Wrapper: Dominican Corojo Seed
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican, Nicaragua
Size: 5 x 54 Robusto Large
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $18.00
Before we begin, my leaf stats differ from other websites. I garnered my list directly from the Freud website. Something else to worry about…how will you sleep?
BACKGROUND:
Halfwheel Says (9-4-2022):
“Agape Lifestyle Inc., a luxury goods company founded by David Stadnyk, a venture capitalist. Stadnyk partnered with Luis Torres, formerly the CEO of Casa de Montecristo and the head of retail for Davidoff of Geneva, to create Freud Cigar Co.
“The SuperEgo blend was developed in part by Wiber Ventura of Tabacalera William Ventura in the Dominican Republic, where the line is produced.”
The company was born this year in April.
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
Schnoz notes are light. So is the cigar.
The draw is easy rider. My PerfecDraw draw adjustment tool demands that its court appointed lawyers are fired. The judge agrees.
Lift off begins with a satisfying chocolate, cream in my coffee, spicy cinnamon, and malty. Complexity kicks in and my sleepy eyelids open to enhance what I’m seeing through my palate.
An instantaneous sweet v. savory balance is barely held at bay.
I’m sitting in front of my laptop in my boxers and tee shirt. I will explain at the end of the review how you can purchase photos.
Very smooth like a hot fudge sundae with tons of whipped cream…but no cherry. Those things will kill you.
“Me And Julio Down by the Schoolyard” puts me in an elevated mood. All is well in Phillostan.
Strength is an easy going medium. Good to have with your coffee or an ounce of good tequila.
Transitions are slow waking up. The finish is deployed with notes of spicy cream and a whole row of baking spices.
The tobacco choices seem to be in sync. The blend gives off a ferret approving slide across wet grass.
Construction is good; as I was once. The char line is Monet in drag.
A woodsy feeling comes over me until I discover the splinter and remove it.
Creamy is the Sesame Street word of the day. Number Nine, Number Nine, etc.
How come John Lennon was completely naked while Yoko was fully dressed in that famous photo? It signifies the married man begging for sex that isn’t on a Friday.
I like how the cigar morphs back and forth between savory and then moments of complete sweetness. I get a run in the burn that makes me sad and polarized.
I remove all the paper adoration from the cigar by using a backhoe I’m renting.
The sweet spot jumps in at 1-1/2” burned which took 18 minutes to arrive. Flavor Flav is nearby which allows me to keep time.
The blend went from a gentle handful of aspirations to the bearded woman at the carnival. Blustery and the flavor wheel is injected while I am unconscious.
We have blueberries, huge dollops of creaminess, buttered popcorn, chocolate, strong espresso, a malty beer, spiciness made up of black pepper and cinnamon, and glazed doughnuts. Hunky dory.
The char line returns to normalcy…something I’ve strived for but never achieved.
Strength is upped to Capo dei capi. Remember, the man that comes to you to arrange the meeting is the traitor.
Fucking lovely cigar blend. The finish causes involuntary mouth and uvula movements that make me feel closer to Howdy Doody. I wrote in Clarabell the Clown for senator on my mail-in ballot.
This is my first Freud cigar. Nice job boys.
Charlotte obtained 3 Master’s Degrees in psychology by the age of 19 from Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt. She started college at age 15. Her discipline was Freud. She looks at everything based upon childhood experiences and how sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Until she looks at me naked and remembers that sometimes a cigar is just a Vienna Sausage. It’s brutal living with a smart woman who can instantly analyze someone. On the upside, Freud did more cocaine than the entire staff at my recording studio in the 80’s.
Despite the strength becoming nuclear, the blend’s opponents nod their heads in agreement that this is a very smooth journey.
Flavors meld like wax and water.
Flavor Flav announces it’s been 45 minutes to get to the halfway point. Philly likes.
The early char line bad boy attitude redeems itself with a perfect burn since speaking out of turn.
I spoke out of turn while visiting the Black Forest in Germany, but no one was there to hear it. Did it happen? Of course…wild boars were swinging and swaying.
The SuperEgo is as casual as your beat-up slippers and shredded bathrobe.
