Hi everyone, hope all is well in the world of cigars! I had one of these sticks just before lunch today and I thought I might as well write up a review of this little cigar; hope you enjoy!
First thing to note with this cigar is a near-perfect construction, you can just tell it's well built. Firmly applied triple cap, the foot was well packed and the wrapper was perfect with a deep sweet hay aroma from this dry stick. The cigar cut and lit very well - at this point I must add a side note about Xikar cutters. I recently upgraded from my very cheap single blade guillotine cutter to a new Xikar Xi1 for ?50, being a student this was a big purchase for me but with its lifetime warranty I felt this was something I needed. Boy was that money well spent!! Before the Xikar I was getting crappy cuts with bits of tobacco spilling out everywhere and wrappers trying to peel off but now I get a single perfect cut every time, I don't know how they do it but the Xi1 is an amazing cutter. If anyone is thinking about investing in one of these then just do it, you won't regret it.
Anyway, enough of my praise-singing, onto the cigar. The first third instantly hit me with coffee, a big wham of espresso with a slight sweetness and no spiciness, this remained pretty much up until the second third. A great start from this little cigar!
Into the second third and the coffee takes a back seat and that unmistakeable Ramon Allones deep bitter, bready, cakey, chocolatey taste really shines through. I was trying to think of a way to describe it and the closest flavour I can think of is a pain au chocolat made with Green & Blacks dark chocolate, sounds weird but the taste really is deep and bitter. In fact it was so deep that it started to get annoying by the end of the second third.
Into the last third and the coffee flavour has gone and the bitter Ramon Allones flavour is so going strong. Now and again a sweet/sour taste comes through but it's only a fleeting glimpse and is quickly trodden on by the Allones taste. As I got to the nub I found the stick hadn't picked up in spiciness (which is great for me) and I noticed a sweet tobacco flavour right as I was about to finish the cigar, I wish it had delivered that sooner, but oh well.
I must say that the construction was superb, the ash fell off in a massive 2 inch chunk, very impressive for a cigar this size. Small touch-ups here and there but I was outside so this can easily be forgiven.
Overall for a stick this size it certainly lives up to the Ramon Allones DNA, deep dark flavours with minimal spice. I enjoyed this cigar a lot but I do wish it was slightly more complex, from the second third onwards the taste was dominated by that bitter bready chocolate taste, sometimes a little too overpowering. However this for me slightly edges it over the normal Specially Selected, which I also enjoy; a good lunchtime smoke with pure flavours and an excellent construction. It gets a 4 out of 5 from me.
Hope you enjoyed the review!
Happy smoking,
Matt
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
First thing to note with this cigar is a near-perfect construction, you can just tell it's well built. Firmly applied triple cap, the foot was well packed and the wrapper was perfect with a deep sweet hay aroma from this dry stick. The cigar cut and lit very well - at this point I must add a side note about Xikar cutters. I recently upgraded from my very cheap single blade guillotine cutter to a new Xikar Xi1 for ?50, being a student this was a big purchase for me but with its lifetime warranty I felt this was something I needed. Boy was that money well spent!! Before the Xikar I was getting crappy cuts with bits of tobacco spilling out everywhere and wrappers trying to peel off but now I get a single perfect cut every time, I don't know how they do it but the Xi1 is an amazing cutter. If anyone is thinking about investing in one of these then just do it, you won't regret it.
Anyway, enough of my praise-singing, onto the cigar. The first third instantly hit me with coffee, a big wham of espresso with a slight sweetness and no spiciness, this remained pretty much up until the second third. A great start from this little cigar!
Into the second third and the coffee takes a back seat and that unmistakeable Ramon Allones deep bitter, bready, cakey, chocolatey taste really shines through. I was trying to think of a way to describe it and the closest flavour I can think of is a pain au chocolat made with Green & Blacks dark chocolate, sounds weird but the taste really is deep and bitter. In fact it was so deep that it started to get annoying by the end of the second third.
Into the last third and the coffee flavour has gone and the bitter Ramon Allones flavour is so going strong. Now and again a sweet/sour taste comes through but it's only a fleeting glimpse and is quickly trodden on by the Allones taste. As I got to the nub I found the stick hadn't picked up in spiciness (which is great for me) and I noticed a sweet tobacco flavour right as I was about to finish the cigar, I wish it had delivered that sooner, but oh well.
I must say that the construction was superb, the ash fell off in a massive 2 inch chunk, very impressive for a cigar this size. Small touch-ups here and there but I was outside so this can easily be forgiven.
Overall for a stick this size it certainly lives up to the Ramon Allones DNA, deep dark flavours with minimal spice. I enjoyed this cigar a lot but I do wish it was slightly more complex, from the second third onwards the taste was dominated by that bitter bready chocolate taste, sometimes a little too overpowering. However this for me slightly edges it over the normal Specially Selected, which I also enjoy; a good lunchtime smoke with pure flavours and an excellent construction. It gets a 4 out of 5 from me.
Hope you enjoyed the review!
Happy smoking,
Matt
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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