Oliva Connecticut Reserve Short Cigar Review
Pre-Smoke
Silky, light brown Connecticut wrapper. Oily, veiny and there are a couple of dark color splotches. The feel of the cigar is a little spongy.
For this review I am smoking the churchill (7″ x 50) vitola. It costs about $7.00.
Smoke
A burnt oak flavor is the first and main flavor to start off and it is pretty good. It burns evenly and the draw is great.
The cigar stays very consistent throughout. Oak is the mainstay and, if you like that flavor a lot, then you will like this cigar a lot. It ranges from burnt to sweet but it’s oak all the way.
After-Smoke
For the Oliva Connecticut the complexity is confined to its oak flavors. It’s a fine cigar and an enjoyable enough cigar. Now, if you are thinking there are going to be a lot of flavors then you need to look elsewhere.
3 points
Carlos Toraño 1916 Cameroon Cigar Review
From the Toraño website:
The 1916 Cameroon commemorates the beginning of a legacy with the year of Don Santiago Toraño’s emigration from Spain to Cuba. A slow burning, well balanced cigar, the 1916 is a medium-bodied blend with distinctive hints of pepper, caramel, nuts, and sweet spice. The premium Cameroon wrapper makes for a long and smooth finish which completes this irresistible smoke.
The wrapper is very toothy (lots of little bumps) so that means it is also very oily. It is somewhat veiny and a little misshapen nearer the foot. Tobacco packed well.
I had one of these a couple of weeks ago at a cigar event and it seemed like a great cigar. But, to be honest, I started smoking it after quite a bit of tequila so this could really be a horrible cigar. Something tells me it is anything but horrible though. I hope.
Cigar Stats
Churchill
Length: 7″
Ring Gauge: 48
Wrapper: Cameroon
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua and Honduras
Price: around $7.00
Tequila Torch!
Extremely creamy smoke. The main flavor is a sweet vanilla that is very rich. Almost tastes like cake batter.
After a while an unexpected flavor comes in: alcohol. I don’t know how to explain it; I am not drinking any alcohol with this cigar. Sort of like that sweet taste you get from a high proof bourbon. And let me be clear, when I say this cigar is sweet I do not mean the kind of sweetness you expect from a pixie stick. It’s an adult sweetness that, upon reflection, was a perfect match for the tequila we had a couple of weeks ago.
Past the halfway point and the vanilla flavor moderates and a couple new flavors enter the mix. Spice is evident in the aftertaste and gets stronger the longer I smoke this cigar.
What I really like about this cigar is that the flavors are alive and they linger. It’s not streaky and the flavors never fade. The flavors evolve from the sweet vanilla to a more spicy flavor profile.
Actually, some black cherry flavors are beginning to check in near the end of the cigar. It is a medium bodied cigar that has a good draw and burn.
90 points
H. Upmann Churchill – Cigar Review
I smoked this cigar Monday on my way home from a database final. Lets just say that it was a very cold drive due to the fact I had to have a window down to let the smoke out of. But the cigar went better than the final did so all’s well that ends well.
The H. Upmann churchill is a good looking cigar with only one slightly raised vein. It looks well constructed.
I should also note that I had nothing to drink while I smoked this cigar.
Cigar Stats
Length: 5 5/8″
Ring Gauge: 46
Wrapper: Indonesia, USA/Connecticut
Binder: Dom. Rep.
Filler: Brazil, Dom. Rep.
Price: $7.00
Database Flame!
Great draw, burns well. It has some spice and there is a certain amount of earthiness to this cigar as well. Medium bodied. I like it, it’s a pretty good cigar.
Sorry, that’s it for me on this one. I could only take mental notes for this one due to the fact that a. I was driving and b. it was very, very cold.
87 points
Sol Cubano Cuban Cabinet Churchill – Cigar Review
[Editor's Note: type in www.sulcubano.com and you get redirected to cigar.com's website. Does this mean that cigar.com owns the brand? I don't know.]
Cigar Stats
Length: 7″
Ring Gauge: 47
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder & Filler: Nicaragua and Honduras
Approximate Price: $5.75
Decent construction – there are a couple of stretch marks on the cigar which makes me worry about how well the cigar will draw because if a cigar is rolled too tightly there is an increased chance that the draw will be tight. There are also some raised veins and the color of the cigar is medium brown.
Da Flame!
The draw, as I feared, is a little tight. There is some spice coming through. Mild-medium bodied. Overall, it has weak flavors. Very little smoke.
A couple inches in now and it is still a very bland cigar. There’s some spice and it’s a little sweet. The draw only gets tighter. This has to be at least partially responsible for the bland flavors.
It doesn’t even burn evenly. About halfway through the cigar actually gets a little sour. Still very boring and the draw just gets worse. What can I say? I’m just disappointed with this cigar.
Near the end it becomes a better cigar. The draw opens up and the spice and sweetness sing true. But it’s way too little way too late. Avoid this cigar.
81 points
5 Vegas Miami Churchill – Cigar Review
Cigar Stats
Length: 7″
Ring Gauge: 48
Wrapper: Nicaragua (corojo)
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua, Dom. Rep.
Approximate Price: $9.00
Alright, this is a fairly expensive cigar so it better be good!
Looks like a very well made cigar and it has a good amount of oils. There really isn’t anything not to like about the way this thing looks. Perfect.
Flame!
Full disclosure: Usually I drink Wild Turkey and a Cherry Coke when I smoke a cigar. Tonight, I am drinking a Ricardo’s Red Rocket Ale from Bear Republic. I went to BevMo looking to see how large their selection of whiskey is nowadays, which is paltry, and bought a six pack of Bear Republic beer. The flavors of this beer are fairly strong (supposedly it got 95 points from some group though).
Now onto the cigar!
Loads of spice and tobacco at first. Good draw. Fairly strong cigar. Hint of molasses as well. Standing up well to the beer.
This cigar is staying true an inch in. Very good cigar. It isn’t a great cigar because there is this faint but easily perceptible harshness underlying every puff.
And then things fall apart. I just smoked this cigar a couple of days ago and the experience is still pretty fresh in my mind. Either the cigar just went bad or the flavor of the beer just overpowered the cigar. My guess is that the cigar actually went bad.
I only had one beer for the whole hour+ it took me to smoke the cigar. I wasn’t getting that much of a bias from the taste of the beer.
The spice from the cigar remained strong even though the harshness took over. It does burn very evenly. And even though there is a lot of harshness the flavors that are coming through are enjoyable.
What was good about this cigar was mostly overshadowed by what was bad. In the end it was just too harsh for my liking. I vacillated between giving this cigar a score anywhere between an 83 and an 87. In the end I just couldn’t say that this was a good cigar – solely due to the harshness of it.
84 points
