This cigar was enjoyed with Sweet Tea
Pre-Light: 9 Points of 10 Possible
Pre-light for this cigar I had high hopes! It was a little light in the hand, and a little squishy, but I figured for a lancero, it was about right. It was a dryer wrapper than some, yet fairly smooth. It cut nicely, and had an aroma of light tobacco. The pre-light draw had hints of pepper, as well as mild tobacco flavor.
Lighting and Burn: 3 Points of 15 Possible
As soon as I lit the cigar, it started running up the cigar on the top and the bottom. The ash started making a V and splitting apart. You could see through the ash of the cigar. The ash eventually started tightening up on one side of the cigar, but on the other side, it was very loose, so it made the V lean to one side. The ash was greyish on 1/4 of the ash, but black and grey flecky on the other 3/4 of the ash. The burn rate was really fast for part of the cigar, and then ok for the other part, making the burn really wanky. There was plenty of smoke volume the whole time. The cigar actually went out one time, and the flavor of the cigar not burning was better than the flavor of the cigar burning.
Construction: 10 Points of 30 Possible
The construction of this cigar was really off. The packing was not right. I'm not sure if there was a stem running down the middle, or what it was, but the middle burned really fast, and the sides burned slower. The draw was what I would expect out of a lancero though. The cigar burned into what could only be described as a Y. The unsmoked cigar being the bottom of the Y, and the ash split into two parts.
Flavor and Aroma: 3 Points of 45 Possible
The strength of the cigar I would call mild-medium to medium.
The cigar was very two dimensional, and it wasn't good! The first couple of puffs on the cigar were a peppery hit followed by an earthy grassy flavor. That didn't last long, but was the highlight of the cigar.
Its second dimension was characterized by a flavor that resembled burnt rubber crossed with charred wood.
There was a HARD bite on the tongue that was very sharp and off putting. The cigar went out one time about the end of the first 1/3, and the draw flavor of a cigar that has gone out was more pleasant than the flavor of the cigar itself.
Something in this cigar made my sinuses just lock up and even an hour after smoking this cigar, while I am writing this, my tongue has a bite to it.
I put the cigar down at 1/2 way through it, I just couldn't do anymore of it!
Summary
I know this cigar had construction issues, and some kind of random crap stuffed into this cigar, because if not, nobody would smoke this company's cigars! If this was my first Southern Draw cigar, I would not go back for any other. However, I have had others of their brand that have been good, so I will reserve the right to have another go at this one. I won't be doing it anytime soon though! Be careful that you don't get one of these made on a Monday morning, they are ROUGH!!!
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