Wrapper: PA Broadleaf
Binder: Undisclosed
Filler: Undisclosed
Size: 5 x 52 Robusto
Body: Full
Price: $7.00
Humidor Time: 6 weeks
Number of cigars smoked prior to review: 0

Photo courtesy of Cigar Federation:

Today we take a look at the GreenGo produced at the Black Label Trading Company factory Oveja Negro for Cigar Federation.

Thanks to Eric Chen for the sticks.

I have received a couple Color Projects from Eric. They got a nice long rest. Now or never, boys.
Looked for info…don’t think I found one review. That is not encouraging, brothers. Yet the reviews on the Cigar Fed store web site are all raves. So now my fingers are crossed that I can do a nice positive review on an inexpensive cigar.

GreenGo. GreenGo. When I say that word(s), I think Soylent Green. I saw that 1973 movie at a theater and it freaked me out. Worse. We didn’t know we were watching one of the great Edward G. Robinson’s last performances.
Back in the 50’s, movies on TV with Robinson and Bogart were always plentiful and the coolest. We came in from playing outside to watch these films.
Grok this….back then, we had only 7 TV channels!
Today?
7 channels would cause zombies.
Jesus, I sound like my father now. “Walked 78 miles in the driven snow just to get to school. We didn’t need food. You don’t know how lucky you are.”

BACKGROUND:
Only sold by Cigar Federation. And those 19 public reviews? It rated out at 4.8 out of 5 stars. Not too shabby.

From their web site:
“This cigar was so popular we brought it back for another release! Only 1,000 were produced in this round and they won’t last long! Need a refresher about the GreenGo? Check below:

“Plus, here is some history on the term GreenGo I was sent by Jonathan I. It is pretty awesome. He said “During the Mexican American war, the Mexicans would often tell the American forces (dressed in green) to get the Heck out of their town by saying “green go!” I’m sure other expletives were commonly used but that’s the rumor anyway.”

The other color project blends: Craven Morehead, CtrlAltDelicious, Mike Hunt, Tiger Kitty Sharp Claws, and Tiger Kitty Soft Paws. Go to Cigar Federation Store. Good hunting. Two great sources of boutique online cigars is Small Batch Cigar. SBC is very good about no shipping cost, low prices, and lightning fast shipping. CF charges low shipping, prices are low most of the time, but their shipping is their Achilles Heel. Shit, takes forever. And sometimes you have to chase it down with Sam. If I had my druthers between the two on the same cigar for the same price, I’d pick SBC. CF comes in at a close second…because they are serious about new and unusual stuff.

DESCRIPTION:
No cigar band. The only identifying mark is the description on the cello. I had to clip each end of the cello to let some air in while the stick slept in my humidor.
The green color bar is more like an aqua/green. Almost blue. I thought I had the wrong stick.
The stick is rustic. Seams are anything but tight. Lumpy and bumpy. Like a twig. Some oil on the dark tree bark colored wrapper. It is extremely toothy. The triple cap is a little askew.

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
From the shaft, I smell floral and fruity notes, fresh sawdust, brine, dark cocoa, cedar, lemon zest, and cream. No spice.
From the clipped cap and the foot, I smell dark chocolate, red pepper, sawdust, cedar, lemon zest, and steak sauce.
The cold draw presents flavors of red pepper, cream, chocolate, malts, brine, mango, peach, and cedar,

FIRST THIRD:
Great draw. Big splash of red pepper.
A variety of malts, especially rye malt. Creaminess, salt, meaty, steak sauce, molasses, fruit, citrus, cedar, and the first touch of coffee.
So far, so good.

There is a deep earthleatherwood component. Annoys the shit out of me when the leaf stats are not disclosed. It means one of two things. The first is that these cigars were sitting in some warehouse and the owner can’t remember shit about the blends. So CF bought them. I think the chances that CF had these made specifically for them is 50/50.
The second reason is to use cloak and dagger techniques to bedazzle you. The second explanation makes no sense.
The binder and filler taste like Mexican and Nicaraguan…but, I’m just spit ballin’ here.

The char line is behaving itself nicely.
Flavor profile makes a jump…break on through to the other side. The pepper becomes nuclear. The meatiness is strong along with the malts, salt, fruity sweetness, creaminess, freshly baked bread, yeast, and some others I can’t identify.

The GreenGo is super complex at this early juncture. Transitions are quick as a hare.
I dig a pony. I like this blend. Strength is a very smooth medium/full.

Despite the funky appearance, the GreenGo is a well-constructed cigar. The burn is impressive and the cigar doesn’t collapse from the heat and under filled innards.
More flavors: vanilla, raisins, teriyaki jerky, and pistachios.

SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 30 minutes.
This is a great stick. No shit. Just goes to show that not everything comes in a flashy package.
Eric also sent me two other Color Projects: Mike Hunt and Tiger Kitty Sharp Claws.

I think I will do a 3 day marathon of Color Project blends.
A little nuisance of some burn issues quickly rectified.

The GreenGo is now the smoothest full body blend I’ve smoked in ages. It is like wiping your palate on silk. (Somehow that made sense to me in my head before I wrote it.)
This is crazy nuts. Here you go my friends. Not a truly cheap cigar but, nowadays, $7 is not a bad price to pay for a high premium. It has become the new norm.
Think of all the crap catalog brands that cost $7. The GreenGo is better.

The finish is very long. Blind taste test this stick? I would have guessed $10 or more.
I definitely want to try the other Color Project blends: Craven Morehead and Tiger Kitty Soft Paws.
CF scored big here.

The halfway point is here. Smoke time is 45 minutes.
The GreenGo is the perfect cigar to hand out to your mooch friends. Remove the cello and hand them a bare stick. Tell them it is Cuban. And watch them go nuts showering you with cash and hugs.

Now my average for rave reviews lately has been terrible. One dud or semi-dud after another. What a pleasure it is to go gaga over a terrific blend.
This just may be the first mystery cigar that clearly is not a second, a stored away blend because it didn’t sell, or a plain mistake.

BLTC and CF performed an incredible joint venture on the GreenGo. I’m fucking impressed.
I think $35 for a 5 pack is a great price. Something I’m now thinking about for next month. Watch. They will be sold out by then. Moshe’s Law.

The depth of flavors sweeps me into a trance of bliss. Nothing I smoke the rest of the day will come close to the quality of the GreenGo.
Now I really don’t understand why there aren’t a slew of reviews of this blend.

I like a stick, first thing, that puts a big smile on this old puss. A dud really ruins the morning.
Smooth, long finish, complex, transitions, a perfect balance, and a long leisurely experience. What else could you possibly want?
I can’t wait to see if the last third turns into the super sweet spot.

LAST THIRD:
Smoke time is one hour.
Nicotine rears its ugly head. The first sign for me is that my eyes get blurry. And I start making lots of typos.

Sonovabitch. The super sweet spot explodes. Flavors are a whirling dervish spinning like mad.
My list of flavors will be a mile long so just consider all the previous listed flavors and combine them into one experience. But now they are very bold and complex.
The GreenGo is super full bodied now. Whew. A newbie killer blend.

BTW- The old iron I use frequently for my photos has a story. Back in the mid-90’s, we lived in Mesa, Arizona. We took a day trip to Bisbee. An historical western town that was known for its mining of copper, gold, and silver mining in 1880. A wild and wooly town back in the late 19th century. Now it is geared towards tourists. Only 5500 people live there.

Charlotte and I went into all the stores and I found this iron. I was told it was typical of irons from the 1880’s. It is rusted as if it were left out in the rain for a decade. Or dug up.
Photo of Bisbee circa 1916:

Photo of Bisbee 2009:

OK. History lesson over.

I have found the elusive nirvana. Without Kurt Cobain at the helm.
If the nicotine doesn’t take me down, I will smoke this baby down to its root.

You have to snag some of these cigars. CF sees them come and go and find themselves backordered a lot. They even have a plan to ship them to you every 2 weeks with a slight discount that saves you $5.24 per 5 pack. Add to that your CF 10% discount and it brings the cigar down to $5.94. That is just nutsy coo coo. I am definitely going to climb aboard that train next month when all that big time social security money comes rolling in. Ha.

I love this cigar. I want to make gentle, caressing love to it.
The upgraded sweet spot is blasting away on all 6 cylinders. There is no end to the transitions or complexity.

The GreenGo is an absolute must for your humidor. I will make a decision on which Color Project stick I will review sometime later today. If either the Mike Hunt or Tiger Kitty Sharp Claws are anything like the GreenGo….payday!
Go to the Cigar Federation Store and get some. Tell them the Katman sent you.
Final smoke time is one hour 20 minutes.

RATING: 93

And now for something completely different:
This is a re-tread from May, 2014…

And now, my friends, another story from my rock god past…if you read my reviews, you are rolling your eyeballs right about now as I have told so many stories (And repeated many) about what it’s like to play big time rock n roll…so here’s another.

Normally, Curved Air headlined in all the arenas in England and Europe. But once in a while, we got to be the support act of a giant band of that era…the 1960’s-1970’s.
For one of those tours, we supported Emerson, Lake and Palmer for 4 gigs.

The first time we did sound check on that bill, I got a wild hair. Keith Emerson had a full sized grand piano that was mechanically fixed so it would do 360 ° roll….with Keith on it. Head over heels.

