Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Rosado
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 6 x 64 “Box Pressed”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $9.50

This is a cigar that my buddy, Paul Stulac, gave to me. It’s a real mama jamma. It has all the appearance of a redwood tree.
There is virtually no information on the internet about these cigars except Bad Dog’s web site. Here is what they say about themselves:
“The co-founders, Nicholas Scarcella and Andreas Demetriou are longtime friends, business partners and avid cigar smokers; living up to their heritage and enjoying one of their leisure activities. Andreas’ family originated from the fertile farm land of Rhodesia, and Nicholas’ heritage is from the rich volcanic olive producing soil of Sicily, which had a tremendous influence and became the inspiration for the company as it exists today.

“Searching for the finest tobacco soil and the most suitable climate, Bad Dog Cigars’ founders discovered that the rich lands of Northern Nicaragua provided cigar lovers an outstanding tobacco. It is imperative to mention that Nicaraguan cigars started with Cuban seeds many years ago, and nowadays Nicaraguan’s tabacaleras (tobacco farms) are recognized by experts around the world as the producers of premium cigars, which are meticulously hand-rolled in small batches to assure their excellence.

“Once Nicholas and Andreas selected a tabacalera that provided them with a tobacco of wonderful aromas and delightful taste, they developed a superior tasting cigar with a unique style and at a reasonable price.
“Each cigar is made with carefully selected long leaf binder and fillers, and wrapped in an exclusive wrapper, creating a medium flavored.”

The cigar is a gorgeous box pressed stick. It is very close to flawless in construction. It has a pigtail at the cap and a closed foot. The Habano Rosado wrapper gives the stick a beautiful reddish hue. Almost no veins and seams are invisible. And the cigar shimmers from oils in the sunlight. The wrapper is ultra-smooth.

From what I can garner, these sticks came out sometime in 2012. I am surprised that I could only find one or two simple reviews that told me nothing about the cigar or the people who blended it.

Generally, I don’t smoke a cigar this big. First, it usually has trouble with flavors. Second, it is uncomfortable in the mouth. Third, it takes at least 2.5-3 hours to smoke. And fourth, I get bored easily and it might take forever to get to the sweet spot. So my patience will be taxed. So I ask for your apology upfront if it doesn’t make me swoon and I have to put it down.

It looks like a cigar that Tony Soprano would smoke. A behemoth. A real Churchill, not the modern day 7 x 48.

The cigar band is simple and to the point. The band is huge to compete with the size of the cigar. The only text is the cigar company name and the blend’s name. On the back side, is a cartoon of a bull dog. Due to lack of information, I can only guess that the 64 squared signifies the ring gauge. That it is 64 x 64. Which, technically, is not 64 squared, but we get it.

I feel I do the cigar a dishonor by clipping the pig tail but here goes. I find aromas of hay, barnyard, mild cocoa, spice, and bread.
Time to light up.

I should note that Paul told me he has had this cigar for while so I can assume he meant a couple months. And that is why I am reviewing it today. It should be damn close to being ready.

I was right about the size and it being uncomfortable. Especially, since I smoke and type at the same time. Makes me feel like I’m Studs Terkel.

The first puffs are spicy and full of malt. If you are old like me you can remember when you went into the soda shoppe and could order either a chocolate milk shake or a chocolate malted. Those days are long gone.

The draw is very clean. And I am proud of myself because I managed to get a pretty good char line going.

The red pepper keeps engaging my palate as it continues to get stronger. The chocolate malted is right behind. I am really pleasantly surprised that a stick this big has so much oomph to it. Especially, this early on. Although, in my experience…a big stick either starts out with a bang and ends with a whimper; or starts out blah and turns into more blah.

I like this cigar.

I believe the thought behind this blend was to cremate your taste buds and palate early on so you don’t notice any changes later. This spiciness is something else.

I am most confident that this cigar is at the $10 range due to the work put into it for its size, the shape, the pigtail and the closed foot. Pretty fancy shmancy.

The cigar continues to pump out smoke like a wild fire. The char line goes wavy on me.

