I went to a small event at Centro Cigars in Lawrence last night for the Benchmade cigar. I had done some reading online about this particular smoke and found mixed feelings about it... some liked it, some didn't... which is fairly normal for low-priced smokes.
I talked to the Ashton rep about the cigar and was told that the filler is made up of San Cristobol, Tatuaje Black and Pepin Blue Label remnants and is held together by a double-binder to help it to smoke more like a long-filler cigar. Oddly I can't remember what the wrapper was... I normally remember that kind of info :scratchhe
My thoughts on the Benchmade Gordo (5.5 x 54) that I smoked first: I really liked the pre-light aroma. I'm horrible about picking out different aromas and flavors so I'm not even going to try to describe it. Hence the reason I'm not putting this in the review section :tongueout Let's suffice to say that the stick smelled good :thumbsup:
After cutting the pigtailed cap I found the draw to be just to my liking... just the right amount of resistance. The pre-light draw didn't have a lot of flavor to it but what it did have tasted good. So on to the lighting I went. About all I can say about the first inch or so is..... SPICY!!! This badboy had a VERY spicy flavor profile for about the first quarter. After that it smoothed and allowed the other flavors of the cigar come out and play. I wouldn't say that this is a very complex cigar as once the spiciness of the first inch or so calmed down it didn't really change much but that was fine with me as a really liked it.
I did find that if you smoked a little too fast it would warm right up... noticably more than other cigars I've smoked recently. No problem though... I just kept it to about a puff a minute or so. The burn was pretty good. It would get outa wack at time but would correct itself by just rotating. I smoked this until it got down to the label that I couldn't get off no matter how hard I tried... :scratchhe
After smoking this one I asked myself if I would smoke more of these. I answered myself with a hearty HECK YEA!!! and proceeded to by a box of the Gordo size. I got some more free Robusto size for buying the box and decided to smoke one of those as well. In some ways I liked the Robusto better as it wasn't as powerfly spicy at the start.
All in all it was a great night. I found a very reasonably priced stogie that I can really enjoy, ate some good food and drank a few brews. Centro typically has a theme to the beers they choose for the events. This event being for a cigar priced on the low end called for brews priced on the low end... bottles of Schlitz and cans of Hamms :rofl:
I am looking forward to more events. They be a good time :ccool:
I talked to the Ashton rep about the cigar and was told that the filler is made up of San Cristobol, Tatuaje Black and Pepin Blue Label remnants and is held together by a double-binder to help it to smoke more like a long-filler cigar. Oddly I can't remember what the wrapper was... I normally remember that kind of info :scratchhe
My thoughts on the Benchmade Gordo (5.5 x 54) that I smoked first: I really liked the pre-light aroma. I'm horrible about picking out different aromas and flavors so I'm not even going to try to describe it. Hence the reason I'm not putting this in the review section :tongueout Let's suffice to say that the stick smelled good :thumbsup:
After cutting the pigtailed cap I found the draw to be just to my liking... just the right amount of resistance. The pre-light draw didn't have a lot of flavor to it but what it did have tasted good. So on to the lighting I went. About all I can say about the first inch or so is..... SPICY!!! This badboy had a VERY spicy flavor profile for about the first quarter. After that it smoothed and allowed the other flavors of the cigar come out and play. I wouldn't say that this is a very complex cigar as once the spiciness of the first inch or so calmed down it didn't really change much but that was fine with me as a really liked it.
I did find that if you smoked a little too fast it would warm right up... noticably more than other cigars I've smoked recently. No problem though... I just kept it to about a puff a minute or so. The burn was pretty good. It would get outa wack at time but would correct itself by just rotating. I smoked this until it got down to the label that I couldn't get off no matter how hard I tried... :scratchhe
After smoking this one I asked myself if I would smoke more of these. I answered myself with a hearty HECK YEA!!! and proceeded to by a box of the Gordo size. I got some more free Robusto size for buying the box and decided to smoke one of those as well. In some ways I liked the Robusto better as it wasn't as powerfly spicy at the start.
All in all it was a great night. I found a very reasonably priced stogie that I can really enjoy, ate some good food and drank a few brews. Centro typically has a theme to the beers they choose for the events. This event being for a cigar priced on the low end called for brews priced on the low end... bottles of Schlitz and cans of Hamms :rofl:
I am looking forward to more events. They be a good time :ccool:
