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Once again the gracious people at the General Cigar Company sent me some samples of the cigar up for review today. I should mention that the last company I expected to want me to review their cigars was the General Cigar Company. To my surprise, they have been very generous to the bloggers out there, including myself. There is always a risk of a bad review, but they know that’s a risk worth taking.
You probably noticed something strange about the wrapper. The first third is wrapped with a Connecticut shade leaf, while the rest is covered in an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. As many of you know, I’m not big on the back-stories about cigars. My focus is – Did it taste good? How did it burn? What about the draw? How much money? Where can I get it? At the end of the day that is all I am concerned with. I’ll catch the back stories sooner or later, but honestly I don’t care. So without further ado, I filled up a glass of water and here is my review.
Wrapper: Connecticut Shade & Ecuador Sumatra
Binder/Filler: ???
Size: Toro 6 x 50
Price: $8.00
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
Both wrappers had a toothy appearance. The Sumatra wrapper had larger veins but overall everything looked decent. Each wrapper had a slightly different odor – The Sumatra portion had an earthy smell with a slight spice. The Connecticut wrapper had a mellower earthy smell. I couldn’t detect any aroma from the foot. The pre-light draw was a ever so slightly snug, but not to the point of being a problem. Overall the cigar was firmly packed, with a soft spot here and there. The pre-smoke draw had a dark natural tobacco taste.
The burn required a couple corrections in the first third, but evened itself out. The ash held for just under an inch.
Flavor:
The first third is the Connecticut wrapper portion of this cigar. It had a nice mellow spice accompanied by earthy notes. After about an inch into this third, the smoke feel became thicker and had a creamy sensation. To round things up, a nice nutty component came about and completed the first third. I’d say the body was in the medium range, and wasn’t bad at all.
The second third is where I got into the Sumatra wrapped portion of the cigar. A dual wrapped cigar like this can help you realize how much the wrapper can effect the flavor. As soon as I hit this third, nice sweet coffee flavors entered the picture. When exhaling through the nose there was a smooth pepper with a tinge of sweetness. The smoke feel was a little creamy. As progressed to the end of this third, I picked up some cocoa flavors. To round things out were pleasant earthy notes. The body remained in the medium range.
The last third went into the upper medium to lower full bodied range. The smoke feel became very smooth can creamy. The pepper really mellowed out but kept some of it’s zing. At times the dominant flavor was cocoa, and other times a spicy cinnamon-ish flavor would take over. All the while fairly strong black coffee flavors were present. Faint earthy and nutty notes were in the background as well.
Conclusion:
This was a good medium to full bodied cigar. I liked how it steadily ramped up in flavors and body. The flavors changed enough to hold my interest, and nothing was unpleasant. I think this is worth trying for yourself. I imagine they are available at some local shops, as well as online. I’d be curious of your experience differs from mine.
This will be stuck at the top of the site until the event passes.
St. Pete Cigar will be hosting a Gurkha Smoker Event! There will be one day only deals, raffles, and food. Stop by and hang with us for a few hours and smoke some fine cigars!
For those of you who have sided with Steven Slater, the Jet Blue employee who went bonkers last week over an “alleged” unruly passenger – then all I can say is that you are truly every bit as big a moronic ass as he is.
For the past week, Slater, the 20-year career flight attendant has been called a hero by many, is a man who stood up for his convictions and told his employer to take this job and shove it. In the 1976 film, Network, Peter Finch’s character, newscaster Howard Beale told the world that he was “sick and tired, and not going to take it anymore!” In the 2010 reality re-make, Slater was supposedly bonked on the noggin with intent by an unruly passenger. He grabbed the mic and admonished the customer with a tirade of obscenities, then activated the plane’s emergency inflatable chute, then slid down and fled the runway in what I personally would have to term a “self-absorbed hissy-fit.”
“Free Steven… Steven’s a hero,” were the cries of the American public, as online polls showed that 80% were in approval of his actions. This number is very telling to me as it proves beyond shadow of a doubt that 80% of the world is messed in the head and needs to take a good hard look within as their morals, principals, beliefs, and general mental faculties have seriously taken the last goddamned train to f@#king Clarksville.
