Archive for the ‘drew’ Category

Illusione Nostros

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

The Nostros is a collaboration between Illusione and Drew Estates. You may know Drew Estates as the maker of the infused Acid cigars. This time around, they went with a more traditional blend with no additives. I am a fan of most of the Illusione lines, so I thought this would definitely be worth trying. I paired this cigar with water and offer you my thoughts.

 

Wrapper: Corojo 99

Binder: Connecticut Habano

Filler: Nicaragua

Size: Robusto 5 x 50

Price: Around $8.00

 

Pre-Smoke & Construction:

The wrapper looked nice, with barely any flaws and small veins. The smell of the wrapper was cedar and sweet earthiness. Overall the cigar was well packed, with a few soft and hard spots here and there. The pre-light draw had a slight resistance, which was just about perfect. The taste of the pre-light draw was interesting and unique. It was woody with almost a fruity type flavor combined with natural tobacco.

The burn required a few minor corrections, and the ash held for just about an inch.

1IllusioneNostros 

Flavor:

The first third was easy and had a nice peppery punch. Wood was the dominant flavor, and slight sweet and earthy notes lingered in the background.

2IllusioneNostros 

The second third seemed to open up a bit and felt richer (for lack of a better word). That nice pepper was still there and noticeable when passing smoke through the nose. An chocolaty type of sweetness was very noticeable, but wood was still the most dominant flavor.

3IllusioneNostros 

The pepper mellowed out a little in the last third and became more of a sweet spice. The overall flavor profile was sweet and mocha-ish. Woodiness was up next, and occasionally earthy notes would appear. The smoke coated the inside of the mouth and lingered for a nice aftertaste. Throughout this cigar, smoke volume had been plentiful.

4IllusioneNostros 

Conclusion:

This was a good medium bodied cigar. It didn’t wow me, and the $8.00 price tag is a little steep. But in the end it was an enjoyable, slow burning, and relaxing. I think it is worth picking up a five pack and judging for yourself. Not a bad cigar.

Drew Estate – La Vieja Habana

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

The La Vieja Habana is Drew Estates first brand, which was introduced in the mid 90’s. They come in four wrapper variations, the Cuban Corojo, Cameroon, Maduro, and Connecticut. I am doing the Cuban Corojo version. Unlike their flagship Acid line, this is a traditional cigar with no infused flavoring, and it  contains mixed filler. They claim this to be medium bodied with lots of flavors. I paired up with water and jotted down my thoughts.

 

Wrapper: Cuban Corojo

Binder/Filler: Esteli & Jalapa Valley, Nicaragua

Size: 6 x 54

Price: Around $3.00

 

Pre-Smoke & Construction:

The wrapper was a little rough looking, with medium veins and quite a few bumps. Squeezing the cigar, I found it to be very spongy. The wrapper had a strange sweet, almost floral odor to it. The foot had that same odor along with woody notes. The pre-light draw was free, and had an earthy and woody flavor.

The burn required a few minor corrections, and the ash held for about half an inch. Pretty much typical of a short or mixed filler cigar.

1DrewEstate_LaViejaHabanaCorojo

Flavor:

The first third began with an easy earthy and natural tobacco taste. After about an inch, a slight spice kicked in. As I progressed towards the end of this third, the spice became a little peppery and increased in strength, but remained in the mild to medium bodied range.

2DrewEstate_LaViejaHabanaCorojo

The second third had the spice overtaking the earthy flavors. Every now and then I would get a slight sweetness, but it wasn’t consistent. The smoke became someone creamy, with a lot of smoke volume.

3DrewEstate_LaViejaHabanaCorojo

The last third had no new flavors. The earthy flavors were there along with the spice. The creaminess of the smoke increased slightly, as did the sweetness. The smoke volume remained huge. Clouds of smoke billowed out of this ting at all times.

4DrewEstate_LaViejaHabanaCorojo

Conclusion:

For the price, this was a decent mild to medium bodied cigar. It is pretty much in line with what I expected. There is no wow factor, and it is basically one dimensional. I enjoyed the huge smoke volume and smoothness. If I were to complain, I would say it was the burn rate. I didn’t time it, but I burnt though this cigar quickly. If you are trying cheaper cigars, I’d say this is worth checking out.

Acid “Blue” Kuba Kuba

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

In January of 2009, I reviewed this cigar. Back then, I had a pretty bad experience, and the review reflected that. I received a few emails urging me to try an Acid again. So now, in February of 2010, I decided it was time to re-visit the cigar that I gave a bad review to. I figured it was possible that I didn’t give it a fair chance.

The first half was decent, with strange floral, perfumey flavors. Like my other review, the second half basically fell flat. It just became a bland and borderline harsh smoke.

Like other quick smoke with Tom reviews, this was filmed with my MacBook isight webcam at The Habana Cigar Shop. I used an external mic this time, so the audio is a bit better then the others. The video quality is what it is. See what my thoughts were in this quick 9 minute video review.

MP3 Audio only

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