Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun Grown (Cuban seed, Barrel aged 10 months)
Binder: Nicaraguan (Cuban seed)
Filler: Nicaraguan (Cuban seed)
Size: 5 x 54 Robusto (Soft Box Press)
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $8.25 (A buck less online)

Today we take a look at the new Perdomo 10th Anniversary Sun Grown.
I bought my samples from a local B&M.

BACKGROUND:
Factory: Tabacalera Perdomo S.A.
Regular production.
“Our Perdomo Reserve line has been on the market for over 20 years. We wanted to come out with something really special to honor the history of the brand and offer a cigar that every cigar smoker would truly fall in love with. We blended these cigars with 6-year aged Cuban-seed wrapper, binder, and filler tobaccos that we carefully hand-selected from our most prestigious farms located in the Estelí, Condega, and the famed Jalapa Valley in Nicaragua. We blended these cigars to not only be rich in flavor, but also to be very smooth on the pallet with slight hints of sweetness. Our tasting panel with over 250 years of cigar making and premium tobacco experience was amazed at how great this blend tastes.
“Nick Perdomo, Jr., President, and CEO of Perdomo Cigars”

A good friend, that read the review, just pointed out to me that Mr. Perdomo doesn’t know how to spell palate either. Hey! Who proof reads the boss?

SIZES AND PRICING:
Figurado: 4.75 x 56 $7.25
Robusto: 5 x 54 $8.25
Epicure: 6 x 54 $8.75
Churchill: 7 x 54 $9.25
Torpedo: 7 x 54 $9.50
Super Toro: 6 x 60 $9.75

APPEARANCE:
This is a beautifully constructed cigar. Perfect resistance to the touch. Lies heavy in the hand. An attractive box press done by rollers who know what they’re doing. A couple seams are visible but tight. Few veins in attendance. The triple cap is a work of art. And I really dig the candy apple red cigar band. Takes me back to the 60’s when that was every cruiser’s preferred car color.

SMELL THE GLOVE:
Aromas are faint: floral, black pepper, licorice, cherries, cedar, barnyard, green apple sweetness, and malt.
The cold draw presents flavors of diverse tree fruits, malt, espresso, marzipan, green apple, licorice, cedar, black pepper, cedar, and light milk chocolate.

FIRST THIRD:
Starting off with Van the Man. A good sign for the cigar.
The draw resistance is money. I put my PerfecDraw draw adjustment tool away.

As I’m cursed by box pressed cigars; the burn always goes astray, pray for me.

The blend begins by showing off. Instant hint of complexity that could be a preview of good things to come. Very smooth…like silk. Black pepper takes over and coats the back of my throat like a tonsillectomy. This early, notes of bakery permeate my palate. There is a sweet vanilla sponge cake hanging lightly above the pepper.

One can tell immediately that is a nicely aged cigar. 6 years plus the 14 months of bourbon barrel time. Once again, I am shocked by the early complexity of this $8 stick. You don’t need to buy no stinkin’ $15 cigars in which the manufacturer only made 2000 sticks. Of course, the boutique brands don’t have the clout to get the quality tobacco in huge amounts like the big guys can. If Perdomo was greedy, they could have easily jacked up the price on this blend. But they didn’t. Kudos.

The cigar is going to be an ass kicker at some point. Right now, it is hovering just above medium strength. But to be redundant, the absolute smoothness is the guiding light.

The char line is doing fine, thank you. I still believe it’s not me. The box pressed cigars I’ve had nightmares with were just not high premium construction. There, I jinxed it.

Transitions are minimal. The finish is inundated with spiciness. It needs to calm down. But then I am only reviewing this cigar with a month of naked humi time.

Nicotine kicks in at the 1-1/4” mark. First thing to go on me is my eyes. Blurry.

And yet, the blend remains amazingly smooth. Big difference between smoking a green cigar that got only 6 weeks of age before slipped into the cello; and then the cigar box, and heads out to your local cigar shop. Now you must do all the work by letting it rest til you’re 64.

