Gurkha Cigars Seduction | Cigar Review

By Cigar Reviews by the Katman on May 2, 2014

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Dominican Olor
Filler: Colombian Corojo
Size: 5 x 55 “Robusto”
Body: Medium
Price: $7.00

From the Gurkha Cigars web site:
“Seduction is an appealing, delicious cigar that is sure to seduce your palate with flavor. This medium bodied blend has an enticing Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, paired with a Dominican, Olor binder and Corojo, Colombian filler that is sure to pleasure your senses. Rated 91.”

From Atlantic Cigars:
“The Gurkha Seduction Cigars were first released at the 2011 IPCPR trade show as a brick and mortar only cigar. 2011 marked three new releases for Gurkha, the Cellar Reserve, the Royal Challenge and the final release the Seduction. This medium bodied smoke is made using a Habano seed Ecuadorian wrapper which lends this cigar a nice spice and hint of sweetness. The filler is comprised of 100% Columbian Corojo tobacco which gives this cigar its unique flavor profile and rich body, the filler is held together with an aged Dominican Olor binder. The result is a flavorful cigar that is jammed packed with flavor, complex and well balanced. The cigars are packed in sleek modern boxes of 20 cigars, available in 4 different sizes: 5 x 55 Robusto, 6 x 55 Toro, 7 x 55 Churchill and a 6 x 60 XO Gordo.”

The stick is a well-constructed cigar. It has a very mottled coffee bean wrapper. Perfectly applied multiple caps. Can’t tell how many. The wrapper is very toothy and full of large and small veins. The stick is hard with very little give. There really isn’t much oiliness at all on the wrapper. It has a matte finish. Sort of flat…like the world.

I clip the cap and find aromas of decadent hot fudge, earthiness, strong coffee, leather, and a bit of nutmeg.

The cigar band is sort of a departure from most Gurkha blends. While it has a giant billboard style band, more care was taken with the artwork. It looks as if Gurkha hired an engraver that worked on the new $100 bill. Very ornate. Gorgeous. And requires a magnifying glass to see everything going on.

Time to light up.

First puffs are full of cocoa and leather. There is very little spiciness at the moment.

As I continue huffing and puffing away, I can taste some fruitiness. I don’t think it is dried fruit. And a nice floral note enters and pleasantly surprises me.

Like most experienced smokers, I shy away from Gurkha products. I have on very reliable sources that Hansotia makes his big expensive cigars in two batches. One for the online stores and one for the B & M’s he likes. The B & M’s get the real deal.

And they aren’t cheap. The crap ones online are mere shadows of the good stuff and then hyped like you’re getting the deal of your life.

While running a project in California, I hung out at one specific cigar store where the owner was in his late 60’s and knew everyone. He verified this story as he carried a massive quantity of the good stuff which the aficionado customers smoked almost exclusively.

In the last couple years, Hansotia wizened up. Some of his blends, especially those under the East India Trading Company umbrella have been very good cigars.

The char line has excelled with a pure white ash and crisp as they come.

New flavors are added, in order: Creaminess, cocoa, coffee, leather, earthiness, spice, fruitiness, and floral notes.

I’m surprised that the cigar has very little spiciness to give it a kick in the pants. I like spice. Or is it I Like Ike? Not sure.

Creaminess is running the show. And then I must eat my words as it is dried fruit: Raisins. Another type of sweetness shows up. Along the lines of dark brown sugar. Potent and caramelized.

The second third begins with the black pepper coming into its own. But it is slowly traveling towards my tongue tip meaning I am getting the best of both peppers: Red and black.

The brown sugar helps the flavor of caramel come into active duty.

I’m very happy with the construction of the cigar. No haphazard cracks in the wrapper. A perfect burn line. A great draw. Lots of smoke. And a nice cap that puts up with me chomping on it and not coming apart on me. See! The last few cigars that have had a wonderful construction are because the blender deemed it so. I had a lot of problems with expensive boutique blends and after so many of them, I began to fret it was something I had, or had not, done. I feel vindicated.

The devil is in the details.

The strength has maintained a perfect classic medium body throughout.

