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Nub Maduro 460 Tubo - Cigar Review

Nub Maduro 460 Tubo - Cigar Review

 

Time in Humidor: 6 months       

 

Blend: Nicaraguan fillers and binder dressed in a Brazilian Maduro wrapper

Construction: The dark chocolate brown wrapper was slightly mottled with almost invisible seams and finished off nicely with a tidy double cap. The pack was textbook firm and consistent along its length. Tobacco on the foot looked very tight and the different tobaccos in the blend were easily discernible by their colour. Overall like most nubs I’ve experienced, this cigar was exceptionally well made.

Smell: Smell on the wrapper consisted of chocolate over cedar with hints of coffee and hay. On the foot the bouquet was made up of primarily hay with hints of sweet coffee.

Cold Draw: Resistance of the draw was perfect, not loose, but a little resistance. Flavours experienced on the cold draw comprised of aged tobacco, espresso, cedar, hay along with a gentle cedar tasting spice.

First Light: Flavours on the first light involved bitter dark cooking chocolate, bitter espresso, cedar and tobacco.

Aroma: This cigar emitted a delicious aroma which consisted predominantly of chocolate and cedar.

First 3^rd - 20 min

Very soon after the charred flavours of the first light, the cigar settled down and offered a classier synergy between the flavours. All the bitterness and char waned. The chocolate flavour evolved into dark,sweeter eating chocolate, whilst the coffee flavour shifted to a robust dark roast smoothness.  The cedar lingered and remained unchanged. The finish was predominantly of coffee and cedar with the addition of a very subtle earth undertone.

The smoke production was excellent; producing thick clouds of dense white smoke. The existing flavour profile consisting of these big flavours had the cigar sitting on a notch over medium.

The burn started off a little rocky from the first light, running down one side. Fortunately it stopped 10mm down and started to burn around at the 12 minute mark. 20 minutes in the cigar started to exhibit a near perfect burn.

 2^nd third - 45 min

Flavours in the second third did not deviate from the flavours experienced in the first. The overall strength of the cigar at the end of the first third had ramped up from just over medium, to just shy of full. This is a very robust and rich flavoured cigar but does not bring with it a palate searing spice offered by excess nicotine or young tobaccos.

Worthy of noting is that this cigar flavour incited changes whenashing. When you ash a cigar the ‘cherry’ becomes exposed to an richer source of oxygen, therefore burning hotter. When this stick was ashed the flavours regained some of their bitterness and the cedar moved closer to the front of the palate. This was temporary of course, as once a few millimetres  of ash redeveloped and smothered the cherry again the flavours smoothed back out to their previous state. In addition to the change in flavour created by removing ash, the burn tended to go wild for a few minutes until a layer of ash formed which seemed to keep the burn under control.

Late in the second third the cigars burn started to become offensive; running down one side about 25mm. I was about to touch it up when the poor burn started to correct itself.

Third 3^rd     - 58min

Flavours in the final third saw a slight change with the sweet chocolate moving further ; allowing the coffee to move to the front. The coffee transitioned out of its smoothness into a sharper but thinner espresso taste. The overall body of the cigar had shifter further up into a fuller flavour  The cedar was barely identifiable and was replaced with a more toasty savor.

On the checkered flag the cigar seemed to regain the bitter tones experienced in the first light, which signalled ’the end is nigh’.

I elected to retire the cigar at 1 hour 9 mins as the acridity of heat was rearing its ugly head.

Overall this cigar was a full strength mocha bomb, exhibiting for the best part, very robust flavours of coffee, dark chocolate and earth. The construction was impeccable as was both the draw and smoke production. The only drawback was the cigars burn, which I have noticed is quite typical of the large gauge NUB cigars.

I would happily smoke many more of these, as I have already.

Suggested pairings with this stick is a heavily wooded cask strength whisky such as Aberlour A’Bundah, or Glenfarclas 105. If you like a wine with your cigars this stick would also pair brilliantly with a robust dark fruited, semi sweet Shiraz with a low tannin level.      

Punch Gran Puro Rancho - Cigar Review

Punch Gran Puro Rancho 

Size: 5 & 1/2 x 54

Time in Humidor: 8 Months

Blend: Cuban seed Honduran Puro wrapper, bound and filled with high priming sun grown tobaccos; designed to offer a full flavoured experience. 