Savory v. Sweet is balanced. Mind you, the flavors are close to being subliminal. The finish improves allowing my palate to soak up the flavors coating my lips, teeth and tongue.

I read a couple reviews. No one reported a flavor bomb. Rather, an instinctual understanding of a cigar produced properly. The star of this strip show is the tobacco. I’ll take a cigar blend like this over a flavor bomb anytime.

The cigar is totally relaxing…sending me into a transformative state of the Golden Snub-Nosed monkey. Hang on…I gotta throw some poop at Charlotte as she is leaving for work. Didn’t have time to masturbate in front of her. I gotta get up earlier.

Strength hit the bullseye of medium/full. As I begin the second third, I believe there will be hell to pay with total disorientation and hallucinations. I grab some aluminum foil for my hat to ward off the demons of a very strong cigar. (Hey. You smoke a strong cigar first thing in the morning without food or drink in your stomach).

“Outside Woman Blues” by Cream is playing. Played this song a lot in the cover bands I was in during the late 60’s and early 70’s. Everyone played a lot of Cream.

SECOND THIRD:
Quantum leap time. The spiciness relents and the complexity goes through the roof. Atta’ boy.

Oh shit. “Feelin’ Alright” by Joe Cocker is playing. Gotta get up from this chair and do the Hully Gully and The Jerk while I bop around the room.

I believe with adequate humidor time, this major move to serious complexity will occur after the first few puffs.

It is like two different cigars between the first third and the second third.

The black pepper moves into the background. The more interesting flavors joust for their time in the sun. It’s the tobacco, man. Wow. $8.00? How can this be when everyone else is charging $17 for their latest, and most expensive, creation? And if you buy these expensive cigars online, you must get a fiver. What if you don’t like the cigar? You spent $85 on a dud. Ouch.

This cigar rated highly among the reviews I read. I get it.

The strength pulls back some. The smoothness is now a mile long. The finish is Shakespearean. The aged tobacco is kicking ass.

I’ve hit the sweet spot. Balance is perfect. Nothing peeking out from its hiding place. A nice grouping of elements…like when we were in elementary school and had to walk with the teacher in twosomes, holding hands. God forbid you had to hold a girl’s hand.

I’ve got the Allman Brothers Band channel on. Music lovers will be listening to their music 100 years from now. Think about it…The Beatles are still a mainstay after 55 years. Damn, I feel old.

Know what this cigar reminds me of? A Casdagli. Not sure which one as I’m too lazy to go back and read 25 reviews…but it has that touch that Hendrik Kelner adds to the Casdagli brand. A very sophisticated blend that satisfies in every way possible.

I will be buying more. Thank goodness this is a regular production cigar.

I’ve noticed, that lately, I find myself sitting on my ball sack more often than a year ago.

I hit the halfway point too soon. Took 40 minutes to get here. Feels like a few minutes.

Lord, if you don’t stop reading my drivel and snag some online now, I won’t have any respect for you in the morning.

No question. This will make my top 25 this year. It is a stunning blend.

I reviewed the Esteban Carreras Unforgiven two days ago. It was rum barrel aged and had plenty of flavor to go around. But the bourbon barrel aging on the Perdomo is much more subtle…making it a more celestial blend.

This cigar just might be one of those you grab off the shelves at your B&M and enjoy it like it has serious humidor time on it…instead of tasting like hay as most taste because they can’t breathe properly inside that cello.

Individual flavors are insignificant at this point. They lurk in the background allowing delicious nuances and subtleties to flash burn. The entire design of this blend is the star. A complete package. Not a single criticism from me.

Charlotte will kill me if I buy more cigars this month. I will disguise my payment by using my Fingerhut credit card.
OK. I just stopped writing and bought a fiver from Atlantic Cigar for $7.43 each. That’s nuts.

I just read Halfwheel’s review of the Sun Grown and it got an 80! Shit. The Maduro version is getting the high marks from Halfwheel. It’s like we are smoking two different cigars. Yikes. Cigar Authority gave it a 95. This is bizarre.