My tastes slant towards the uber flavorful blends. And at over $7 a pop, that’s what I want for my money.

Yeah, this cigar was rated 91 by Cigar Aficionado but if you are like me, you take those ratings with a grain of salt. There just has to be something fishy going on. But I shall leave that to my lawyers for when CA comes after me for slander.

The cocoa, creaminess, and sweetness are aiming for the big green wall.

This is a pleasant cigar but that’s about as much as I can say about it. I am afraid, dear readers, that this is another example of old school blending. A month of humi time ain’t enough. Months and months are appropriate.

This cigar was initially meant for B & M’s only. Of course, it will cost you a lot more than $8.30. As a VIP Club Member with Atlantic Cigars, I was given access for purchasing the sticks. I am providing a link to the Gurkha Seduction page but you may not be able to see it. It may require that you are a VIP club member. So you will probablyget a page with the description of the cigars but the added notes telling you that you must call to order them. It doesn’t show up on their long list of cigar brands.

I remove the band and to my surprise, it is a double cigar band with the top one layered over the secondary lower band.

Flavors begin to shift in the last third. Here they are: Caramel, sweetness, creaminess, earthiness, brown sugar, cocoa, coffee, leather, raisins, and the lonely spice.

The char line has acted like a champ the entire smoke. And not a hint of wrapper issues.

This is a perfect morning cigar. Medium bodied through and through.

I’m down to the last 1-3/4” and the flavors are bolder now. I finally get that red hot pepper flavor. And the trifecta of creaminess, sweetness, and cocoa really shine.

The cigar is admitted to the house of flavor bomb status. I’m sure with a few months of humidor time, this will happen much sooner in the cigar.

I do recommend this cigar because it shows the public what Hansotia can do when he puts his mind to it. A perfectly constructed and flavorful cigar. Without all the bullshit PR.

The stick finishes out with a giant flourish. This is what I wanted earlier in the smoke. But that’s OK. I did eventually get it and it is pretty damn good.

And now for something completely different:
I’m digging up an old story I’ve already published. So to my long time readers, my apologies. To my new readers, enjoy.

We were somewhere about 2+ hours outside of London in Nottingham. It was close enough that management deemed we should drive home after the gig. Fortunately, it was up to our road manager to do the driving. We weren’t provided with stretch limos. No. We got a nice Lincoln town car. It was comfy. And besides, everything spent on the band comes back to the band and lessens our profit.

We stopped at a Motorway rest stop that occurred every 25 miles on the motorway (The English version of a freeway.).

It was open 24 hours. And back then, every restaurant in England closed at 10pm. These truck stops had the same cafeteria with the same exact food.

Eggs, bacon, bangers, chips, and a couple other things. It was horrible. The bacon in England was the shits. For some reason, they left the rind on the bacon on one side so you had to cut it off.

The chick singer got the same thing all the time: Chips. She was a junkie vegetarian.

I learned how to zing things up and always ordered scrambled eggs, chips, and bacon. But they always had a warmer with parboiled tomatoes. I had them spread it over my eggs. What a treat. If it wasn’t for the tomatoes, I would have hanged myself.

Moments after we entered the restaurant, three limos pulled up in the parking lot. It was Pink Floyd. And even this mammoth group was lowered to eating in these death traps.

They got in line behind us. The cafeteria was huge with maybe 50 tables. They were all empty. The band sat together at one table. Pink Floyd sat at the table next to us.

Darryl was the last to sit down and he said to us: “Do you know who is here? PINK FLOYD!!!”

He said it loud without realizing that the boys were sitting at the next table and heard everything. They laughed hard. Mr. Perfect was totally humiliated, got up from the table and went out to the car and sat while we ate. He was that embarrassed.

The band took its time. And we had a nice conversation with PF. Very nice guys. And of course, they knew who we were. I struck up a conversation with their drummer, Nick Mason. He had the same sense of humor I did and I choked on my food several times from laughing.

It was the first and last time we saw the boys. This is part of the reason I decided to be a rock n roller when I was 16. Who would have thought that this California boy would someday meet Pink Floyd and be treated as equals?
Definitely a memory I cherish.