Wrapper: Brazilian Cuban Seed (Cubra)
Binder: Nicaraguan Cuban Seed
Filler: Nicaraguan Cuban Seed, Dominican Cuban Seed, Brazilian Cuban Seed
Size: 6.125 x 52 “Torpedo”
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $11.00 MSRP

Today we take a look at the Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano.
A reader who prefers to remain anonymous sent me a 5 pack.

BACKGROUND:
The Galerones Series Brazilian Habano was originally called the Sentido. I couldn’t find when the name change occurred. The Kristoff web site was of no help.
The Kristoff Galerones Sentido (Brazilian Habano) was one of four new cigar blends that was introduced in Kristoff’s Galerones line in fall of 2013.

From the Kristoff web site:
“A medium-full bodied cigar with intriguing notes of white pepper, intertwined with spice, and sweet notes of toffee with a long cedar finish.”

I reviewed the Kristoff Galerones Series DR4 and was not impressed. I reviewed the Kristoff Galerones Series Ceniza De Plata and the Kristoff Galerones Intensivo. And despite construction issues found them both fairly good cigars.

DESCRIPTION:
A light cigar. Doesn’t feel fully packed like a lot of Kristoff cigars. It has an oily, russet brown colored wrapper. Nearly invisible seams. Lots of veins. Very smooth to the touch. The triple cap is a bit sloppy.

SIZES AND PRICING:
Robusto (5 x 52) $10.00 MSRP
Toro (6.25 x 54) $10.50 MSRP
Torpedo (6.25 x 52) $11.00 MSRP
660 (6×60) $11.75 MSRP

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
From the shaft, I smell strong raisin, sweetness, cedar, earthy tobacco notes, and a touch of toffee.
From the clipped cap and the foot, I smell strong barnyard, cedar, and sweetness.
The cold draw presents flavors of Indian spice, spiciness, strong cedar, sweetness, raisin, and barnyard.

FIRST THIRD:
The draw is excellent. I get a mix of flavors: saltiness, sweetness, tartness, shortbread, raisin, creaminess, a bit of coffee, and a lot of malt.

Some caramel is added a few moments later….no…it’s graham cracker. Damn dementia. LOL. I figure I can milk that now when I screw up. “Where am I? Who are you? Who’s my Daddy?”

The Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano is extremely rich now. I was told that it had several months of humidor time and it shows.
Strength is classic medium body. The char line is doing fine, thank you. And the cable TV classic rock station is playing all my faves one after another and I’ve got the walls shaking.
Yep. I’m having a good time.

The lightness of the cigar makes it a quicker smoke than it should be. But I’ve found a lot of Kristoff cigars like that. They just seem to have something against really tightly packing the cigar so if they charge you $10, it ain’t a 15 minute cigar.

OK. I’m ready to delineate the flavors more fully: The Indian spices are gone..whoosh, but now there is creaminess, spice, caramel, graham cracker, raisin, wood notes, cocoa, coffee, cedar, malts: Cara Munich, Cara Vienna, Chocolate Malt, and Flaked Oats (See Malt Chart), and loads of sweetness.

SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 15 minutes.
I knew it. I damn well knew it that this light in the hand cigar would cheat me out of time.

I should have smoked one of the other 4 in the 5 pack sent to me first. But then I forget things. I forgot about prepping for this cigar until yesterday. I used to do my research prep for 3 or 4 cigars ahead of time so I could dry box the cigars a couple days. But I’m having a terrible time remembering things. I need to make lists.

With all those flavors, and all that humidor time, one would think this would be a complex cigar. It ain’t, folks. Just a mish mosh of a big list of flavors; all stationary in their own little cubicle afraid to move around like a shaking neutron. (Dementia speak).

I’m having trouble keeping up with my writing, smoking the cigar, and taking photos. Slow down damn it Kristoff!
Well, so far the balance is just OK. The finish is medium length. And I believe by this time, the Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano should be kicking ass and taking names. This is why I stopped buying Kristoff cigars years ago. Not a quality product. Makes no sense. But then I believe they are made at the PDR factory. (If I’m wrong about this, dear readers, please place a comment below correcting me). And I’m not a big fan of PDR cigars. Kristoff just doesn’t have a good quality control mechanism in place.

The flavor list has not changed one iota. Still medium body. When is it going to kick in and do something?
I just read a couple review of the 2013 Galerones Sentido. Same cigar, different name. They all rave about it and I see reviews of 92!!!
What??

Either the reviewers are deep in the pockets of Glen Case or the blend has changed over the years. I wouldn’t give this cigar a 92 if you put a gun to my head….well…er…maybe then I would.

HALFWAY POINT:
Smoke time is 25 minutes.
What is that lurking? What is that? Damn-nation! Its bold flavors. Halle-fucking-leujah!
Houston, the Eagle has landed. Woo Hoo!

Now if I had smoked this cigar first, I would have written a nice review being kind and generous…but, no..I wrote like a crazy man and you get to witness the melt down. How’s that for entertainment?

Here they are: Creaminess, spice, sweetness, raisin, graham cracker, MALTS, caramel, wood, and a touch of coffee. The cocoa has disappeared into the forest.

And now, the Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano finally finds its complexity, balance and long finish. All it took was patience on my part…which I have none, of course. But then don’t you think that an $11.00 cigar should taste great from that first puff? Like the Ezra Zion The Collective? Or the Warped Futuro? Or the Señorial Maduro Natural by José Blanco? Or the Freya by Emma Viktorsson from Las Cumbres Tobacco?
And of which every single one listed is below the $11.00 price point. Shame, shame Kristoff.

It is mucho delicious now. What an $11.00 cigar should taste like. The malts are going Bozo nuts.

One very positive note is that the construction is better than I thought. The char line has behaved without a single touch up needed. And no stray wrapper bits.

Caramel is now a major flavor. And chocolate has returned. But instead of meek and mild, it is strong like bull.
Strength is still medium body. The little choo choo that could wants to become medium/full. Or something like that.

I should add that the reviews I read don’t mention more than 4 or 5 flavors. Yet they manage to put 1500 words on the page. I’ve never been able to make a so so cigar seem like it was God’s gift to the Pope. Now, that’s talent.
Me? I’m just a schlump that writes stream of consciousness.

I like the Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano…now. It’s nothing special but it is truly trying to redeem itself. A lost cause, I’m afraid.

Is it any wonder that I have only a handful of sponsors? They all hate me. Luckily, there is a small coterie of brilliant blenders that get the Katman. And they are happy to be associated with me. I’m very fortunate. I’ve seen sponsors come and go.

But one little word out of place and they disappear into the fog of cowardice.
You know, dear readers, that this is just cigars we are talking about. Not the cure for cancer. Not mediating peace in the Middle East. Yet the arrogance of some of these manufacturers amazes me. They are just making fucking cigars. Taking leaves from the ground and rolling them into tubes that you stick in your mouth and light. I don’t get it. This talent goes back a thousand years. Only now you get a fancy cigar band.

OK. Enough ranting. Rage is good for the soul. It is a cleansing thing. “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!!
Back to the overrated Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano.

LAST THIRD:
Smoke time is 45 minutes.
Strength begins to move into medium/full territory.

Flavors are very good. Same list as notated above. Big gnarly wood with purple veins.
I’ve run out of things to say about this cigar. So, will that shut me up? I doubt it.
So…how’s the family? Everyone healthy and happy?
Where was I?

Oh yeah, the overrated Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano.
I didn’t care for the cigars I reviewed from this line. But at least this blend didn’t have the terrible construction problems the others had. It has done an immaculate job of steering clear of disassembling on its own.
First touch up is needed.
The flavor profile becomes numb. Me too.
I can’t recommend this cigar. I had an inkling this would happen based on past experience. Now to the price point.

RATING: 83

PRICE POINT:
$11.00 cigar, my ass.
$5.00? Yeah, sure.
I found one Kristoff Galerones Intensivo Toros on Cbid going for $16.00 for a 5 pack. That’s about right. They retail on CI for $10 a pop. $3 sounds even better.