Construction: The slightly mottled Colorado coloured wrapper had minimal veins, visible but tight seams and was slightly oily with no tooth, leaving the cigar feeling quite smooth and pleasant to hold. The wrap was finished with a messy but adequate double cap. The pack was desirably firm and consistent from head to toe. The mottling in this cigar has only presented as a result of aging in my humidor. When I received this 5 pack of cigars they were far oilier in both appearance and texture and displayed no mottling. 

Smell: On the wrapper this cigar smelled of wood, oil and tobacco along with slight hints of dry hay in the background. The foot smelled of dried hay and oily sweet heated butter.

Cold Draw: After taking a small cut I was presented with a slightly tight draw, offering flavours of dried hay, aged tobacco, and a meaty oil taste. 

First Light: Flavours on the first light consisted of a toast, wood, meaty oil and subtle smooth, black pepper. The finish was long lasting with very strong spicy oiliness on the palate. Smoke production was excellent with thick clouds of dense white/blue smoke. 

Aroma: The aroma of this cigar was quite pleasant; consisting primarily of toast and wood. 

First 3^{rd  –} 13 min

Flavours in the first third were quite similar to those experienced in the first light. The flavours got down to business right away and melded together to create a full bodied smoking experience. This cigar can only be explained as a ‘man cigar’. It was like smoking the BBQ smoke with a 2 inch thick rib eye gently sizzling away. The cigar is meaty, woody and oily with subtle hints of toast and black pepper. All the flavours I like on a burger, and apparently in a cigar also.  The burn was a touch on the messy side; not running down one side, just messy and inconsistent with up to 10mm of variance at times.  

As the first third progressed the body of the cigar seemed to reduce slightly to a notch shy of full. The same flavours had smoothed out while the wood had gently moved closer to the front.

I rolled the ash of at about 25mm only to notice it was as strong an Ox; seems it could have held for another 25mm no problems.

Second 3^rd - 35 min

Flavours in the second third were similar to those experienced previously with some new developments. The oily component of the cigar started to pull back making the smoke slightly drier. This lack of oil started to expose a dry tasting cedar in the cigar, the cedar experienced was not a shift in the woody flavours still present, rather an addition to the woody components.

The cigar continued to burn terribly and was heading for a touch-up which I was reluctant to do lest I vandalised the existing flavours of the cigar. A bit of the ole ’tactical placement and rotation‘ slowly brought the burn back to acceptable tolerances.

As the third progressed the cigar slowly started to change its character from being meaty and oily to being a drier, earthen and leathery profile.   

Third 3^rd – 57 min

Moving into the final third the cigars burn improved remarkably, the flavours returned to those experienced in the first third, as did the oily thick smoke. After experiencing this I was inclined to think that the decline in the smoke seen in the second third had a lot to do with the poor burn. I was back to the meaty & oily character which I preferred.

Just as I praised the cigar for its remarkable turnaround in burn I noticed an acridity forming rapidly, only to discover it had formed a tunnel. Fortunately a quick purge brought it back to something resembling acceptable.

As the third progressed the cigar maintained its flavours right up until the end at 1 hour 28 mins without getting the menacing flavours of heat at all. The cigar itself did get quite warm to pick up so I elected to retire it with 25mm remaining.

Overall this cigar tasted pretty good. Its full flavours of meat, oil and wood were quite enjoyable. The only turn off was its terrible burn throughout the whole experience. The three I smoked prior to this point never exhibited a poor burn like this one did. If you haven’t tried one from this line and the opportunity presents itself to get a 5 pack cheap, I would recommend trying them. 

I went for a spin on the net to get a feel for others sentiments regarding the burn and noticed that it seemed to be a common issue with these sticks. I did enjoy this cigar; it’s got a lot going for it although I wouldn’t buy any more as this one has left me feeling a little let down based solely on its burn. 

Suggested pairing for this stick would be Nikka whisky from the barrel. It’s got a good amount of boot being cask strength and a nice woody raisin character to pair with the characteristics of this cigar. I’ve included a picture as there is very little information on the bottle in English to identify it.

Thanks for Reading!

Man O’ War Virtue Toro – Cigar Review

Man O’ War Virtue Toro – Cigar Review

Size: 6 x 50

Blend: Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper around Nicaraguan long fillers.

