As Randy Gibbs and I spend many evenings in his Man Shed enjoying cigars we decided to also start doing reviews of the cigars so we could remember which ones we liked. We developed the following rating scale:
4 - Great Cigar - one we will definitely smoke again, would not hesitate to recommend to a friend and that we would keep in our humidor.
3 - Good Smoke - Cigars we enjoyed and would definitely smoke again but have some area of weakness.
2 - Okay Smoke - a Cigar that was not terrible but had a number of areas of weakness - we probably wouldn't go out of our way to smoke, but might lite it up when we were golfing or doing yard work.
1- Never Again - a bad smoke that we probably did not finish and would not smoke again.
We have vowed to force ourselves to put the cigars we rate in one of the above categories so as to avoid the 2.25, 3.5 or 1.75 scores.
In making our judgments we will look at these areas: Construction, Burn, Draw, Flavor and Cost.
In future postings Randy and I will smoke the same Cigar, but tonight (9-19-09) we are going to be reviewing two different Padilla cigars. Randy and I both enjoy some of the Padilla brand cigars - especially the Padilla 1968. Which has made the Cigar Wall of Fame in the Man Shed.
Randy is smoking the Padilla Achilles Corojo Edicion Especial 2006 - Toro size. He has paired his smoke with a bottle of Guinness Extra Stout. Randy indicates that the cigar is a light Coco brown color and is spongy to the touch. After clipping and lighting this cigar Randy reports that it has a mellow flavor and that it has a good draw. Although early on it burned fairly evenly it did develop some problems later and required relighting. Randy believes this was probably due to the loose construction of the cigar. He found that the cigar needed a lot of tending or it would tend to go out.
Randy smoked the entire cigar and gave it a rating of 3.
The taste was consistent and enjoyable, but the construction and subsequent burn issues did hurt its overall score.
I had the Padilla Obsidian Limitatdo Edicion Especial - 2006, Belicoso size. I paired it with an O'Fallon, 5 Day IPA, given to me by my brother Rob. This cigar has a Maduro wrapper and is quite attractive, very dark in color almost black. It has a dark label as well which is unusual. This cigar is well constructed and very firm to the touch. After clipping the cigar the first thing I notice is that the draw is very tight, which makes the cigar somewhat difficult to lite. I'm hoping that the draw will loosen up as I get further into this cigar.
The cigar starts with a very bold and spicy flavor and I'm a little worried that it will be to strong for my taste. The cigar initially burns well and the few minor burn problems that occur are generally self-correcting. As I get into the second third the cigar's flavor mellows out and is quite enjoyable, but the draw continues to be very tight.
I ended up abandoning this cigar after smoking about two-thirds of it. The draw was just to tight, causing me to have to work to hard and significantly reducing my enjoyment. The cigar was also becoming a little bitter toward the end.
I'm giving this cigar a score of 2.
At our next get together Randy and I will be reviewing the Oliva Master Blend 3.
Until next time - Smoke em if you got them!
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