This review is for a Partagas Perfecto. Crank up the latin music!
Thanks Vipe and Todd for IDing this little guy for me!
This is probably the most thorough review I've done and there will be many more to follow due to the fact that I am once again keeping a journal of what I smoke in a spiral-bound notebook, lol.
I removed the cigar from the cellpohane (slightly yellow) and it amused me how much this thing looked like a turd. It was veiny, rough, lumpy, crude, and not pretty at all. At one point, it looked as though the roller had given up and just folded the wrapper in half to finish the cigar. This thing was more like a reject PC than a Perfecto. Probably the most surprising aspect of the initial inspection was that it had little to no cuban smell. It was very flat. I snipped the cap...if you can call it that...it was more like a 'fold' of tobacco, lol, and took a few prelight puffs. The freakin thing tasted like candy corn. It wasn't that fresh candy corn either. It was that stale candy corn that grandma keeps in the dish for years and it magically fuses into a candy corn christmas ornament. I HAD to fire it up. The draw was a little tight, but I'm not going to cry over it. I suspect this was a machine made, but correct me if I'm wrong.
After it got a nice, slow light, I took a hearty draw. The initial tastes were very earthy, almost mushroomy, not so sweet, and quite woody. The room note was a pungent sweetness, what I find to be a cuban trait.
The first quarter of the cigar was a little less creamy than the initial few puffs, and still quite woody. There was little to no Partagas spice and the draws were becoming citrusy. As the first quarter neared completion, the woodiness turned to more of a toasted licorice taste.
Starting the second quarter, the citrus taste evolved into more of a fruity-marshmallow flavor, but it still didn't have the sweetness I was expecting. The licorice flavor I had mentioned earlier was now more of a cocoa.
At the halfway point, this bad boy kicked it up a notch. The earthiness and woodiness had come back in full force, but the smoke was a tad bitter, nothing unpleasant. What little sweetness there was had now dissapeared and gave way to a very salty cuban twang. There were also hints of white pepper coming through.
The last 'smokeable' quarter was wonderful. It tasted of pure cuban tobacco, the twang was still going strong, and a slight sweetness had returned with a hint of nutmeg. The partagas spice finally decided to pay me a visit and the inside of my mouth was quite warm and tingly and these flavors just kept getting more pronounced until I let it go to rest at 1/3".
The burn of the cigar was quite uneven at times, but always seemed to correct itself. I suspect this was due to the shoddy construction. The ash held on for 3/4" most of the time, but was inconsistent. It started out light gray and eventually became almost black.
A few things that I noted in my journal were that out of the burning end of the cigar came both blue and yellow-brown smoke. I have not seen this before. It gave me quite a bit of a buzz and was a nose tickler when exhaled. One of the things I noticed was that the spice in this was more of a white pepper. This could just me my palate becoming more refined as well, though. For such a small cigar, it sure varied a lot, and that's always good. At no point did it really turn me off. It seemed to become less complex and more straightforward toward the end...something I'm not accustomed to.
All in all, this was a good experience. This was not the partagas powehouse I had expected, but it was very pleasant with a generous amount of smoke, cuban flavor, and complexity.
I'd definitely smoke another, but I can't say that I'd buy them because I wouldn't have the patience to age them for as long as this one had been sitting. I'm almost positive it would not have been this good fresh, but I'll have to see.
It gets Eric's :thumbsup:
Time Smoked: 55 minutes.
Thanks Vipe and Todd for IDing this little guy for me!
This is probably the most thorough review I've done and there will be many more to follow due to the fact that I am once again keeping a journal of what I smoke in a spiral-bound notebook, lol.
I removed the cigar from the cellpohane (slightly yellow) and it amused me how much this thing looked like a turd. It was veiny, rough, lumpy, crude, and not pretty at all. At one point, it looked as though the roller had given up and just folded the wrapper in half to finish the cigar. This thing was more like a reject PC than a Perfecto. Probably the most surprising aspect of the initial inspection was that it had little to no cuban smell. It was very flat. I snipped the cap...if you can call it that...it was more like a 'fold' of tobacco, lol, and took a few prelight puffs. The freakin thing tasted like candy corn. It wasn't that fresh candy corn either. It was that stale candy corn that grandma keeps in the dish for years and it magically fuses into a candy corn christmas ornament. I HAD to fire it up. The draw was a little tight, but I'm not going to cry over it. I suspect this was a machine made, but correct me if I'm wrong.
After it got a nice, slow light, I took a hearty draw. The initial tastes were very earthy, almost mushroomy, not so sweet, and quite woody. The room note was a pungent sweetness, what I find to be a cuban trait.
The first quarter of the cigar was a little less creamy than the initial few puffs, and still quite woody. There was little to no Partagas spice and the draws were becoming citrusy. As the first quarter neared completion, the woodiness turned to more of a toasted licorice taste.
Starting the second quarter, the citrus taste evolved into more of a fruity-marshmallow flavor, but it still didn't have the sweetness I was expecting. The licorice flavor I had mentioned earlier was now more of a cocoa.
At the halfway point, this bad boy kicked it up a notch. The earthiness and woodiness had come back in full force, but the smoke was a tad bitter, nothing unpleasant. What little sweetness there was had now dissapeared and gave way to a very salty cuban twang. There were also hints of white pepper coming through.
The last 'smokeable' quarter was wonderful. It tasted of pure cuban tobacco, the twang was still going strong, and a slight sweetness had returned with a hint of nutmeg. The partagas spice finally decided to pay me a visit and the inside of my mouth was quite warm and tingly and these flavors just kept getting more pronounced until I let it go to rest at 1/3".
The burn of the cigar was quite uneven at times, but always seemed to correct itself. I suspect this was due to the shoddy construction. The ash held on for 3/4" most of the time, but was inconsistent. It started out light gray and eventually became almost black.
A few things that I noted in my journal were that out of the burning end of the cigar came both blue and yellow-brown smoke. I have not seen this before. It gave me quite a bit of a buzz and was a nose tickler when exhaled. One of the things I noticed was that the spice in this was more of a white pepper. This could just me my palate becoming more refined as well, though. For such a small cigar, it sure varied a lot, and that's always good. At no point did it really turn me off. It seemed to become less complex and more straightforward toward the end...something I'm not accustomed to.
All in all, this was a good experience. This was not the partagas powehouse I had expected, but it was very pleasant with a generous amount of smoke, cuban flavor, and complexity.
I'd definitely smoke another, but I can't say that I'd buy them because I wouldn't have the patience to age them for as long as this one had been sitting. I'm almost positive it would not have been this good fresh, but I'll have to see.
It gets Eric's :thumbsup:
Time Smoked: 55 minutes.
