper. I don't get that from this cigar. I AM NOT a pepper fan in the least.
I understand your feeling about the TAT "pepper". I felt the same way about them in the beginning, and then all of a sudden my feelings changed. I am still not a big TAT fan, for the most part, but I do like their "MIAMI" line quite
a bit . . . but I digress.
Back to the Asylum 13,
Don't feel bad about not finishing the cigar. It doesn't matter if it's a yard gar or a top shelf stick . . . If you don't like it, you don't like it. I've put down a few "top shelf" stogies over the years.
I can't see smoking something that I just don't like.

jes

Have tried Asylums in the past with the same results as above.

Dunno that it was so much a true pepper as much as it tastes like the only consideration put into the blend was to make it the strongest flavor and strength that they could make.

Replaced it with a Padilla 1932 which disappointed. I remember those beig good

Alright my fellow cbidders... you are going to witness my first cigar review... ever!

And it's a blind one, so please excuse my noobishness.

I'm reviewing frozen phoenix's Cigar #1, it was a monster, a Churchill size, but the ring gauge seemed to be a little over 50, the cigar was huge.

To start out, took the wife out to dinner and had a giant margarita and we went back to the house to have a drink, and I wanted to do my first review. I wanted to do one on a cigar I wanted to thoroughly enjoy so I did the smell test, and I picked the one I thought smelled the best. I picked the one that had that "it" factor that I tend to look for when I pick one to smoke, you know, the Padrons, the Pepin mades, the CC's ya... this one had it.

So I chopped it with a slim straight cut (it's the kind I prefer and almost all my cuts are this). Analyzed the cigar a bit, it had minor size veins, nothing dramatic, the smell was fantastic, but the prelight puff, I caught a note of fish, I know, that's weird, but it's what it had. There was a few soft spots on the cigar, so the construction didn't catch e as top notch. so at this point I was a little worried. I poured me some Dickel 12, and was ready to go.

So I fired this monster up, and it is usually a size I dedicate to smoking on the golf course, normally I smoke robusto or smaller when I'm just chilling on my porch... and then I caught a slight pepper blast. It wasn't anything major, just a slight blast that you get from most cigars. It quickly mellowed out into a more medium profile. Draw was a little bit tight of perfect, but was good, and the first ash held to about an inch and a half.

So as I puffed the first third, like I said, it mellowed quickly and seemed to be burning a little quick at the start, so I slowed down my puffing a little bit and it slowed down as well. When it started mellowing, it started to gain a little sweeter profile which lead me to believe that this cigar was going to be alright after all.

As I started rounding out the first third and moving into the second, the sweetness was still there and I started catching some notes. I'm no pro at this, so I was trying to write them down as I experienced them, and some of the first notes I started to catch were a more nutty flavor that reminded me of almonds. I was catching several notes in the mean time, but couldn't really put my finger on some of them, but then the cigar became really creamy... at this point, I was thinking Cuban for sure.

At about the half way point through the second, I was about an hour in and caught some Graham cracker notes, YUM! ... And as I got deeper through the second, that special spice/twang started kicking in and getting more pronounced.

Going into the third, the spice started kicking in, and it was still creamy and sweet so I was pretty much just enjoying the cigar and knocking down my whisky.

Then I went into the "Oh Yeah" phase of the cigar, you know that point where all good cigars suddenly just get better, and better it got. I thoroughly enjoyed this smoke and nubbed it, the only way I could describe it is I smoked it to the bone. It took me about an 1:50 to smoke this monster and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I'm still kind of a noob, not as noob as I was a few months ago, so still a noob. I'm thinking this cigar was definitely Cuban, if not, a really good Pepin rolled cigar, because from what I've smoked so far, the only one who gets close to that Cuban flavor is Peppin, but I'm pretty damn sure it was Cuban. If not, I'm really rooting for it to be the yard gar of the bunch. I mean, I'm really really hoping it's the yard gar, because if it is, I'm going to buy like 5 boxes of them, rofl.

I'm pretty sure though that this was the premium of the bunch, and I'm pretty sure it was Cuban, the cigar was on point from start to finish. I don't know all my Cubans, so I'm just going to guess it was a damn fine Cuban, and that's it.

I have to know... what was that I smoked, because I can see this going with me to many golf courses in the future.

Thanks Joe for this fine smoke!

Oowee the booze gets your fingers rolling too eh.

Looking forward to seeing what that was

BGZ, I'm glad you throughly enjoyed the dog rocket of the group. Sorry for the size, I keep these around to satisfy the under educated cigar smokers that think a churchill is cool to smoke. You smoked a Torano Circa Vega Dominicana, and buying 5 mazos will only run you about $100-110, well that is what i usually get them for is the $1 per.

I personally have had good luck with Toranos for being a cheap smoke that im not afraid to throw if they burn like carp.

Now i may have to set aside 2 hours and see if these have gotten better in the last couple months, as the one i had to test these got pitched at the halfway point from over humidification in their original storage location.

Looking forward to the other 2 reviews.

Oh man, can't wait for bugz next two if that was the glowing review for the yard gar!

This is fun to read! Maybe we can put together a round II when ya'll are done!

I did thoroughly enjoy that cigar, I thought that it could have been the rocket cause the construction wasn't that great, and the burn wasn't that great, but I thought... who would send someone a churchill size dog rocket, that's just evil.

In any case, The flavor on it was great though! I was pretty loaded last night when I smoked it and wrote the review, so that might have had something to do with it, I probably could have smoked a gas station smoke and thought it was great, lol.

Seriously though, I'm probably going to pick up a bundle just to see if I still like them with the band on.

Ya, that was quite fun. My wife is all picking on me as she drank her wine watching scribble notes on a piece of paper. It was the first time I ever actually thought about what kind of notes I was picking up in a cigar. I think the process of doing this actually made the experience more enjoyable for me, as I usually don't particularly like a 2 hour smoke.

Cigar #3 from mountainman is a 5x50 double perfecto. Dark brown wrapper with a bit of oily sheen and a couple protruding veins. Good firm roll and construction throughout. Straight cut about an eighth of an inch off and gave it a cold draw. Taste of pepper hit my tounge and a sweet tobacco lingered. Toasted the small foot and started this off.

Expected a pepper bomb but this started off with a sweet tobacco major note and a flavor i cant place that lingers in the mouth. An inch in and this thing is harsh and there is almost an herb flavor building on my pallette.

Halfway through i had an audible crack happen around the 2/3 mark onthe wrapper and may have been from band removal. This cigar is not in my wheelhouse at all and almost tastes infused or chemically enhanced. Should not have retrohaled either as my eyes will not stop watering now.

Milked it to an inch and a half left, but needed to put it down. Not sure what this was, but it has to be the yard gar i hope.

Let me know what i can do to steer clear of this one.

Didn't remember it being all that peppery. But yes this was the yard gar and was a foundry sodium

Alright, after my major fail of a review of the first cigar, on to frozenphoenix #2.

I was a bit biased before smoking the first one, because at first glance and smell of all the cigars, I had this one pegged as the yard gar. Before I smoked any of them, I had the first pegged as the mid range cigar, it's obvious that I have no idea what I'm talking about, so here we go...

#2 had a splotchy wrapper and was pretty veiny relative to the other 2 smokes. Before I torched it tonight, I examined it a little better and the construction seemed decent as there were no major soft spots, but there were several minor cracks in the wrapper.

Also upon examination, I noticed a lot of glue spots on this cigar, and in random spots as well, more so than most cigars that I've seen. Smelled at about the center of the cigar and on the foot of the cigar, the middle had a funky smell to it, and the foot wasn't that much better.

Gave it a straight cut and prelight draw was a bit tight, then I fired it up. The draw was still a bit tight after I lit it, but had a slight pepper blast to it on the start. Pepper staid for a few puffs, then set in to what I would call a med-full range.

After about an inch in, those little cracks I mentioned started turning into big cracks. It was still hard to draw at this point, but then it started canoeing on me. I wanted to see if it would self correct, but it never did, had to do a major touch up a little way through it. It was still hard to draw at that point.

Then all of a sudden, it blew up on me, but having doubts about what I was smoking... at this point, thinking it has to be the premium just because with my luck, that's just what I thought... after all, the flavor wasn't bad, wasn't spectacular or anything, but wasn't bad, so I muscled through it, picking off the pieces of the wrapper here and there trying to salvage it.

The draw got looser after it was well blown up, and at this point, the only thing holding the cigar together was the white band with a #2 on it.

I had to surrender with about 2.5 to 3 inches or so left on it, tried to muscle through it, but it was just becoming a chore, so I gave it up.

If I would have smoked this one first, I would have definitely called it the yard gar, so because my guess was so far off on the first, I'm going to guess this was the premium, lol... but I'm hoping it was the mid range.

Again, decent flavor on it, but unfortunately it blew up on me... happens.

Oh, and it was also a Churchill... thinking frozen was just dumping his Churchills on me, lol.

I hadnt tried foundry yet and was looking for a good one to start off with, but this was not a good start.

Bgz, well this review session is acting the opposite of what it is supposed to be. That was a God of Fire churchill from a few years back, so Im really sorry it blew out on you.

Enjoy the last one as it will be the best one of the bunch and a better size.

GOF some of the best I've had.

Bugz is fired.

Love blind reviews so much.

Can't wait for the summer blind review

I said it had decent flavor!

I probably should have let them rest for a full week before I started doing the reviews, I might have got a little over zealous with it.

Are you sure you didn't accidentally swap #1 with #2? lol


Edit:

Major blow out on the highway waiting for a tow truck to take me to buy new tires lol...

Thinking about that smoke, really wish I could have made it to the good part of the cigar.

The flavor was getting better when I got fed up with it, if it didn't blow out on me I'm sure the review would have been much different.

Thanks for the opportunity to try a gof frozen, I think I'll have to try another at some point to give it another shot.

Yes... the torano is a pig of a cigar and much larger on the rg.

The rest in your humidity might be best the next time, but i do keep mine around 65 so if you like them higher it could have caused the split.

Dont let Dr dan get to you. Ive had the high end cigar split on me from lack of rest as well.