Wrapper: Mexican San Andrés
Binder: Nicaraguan Habano
Filler: Dominican, Honduran, Nicaraguan
Size: 7 x 56 “Double Corona”
Body: Full
Price: $10.00 MSRP
This cigar was released in August, 2012. And manufactured at My Father Cigars S.A.
Only 1,500 Boxes of 20 Cigars were produced.
The Danno blend was originally released in 2009 to commemorate the death of Nestor Miranda’s son Daniel Miranda. He was the director of marketing and VP of Miami Cigar & Co. It has been released with a different blend each year since except for 2011.
This is a big cigar. This is not my first choice of sizes but each year, the Danno only comes in one size. And this year, they chose the giant Redwood size. I am in for at least a two hour smoke. Might as well lie down and put the laptop on my belly. Like I’m shucking clams.
Construction is excellent. Firmly packed. Seams are fairly tight. The wrapper is a mottled medium brown color with loads of veins. The pigtail didn’t survive the trip as all that is left is an open wound where it once was. And it wasn’t left behind in the cello when it was removed. The triple cap is a bit sloppy. And there is a smattering of roller’s glue here and there on the stick.
The only thing to distinguish this blend from the regular Special Selection is the foot band declaring “DANNO 2012.”
I clip the cap and find aromas of strong cocoa, sweetness, barnyard, cinnamon, and spice.
Time to light up.
Sweetness. A perfect draw. Smoke billows throughout the room. And then a pie in the face with some strong pepper. Also, cinnamon makes the cut. So does the cocoa.
The burn line goes wavy immediately and requires a big correction. Didn’t work, must do it again. This is way too much touch up so early in the cigar.
At the 1.5” mark, the spice dissipates 75%. And the flavors are more subdued.
A nice crisp nuttiness appears. But the flavors still remain subdued. The burn remains wavy but no need to torch the poor foot again.
The strength is a classic medium body at the middle of the first third.
I am hoping that the first third is merely a warm up for good things to come because so far, it is nothing special.
As the second third begins, the flavor profile perks up. The sweetness increases adding a butterscotch flavor. The cocoa increases. The stick becomes very nutty. And the cedar is very nice. The spiciness is almost gone.
And again, the char line seems to behave itself. It was pretty dicey at the start.
I think Danno would have been better served with a smaller stick. I hate these giant cigars that take forever to foment in your humidor. I would say that this stick needs a good 6 months of humidor time. I’ve had it a month. But then I read other reviews just a few minutes ago to see if others are responding like me. And they are. No joy in Mudville.
As I near the halfway point, the flavors really perk up. The cocoa is very strong. Creaminess is added and the sweetness and butterscotch are doing great. Yet, for such a special cigar, I expected some flavor bomb status at some point and we ain’t there yet.
The last third begins. The cigar has smoothed out nicely. But still at the medium body status.
It is a pleasant cigar. But that sort of wraps things up in a nutshell. At $10.00, I expected to be blown out of my chair with its flavor profile. Instead, it is an easy going stick.
The smoke time is less than predicted. With a third to go, I’ve invested a little over an hour.
If the cigar is going to shine, now is the time.
As a side note, it seems that any blend that Pepin Garcia aids in developing for Nestor Miranda are flavor bombs. Since this is also one of those blends, I am absolutely sure that the size was too big for its britches. Even a Toro would have been more flavorful.
Here are the flavors with a couple inches to go: Cocoa, creaminess, butterscotch, cedar, and spice. The sweetness seems to have really dissipated. While the flavor profile is limited, it is potent at this late stage.
This is just too much cigar for me. If it were a real flavor bomb, I’d have no trouble finishing it, but it is too subtle and minus the all-important oomph. So I lay it down.
If I could afford it, I would buy a box and put them to sleep for a very long time. And cross my fingers that time is the cigar’s ally.
And now for something completely different:
Skip Behind the Wheel.
I had just passed the audition. A band was being formed around the famed violinist, Darryl Way. On drums was Stewart Copeland. On guitar was Mick Jacques. Our singer was an American named Butch Hatcher. And me, on bass.
We called ourselves Stark Naked. A band in the Berkeley area had that name and since Stewart was going to school there, he remembered that name. So he suggested it. After all, we were 5000 miles away.
We rehearsed in Miles Copeland’s house in St John’s Wood. A block away from the famous EMI Studio…or Abbey Road Studio.
Stewart got himself a bachelor flat about 5 doors down from the studio. We would sit on his stoop, smoking hash, and watch the tourists risk life and limb trying to get that famous crosswalk photo of the Beatles. But drivers rarely slowed down and it appeared to be a sport to see how close they could come to running them down.
Our first gig got booked in Nottingham. The money was lousy but Miles supplied us with equipment and roadies….sort of.
Nottingham was a couple hour drive north. Butch Hatcher got his best buddy to roadie but we needed one more. I asked my best friend, Skip, if he wanted to make 10 Quid? He said yes. Skip never roadied and took the gig for fun…and the $25.
The two roadies drove a huge lorry with the equipment. Neither had driven a stick on a big truck…let alone drive on the left side of the road. Skip learned on the job. He was a complete wreck on arrival. There was no freeway to Nottingham then so one had to take the “A” roads through towns and neighborhoods.
Not only had he not learned to drive a stick, but he had to do it with his left hand and backwards. Apparently, there was a lot of screaming during the trip.
Meanwhile, the band was driven to the gig by our road manager.
The gig went really well. Butch had worked in carnivals in the Southern U.S. And he knew how to spew fire from his mouth. So we decided to add that during our encore. As the band played furiously, he turned his back to the audience, slathered some Vaseline on his lips and chin, and then squirted lighter fluid into his mouth. A lot of lighter fluid.
He turned around. His buddy lit a torch for him and Butch held it to his mouth and out came fire. The crowd went absolutely bonkers. He did it a couple more times because he liked the applause.
The band was on Cloud 9 afterwards and decided to hit a restaurant for food and drink. Back then, most restaurants closed by 10 and it was only the Indian and Chinese places that stayed open til midnight so we had to hurry.
The roadies had a couple hours of packing…plus the horrifying drive back. Only this time in pitch blackness. There were no street lights then.
I still remember the look on Skip’s face when I told him I was going with the band. He was crestfallen. I wanted to stay with my best friend, but the band expected me to come with them. I was new to the band and this was not the time to act out. Butch had no problems with saying nighty night to his buddy.
The next day, we lived in the same flat; Skip would not talk to me. I didn’t blame him. I felt pretty guilty and apologized.
We did several more gigs as Stark Naked but when I asked Skip if he wanted to roadie again, he politely told me to go fuck myself. A short, but brilliant, career as a roadie.
During a band rehearsal, Darryl told us that there would be a 3 month hiatus. Apparently, his old band had one record deal to finish. They owed Decca Records an album so the decision was to put all of the original members back together and do a tour and record it giving them a live album. The easiest way to get that commitment out of the way.
And as Darryl finished telling this, he looked at me and said, “Kohn. You are going to be our bassist.”
Just like that.
I had no idea what he was talking about or what I was getting myself in to.
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