Construction: The cigar was wrapped with a slightly oily & very smooth near claro coloured 

Connecticut wrapper. The wrapper has some reasonable sized veins on the reverse side of the band. Under the wrapper the pack is inconsistent being textbook density at the foot and progressively turning concrete hard on the band & head. Beneath the wrapper there were some significant lumps and bumps which had broken through to the surface. The seams where barely visible and the cigar was neatly finished with a double cap.

Smell: Slight Hints of green grass and dried hay with subtle hints of butter or oil in the background. The foot smelled of dried hay.

 Cold Draw: After cutting and exposing the pack I was concerned that this stick was going to have a Firm draw, it looked extremely tightly packed. Upon testing the draw I was pleasantly surprised to have a very easy draw with a desirable level of resistance. Flavours on the draw consisted of Dried Hay and a slight inkling of butter.

First Light: Flavours on the first light consisted primarily of a very sharp almost charred tasting white pepper which rapidly filled the mouth and left an electric tingle at the tip of the tongue. Behind the pepper there was a dried tobacco taste with a dash of salt and oil.

Flavours at this time were dominated by the white pepper and very difficult to identify while my palate is literally on fire as if I took a shot of white pepper. At this stage the cigar was offering excellent smoke production with thick clouds of oily white smoke.

First 3^rd – 10 min

As the cigar warmed up into the First 3^rd the sting of the white pepper started to mellow out slightly. The cigar was starting to deposit slight oil onto the palate presenting flavour wise like salty butter. In conjunction with the pepper and butter there were slight hints of tobacco and an extremely subtle sweetness. Overall the body of this stick with because the pepper is a medium to full.

At this stage the cigar was burning and drawing perfectly with a near straight edge burn line.

As the cigar progressed the white pepper continued to dial down and allowed the identification of the more subtle components of the flavour profile. The cigar’s personality was headed for a shift, in conjunction with the subsidence of the pepper, the stick formed a grassy breaded character whilst maintain the buttery oil and hints of tobacco and sweetness in the background. By The end of the third the white pepper had almost disappeared leaving the grassy, bready flavours at the front. In my opinion this was a good thing. The pepper was definitely white pepper, but there was something overpowering and unpleasant about it.

Second 3^rd – 35min

Things really started to look up for this cigar into the second third, the previous flavours experienced lacked synergy and made for an odd and disjointed taste  The white pepper was gone, the bread dried out into a more pleasant toast while the grass remained. The more subtle flavours in the background marched closer to the front presenting as sweet caramel and wood. With the pepper out of the picture this cigar is now presenting with a very pleasant light to medium body.

As the cigar progressed through the second third the sweeter notes mover further into the front leaving the grass closer to the back heralding another change to the character of this cigar in the direction of toasty semi oily sweetness.   Late in the third the head started to foul up with tar and made the draw tighter, this was mad further evident by the tang on the lips created by the tar. A new cut was made which only slightly helped with the draw but did manage to remove the poor taste created by the tar.

The cigar started to smoke very slowly as it approached the band, which I attribute to the pack being significantly tighter as identified in the initial inspection.

Third 3^rd -1 hour

Flavours remained unchanged moving into the final segment of this cigar.

As the third progressed, as per usual heat started to present itself slightly being identifiable in the finish.  As the heat ramped up I tried a purge on the cigar in a bit to buy a few more enjoyable minutes with reasonable success.

 As the cigar was near the finish line the wrapper massively split on one of the binders bumps close to the head.

As the third progressed the heat came up and started to ruin the experience so I retired the stick with 40 mm remaining at 1 hour 25 min.

This cigar started off to a very rocky and unpleasant start flavour wise. The overpowering and acidic white pepper made for a pretty unpleasant start. As this cigar progressed it really turned itself around and made for an interesting smoke with good diversity in the flavours offered.

I personally would not buy any more of these as I prefer the offerings of a sun grown or maduro wrapped cigar.

If you enjoy lighter body shade grown cigars this stick is well worth a try. I’ve only had one of these as it was a gift from a friend at a recent herf. (thanks Burkey) I think the experience would be brilliant if the pepper was reined in at the start a little more. The cigar Burnt and smoked like an absolute dream.

Suggested pairings with this cigar would be a light, wet and refreshing white wine like a New Zealand Sav Blanc or a Vodka & Lime with soda water.

Thanks for reading!

