| June Points Contest is Under Way! | By: SenorPablo |
| The points contest is under way for the month of June. The 26 members with the most points for the month have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Famous Smoke Shop. You can read the details HERE. To view the previous month's contest results see here. | |
| Toys for Tots Drive 2022 | By: SenorPablo |
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| June 2023 Member Sponsored Geek Critique | Last: Murphy223
(53 Replies) Today at 07:08 AM |
| Introduction | Last: Murphy223
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| Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend Lancero | June 2023 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: (Brlesq) | |||
| This is a great, medium-bodied cigar with some unique and enjoyable flavors. And it looks cool! Enough complexity to keep things interesting. Total burn time was 1hr, 20min. I'm glad that Byron... Read More | |||
| Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend Lancero | June 2023 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: Adam (BewareDaPenguin) | |||
| Thanks again to Byron and geeks for giving me the opportunity to review this stick. This was the tale of 2 halves for me. The stick looked great, started out great, then really started falling apart, ... Read More | |||
| Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend Lancero | June 2023 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: David Robinson (gitfiddl) | |||
| I thought this was a great cigar! I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of sweetness. Sometimes, I find smaller ring cigars to be lacking in body and flavor, bot this particular doesn't ... Read More | |||
| Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend Lancero | June 2023 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: Neal (ntanner) | |||
| Shout out to Byron for sponsoring this one, good choice. This was a good smoke. Flavorful and bold. It didn't have a lot of complexity but what it did have was good from start to finish and p... Read More | |||
| Black Label Trading Company Bishops Blend Lancero | June 2023 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: (Murphy223) | |||
| Overall, I really enjoyed this cigar. It was not overly complex in flavor but a good solid smoke. Thanks Beegerply (Byron) for Sponsoring and Briesq for letting me participate. Really appreciat... Read More | |||
| Camacho Liberty 2021 | September 2021 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: Steve Ladd (Caveman Steve) | |||
| All in all, this was real pleasure to smoke. The performance of the cigar itself overcame the lack of complexity in flavor by a goodly margin. I'm anxious to try another one after dinner to see how ... Read More | |||
| Camacho Liberty 2021 | September 2021 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: Nick (nkowal) | |||
| The Camacho Liberty 2021 was a bit of a disappointment given the high bar I have for the Liberty series. But that might also just be about resetting expectations about what the Liberties are going for... Read More | |||
| Camacho Liberty 2021 | September 2021 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: (nirab) | |||
| I really enjoyed this cigar. The oak notes were perfect with the coffee and pepper, and the natural sweetness was very pleasant. My entire experience smoking this cigar was excellent, and I look forwa... Read More | |||
| Camacho Liberty 2021 | September 2021 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: (tuck0411) | |||
| Pretty nice smoke, this one, the uneven burn and needed maintenance aside. Flavor for days and if I hadn't known I'd have sworn this one had more Nicaraguan tobacco in it given the spicy profile, but ... Read More | |||
| Camacho Liberty 2021 | September 2021 |
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| Written by Cigar Geeks Member: (Murphy223) | |||
| Thanks to Kevin (wescat) and Bruce for allowing me to participate. This one was fun. Overall, I enjoyed this cigar from start to finish. I'm glad I picked up a few because it is one I'd smoke again. ... Read More | |||
| Cigar | Rating |
|---|---|
| A.J. Fernandez Enclave Churchill |  |
| By: tuck0411 (06/06/2023 04:09 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 262 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 59, foot - 55 Appearance and construction: A few veins, a light sheen, a closed foot, and a moderately soft pack with no soft spots... Gave it a double shallow V-cut and PLD was moderately open. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of tobacco. The light gave a medium/full profile with a spicy retro and notes of wood, coffee, and spice. The spice in the nose faded after a few puffs with the other flavors mellowing a bit through the first third and body receding towards medium by the 2nd third. The coffee note had also mostly faded by the 2nd third leaving a very pleasant woody/spicy combo through the remainder. Very tasty, overall, and pretty close to my wheelhouse for this type of habano blend. Strength was about medium. (32/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced an easy draw, good smoke volume, and an even burn to start. The burn stayed even through the first third with the ash falling at 1 1/4" leaving a cone. Things were then uneventful down to the nub with draw and smoke output remaining optimal throughout. (20/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the 3rd vitola I've had from this blend, the toro and the figurado being the first two. My reviews of those show a somewhat different experience, flavor-wise, with black pepper and leather being common notes between them along with other things like chocolate and fruit. I didn't get any of that in this one, so who knows, maybe my palate is having an off-day today or something. This was a fine smoke, in any event and one I'll be smoking more of. And very soon, too, as I have the robusto coming up in the review schedule shortly... (32/35) Burn time: 1:30 Rating: 92 | |
| Ave Maria (Core line) Charlemagne |  |
| By: tuck0411 (06/05/2023 04:39 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 261 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 60, foot - 66 Appearance and construction: A few veins, a light sheen, and a moderately firm pack with no soft spots... Gave it a double shallow V-cut, which caused a patch of wrapper to come loose and then off at the head, but this caused no impacts on smokeability. PLD was moderately open. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of tobacco. The light gave a full-bodied profile with a spicy retro and notes of black pepper, leather, and spice. The spice in the nose faded after a few puffs with the other flavors staying consistent through the first third after which I also started getting a note of sweetened coffee. Although the latter might have been present from the beginning and I just didn't notice it right away as the overall profile didn't seem to have changed very much. Very tasty, in any event, and pretty close to my wheelhouse for a fuller blend. Strength was about medium or a bit better. (32/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced an easy draw, good smoke volume, and an even burn to start. The burn stayed even through the first third with the ash falling at 1 1/4" leaving a cone. The burn got wavy, then lopsided, following the ashing and this eventually resulted in a touch-up towards the end of the 2nd third. Things then proceeded uneventfully through the remainder apart from a bit of self-correcting waviness in the burn line in the last third. Draw and smoke output remained optimal throughout. (18/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the 9th, count 'em, 9th vitola I've had from this blend. I haven't bothered to re-read all the reviews I did for the other 8 vitolas, but the flavor profile here was very familiar and I'd guess very close to my experiences with those previous sticks. Just a great all-around blend on the full end of the spectrum and I'd have to say one of my favorites from AJ Fernandez. He pretty much knocked it out of the park with this one, at least according to my palate. I'm not sure if there's any vitolas from this blend I haven't tried yet, but I'll be picking them up with great enthusiasm if there are. (31/35) Burn time: 1:44 Rating: 89 | |
| Alec Bradley Prensado Lost Art Double T |  |
| By: tuck0411 (06/04/2023 04:37 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 260 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 64, foot - 59 Appearance and construction: A few veins, a light sheen, a light oval box-press, and a moderately soft pack with no soft spots... Gave it a single shallow V-cut and PLD was moderately open. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of tobacco. The light gave a medium+ profile with a slightly spicy retro and notes of wood, citrus, and spice. The spice in the nose faded quickly with the other flavors staying consistent through the first third after which a coffee note appeared in the 2nd third and stuck around for the duration with the other flavors maintaining throughout. Pretty tasty, overall, although it missed my wheelhouse by just a bit. Strength was about medium. (29/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced a moderately easy draw, smoke volume slightly below optimal, and an even burn to start. I quickly gave it a 2nd shallow V-cut on top of the first one which had no immediate effect on smoke output. The burn got wavy through the first third and was in the process of going lopsided at the first ashing 1 1/2" in on the low side of the burn line. It didn't show signs of self-correcting and got a touch-up after the ashing. Smoke output reached optimal around this point. More lopsidedness in the 2nd third and another touch-up was needed. Things then continued wavily down to the nub. Draw and smoke output remained mostly optimal from the end of the first third on. (12/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the 2nd vitola I've had from this blend, the Gran Toro being the first, and my review of that one shows a similar experience, although I liked the flavors in this one more than that one. At any rate, this was yet another AB stick with decent flavors but lousy construction. This sort of situation seems par for the course for this brand, sigh, and this one was pretty typical. Flavors were good enough to smoke it again, though, and I may pick it up in other vitolas as I see them purely to see if they make this one in any vitola that smokes decently. (26/35) Burn time: 1:25 Rating: 75 | |
| Diesel Unlimited d.x Maduro | |
| By: tuck0411 (06/03/2023 04:04 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 259 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 64, foot - 64 Appearance and construction: A few veins, a light sheen, and a moderately firm pack with no soft spots... Gave it three clips with the guillotine and PLD was tight. