A week or two back, Rich sent me three frozen sticks. I mean they were frozen hard with frost adhering. Hey, it was full on global warming six degrees when they arrived. So I set them in the humidor to rest. Pulled one out today. Sparked it up. Here's a review:
This olive tan sotweed cylinder was blended from Dominican seco and Dominican ligero filler with an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper. Rich did not report what the binder may be. It was five and a half inches long, about 52 ring gauge. Very cylindrical. No flat spots. Consistently packed throughout. Not hard; but firm enough. There was only one dime sized soft spot. Reasonably straight. A bit of variation in girth, especially near the head. As you can see from the picture, Rich appears to have set the wrapper on inside out, so that the veins are on the outside. But the wrapper was applied very smoothly.
The wrapper was nearly tasteless. The foot had an earthy aroma. When I cut the cap off, a half dozen shreds fell out. The draw was real free and easy. Unlit, this cigar tasted very mellow.
One match toasted the foot, setting it evenly alight. I immediately got a whole hatful of smoke, and volume continued ample throughout. Burn was truly excellent. I was in the garage working on a derelict computer; several times I left it on the work bench to go inside and search up info on a working computer upstairs; and each time, this stick smoldered very well behaved for several minutes. On my return, a puff or two brought it back to life, another big hat full of smoke. That right there is top notch construction, as far as I am concerned.
The flavor settled in after a quarter inch or so. It tasted flat out mellow. The finish was soft as silk. The retrohale was creamy. Soft and moody is how I would describe this smoke. The worse that you can say is it seemed to lack that one identifiable flavor characteristic that premium blends have. You could not call it cedar, nor pepper, nor spice, nor leather, nor any particular thing else. Just creamy soft mystical moody. The best that you can say is that it left a super clean finish. The garage was thick as Beijing smog; but there was no nasty after taste at all. You would not get a morning mouth from this.
I should have put a clock on it; I usually do; but I'd say I got an hour and a half out of this stick before I put it out to go inside, and I still had half the stick left. Still burning evenly.
Not bad at all. I am looking forward to the next sotweed cylinder in Rich's trio.
This olive tan sotweed cylinder was blended from Dominican seco and Dominican ligero filler with an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper. Rich did not report what the binder may be. It was five and a half inches long, about 52 ring gauge. Very cylindrical. No flat spots. Consistently packed throughout. Not hard; but firm enough. There was only one dime sized soft spot. Reasonably straight. A bit of variation in girth, especially near the head. As you can see from the picture, Rich appears to have set the wrapper on inside out, so that the veins are on the outside. But the wrapper was applied very smoothly.
The wrapper was nearly tasteless. The foot had an earthy aroma. When I cut the cap off, a half dozen shreds fell out. The draw was real free and easy. Unlit, this cigar tasted very mellow.
One match toasted the foot, setting it evenly alight. I immediately got a whole hatful of smoke, and volume continued ample throughout. Burn was truly excellent. I was in the garage working on a derelict computer; several times I left it on the work bench to go inside and search up info on a working computer upstairs; and each time, this stick smoldered very well behaved for several minutes. On my return, a puff or two brought it back to life, another big hat full of smoke. That right there is top notch construction, as far as I am concerned.
The flavor settled in after a quarter inch or so. It tasted flat out mellow. The finish was soft as silk. The retrohale was creamy. Soft and moody is how I would describe this smoke. The worse that you can say is it seemed to lack that one identifiable flavor characteristic that premium blends have. You could not call it cedar, nor pepper, nor spice, nor leather, nor any particular thing else. Just creamy soft mystical moody. The best that you can say is that it left a super clean finish. The garage was thick as Beijing smog; but there was no nasty after taste at all. You would not get a morning mouth from this.
I should have put a clock on it; I usually do; but I'd say I got an hour and a half out of this stick before I put it out to go inside, and I still had half the stick left. Still burning evenly.
Not bad at all. I am looking forward to the next sotweed cylinder in Rich's trio.
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