Cigar Review

Romeo y Julieta House of Capulet

IMG_6714Most times when looking through the shop I tend to skip by Romeo y Julieta sticks. Nothing personal they just never grabbed my attention. Usually they have fairly unassuming bands and nothing flashy to really catch the eye. However I got a chance to try their House of Capulet made and available only through Famous Cigar shop. While this is a lighter cigar than I normally smoke I decided I’d have a couple and see if I liked it.

When I got the cigar the first thing noticed was that while the band was the same there was a new flashier exterior wrapper printed in silver ink on a nice translucent paper to show off the House of Capulet name. The band at the foot and the wrapper come off easily leaving the top band in place. The wrapper leaf is lovely golden Connecticut with very slight veining. The construction was solid but, to the touch the tobacco is soft . Although the tobacco was very yielding to the touch there were no dead spots to be found on any of the ones I tried.

Thee body of the cigar had your usual smells of leather and cedar but also and added smell of fresh mowed grass and a bit of sweetness. From the foot the smells were the same but stronger and a hint of dries apricot in the background.

I was able to cut the cigar without a problem and the construction held together with no problems for the duration of the smoke. It light easily and evenly using just one match and needed no relighting at any point. The draw was smooth and easy. The first third of the cigar was light and reminded me of fresh bread and butter with just a hint of nuttiness. The smoke was also light on the tongue but plentiful and rewarding.

The second third was similar to the first only now a bit of pepper was starting to work its way into flavor. Usually around this time most Connecticut’s start to get a little on the warm side however this one remained the same temperature as when I started.

In the last third most of the bread and butter flavor had dissolved into a fuller more pronounced pepper taste along with a more earthy/nutty tone. It was great to have a Connecticut with as much complexity as this one did.

Over all it was a great smoke and quite enjoyable, solid from the beginning to the end. This cigar could go well as your morning stick or while sitting back watching a movie (which is what I did). I’m a pretty fast smoker and I got well over an hour with each stick so make sure you’re ready to relax when you light one of these guys up.

 

Strength: Medium

Shape: Toro

Size: 6 x 52

Country: Honduras

Wrapper Color: Natural

Wrapper Origin: Ecuadorian

Wrapper Leaf: Connecticut

Website: Famous-Smoke.com

Price: $23.00 – $29.00 a five pack

Rating: 4.7 pints out of 5

Alec Bradley Prensado

thumbnail_IMG_7177The Alec Bradley Prensado, Robusto cigar is coming in at a 5x 50 ring. The Prensado is made in the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras and utilizes a good amount of Honduran tobacco from Trojes. The Trojes region is located in the Southern part of Honduras.

Visually the Alec Bradley Prensado is like a piece of cigar art. The wrapper has a dark chocolate look to it. The wrapper is somewhat oily and smooth with virtually no veins in sight. It is well packed with no soft spots as well as being box pressed. The aroma on the foot is a combination of cedar and coffee. The wrapper gives off a strong barnyard aroma.

For my Alec Bradley Prensado Robusto, I used my a Colibri V-cut to open up the cap. With the pre-light draw the dry draw notes provided me with flavors of leather, coffee, and chocolate. Overall I considered the pre-light flavors to be enjoyable. The first draw after lighting provided me with a quick shot of pepper.  The pepper would settle quickly though and join with the notes of leather and coffee. The leather and coffee have quickly surfaced as the primary flavors of this cigar. By the end of the first third of the smoking experience, I detected some hints of nut in the finish.

During the second third of the Prensado, I detected a sour citrus in the background for a little bit. Eventually these citrus notes were replaced by some cedar spices. The cedar spices fused with the pepper note.  For the remainder of the cigar experience, the Prensado was highlighted by notes of leather, coffee, nut and spice. At no point while smoking the last half of the cigar none of the notes would overshadow the others. The finish was smooth and there were no harsh notes. The resulting nub was cool and soft.

In the end, not the most complex flavor profile, but some good flavor and definitely a dessert cigar that would go really well with a nice cup of coffee and chocolate cake. The cigar was a solid medium body cigar and the burn was close to perfect and razor sharp. My overall opinion on this cigar is that it gets a 4 star out of 5 Construction is impeccable. The flavors were very enjoyable with a solid Medium on the body. Not too much strength at least for me. I would buy another given the chance.

Review by Distinguished Ruffian member @mouthwash_cologne

Wrapper: Trojes, Honduras

Binder: Nicaragua

Filler: Trojes, Honduras, Nicaragua

Size for Review: Robusto 5×50

Taste: Full body.

Website: www.alecbradley.com

Price: Around $10.00 depending on location.

Rating: 4 out of 5 pints.

Degenerate Cigars

imageA new cigar company is coming out and it happens to be from one from one of our own members. When we heard this was happening we had to grab the opportunity to talk them for a bit and find out what it’s all about and not surprisingly there was more to it than just being a new cigar company. After talking to Sawyer for a few minutes it was obvious that this was something that we wanted to help spread the word about.

Here’s a little bit of what we talked about and what Sawyer had to say about his cigars.

“Currently I’m an Army Ranger however I’m in the process of becoming a civilian. Through my company I hope to raise awareness of several issues that plague our Special Operations community chief among them being the rate of veteran suicides. I plan on donating a portion of the profits from every cigar sold to a carefully selected military themed charity. (Lead the Way foundation, Dry Hooch, Special Operations Warrior foundation, ect) The cigars that are being made will all be done in small batches however the quality will be very high.

According to our rollers we have a release date hopefully end of January or February we have a Facebook of facebook.com/degeneratecigarco and an email of degeneratecigarco@gmail.com [think about asking for a preorder everybody]
Because I’m still in the military Im working with several state agencies as to which tobacco taxes I’ll be paying because I’m a “special case”.

The sticks are going to be sold in bundles of 10 for 100$ were estimating that around 10-15% of those dollars will be going to the charities mentioned. Keeping it military themed. The Ruffians are a great following and I’m hoping to make a difference with the money raised.”

What more could we really say about this? From what we’ve seen the cigars are very well constructed and have a great burn. (Just look at the photo above.) Degenerate Cigar Co is veteran owned an operated and it’s a great idea with a great purpose behind it. We’re proud to support his idea and hope to see it do well. Currently you can follow them on Instagram @DegenerateCigars.

Make sure you follow him and like his Facebook page. Feel free to shoot over emails asking for more information and ordering possibilities.