Vital Stats:

Vitola: Robusto

Length: 5″

Ring Gauge: 50

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Wrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro

Binder: Honduras

Filler: Honduras, Nicaragua

Factory: Segovia

Blender: Nestor Plasencia

Number of reviewers: 5 —– Robert (NavyPiper) Sandeep (Djangos) Will (Dubv23) Nicholas (volpow61) Brian (B-daddy)

Price: $4.00

Contributed by: Craig (WyldKnight)

This cigar was reviewed blind (no bands) by a panel of at least 4 reviewers. They did not know what they were smoking beforehand. The scores are an average of all the reviewers' scores with outliers removed.

Initial Impressions

Appearance: 89

“This cigar is very dark almost to the point of looking black, slightly veiny but seems well constructed.” –Sandeep (Djangos)

Aroma: 90

“Aroma is that of natural tobacco and a touch of chocolate.” –Nicholas (volpow61)

Construction: 90

“One solid, hefty stick! A few veins under the wrapper, seams were smooth and well blended, cap wasn’t centered though and no triple cap.” –Robert (NavyPiper)

First Third

Flavor: 85

Strength: Medium

Body/Complexity: Medium

“The cigar opened up very sweet. I was presented with a fairly simple profile of a thick molasses sweetness and underlying cocoa/chocolate sweetness. It lacked a lot of the other profiles that could really add some balance and kick like pepper, earthiness or anything. This first third was literally a desert. Aside from the flavors, the construction really started to give me problems. The cigar never started to burn on course and then went out within minutes. A quick relight and I was back to original form. I spent 15 minutes touching up, drawing hard to keep it lit and hoping for the best but this cigar did not seem to want to stay going. I wasn’t going to fight it…” –Will (Dubv23)

“Right off the bat, the burn goes wonky. Wouldn’t you know it. Just like women, the more beautiful the wrapper, the more trouble they give you. Flavors are …ok. Not unappealing, but not very distinct either. Some leather, some dark tobacco and cocoa notes but all sorta muted together. Oddly enough, I’m still smelling the aroma of the wrapper as I draw it. My wife and her girlfriend have both commented how good the cigar smells. That rarely happens. At about the one inch mark, it goes out and needs a relight. No bad flavors at the relight though. Overall, the first third flavors are just average.” –Brian (B-daddy)

Second Third

Flavor: 90

Strength: Medium-Strong

Body/Complexity: Medium-Full

“Through the second third, the spice dies down but a nice deep cocoa flavor picks up with a hint of a woody note.” –Nicholas (volpow61)

“Just as it transitions to the second third, the burn improves and so do the flavors. The leather core is complemented by a nice toasty oak flavor. The mouthfeel gets a bit richer and chewy. The finish gets a bit longer and I start to pick up some bittersweet chocolate on the finish. Not bad at all. A little spice in that finish too. Kinda like a Mexican mole sauce. Pretty interesting. Towards the end of this third, the burn goes to hell again, requires another touch-up. Flavors hold pretty steady though.” –Brian (B-daddy)

Final Third

Flavor: 88

Strength: Medium-Strong

Body/Complexity: Medium-Full

“Well this has been one consistent stick, from first third to the last. Same flavors, although pepper began kicking in here, but not in an unpleasant way, complimented nicely.” –Robert (NavyPiper)

“I am getting a slight nicotine kick already, most likely because of all the puffing I am doing to try and keep this lit. The burn line is skewing again in the last third. The pepper is back but not overpowering at this time. The flavors are also a pleasant leather and tobacco with some cedar thrown into the mix. Towards the end the burn is not presenting as much of a problem as it did in the 2nd third. Overall not a bad cigar with respect to the flavors, but the burn issues prevent from the full enjoyment of this cigar.” –Sandeep (Djangos)

Overall Impressions

Draw: 93

“Draw was nice. Just the right amount of resistance. Consistent throughout.” –Brian (B-daddy)

Burn: 80

“The burn issues started at the outset and continued well into the last part of the final third. There was the issue of trying to keep it lit and then worsened to canoeing and tunneling. I had to straighten it out several times.” –Sandeep (Djangos)

Overall Strength: Medium-Strong

Overall Body/Complexity: Medium-Full

Overall Experience: 87

“I really enjoyed this cigar. A lot of the fuller strength cigars are too much for me, but this wasn’t bad. I enjoyed it. The burn issue sucked, but if that’s the biggest thing I gotta deal with, I’m a pretty happy bald guy! I don’t usually smoke the fuller strength stogies or all that many Maduros, but I wouldn’t mind adding a few to the rotation.” –Robert (NavyPiper)

“Good cigar with promise when it comes to the flavors but not enjoyable because of the burn issues. I am hoping I got a stray cigar because I would like to try one again if the others did not experience similar burn problems.” –Sandeep (Djangos)

“Pretty bad smoke overall. Looked suspect from the beginning and performed poorly. The wrapper was indeed dyed as it left my fingers a dark brown and left a oil slick like burn line. The flavors were not terrible but they were very one dimension and only lived on the sweet side of the flavor wheel. On top of that it would not live longer than 10 minutes at a time before going out. I wish I could guess what this was but I did not get enough time to really get to know the cigar. The only other cigar in my memory to present such an experience was the Draig K. The only difference was it presented a MUCH more favorable flavor profile with similar burn qualities.” –Will (Dubv23)

“Not a bad stick but an ok stick. The flavors kept me interested enough to keep smoking it. Some flavors were enjoyable some were not. This stick just left me wanting more. Something that this stick didn’t have.” –Nicholas (volpow61)

“Flavors were pretty good with some interesting transitions. Burn was distracting, though. I’d smoke it again to see if the flavor profile was consistent from stick to stick. If so, I’d probably tolerate the burn issues. Overall, it was a good after dinner cigar.” –Brian (B-daddy)

Smoking Time (in minutes): 80



Total Score: 87 (fair)

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To view the complete scores and notes, click here

Blind Cigar Review: 5 Vegas | Gold Maduro Robusto