Weekend review; December 19th and 20th, 2009

We seem to be in a 7 day rotation of rain. It has rained on the weekend for several weeks in a row. This week it was Friday and boy did it rain! Rain is even forecast for Christmas Day, which is Friday of this week. I'm hoping the forecast changes!
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Saturday and Sunday were clear but the ground was soaked! So, I spent part of the afternoon on Saturday at the Tobacco Merchant in Harbison. Always a good place to go when you have some extra time. They have a very nice sitting area and a well stocked humidor!
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The cigars reviewed this weekend are:
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• CAO La Traviata Intrepido
• 601 Green robusto

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Saturday, December 19th, 2009
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CAO La Traviata Intrepido (7x54)
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This is a new cigar from CAO that sells at local shops for around $5.85 for a churchill size. It has an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and a Cameroon binder and incorporates two different ligero fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. It is medium brown in color. It started off with intense cinnamon spice with abundant pepper. The spice has sweet notes. The finish is surprisingly short and clean. There were faint vanilla notes on the finish. The cigar had light citrus notes. The draw was very good. The burn was even. The ash was tight. This cigar produced alot of smoke. At the midpoint no changes were noted; consistent. Medium bodied.
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I found this cigar to be pretty good but the short finish pulls down the overall score for me. The score is still decent and I will buy this cigar again.
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Score: 89
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Sunday, December 20, 2009
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601 Green (oscuro) Tronco (robusto) (5x52)
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A dark, well made cigar by Don Pepin Garcia for EO Brands (Espinoza and Ortega). It was a very stout, full bodied citrus-spice cigar with pepper. Rich, black coffee was mixed in the spice giving the cigar "dark" notes. The finish was short with light almond notes. I found the short finish very surprising as most Pepin cigars have long finishes. I am a fan of long finishes so a short finish will hurt my rating of this cigar. There was some sweetness on the spice. Very even burn throughout the entire smoke. The cigar has very good flavor but the lack of a nice finish kept this cigar from a 94 to 95 rating.

Score: 90