Blind Cigar #9 from Brooks at Smoking Stogie

Here we are again brining you yet another blind review Brooks over at Smoking Stogie was kind enough to send my way. Again, and again, and again, if you have not yet checked out SmokingStogie.com I strongly recommend you do so. The team there is committed to bringing you some of the best cigar reviews of the most expensive, exclusive, and rarest cigars ever created. And now, on with the show.

Prelight: Cigar #9 starts out with a very smooth, consistent, yellowish brown wrapper. This could be some good Connecticut, Ecuadorian, Sumatran, or maybe even Cuban. The construction on this cigar is spot on bearing only one large vein between the body and the seamless, round double cap. And I use the term “double cap” loosely cause quite frankly, I can’t even tell if it’s double or triple. The cigar feels extremely hard when compressed. All except the foot which is very squishy. The wrapper feels really delicate and I am scared to handle it too much for fear of tearing or breakage.

This cigar is really holding back on its prelight aroma. I can barely get a slight cedar scent from the wrapper. So light that I can’t tell if it’s the actual cigar, or just some aroma it picked up from my humidor. The foot give off a very interesting sweet smell. It’s not something I smell too often in cigars. It’s a lot lighter and I can’t really smell much of the tobacco. It almost smells like sweet bread mixed with clean sheets or something. Really strange I know, and I am pulling really far its true. But, it’s worth noting that the small amount of aroma that I am pulling from this cigar isn’t one that I come across too often. The cap of this cigar cut super easy. Like, crazy easy. It felt as if I didn’t even need a cutter. The cold draw is really dry, and gives off an almost mossy leather type flavor. Don’t be turned off by that though. I picked up the same flavor in my review of the AVO LE10 and absolutely loved the cigar.

First Smoke: Lighting of the cigar was cake. And what some REALLY strange flavors I am pulling out of this thing. First, it started off with a really strange Marijuana type flavor (no joke). After the first few draws that changed into a charred, burn type flavor. All that before balancing out to a mossy, leather, creamy woodsy flavor with this neat little kick of spice that I can only feel during the aftertaste. The cigar gives off some slight stationary smoke, but it’s VERY pungent with a strong woodsy and spice aroma.  The burnline is a very sharp, but wavy at times. Nothing too concerning though as it leaves behind a very light grey trail of flaky ash. Remarkably, the ash held on well over an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: Interesting enough, the second third of this blind cigar is being totally dominated by this strong cashew flavor. My mouth seriously tastes like I have been smoking cigars and eating mixed nuts for the last 3 hours.  Outside of that I am still getting the same mossy, wet wood flavors I was getting in the first third and just a pinch of the spice on the aftertaste along with this slight metallic taste. The retrohale on this cigar is strange to me. I’m not really pulling strong spice and cedar from this cigar, but the retrohale is just that. It’s enjoyable though and gives a nice change up in the cigar’s profile. I am not feeling much of any nicotine at all from this cigar. The burnline still has some slight waves, but is overall doing a good job correcting itself. Believe it or not, I am actually feeling a little nicotine kick from this cigar.

Finish:  Down to the last third of this blind cigar, and overall it’s been very interesting. The flavor mash-ups while, not ideal, really keep you on your toes. The main flavor now has resolved to the mossy wet wood flavor more than the cashew. The cashew is still in there, but it’s really toned down a lot as the body began to ramp up. I am not finally getting some of the cedar flavor too, but it may be too little too late. I would have liked this a lot more upfront to balance out the moss taste. This cigar really took a lot longer then I thought to burn, ending up at a total of an hour and a half smoking time. Burnline was dead even by the end of the experience and required no touch ups, or relights what so ever.

Overview: Overall this was a good cigar. It’s definitely a departure from what I am used to smoking, but that doesn’t make it a bad cigar. The flavors aren’t something you come across everyday which made me really want to smoke more of the cigar and really pull to see what else I could pick up. The body ramp up at the end was really nice, but like I said, I really wish some of the cedar flavors came though a little more. It’s almost as if the cigar never really got it’s chance to shine.

So what did I think it was? PSh, who knows. I really had a hard time with this one as it probably isn’t anything that I have ever smoked before and if it is, it’s not anything I have had in while. My first guess would have to be a Tatuaje Ambos Mundos Sumatran. The wrapper on this cigar really had the characteristics of Sumatran Tobacco. Plus, I don’t smoke those often enough to be able to pull them out of a crowd. Second guess? Man, I really don’t know. Maybe a Bolivar Cuban? I haven’t had one of those in a while either, but I do remember them having a little kick of strength with an overall mild composure. Either way, my guesses are swayed very heavily on overall appearance of the cigar cause quite frankly, I really don’t think I have ever smoked this cigar before.

The Reveal: Turns out this cigar was far from my predictions. The Zino Chateau.

First of all. Let me start off by thanking Brooks for honesty. Why you may ask? Well, if any of you have read Brook’s review on this cigar you would know his thoughts on this. I remember reading it when he posted it and being BLOWN away by how honest, and upfront his opinions where on this cigar. In fact, I remember him actually saying “While I have loved a few and have been disappointed by a few (Dominican) Davidoffs in the past, to say this is a “Shitty” cigar would be slandering shit” Woah right? He then goes on to say: “I was going to give one of these away, but decided that would be torture to whoever received it, so count yourselves lucky.”  That’s where his honesty about me comes into play. He obviously sees me as an enemy.

All kidding aside, I am really glad that he sent this stick. As you can read above you can tell I didn’t think this was a great stick. But I also didn’t think it was that bad either. What this does is really confirm two things. 1) That taste is purely subjective. and 2) that I am a complete idiot for my guesses. Both the Tatuaje and the Bolivar didn’t deserve that.

Well, I wont really go into specifics about this cigar. I will say this, it’s probably may more pricey than it’s worth. To read Brook’s full review (which I strongly suggest you do, you’ll get a kick out of it) follow this link.