A clear state of enjoyment is doled out with each puff after a sip of water.
The blend was well thought out and delivers the mail with palate pleasing regularity.
Flavors do not matter any longer. They could be anything mentioned or not thought of.
Another blend in which the whole is benevolent and cockle warming.
The cigar takes its time so that the result is far from disappointing. I’m enveloped by a Dixieland band playing AD/DC covers.
Graham crackers and milk have been a baseline for the last 20 minutes. Time to lay down on the carpet and nap.
Bayou accordions are playing in the background.
A big push for the last 1-3/4” that makes my gig line explode into disorientation…just the nicotine arriving. My left brain still works so I don’t need an I.V.
Great cigar for you sophisticated guys that may not taste a laundry list of exotic flavors…but know something good when you snort it. Newbies will have an equally good time.
I dreamed I was flying but it is simply the impending end to the cigar.
I ask Charlotte if Freud would have liked me. She assures me that I’m nuts, and her answer is yes.
I’ve found a new lover in Freud Cigar Co. I will seek out the new Agape blend knocking over old ladies to get it. I always sharpen my elbows before going to a senior citizen event.
The stick has pure nub appeal. I grab my roach clip the cops tried to take away from me in 1967.
Nubbing begins.
This was fun. I will sit here for a while until my vision returns.
I dig a pony and the Freud Cigar Co. Superego.
You can purchase these cigars from my sponsors, Atlantic Cigar Co. and Small Batch Cigar (Promo code Katman gets you 10% off with SBC).
RATING: 93
And now for something completely different:
We had decided to record our album in a high falutin’ recording studio: Sunset Gower in Hollywood. $250 an hour in 1981. Ouch.
Rick Tunstall, our band leader, composer, singer, and guitarist had managed to get hold of world-famous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer, Hal Blaine for the sessions.
I had worshiped this man since I was 15. As a teen, in fact all teens, were fascinated by the liner notes on record albums.
Hal was part of the rhythm team (L.A. Wrecking Crew) that played on all the Simon & Garfunkel albums, the Mamas & Papas albums, the Beach Boys, and just about everyone in the music business. Hal was a brilliant drummer. If you look at a photo of Hal’s drum kit, it is the exact same as Ringo’s first kit in The Beatles. Ringo copied Hal’s set up…and in fact, Hal played on quite a few Beatles songs on The White Album when Ringo refused to show up. Hal is loyal to a fault. I was never able to get him to tell me which Beatles songs he played on. But it was widely known in the music biz that he did so.
Rick and I were already at the studio. The cartage company had arrived with Hal’s drum set. They worked like clockwork to assemble it properly….and then The Man showed up.
I had been in contact with my rock n roll heroes while I played in the English band, Curved Air in the mid 70’s, so I knew how to keep my cool…but with Hal, this was different.
The man was not very tall and had a slim build. He is Jewish so I let him know I was, as well…what was I thinking? That he would fall in love with me? Or say the Kaddish before starting?
We kibitzed for a while, and we explained the original tunes we would be recording. The studio was huge! Like a gymnasium.
Hal sat fine tuning his iconic kit. He reached into his stick bag, hanging from the snare, and pulled out some sheet music. He motioned me over and showed it to me.
It was handwritten drum sheet music. In Paul Simon’s hand. It was “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” I was in shock. Hal let me hold it. I stared at it like it was the Holy Grail.
We rehearsed our first song one time and Hal had it. Just before we hit the “record” button, Hal said to me, “Phil, you’re not a bad bassist. Have you done session work?”
I gurgled something that basically meant yes. But not big-time session work.
“I can get you some work if you want?”
I exploded with: “#%^&&@D^@&(@!!!!!!” Imagine the sound of a duck gurgling on your balls…that’s how it sounded.
It translated to: “Would I? Hell, yes”
We spent a month recording an album’s worth of material. And Hal was there for about 2 weeks to do the rhythm tracks.
Here I was, playing bass against Hal Blaine’s licks. Surreal doesn’t begin to explain the situation. I was having the time of my life.
