Tweet
Following my first smoke for a few weeks, here are my thoughts... 
This evening I decided to break my duck: I had never smoked at home before, only ever when on holiday. I decided to give a little smoke a go as it was getting late, and picked out a Fonseca KDT Cadet - a small stick which had been in my little humidor since it was bought back in March. Dare I say it, but my little box seems to be doing the trick as it felt just right 'to the squeeze'.
A pleasant evening ensued in the garden, as light was replaced by darkness and the gentle wind rustled the trees as birds flew overhead. Oops, getting a little poetic there...
Anyway, a nice evening in the garden with a Cuban and a makeshift ashtray...
So, my thoughts, using Cigar Aficionado's scoring system (as I did with the ERdM Petit Corona):
Appearance /15
(Size: 4 1/2" x 36)
This little boy comes clothed! More of that in the overall impression section... As for the wrapper leaf itself: a nice silky brown appearance, spoiled only by one fairly pronounced vein (see pic). The cap was well applied. The feel was firm with just the right amount of 'sponginess'. In genral, the look and feel was good. 14
Smoking Characteristics /25
The KDT Cadet lit first time with no problems. The burn was generally very good - on the couple of occassions that it started to go a little uneven it came back to the good and proper without any outside assistance (see pic). The ash was surprisingly solid on such a narrow guage stick (see pic). The draw was very nice, not at all too loose, but not tight either. It produced a considerable amount of smoke for a 36 ring guage cigar. Unfortunately, the aroma let this smoke down quite a bit - it was far too reminiscent of trips to my Grandma's when she used to smoke ciagarettes...
Overall though, aroma aside, no major faults. 22
Flavour /25
I smoked this cigar with a glass of John Smith's Smooth Flow - as a fairly light and mild cigar, this seemed to work quite nicely. At first the KDT Cadet was quite toasty. Very soon, this tasty flavour was joined by a slight sweetness which was almost honey-ish. This slight sweetness was really drawn through by the contrast with the John Smith's (a bitter). Unfortunately, the middle half of this cigar became quite bland, with little more than slightly peppery notes to keep you going. Thankfully I held on, just as I was about to give up on the Cadet, it came back to life. It's hard to describe the exact flavours I got, but it reminded me a little bit of Glayva (the honey flavoured whisky liqueur). Then, as my fingers were about to be burnt off, a strong woody note came through to finish with a bang! The promising first ten, and last five minutes of this cigar are sadly let down by a middle twenty minutes of virtual nothing-ness. 17
Overall Impression /35
This isn't a bad cigar, however, it's not an especially good one either. The packaging is quite novel, coming in a soft paper sleeve and, once lit, it has its moments (at the start and the finish), so it is not without upsides. It gave me just over half an hour to appreciate the garden - trees swaying in the wind and birds flying overhead. It also reminded me, albeit almost too subtly, of a nice breakfast (honey on toast) and of a pleasant drink (Glayva - which I have subsequently had a glass of). None-the-less, this cigar can be summed up thus: the Fonseca KDT Cadet, I have to say, has a wholly appropriate name - much like a cadet, it has passed the interview to get into training, but it has much to develop before it can take on front line duties... 27
Before and after:
Grand total... 80/100
This evening I decided to break my duck: I had never smoked at home before, only ever when on holiday. I decided to give a little smoke a go as it was getting late, and picked out a Fonseca KDT Cadet - a small stick which had been in my little humidor since it was bought back in March. Dare I say it, but my little box seems to be doing the trick as it felt just right 'to the squeeze'.
A pleasant evening ensued in the garden, as light was replaced by darkness and the gentle wind rustled the trees as birds flew overhead. Oops, getting a little poetic there...
Anyway, a nice evening in the garden with a Cuban and a makeshift ashtray...So, my thoughts, using Cigar Aficionado's scoring system (as I did with the ERdM Petit Corona):
Appearance /15
(Size: 4 1/2" x 36)
This little boy comes clothed! More of that in the overall impression section... As for the wrapper leaf itself: a nice silky brown appearance, spoiled only by one fairly pronounced vein (see pic). The cap was well applied. The feel was firm with just the right amount of 'sponginess'. In genral, the look and feel was good. 14
Smoking Characteristics /25
The KDT Cadet lit first time with no problems. The burn was generally very good - on the couple of occassions that it started to go a little uneven it came back to the good and proper without any outside assistance (see pic). The ash was surprisingly solid on such a narrow guage stick (see pic). The draw was very nice, not at all too loose, but not tight either. It produced a considerable amount of smoke for a 36 ring guage cigar. Unfortunately, the aroma let this smoke down quite a bit - it was far too reminiscent of trips to my Grandma's when she used to smoke ciagarettes...
Overall though, aroma aside, no major faults. 22Flavour /25
I smoked this cigar with a glass of John Smith's Smooth Flow - as a fairly light and mild cigar, this seemed to work quite nicely. At first the KDT Cadet was quite toasty. Very soon, this tasty flavour was joined by a slight sweetness which was almost honey-ish. This slight sweetness was really drawn through by the contrast with the John Smith's (a bitter). Unfortunately, the middle half of this cigar became quite bland, with little more than slightly peppery notes to keep you going. Thankfully I held on, just as I was about to give up on the Cadet, it came back to life. It's hard to describe the exact flavours I got, but it reminded me a little bit of Glayva (the honey flavoured whisky liqueur). Then, as my fingers were about to be burnt off, a strong woody note came through to finish with a bang! The promising first ten, and last five minutes of this cigar are sadly let down by a middle twenty minutes of virtual nothing-ness. 17
Overall Impression /35
This isn't a bad cigar, however, it's not an especially good one either. The packaging is quite novel, coming in a soft paper sleeve and, once lit, it has its moments (at the start and the finish), so it is not without upsides. It gave me just over half an hour to appreciate the garden - trees swaying in the wind and birds flying overhead. It also reminded me, albeit almost too subtly, of a nice breakfast (honey on toast) and of a pleasant drink (Glayva - which I have subsequently had a glass of). None-the-less, this cigar can be summed up thus: the Fonseca KDT Cadet, I have to say, has a wholly appropriate name - much like a cadet, it has passed the interview to get into training, but it has much to develop before it can take on front line duties... 27
Before and after:
Grand total... 80/100
) and the satiny colorado tint wrapper. 
Comment