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of rich tobacco. The light gave a full-bodied profile with a spicy retro and notes of black pepper, leather, charred wood, and spice. The spice in the nose faded after a few puffs with the other flavors mellowing through the first third and the body receding towards medium/full. The spice also faded quite a bit and was nearly gone by the 2nd half leaving leather as the predominant note through the remainder. Not bad, but the first third was the best part of this stick while there was still some spice in the mix. It's relative absence in the 2nd half left things tasting kind of muted and almost bland. Strength was about medium. (24/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced a moderately tight draw, smoke volume on the thin side, and an even burn to start. I held off on giving it a further cut to see if smoke output would improve on its own and it did, quickly reaching optimal about 1/4" in to the first third. The burn was wavy but self-correcting through the first third with the ash falling at 1 1/4 with no cone left behind. The burn continued wavily in the 2nd third, then proceeded to lopsided and got a touch-up. Things were then more or less uneventful down to the nub apart from a bit of continued waviness in the burn line. Draw and smoke output remained mostly optimal from the first third on. (16/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the third vitola I've had from this blend, the d.5 and d.7 being the first two. My reviews of those show I liked the d.5 the best of the three, although I was getting coffee and chocolate in that one instead of the black pepper and leather in this one. At any rate, this was an OK smoke but certainly nothing to write home about. It was certainly cheap enough at C-bid, costing me just a tad over 2 bucks, so I guess I can't complain, but I probably won't be buying more of these. Not one of AJ's best efforts, blending-wise. (25/35) Burn time: 1:28 Rating: 73 | |
| Camacho Ecuador BXP Toro |  |
| By: ntanner (06/02/2023 11:42 PM) | |
| Decent looking stick, nice dark wrapper with just a couple minor vein lines and no real sheen. Cap is well done and takes a punch good revealing a draw with a slight resistance. The box press is good. Cannon feels solid and cigar appears well made. It opens with pepper and cream and a sweet note on the finish. The sweet note has an almost salty character to it that is interesting. Smoke production is decent. The pepper fades and a toasted sugar cane replaces it about three quarters of an inch in. The sweet finish dropped back a little going into the second third but aside from that the profile remains consistent. The last third is more of the same. The burn got a little wonky a couple of times and overall this wasn't a very impressive smoke. Not what I was expecting from a Camacho cigar but it was what it was. Not something I will be looking for more of. | |
| La Aurora 1495 Series Churchill | |
| By: tuck0411 (06/02/2023 04:18 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 258 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 71, foot - 61 Appearance and construction: A few veins, no sheen, and a moderately soft pack with no soft spots... Gave it a single shallow V-cut and PLD was moderately open. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of rich tobacco. The light gave a medium/full profile with a spicy retro and notes of wood, coffee, spice, and a hint of something sweet. The spice in the nose faded after a few puffs with the other flavors mellowing a bit through the first third and the body receding towards medium+ but with the profile otherwise staying consistent throughout. No transitions to note but this was quite flavorful and not far from my wheelhouse with just enough spice sticking around to keep things interesting throughout. Strength was about medium. (31/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced an easy draw, good smoke volume, and an even burn to start. The burn was slightly wavy but self-correcting through the first third with the ash falling at 1 1/4" leaving a small cone. Things were then uneventful down to the nub with draw and smoke output remaining optimal throughout. (19/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the 2nd vitola I've had from this blend, the robusto being the first. My review of that one shows a similar experience, flavor-wise, at least for the first third as I had construction issues in that one that caused the rest of it to be less impressive. This one was an excellent smoke, though, with both flavors and construction mostly knocking it out of the park. Definitely one I'll be looking to pick up again. (31/35) Burn time: 1:35 Rating: 89 | |
| Alec Bradley Tempus Medius 6 Maduro | |
| By: tuck0411 (06/01/2023 03:39 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 257 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 65, foot - 64 Appearance and construction: A few veins, a light sheen, a mottled wrapper, and a moderately soft pack with no soft spots... Gave it a double shallow V-cut and PLD was moderately tight. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of tobacco. The light gave a medium+ profile with notes of wood, coffee, and a hint of spice and this all stayed consistent throughout. No transitions to note and not much spice in the mix so this wasn't very interesting or engaging. It wasn't horrible, but just not a lot going on with this one. Strength was medium at best. (19/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced a moderately easy draw, smoke volume on the low side of optimal, and an even burn to start. I held off on giving it a further cut to see if smoke output would improve on its own and it did reach optimal about a half inch in to the first third. The burn stayed even through the first third with the ash falling at 1 1/4" leaving a small cone. Things were then uneventful down to the nub with draw and smoke output remaining optimal from the first third on. (19/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the 2nd vitola I've had from this blend, the "Quadrum" (5.5" x 55 box-pressed robusto) being the first. My review of that one shows a similar experience, flavor-wise, and I was similarly unimpressed with it. Kind of a switch here for this brand where the construction is good but the flavors not so much. Usually it's the other way around, in my experience. At any rate, it's not one I'll be looking to try further. (24/35) Burn time: 1:10 Rating: 70 | |
