Wrapper: USA Connecticut Habano
Binder: Ecuadorian
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: 3.5 x 50 Petit Robusto
Strength: Full
Price: $7.00
My cigars have had 2 months of naked humidor time.
BACKGROUND:
Factory: Tabacalera La Alianza S.A.
The Robusto was Cigar Aficionado’s 2020 Cigar of the Year. This is a new size of the beloved blend. It was sent to market in June 2023.
Only 1000 boxes of 20 cigars were released.
It has a very long pigtail that looks like a fuse to complete the firecracker appearance.
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
The cigar smells good…black licorice, dark chocolate, black cherry, vanilla, baking spices, cedar, and barnyard.
I carefully twist the fuse from the cap, and it leaves just enough opening to draw from. No need for the PerfecDraw. It goes back into hiding while it lays in wait to jump me to see if I have unagi awareness…just like Cato went after Inspector Clouseau.
Very nice start. Notes of dark chocolate, rough and tumble espresso, creaminess, black cherries, licorice, and a wonderful tobacco-ness.
Immediately complex. Absolutely rich to the bone. Yesterday, I reviewed the Dapper HolySmoke Genesis, and I thought that my palate had died. I was worried that this morning might be a replica. Nope. The HolySmoke sucked.
Holy shit. I thought I reviewed the original Pledge, but I had to check and nope…no review. Naturally, one is suspicious of Cigar Aficionado’s reviews and top 25 list…but this winner for 2020 is a winner in just the first half inch this morning.
I’m sure that size matters. Real concentration of flavor in this little tampon with a proper string.
For $7.00, this is a great cigar.
The Pledge, in other sizes. can be had just about everywhere. I don’t know if the same innards are used as when it was released, but they are out there.
“Cocaine” Eric Clapton’s version. 1980 comes rushing back. The film, “Blow” with Johnny Depp was spot on in its presentation of how the drug blanketed the country. SoCal was knee deep in it. And since I was in the music biz at the time, it was used in regular business transactions to get music played on the radio. Pay to play never died after the big brouhaha in the 1950’s. Cocaine became a regular tool. Looking back, it was also a sad time watching people with no restraint lose everything or die…or become hapless victims of murder. I lost three friends to cocaine violence. All young like me.
That was a buzz kill.
The cigar is magnificent. Super complex. The richness digs a hole to TJ. Transitions are racing like everyone’s heart in the early 80’s. The finish just puts a stupid smile on my puss. Maybe I missed out when this blend was released. I can’t remember. Welcome to the Land of the Elderly.
Creamy chocolate. Caramel. Black licorice. Black cherries. BBQ sauce. Vanilla. Baking spices. Roasted mesquite. Hairballs de la ferret.
Sips of water enhance the experience like sticking your face over one of those slimy incubators in “Alien.” Wham. A face full of unearthly octopus.
I wish this cigar was still available in this size. Thanks to Luxury Cigar Club’s Palladium Subscription, I got to try it.
The cigar tastes like something hibernating for 20 years in an old whisky barrel. There is a piquant element of good bourbon on my tongue. Now that’s nice.
I just bought a fiver of the Robustos. Anxious to see if it matches this incredible little fucker. Cigar Aficionado says it does.
Flavors are so dense that it becomes the sought after experience of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
1-1/2” burned. 20 minutes.
I will use my PerfecDraw tool to nub this cigar.
Drummers have it easier in auditions. Not a whole lot easier, but still easier as they don’t have to play the right notes. Starts and stops are the tough part for the percussionist and melody maker equally. But sometimes you go into an audition and the music played is not quite what was represented to you on the phone call. The thing about bands is that when they add a new player, they expect the new guy to know every single song they have been playing for maybe years. Happens every time. How you struggle to keep up is judged critically. Often, charts are available for the audition…many times, not.
I did pretty good over my lifetime of auditions. But the ones I remember, and give me nightmares, are the ones where the bandleader is Hitler with the ‘my shit don’t stink” syndrome. You go in thinking they are a blues band and they’re not because they are stupid musicians that are not musicologists. Roots are important. Music is all math. Intervals. Feel. Fluidity. Either you have it, or you don’t. It is a band of ‘don’ts’ that make you feel like you’ve walked through the looking glass. I’ve actually stopped playing in the middle of a song during an audition and told the boys this ain’t for me. The stink eye is tough while you’re packing up. No fun at all…but a good laugh later. You guys know what I’m talking about.
The cigar is great. Get some if you haven’t already made this a regular go-to cigar. I say this assuming that the bigger sizes will taste the same. So, I could be wrong.
Final smoke time is 75 minutes.
All my sponsors carry the blend: Small Batch Cigar (10% off with promo code ‘katman’), Luxury Cigar Club (15% off with promo code ‘katman’), