Review: Mystery cigar #3
5 1/2 x 52...total time was 1 hr and 40 minutes. The cigar had a fan-tail cap (kind of a giveaway for someone who's smoked many of them) with a dark brown wrapper that had darker brown, almost black splotches. The wrapper leaf was rough, thick and dull looking, with some minor veins. There was a slightly sweet, barnyard and fruity aroma. Pre-light flavor was dried fruit and cocoa. The cigar was very solid with almost no give along the entire length, when pinched. I paired the smoke with iced water.
The first few puffs had a sweet chocolatey cookie taste with strong tobacco. There was a pepperiness on the finish when retrohaled. Moderate to easy draw produced a high volume of smoke and the cigar gave off a lot of smoke at rest. The volume of smoke made it difficult to do a full retrohale, so I expelled some smoke through the mouth before sending it up through the sinuses.The flavor was robust, full of meaty, sweet, woody notes.There was a lot going on in the first third as secondary flavors came and went. The burn was nearly straight, and the solid ash was a light gray color. The smoke made my nose run, even though the pepperiness was gone. The initial third finished with more sweetness, strong tobacco and a complex blend of flavors. The ash stayed solid until I tapped it off at about 1 1/2 inch.
This was a great cigar so far. The flavors changed some from the beginning: much sweeter and milder tasting. There was a sweet minty tobacco taste with a moist feeling in the mouth. It is still producing a lot of smoke, so much so that I still can't do a full retrohale comfortably. In this portion of the cigar, the dominant tastes were sweet, fruity and meaty with a strong tobacco backdrop. Some saltiness joined the show near the end of the middle third, which added a savory quality. The smoke was milder, mellower and sweeter than how it began.
In the final third, I'm still thinking this is a great cigar. The blend of flavors is like a well executed broth of multiple flavors that are hard to distinguish. Have to get some more of these. It needed a minor correction at 1 1/2 inch left. The strength kicked in. With an inch left this was a full flavored full strength cigar. I put it out with a half inch nub left, and enjoyed every minute. My guess is that this was a Liga Privada UF 13. I've smoked through 2-3 boxes, but it's been a couple of years since I smoked the last one. It had less pepper than I remember, but the full complexity of smoke and several transitions are the same.
This was the high end.
I've had to re-evaluate the guesses I made about #1 and #2. Number 1 now is considered the middle tier, a very good Cuban, which I found familiar, but can't identify. Since I guessed it was a high end, it is an excellent mid-tier cigar. So cigar number 2 is now my sub $5 cigar, and at that price, it is a very good cigar, one that seems familiar, like an Illusione, but I can't pinpoint what it was.
Thank you gummy, for sending an excellent selection of cigars. I thoroughly enjoyed each of them.