I’m halfway through the first third and the spice has not yet relented. But there is a creaminess that tamps down the harshness of the spice. The chocolate malt is still there but muted. Other than that, the spice has wiped out any chance for me to detect any other flavors. I’ll be honest here; I’ve never smoked a cigar this huge with this amount of spiciness.
I touch up the burn line as I see a canoe in its future.

The ash is a tough mutha’. And no kidding; just as I write this, it falls off. I need to keep my mouth shut.
I find it very difficult to place the cigar in my mouth and allow my lips to support it while typing. If I don’t smoke while I type, it would take twice as long to get this review under my belt.

The malt seems to be slipping away replaced by a nice sweet cocoa. The creaminess looms large. And the spiciness finally seems to be tapering down to a humane level.

The first third ends and that only took 30 minutes. I’ve gone through three Kleenex wiping the tears from my eyes from that satanic red pepper.

The second third finds the cigar at a heavy medium body. The cigar started off as classic medium. So common sense dictates that by the time I am able to finish this stick, my digestive system will have dropped to my knees from the strength and nicotine.

Again, this is a very pleasant cigar. I found one review of a fella that was given the entire line (6) of cigars. He had only a couple of sentences for this stick as he lumped his review of all six cigars into one. Talk about a charred palate.
Anyway, he didn’t think too much of any of the cigars but said out of all of them, he liked the 64² the best..but with the caveat that he still didn’t think too highly of the entire line.

Hogwash. He probably smoked the cigars two days after receiving them not giving them their due in his humidor. I would like to try the other blends: Cameroon, Connecticut, Brazilian Piraca, Sweet Tip, and Light Rosado. I think I can conclude that they are less expensive than this redwood log.

The cap is a mess. And the char line is even messier. For such a big cigar, the ash never lasts longer than ¾”.
As I approach the second half, the cigar has all the qualities of a robusto. Very flavorful. And loads of character. The flavors are not amassing but remain the same. There is the red pepper still leading the charge and behind it is the cocoa, creaminess, toast, a very nice nuttiness, leather, and the malt has disappeared completely.

The flavors are pretty close to being defined as a flavor bomb. And as I write this, the nicotine level is rising as the laptop screen becomes hazy and my fingers won’t do what my brain tells them to do.

I screwed up by not putting something in my stomach before smoking this cigar. I had low expectations, so shame on me.

At the halfway point, I am 45 minutes, or so, into the stick. It is burning faster than I thought it would as it was a very solid cigar.
My only bitch at this point is the messy cap and the burn. Flavor-wise, it is very agreeable. I have to attribute the messy cap from constantly re-positioning it in my mouth. I believe that if I had smoked this cigar normally, the cap have had a chance to not turn to mush.

This is not a complex cigar. It is flavorful and pleasant. But not a masterpiece.

The cigar turns very earthy as I leave the halfway point and close in on the last third. The pepper has really calmed down. But it did do me a favor by clearing my morning sinus congestion.

The last third finds the strength hitting full bodied. My hands are shaking from the nicotine overload. I’m not sure if I will be able to take it to the nub. I doubt it.
I remove the cigar band easily.

I’ve invested over an hour into this cigar and I stare down at it in the ashtray and it looks like I still have another hour to go. This is just too much cigar for me.

My attitude might be different if the flavor profile was more exciting. But it is not. It is pleasant but I can’t give it any more props than that. I take a pair of scissors and trim the moosh at the cap. Very unsightly. Especially for photos.

I get a couple more inches in and I’m done. I’m bored. This is a great outdoor cigar. Where you are doing something and time is not an issue. Like marlin fishing. Or deep sea diving.

Would I buy this cigar? No. It is too much of a good thing. It reminds me of those joke cigars in novelty stores that looks like a Louisville Slugger.
Unfortunately, this blend only comes in one size. The other blends come in only large ring gauges as well except for the Sweet Tip and the Light Rosado which have a 52 and 50 ring gauge respectively.

The current trend is for smaller cigars. Blenders have found ways to make flavor bombs from the smaller sized sticks. And smokers like that. Plus, I guess, that most smokers get bored with a 2-3 hour smoke like I do. I can’t think of a single cigar this big that is interesting enough to finish.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS