Randy and and I smoked the Alec Bradley Tempus - Terra Nova 5 X 50 today (9-28-09). we were both excited to smoke this cigar as we have heard good things about it. The Alec Bradley Tempus is a combination of Honduran Criollo’98 wrapper blended with Corojo and Criollo filler from the Trojes region of Honduras.
It is an attractive cigar with a medium brown color. It has two ornate bands including one on the foot. It is firm to the touch and beautifully constructed. After clipping the cigar Randy indicates that the draw is great. I find the draw to be very good as well offering just the right amount of resistance. After lighting the cigars we have two very different first responses. Randy reports that he experiences the cigar as fairly mild with a little spice on the finish. I, on the other hand, perceive the cigar as quite spicy and medium to full in taste. We are both impressed that the cigar burns well and does not need to be tended to.
After less than an inch we both loose our ash. This is surprising, because generally we have found tightly packed cigars to hold their ashes. After an inch Randy's cigar is burning well, I have a slight wavy and uneven burn, but I do not touch it up as I want to see if it will self-correct. The smoke has a brownish tint to it, not the more normal light gray color and for some reason I find this off-putting. Randy notices that the smell of the cigars he is picking up when he is not smoking is quite strong and much different than how he is experiencing the cigar as he smokes it.
Both cigars went out in the same place about 1 inch above the label. Mine went out even though I was holding it and had not laid it down for several minutes. At the half-way point Randy reports that although he perceived the cigar had started fairly mild it had built to a more medium flavor. I thought the cigar was a medium to full and it had stayed consistent while I had smoked it. It continued to have a bite to it that I was not impressed with. I also found the secondary smoke to be very strong and sharp - almost acrid.
After smoking 3/4 of the cigar I abandon it. I was having some real burn issues (having to re-lite it it again) and I was simply not enjoying this cigar. I smoked a couple of medium to full body cigars over the weekend (Elo Gio & 5 Vegas Series A) and really enjoyed them, but not this cigar.
Randy finished his and felt that it had stayed in the medium category for him with only minor burn issues. He said he could think of a number of medium body cigars that he would prefer and "that this one was nothing to write home about". Nor, did he think it was worthy of going on the wall, me either!
Scores:
Dave - 2 I was very disappointed. After all I had read I expected to love this cigar, but instead I could not even bring myself to finish it.
Randy - 2 Randy was more positive about this cigar than I was, he believed it was better than a lot of twos and pretty close to a 3 - just not quite.
To be fair we will probably need to smoke this again. After all, this cigar received a 94 rating from Cigar Aficionado and was in their Top 25 cigars of 2008. A lot of people really liked this cigar, but they don't smoke in the Man Shed. So the label goes in to the trash.
Next up for us is the Padilla Miami - until next time, Smoke em if you got them!
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