Yes, it is in the opinion of this cigar blogger, a simple son of Polish / Italian decent, that if you think Steven Slater is a hero, then YOU are part of the problem with this world gone awry. But if you side with me, believing that he is indeed himself the unruly turd who should be permanently flushed from the corporate world, then please cut and light your cigar and take a seat next to me in the land of the most smoky and righteous.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Jet Blue’s chief operating officer Rob Maruster has labeled Slater’s actions “unacceptable” and “still questionable”. Hey Rob, can we add cowardly and brutally selfish to the list?
Almost a week removed from the incident, other airline passengers who were witness to this little boy’s tirade are now saying that it was Slater who was the aggressor and has propagated one hell of a little white lie. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown has bitch slapped Stevie with acts of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing. He remains free on $2,500 bail and if convicted, Slater could face up to seven years in the pokey – a place I’m sure he would find a bit more distasteful than the confines of a Boeing 737. Another fact to note is that the emergency exit chute that was deployed by Slater opens up with a ferocity of 3,000 pounds of pressure and if an airline employee would have been struck by the evacuation slide, we might just be looking at a case of reckless homicide. Maruster, in a written memo to his airline employees says, “Intentionally arming and deploying an evacuation slide for anything other than the express purpose of protecting the safety of our Crew and Customers is unacceptable. It will not, and can not, be tolerated.”
It is now circulating around the internet that our airline lunatic is being offered a reality show gig as a host to showing people how to quit their jobs. This in itself is a condemnation of the American public mindset, as an unprofessional punk with zero decorum is rewarded for his childish and deplorable actions. While many have applauded this tard for his so-called stints of bravery and heroics, I dare a single one of his newfound fans to have the cojones to pull the same kind of stunt at their place of employment. You notice that there were no copycat incidents reported in the news? And you wanna know why? Because what Steven Slater did was wrong – dead wrong, and while many of us at one time or another have wanted to deploy the emergency exit in life, we don’t – we don’t because we are well aware that it is something that won’t bode well on our remaining lifetime resumes.
In closing, I can only wish that our disgruntled faux-hero for web weenies everywhere would be forced into therapy with Full Metal Jacket drill instructor Lee Emery.
“You know what makes me sad, Slater ? YOU DO! Maybe we should chug on over to mamby-pamby land, where maybe we can find some self-confidence for you, ya jack wagon!”
Steve, your 15 minutes of fame is almost up. Good luck on that job search, buddy.
At ease, gentlemen. Dismissed.
JR Cigars Blog with the Zman
I found this cigar at a random local shop. From what I’ve read, the original TeAmo blends were Mexican puro’s. The World Selection Series features tobacco from multiple regions. I grabbed a glass of water and offer you my thoughts on the TeAmo World Selection Series – Cuba Blend.
Wrapper: Criollo
Binder: San Andres
Filler: Criollo
Size: Robusto 5 x 54
Price: Around $3.00
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
The tan wrapper had a few medium to large veins, giving it a somewhat rugged look. Overall the cigar was evenly packed with a slight sponginess. The wrapper had a mild earthy odor, while the foot had almost none. The pre-light draw was a little stiff, and had an earthy, woody taste.
The burn was pretty bad in the first and second third. The last third burned fine. The burn issues are not consistent with the other cigar I had. The ash held on for about an inch.
Flavor:
The first third had a mild earthiness mixed with a cedar. A very slight sweet spice was noticed when passing the smoke through the nose.
The second third had minimal change in flavor. The mild earthy cedar remained dominant. The mild sweet notes also remained unchanged. Other then the addition of coffee notes, there was an occasional bitterness that I didn’t care for.
Surprise… Not a lot to mention in the last third. The flavors basically remained the same. The occasional bitterness became more frequent, and the smoke took on a slight harshness. It wasn’t a strong harshness, but just enough for me to notice.
Conclusion:
This mild cigar began with promise to be a decent morning smoke. Overall I just don’t care for the flavor. It just seemed unbalanced and…well, lame. Maybe your mileage will vary. I won’t consider smoking any more of these cigars…
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