SUMMATION:
Bummer, dudes.
Now I feel bad for the reader that sent me these cigars. I hope he didn’t pay $55.00 for this 5 pack.

The overrated Kristoff Galerones Series Brazilian Habano is a subpar blend. I don’t know what it is about Kristoff? No attention to detail? No quality control? Apathy? No passion? I can’t find any info in which the company brags about a high rating from Cigar Aficionado.

The double cigar band set up makes it an attractive cigar. Good stick to hand out to your mooch friends.
I promise to find a great cigar to review tomorrow.

And now for something completely different:

KATIE BECOMES ANNIE OAKLEY.

I became a pistol enthusiast after my family became crime victims. It was 1997. And we lived in Mesa, AZ.
I decided to get a concealed carry weapon license.
Back then, the class was 16 hours, which included range time. The range, where I shot often, had a very high tech set of tools. Lots of local police departments used the facility.

The most useful tool was a giant interactive video game. The TV monitor was at least 72”. And like at the arcade, it had a plastic pistol hooked up via a cable to the machine.

The purpose of the video was to put you into a myriad of dangerous situations that were all life and death scenarios. You had to yell out commands, and then shoot when necessary…or not shoot. The most embarrassing part of this exercise was that when you finished, the short video was played back and it showed you where your bullets hit. Most of us missed the target by a country mile. Adrenaline. The whole class watched so it made it even more difficult to be calm.

It was an eye opening experience. This tool emphasized the need for practice, practice, practice.

I taught my 11 year old daughter, Katie, how to shoot. I bought her a small gun; a Browning .380 semi auto. We went to the range together and we had a great time.

As it turned out, she was really good with a pistol. Afterwards, we would sit at home at the dining room table cleaning our guns. It was a nice bonding experience.

We went to the range every weekend. Katie was a natural. She got so good that the owner of the range offered me a deal. First, everyone at the range called her Annie Oakley.

A huge window separated the range from the store. Men would come in with their wives to get them armed and dangerous. Most women were very shy and afraid. But when we were there and the women saw an 11 year old totally at ease, it helped sell guns.

We would spend a couple hours at the range and Katie would always want a bag of Skittles and a soda. She had a tactical holster and I allowed her to wear her gun when she went into the store. Remember, this was Arizona.
The employees got the biggest kick out of that..watching a little girl totally in control and not behaving inappropriately with a gun strapped to her hip.

Here was his offer…he took me aside and said he would pay me to bring Katie to the range every weekend and spend 7-8 hours shooting. Clearly, Katie was making a difference in the sales of guns to women. But I said no. I didn’t think that was appropriate for an 11 year old. Not to mention, her attention span would never allow an 8 hour session on Saturday and Sunday.

I took several CCW classes on the advice of my gun mentor who recommended going to classes taught by different instructors. I learned something new in each class.

Katie asked if she could go with me. So I ponied up the dough and we took a weekend class.
The classroom stuff bored her a bit as it would any 11 year old. So she kept tugging at me arm asking; “When are we going to shoot?”

This class used an outdoor range. Katie had all her own equipment: eyes and ears. She knew how to load a magazine. She knew everything about her Browning which is actually the same as a Beretta 92 style weapon. Just smaller.

There were about 35 of us in the class and we all lined up, loaded our weapons, and waited for the go ahead to start shooting.

I was admonished, at first, by the range master about the kid. Katie liked to fire off all her rounds in about 2.3 seconds. The funny thing is that she was pretty accurate.
But this was frowned upon. So Katie shot the way the rest of us did…taking our time.
When it was all over, we were awarded with a completion of class certificate. Katie did not get one because you had to be over 21.

As we got into the car, Katie asked me when she was going to get her CCW license. I laughed out loud. I explained she was too young. But she wouldn’t let up. The whole way home was, “Why not? Why not? Why not?” Over and over.

I asked her what she would do with the license if she had one?
“I’d wear my gun around…probably to school.
Oy vay.

And now, almost 19 years later, she is about to take the test to become a Milwaukee police officer. With her connections with the police department, being a female, and being an EMT, it should be a slam dunk.
As a result, her mom and I will worry all the time.

katie

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