Jameson Declaration
The Declaration is the latest offering from the Jameson Cigar Company. Not long ago Brad Mayo of Jameson Cigars offered to send me a couple to review. Naturally I accepted his gracious offer and shortly afterwards the smokes arrived. After some rest in my humidor, I filled up a glass of water and smoked the Jameson Declaration.
Wrapper: Dominican Habano 98
Binder: Dominican Criollo 98
Filler: Dominican
Size: 5.5 x 50
Price: $6.00
Pre-smoke & Construction:
The dark brown wrapper looked very nice, with almost no flaws at all. Perhaps a small vein or two but nothing I would consider bad. I picked up a dark sweet earthy and somewhat woody odor when sniffing the wrapper and foot. The cigar was very firm when pinched, and the pre-light draw was a little tight. The pre-smoke draw had a sweet woody flavor.
The burn required no corrections, and the ash held for just under and inch before falling off.
Flavor:
The first third had a slight earthiness but woody flavors stood out. When passing the smoke through the nose, I picked up a decent pepper that had a woody finish.
The second third had minor changes. That earthy woodiness remained dominant. The spicy pepper remained, and became a little sweet. As I progressed further into this third, the overall flavor profile seemed to come together. It just seemed to become more balanced.
The last third had a significant increase in sweetness. It was almost like a dry powdery chocolate. The earthy flavors went away completely, and the woody notes fell way back. The pepper transformed into more of a spicy sweetness.
Conclusion:
Overall I thought this was a good medium to upper medium bodied cigar. I liked how it started out like any other cigar, but built into what I thought had a good balanced flavor profile. Sure, it didn’t pack in a large variety of flavors, but it was still enjoyable. My only complaint was the slightly tight draw. It wasn’t tight enough to annoy me, and I didn’t have to work hard to get smoke. I just prefer a draw with a little less resistance. The Jameson Declaration is definitely worth a try.
