Weekend review; December 8th and 9th, 2007

Beautiful weekend here in central South Carolina. The temps for this upcoming week are near 80 derees all week! What month is this again? Don't worry, the temps get back to normal by Sunday; around 52! What a change!

Anyway, I reviewed 4 cigars this weekend. They are:

• CAO Brazilia Ipanema


• St. Luis Rey Serie G Short Robusto


• Hoyo Dark Sumatra Media Noche


• Gurkha Legend Churchill

Saturday, December 8th, 2008

CAO Brazilia Ipanema (7x50)

First off, let me state my bias FOR this cigar as I have had a zillion of them. (Well, maybe not a literal zillion, but a whole lot) In my humble opinion, this is the best cigar that CAO offers. I love all sizes of the Brazilia! This particular churchil sized edition is no different. The cigar has a great draw and very good construction. It is full bodied, but not overpowering. It has a rich, sweet maduro flavor. There are lots of caramel overtones. Not much pepper in this cigar but I experienced some at the 1/3 point. The cigar has tons of smoke. It is very consistent throughout. The ash is not very stiff. It may drop at the 1 inch mark, so be aware. That's the only negative I can find about the cigar. These are around $110 a box (20) online.

Score: 9.0

Saint Luis Rey Serie G Maduro Short Robusto (4.2x54)

This was the first SLR Serie G maduro Short Robusto I'd ever tried. It's a very full bodied, leathery cigar with lot's of sweetness. It has a rich maduro flavor. It's quite spicey with some pepper. Similar flavor profile to other full bodied maduro's that I've tried. Nice cigar. Price for these; $90 bucks for a box of 25, online.

Score: 8.5

Hoyo Dark Sumatra Media Noche (5.7x54)

This is probably my favorite of the HdM brand. Nice, medium-full bodied cigar. Nothing overpowering about it. Some spice, but no pepper. I love Sumatran cigars but although I enjoy this cigar it does not have a lot of typical Sumatra flavor! Still a decent cigar at a fairly good price. You can get these for around $80 a box (25) on line.

Score: 8.0

Gurkha Legend Churchill (7.5x52)

This is suppose to be a cigar with a maduro wrapper, but it's not very "maduro" looking. It's reddish/brown in color. It has very nice construction. The initial light up had lots of caramel flavor. It starts off with a slight amout of pepperness but that increases after an inch or so. The ash is very tight. The caramel ovetones continued throughout. This is my favorite of the Gurkha line. Not a cheap cigar, at $70 for a 5 pack, but you can get much better deals on these at cigarbid.com.

Finished the night off with a Camacho Coyolar (Black) toro. I've reviewed this cigar before, so look for it in my blog.

Score: 9.0