| H. Upmann by AJ Fernandez Toro | |
| By: tuck0411 (05/31/2023 07:42 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 256 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 68, foot - 62 Appearance and construction: A few minor veins, a light sheen, and a moderately firm pack with no soft spots... Gave it a single shallow V-cut and PLD was open. (9/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of rich tobacco. The light gave a full-bodied profile with a spicy retro and notes of black pepper, leather, and spice. The spice in the nose faded after a few puffs with the other flavors mellowing slightly through the first third but otherwise staying consistent throughout. No transitions to note but this was very tasty and pretty close to my wheelhouse for a fuller blend with plenty of spice in the mix to keep things interesting throughout. Strength was about medium or a bit better. (33/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced an easy draw, good smoke volume, and an even burn to start. The burn stayed even through the first third with the ash falling at 1 1/4" leaving a nice cone. Things were then very uneventful down to the nub with draw and smoke output remaining optimal throughout. (20/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the 2nd vitola I've had from this blend with the churchill being the first. My review of that one shows a similar experience, flavor-wise, but I enjoyed this one a bit more for some reason. Great smoke, this one, with flavor for days and excellent construction, which is what you'd expect from an AJ-made stick. Will definitely smoke more of these. (33/35) Burn time: 1:16 Rating: 95 | |
| Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli Torpedo | |
| By: tuck0411 (05/30/2023 03:15 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 255 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 67, foot - 52 Appearance and construction: A few veins, a light sheen, and a moderately firm pack with no soft spots... Gave it two clips with the guillotine and PLD was moderately open. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of tobacco. The light gave a full-bodied profile with a spicy retro and notes of black pepper, charred wood, leather, spice, and a hint of something like smoked meat. The spice in the nose faded after a few puffs with the other flavors mellowing a bit through the first third and the body receding towards medium/full. The smoked meat hint also faded away leaving the other flavors to maintain through the remainder albeit at a somewhat muted level. Very tasty, overall, and not far from my wheelhouse for this type of blend. Strength was about medium or a bit better. (32/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced a moderately easy draw, smoke volume on the low side of optimal, and an even burn to start. I quickly gave it a third clip but this had no immediate effect on smoke output although it did gradually improve and reached optimal about 1" in. The burn got wavy through the first third and proceeded to get lopsided so a touch-up was applied before the first ashing which happened at about 1 1/2" leaving no cone behind. Things were then uneventful down to the nub apart from the burn continuing a bit wavy but self-correcting through the remainder. Draw and smoke output remained mostly optimal from the first third on. (15/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and I've had the Black Market blend in a couple of other vitolas but this was the first "Esteli" stick I'm smoked. Quite the nice fuller-bodied blend it was, too, but as is typical of some of these mass-market brands, the score is brought down a bit by mediocre construction. This one wasn't as bad in that regard as some I've had but it could have done with a better rolling job. It wasn't so bad I wouldn't smoke it again, though, and I may do that if I see it in other vitolas. (29/35) Burn time: 1:16 Rating: 84 | |
| Rocky Patel Olde World Reserve (2018) Toro Corojo | |
| By: tuck0411 (05/29/2023 03:17 PM) | |
| Humidor time: 254 days Humidimeter reading: Head - 55, foot - 53 Appearance and construction: A few minor veins, a light sheen, box-pressed, and a soft pack with no soft spots... Gave it a single shallow V-cut and PLD was moderately open. (8/10) Flavor: PLA gave a whiff of tobacco. The light gave a medium+ profile with a spicy retro and notes of dark wood, spice, and a hint of salt. The spice in the nose faded after a few puffs with the other flavors staying consistent through the first third after which I started getting a hint of citrus which stuck around through the remainder with the other flavors maintaining throughout. Pretty tasty, overall, and not far from my wheelhouse for this sort of medium Corojo blend. Strength was about medium. (30/35)  Smoking characteristics: The light produced an easy draw, good smoke volume, and an even burn to start. The burn got wavy through the first third but mostly self-corrected with the ash falling at 1 1/2" leaving a small cone. The burn continued wavily through the 2nd third, then finally got lopsided going into the last third and needed a touch-up before reaching the nub. Draw and smoke output remained mostly optimal throughout. It was a fast-burning stick for its size, clocking in at a bit past one hour from light to nub. (14/20) Overall impression: Another C-bid single, this one, and this was the first vitola I've had from this blend. Pretty good smoke, construction issues aside, with nice flavors, but this was kind of a typical RP stick in that regard with good flavors losing out to mediocre construction when totaling up the overall score. I guess RP still hasn't got the memo about how you need both a good blend and competent rollers to make sticks that folks want to buy again.... (28/35) Burn time: 1:07 Rating: 80 | |