Whisgars

Punch Pita, Maduro - Cigar review

Punch Pita, Maduro - Cigar review        

 

Time in Humidor: 6 months 

Size:  6 & 1/8 x 50

Blend: Ecuadorian Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper, Connecticut binder around Dominican, Honduran, Nicaraguan long fillers.

 

Construction: The dark chocolate brown slightly oily wrapper had a slight mottling and one pronounced vein up the side from head to foot. The wrapper had some minor water spots whilst having some of the hardest to identify seams I’d ever experienced. The pack was somewhat inconsistent, which was rock solid at the band and quite spongy on both the head and foot. The cigar was neatly finished with a double cap.  Overall the cigar looked exceptional but on inspection felt like a little more care could be taken in with the pack. Overall the cigar presented as being quite “rustic” in appearance. 

Smell: Smell on the wrapper consisted heavily of chocolate with subtle tones of tobacco, hay and ground coffee; the foot primarily of cedar with small amounts of hay and tobacco.

Cold Draw: The cold draw tasted exactly as the foot smelled, Cedar, hay and tobacco. With only a small cut on the head the draw resistance was perfect, just enough tension to make it feel “right” without seeming hollow. 

First Light: Flavours on the first light consisted of Bitter Espresso, Dark cooking chocolate, tobacco with a very gentle salt in the background. Smoke production was good from this stick, offering acceptable amounts of moist smoke. 

Aroma: aroma from the cigar was toasty with hints of wood and mocha coffee.

First 3^rd -11 min

Flavours in the first third changed significantly from the first light. The cigar was now tasting much alike a sweet mochaccino. Behind the delicious flavours of mochaccino there was a timid hints of Cuban-esque salt, tobacco and toast. Overall the flavour profile from the first light to this stage was far more mellow and refined, sporting a light to medium body. The burn was slightly undesirable at the 13 minute mark with about 10mm variance. I blamed this in the inconsistent pack experienced in this area previously. A bit of the old “tactical placement and rotation” seemed to bring it back quite successfully”

The retro-hale on this cigar was quite pleasant, offering hints of coffee and a chocolate cherry liqueur which I found quite interesting. Smoke production never came up from the acceptable levels experienced on the first light. I would have appreciated a bit more texture and quantity of smoke from the cigar but it didn’t want to give it up.  

Second 3^rd – 31 min        

Flavours entering the second third were much the same as those experienced in the first. The body had shifted upward to a medium and there was a dash more salt contributing to the flavour profile. The burn line on this cigar for the best part had been razor sharp, oddly the razor sharp line had been on an angle. As smoking progressed the burn came closer to being straight across the cigar, which fits in nicely with my cigar burn obsessive compulsive disorder. 

Third 3^rd – 50 mins

Flavours experienced in the final third were again much the same as those previously found in the first and second thirds with the addition of a slight leather and salted caramel. These new additions make for a very pleasing addition to the already diverse profile of this cigar.

I was expecting the rate at which this cigar was smoking to slow down once I made my way into it. It didn’t seem to want to; which I found quiet surprising. Mid third 3^rd the cigar started to clog on the head which I let go for too long, this in turn created a slight tunnel. I elected to re cut the stick. As soon as a new cut was made the draw opened up and the tunnel corrected itself burning the stick back 10mm in a matter of seconds.

With around 40mm remaining the coffee and chocolate notes started to transition into a more bitter cooking chocolate which I could see being the onset of heat.

I elected to retire the cigar at 1 hour 10 minutes. 

Overall this cigar was brilliant, for me personally, it ticked all the right boxes flavour wise. The constructional issues identified on the pre inspection didn’t seem to have any significant impact on the way the cigar smoked or tasted. The diverse range of maduro like flavours really made this cigar a winner in my books.

I was quite surprised by this cigar, I smoked one 6 months ago when I got them and I was severely underwhelmed and quite unimpressed. I entered the review feeling quite prejudiced against this cigar, I was almost loathing this review as I thought I was in for another round of boring salt. It would appear this cigar has responded brilliantly to a good rest period in the humidor. Now I regret buying only five. I would happily pick up a box of these and put some age on them prior to smoking.

If you coffee and chocolate notes in your cigars, you need to try these. 

Suggested Pairing for this stick would have to be an oak barrel aged whisky, The Macallan fine oak series 15 or 18 year.