My first sample was closer to the description in Halfwheel’s review; especially about the overload of black pepper in the first third. But for him, it doesn’t go away.

I found no other written reviews. I only watch one video reviewer: Philip Kurut. He is unique and entertaining.

LAST THIRD:
Strength is deadly close to full tilt. Thankfully, the nicotine level has not increased.
Flavors: Candied almonds, creaminess, black pepper, malt, licorice, liqueur, cherries, espresso, milk chocolate, cedar, and rich thick tobacco goodness.

My first sip of water and flavors go bat shit crazy. Not Wuhan bats…Madagascar bats…or maybe a Louisville Slugger.
This blend is not for the faint of heart. It is a hearty cigar that goes straight for your nads.

I’m sure that with a couple more months of humidor time, this blend will be more cohesive from start to finish…OK, so one criticism. But the blender’s intent is on display and an alert palate will recognize this.
I’m going to allow my fiver to sit naked in my humidor for a few months and then report back.

Right to the finish, the blend maintains its integrity. No harshness or bitterness.
Construction is spot on throughout. No burn issues. No wrapper issues.

Being in shock over Halfwheel’s review, I can only make one suggestion…maybe wait for more reviews to see how they match up…before you pull the trigger.
For the price, you’re not going to find such a fine cigar.

RATING: 95

And now for something completely different:

I’ve written this story a couple times but not for a while. So, my regular readers can pass; but for the new readers…enjoy.
Back to El Toro Marine Base.

We always got to the huge rec room in the afternoon to set up. Always on a Friday.
A lot of Marines would show up to help unload and just hang out. A nicer group of fellas couldn’t be found. There was no shock that a bunch of long hair musicians were in their midst.

We became friends with so many of them that I can’t count them all.

One Marine, whose name was Jose, would have all kinds of drugs with him. Our lead singer, Mark, took any drug given to him; even acid, and would still perform impeccably. I could never figure out how he did that. The rest of the band would stand outside the hall and smoke doobs with the Marines. Remember, it was the late 60’s and early 70’s.

Jose was a little guy. And he always made us laugh. Such a funny guy.
One day while unloading, a bunch of Marines rushed us and asked if we heard what happened to Jose?
Our faces paled waiting to hear the worst.
“He took a bunch of downers. He went to the top of the 3-story barrack and fell off.”
Oh God. We knew he must have been killed.
And then one Marine said, “But don’t worry. He will still be here tonight.”
WTF?
“He just got a lot of bruises.”
WTF x 2?

He was so loose from the downers that he just bounced a couple times and got up and walked away. He never told his superiors.

That night, we saw Jose stagger in. He had a gimpy leg but that seemed to be it.
He came over laughing and asked how we were?
“Never mind us. How are you?”
“I’m fine. Just sore.”

And then he gave a handful of pills to Mark…turned around, got a beer, and sat down at a table upfront.

Another time, a really drunk Marine got angry at me. I must have been sarcastic as I replied to something he said to me.
He lurched at me and could have squashed me. I had my bass around my shoulders. Without thinking, I slammed the head of the bass squarely into his face. He went down like a sack of potatoes. Out cold.

The other Marines couldn’t stop laughing. When the drunken Marine awoke, he apologized and the couple hundred Marines roared and applauded.

Once, we played at Camp Pendleton. A recruit operation. Boot camp. It was one of the worst nights of our lives.
Hundreds of drunken Marines that were drafted and had a two year enrollment which meant they were taught to pull a trigger and then sent off to Viet Nam.

In between sets, they forced themselves into our dressing room. All of them crying. “I don’t want to die.”
We tried locking the door the rest of the evening, but they got in anyway.

We vowed to never play there again. It was so disheartening thinking of these poor souls who were destined to fight a nasty war. And we wondered how many we met would end up dead or wounded.
It was a totally different environment than El Toro. So depressing.
We went back to playing El Toro til the demise of the band. Some great times with brave Marines.

Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS

Tags: cigar review, cigar reviews by the katman, cigars, Perdomo 10th Anniversary Sun Grown | Cigar Reviews by the Katman