Site Problems
*****UPDATE*****
Google now gives The Perfect Draw a clean bill of health. I would again like to apologize for what happened over the last day or so. Thanks for understanding.
I would like to apologize to everyone who tried to check in on The Perfect Draw during the last 24 hours or so. Evidently, some of the code in my sidebar was dangerous. I can assure you that it is gone now and I will redouble my efforts to make things more secure on this site in the future. I will post an update when Google gives the “All Clear” sign.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Travis Lindsay
La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel Maduro Cigar Review
A very impressive cigar to behold. Oily, dark wrapper. Probably a bit too hard to the touch. There are some veins that run throughout. But, even though it does have some negative aspects to its appearance it is just looks like a cool cigar. Plus, it smells like one. It smells aggressive.
The prelight draw gives off a distinct chocolate flavor along with some spice, which was to be expected. For the couple of Chisels that I have smoked their draws have seemed a little tight before I lit them up. But after I have lit the cigars the draw for each cigar has been perfectly fine.
Cigar Stats
pyramid
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 54
Wrapper: Ecuador Maduro
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Price: $75.00/Box of 10 | $8.50/Single
Smoke
Sure enough, this cigar starts out very aggressive. Spice and a grassy earthiness. The chocolate flavor is there as well. They mix together wonderfully well and the flavors are fantastically alive. And the draw is great as well. All is good!
In addition to the aforementioned flavors there are some sweet flavors. Toffee, anise and some leather as well. There are a ton of flavors going on in this cigar and they mix together very well.
Full bodied? Sure – but the strength makes sense with this cigar. In no way is it harsh or obnoxiously strong. Exquisitely smooth cigar. Oh, and the burn is even. Yeah!
Slow burning gem of a cigar. A little over an inch in and the flavors are still wonderful. Leather and meat are taking over as the major flavors but all those other flavors are still there and they are great.
While the flavors do not match up perfectly there is a smoky-woody flavor grouping that seems right for this LFD. But just because the flavors do match up perfectly I do not see that as a problem. This is a very complex cigar, there’s bound to be a flavor or two that I don’t think matches up perfectly.
At the halfway point now and meaty/salty flavors are taking the lead. Really complex cigar.
Somewhere around the two-thirds mark the flavors do begin to lose some of their luster. It’s still a very good cigar but just not as much. And that, unfortunately, brings this cigar down a notch. A very, very small notch since this cigar after losing a bit of its “luster” is still better than most anything out there in my book.
94 points
Another View from Cigar Jack.
Variety in Cigars
During my La Aurora trip in May I relearned something that is very important to anyone who is serious about cigars: variety matters.
The first full day there we all visited La Aurora’s factory and once we were all settled into one of their conference rooms Jose Blanco commenced our taste test of cigars. Each one of those cigars were created using only one specific kind of tobacco. I have already talked about this so there is no need to go on further about the process but there was one really important thing about that experience that I hope I can convey to you.
Unless you are willing to smoke a variety of cigars you will never understand what you really like in cigars. Take my experience as an example. When I first started out smoking cigars I was lucky enough to smoke some Fuentes. Solid cigars, medium strength, very good flavors, they are the epitome of what a dependable cigar is. But what if I just stuck to Fuentes? Even though Fuentes are great cigars, and I do recommend them highly, I would eventually have gotten bored with cigars and I seriously doubt I would still be smoking cigars with any regularity.
My first tentative steps away from the venerable Fuente brand were largely hit and miss. I think I took a road that many novice cigar smokers take: I got a lot of samplers along with a couple of sticks I had read about in Cigar Aficionado and on the cigar blogs. The samplers, which were largely comprised of crummy cigars (and by that I mean cheap) accounted for a lot of my “misses.” But that was good for me because I found out I don’t like most of the cheap cigars from Ghurka (there are some very good Ghurkas out there, which surprised me after my initial experiences with their cigars) and that just because the cigar’s brand name is the same as a Cuban brand it isn’t necessarily a good cigar (far from it).
Some of the samplers ended up working out and those successful forays into the unknown of the cigar ecosystem spurred me on to find out more about cigars and to be more adventuresome with my cigar selections. That is when I discovered some of the great boutique cigars like Tatuaje.
So go out and get some cigars that you haven’t tried before. Who knows, you might find some new cigars that you like.
Ashton VSG Cigar Rights of America Special Edition
Here we have another one of those Cigar Rights of America Special Edition cigars. So far I have not been disappointed. Heck, to be honest, joining CRA is enough for me – the cigar sampler is just icing on the cake (Is there a cigar-related analogy that can be substituted for that? I don’t think so!).
This particular cigar is the Ashton VSG, Virgin Sun Grown. It has a dark wrapper, a slight box press and it feels a little loosely packed. There aren’t any serious veins and the ones that are there are very few indeed. It is an oily cigar.
Even though the pre-light draw was a little tight the draw after being lit is just fine. Even more, there is a lot of flavor coming through. But before I start describing the flavors of burning tobacco in a colorful way I need to mention that this is a dry cigar from the get go. It’s a good dryness though.
I think the best way to describe the flavor profile of this cigar is to compare it to beef jerky, perhaps even the best beef jerky you have ever had. It’s meaty, has a good mixture of spice and has a distinctly smoky flavor to it. There is also a slight cherry flavor underneath.
It starts out as a more full bodied cigar then settles down nicely in the low full bodied range, maybe even medium-full bodied. The flavors are pretty consistent, which I’m thankful for. Love these flavors. The burn is even and the draw is very nice.
After the halfway point the flavor profile does begin to change. The meatiness of the first half begins to fade away and is replaced by a smoked woody flavor. Still an excellent cigar.
I know that there are some people out there who absolutely love Ashton cigars but I cannot honestly claim to be one of those people. They are very good cigars though and well worth smoking.
As is the case with all of the Cigar Rights of America sampler cigars that I have smoked I will refrain from giving this one a score.
