Today the dog is smoking blindly - rocket roulette nuber 9.
Is it an opus? can you bring this stick to a herf and show it to other dogs?
or is it a dog rocket that deserves to be thrown away but not fetched?
who better than a herf dog to find out? Well, a guide dog would do better at blind review... we'll have to make do with a herf dog.
drak wrapper with very small veins. the color is not super uniform, but its very dark.
The construction is nice and regular, and it has a single cap.
To the nose, you can get ashy-chocolaty clay with some hints of hay and brown sugar in the foot.
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Lighting was done before cutting, with the three matches method - but it took four matches to get the center of the foot to light up. Hard to light might not be a good sign.
Cutting was done with a double guillotine, and it was easy, straight and sharp. Thats a sign of good construction.
First draw was hard - the cigar felt plugged. There was some acidity to it, but the general flavor and particularly the finish was enjoyable. Some sweetness like a mix between a meat pie and a sugar pie. Interesting.
At the second draw, it was decided to recut the cigar. This time it was harder to cut, and doing so ejected the current ash. Sad.`
During the first third, there was a mix between some acidy harshness during the puff, with nice sweety meaty nutty flavors at the finish. Perhaps the cigar didn't like its recent travel and I am paying the price of not waiting a week?
Despite the occasionnal acidy harshness, that ins't the ammonia type we usually get with rockets, the cigar smokes good and the finish isn't bad.
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At the beginning of the second third, there's still some of the harshness, but its more subtle. Sadly, the flavors are also subtler. There's still the meat, but its more smokey, almost ashy. The finish is interesting, a bit peaty like the scotch. And I like scotch.
The ash-to-wrapper line is VERY thin, we're talking good construction here. The ash is rock solid and very pale grey.
The cigar won't smoke by itself, but puffing it renders lots of smoke, that climbs fast and is very malleable. Making circles is easy with this stick.
At this point, I decided that the cigar isn't a pure dog rocket, not the best of the herd either, but likely a good mid-grade cigar that is still travel-sick.
I also decided to pair it with black spice rum, as it seems to be well suited. Pairing a cigar often brings the best out of it.
The pairing seemed to help with the puffing arshness, or the cigar stabilized. That said, the flavors are somewhat occulted by the rum, leaving mainly the finish.
The ash fell on its own at the middle of the second third.
At the final third, the flavors became closer to burned wood, less sweet, but not dramatic. the finish changed too. it was less enjoyable. But there was still some nice hay with chocolate hints.
Stil, from puff to puff, sometimes its great and sometimes its not. Its like a surprise stick.
The burn was great troughout the stick, straight and without any need to relight.
Overall, I don't think it deserve the mention of "turd" but it definately is not herf worthy. I wouldn't recommend this cigar "as is"
Maybe with more rest? or more age?
All I say is that its better than anything under 15$ at my local B&M
jk they are one of my favorite smokes. I'd say your good to go but you have to throw and extra rockety rocket in to even it out!