I gave Hal some suggestions and he gave me his suggestions. We worked as a team. And he “always” had great ideas to make things work better. I was very fortunate to have a great sense of time signatures and preciseness. Hal was a machine.
Between tracks, Hal and I would sit in the booth and schmooze. He was a bona fide storyteller. He could drop names like no one I had ever met. I’ve always loved stories about rock. I’ve met numerous musicians that when you tell them stories, they become jealous and just turn you off. Not me. Anyone I meet that has to tell, I’m all in.
He told me inside stories that had me in rapture. Meanwhile, my partner Rick, dragged me into the lounge and proceeded to scream at me: ”Do you know that the 15-minute story Hal told cost us $85?”
I bowed my head in shame, but I really didn’t care. If paying $250 an hour to listen to Hal was the price, it was well worth it.
Hal was true to his word getting me big session work in L.A. He later went on to become my mentor doing all sorts of things for me at my own recording studio in Long Beach. We became good friends. He took scale money from me for recordings that made me a big shot in my customer’s eyes. It didn’t take long for the Long Beach musician community to find out that Hal was available to them if I found them worthy. I was treated like the Godfather.
The list of Top 10 songs Hal played numbers around 3,000. He worked a lot with Phil Spector.
Hal lived the typical rich musician life. Lots of wives and kids and during the time I was close to him, he lived on his yacht which was docked in Marina Del Rey, CA. This is because his wife threw him out of their Beverly Hills mansion. Still, a nice boat to live on…not exactly the same as living in your Nash Rambler.
At the time, I had a public access TV show with a local DJ on a major rock station, KWST, in L.A. Marshall Thomas interviewed 1960’s musical acts and I wrote and produced and directed. After a few shows, we were on top of the heap and the most watched public access show. We won no awards for that…just a hearty handclasp from the guy running the business.
We were lucky enough to get Hal to agree to be on one of our shows. And we also got Darlene Love of The Blossoms fame. You might remember her as Danny Glover’s wife in the “Lethal Weapon” movie series.
As fate would have it, both of them did an Ed Sullivan Special together in 1971. It was Nancy Sinatra in Vegas for the whole show. Darlene and her Blossoms did the backup vocals and Hal was on drums.
Hal bought a brand new 1971 Sony video recorder/player so he could watch the show afterwards. He told me it cost $3200 in 1971. The inflation calculator spots this dough as over $23K in 2022 dollars. Yikes. Just so he could watch the show.
It was reel to reel. And I had the chore of getting the ¼” tape of the TV show converted to regular TV ¾” cassette format. I had to borrow the video recorder from Hal to take it to the transfer studio in Hollywood.
Off I went to his boat with no idea how heavy this thing would be. And it was a long walk. I was on the light side back then. And this thing must have weighed 30lbs. He also gave me the black and white monitor that came with the recorder. Now this sucker must have weighed another 50lbs.
I sat with Hal, on his boat, and we kibitzed for a while and then I left. To this day, my right arm is one foot longer than the left because of carrying that recorder and monitor to my car.
I went through the motions and accomplished getting the video transferred to ¾” cassette.
I reluctantly dragged the thing back to the yacht without calling Hal first. When I got there, Hal asked me to please hold on to it for a while because he had no room for it on his boat. I shat myself.
I screeched: “Hal! Look at me! I weigh 150lbs and this thing is making me a hunch back!”
Hal laughed. And shook his head. I told him that he must make me lunch to gain the strength to lug this thing back to my car. He did. Lox and bagels. Ummmm. I went downstairs to the belly of the yacht and the kitchen is something I had never seen before. He had that thing stocked with the finest foods.
So, I lugged the damn thing back to my car.
Long story, short…the show was a rousing success. We had wonderful shots of Darlene and Hal playing while Nancy did “These Boots are Made for Walking.” And they were completely at home in front of the camera for their interview. Hal was a real ham.
Every now and again, I would mention to Hal that I would be happy to bring his recorder back. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hang on to it a little longer, boychik.”
So now, 41 years later, the recorder is in my living room.
I use it for a bomb shelter.
Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
Cigar Reviews by Phil 'Katman' Kohn 
You must be logged in to post a comment.