I asked Keith if I could ride the piano. He laughed and said no one had ever asked to do that in any of the support groups they played with, so I felt honored as I climbed aboard. I guess no one wanted to vomit on his piano. I was a bit worried as I get car sick easily. Only rode the Wild Tea Cups once at Disneyland in Anaheim and puked my guts out when it was over.

To my horror, the only way you hang on to the piano is with your feet locked underneath a special bar on the bench. Nothing to hold you in place.
The piano began to roll. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster. I grabbed the keyboard like a cat. I was completely disoriented.

Now I’m spinning like crazy and I’m thinking that not only am I scared for my life but that I would be jettisoned like a rocket…meanwhile, Keith played complex parts while spinning. ????

After a few minutes, the piano slowed its roll and I was able to get off and then fell flat on my face on the stage from being so dizzy.

I asked Keith how in the hell he did that while playing. He laughed. He saw that my face must have been green and took me to the bathroom in the arena, where he helped me to a stall where I threw up.
Each day we played with them, Keith asked me, like clockwork, if I wanted to ride the piano again? All the while laughing while asking. I politely declined.

I had some Cubans that Larry Coryell, the great father of jazz fusion guitar, had given me. And on the last night of playing with them, I asked Keith if he would like to join me for a smoke? His eyes lit up and we retired to his posh hotel room where he allowed no one else in but me. He ordered some lavish room service and we spent the night eating, drinking and smoking cigars. It doesn’t get much better than that. This band was one of my favorites.

And now for something completely different PART 2:

I think it was around 1986 and I was working for a small construction company (Bartec) of maybe 20 people in the office and another 80 in the field. We fabricated and installed structural steel. I was senior project manager. And I had another PM working for me.

I can’t remember names. I am slipping into darkness. Give me an amen. The owner was one of those entrepreneurial guys that not only owned this company, but another dozen possessions included a strip club.
He was Errol Flynn dashing. I wanted to have sex with him…and I’m straight.

He was married to Tippi Hedren (“The Birds”) who considered hubby an ATM machine. She had an animal preserve somewhere in Orange County whose main mission was to save lions. Tippi’s license plate said, “ROAR.”

Now of course you know that Melanie Griffith is her daughter. And back in ’86, Melanie was a real looker. She hadn’t married Don Johnson yet, but was married to the actor Steven Bauer…of Al Pacino “Scar Face” fame.

I remember them visiting the shop many times so they could pick up step dad and go to the “Club” for lunch.
I was one of two project managers and was upstairs by ourselves next to the company kitchen…
I remember his name: Luis Barrenechea. We called him Lou.

Anyway, Lou would come upstairs around 2 PM after his lunch with the wife and kids. And he would sit there with a bottle of vodka and get shit faced all afternoon bemoaning his status in life and all the ways that Tippi was draining him of dough. Since there were only two of us up there, he vented like a mother…especially the drunker he got.

One day, we engineers got an assignment. Alfred Hitchcock had made moves on Tippi often, (During the filming of the movie, “The Birds.”) and without success, or so we heard from Tippi.

At the end of the movie, Hitch gave Tippi one of the first portable radios. It was the size of a boat anchor with a massive battery in it. And it had long ago stopped working.
So the other PM, me, and the purchasing agent, were given the task of figuring out how to replace the long dead battery and make this piece of junk work. We were told it was our number one priority while our projects went to shit.

We spent two solid days on the phone, all 3 of us and we got nowhere. When we saw Tippi in Lou’s office at the end of those 2 days, we talked to her about our fruitless efforts and all we got was a perfunctory, “Boys. You can do better than that. I am counting on you. This was a gift from my dear friend, Alfred Hitchcock, and I want the GODDAMM radio to work. You got me, boys?”
Whoa.

Now we knew why Lou drank himself stupid in the afternoons.

I remember when Melanie visited. She and Steven would be hanging waiting for mom and step pop to get going so they could get the hell outta’ there.
I got the balls one day and introduced myself. Both were very gracious, unlike their mom.

I, of course, bragged about my Curved Air days to them…and they were impressed. The Police was still together and I told my tales of hanging with them at gigs. Which was true.

After that, Steven would come up to engineering and talk to me about rock n roll. This guy really knew his stuff and we had a great time. A true musicologist.

Work stopped and my boss was thrilled to be a part of it. Melanie would always have to come up and drag him out of engineering but then got caught up in the stories too. We did a lot of laughing that disturbed the worker bees downstairs.

Tippi would then come up and see what the holdup was. She had no interest in rock n roll and since engineering let her down over that stupid radio, she wanted no part of us.

I only worked there for about a year and then moved on to work for my father’s newly opened construction company.

But there was a time when Melanie Griffith thought I was cute and would always give me a kiss and a hug when she left….and a time when Bauer thought I was cool too.
Now, I’m just plain washed up cool. Time marches on.

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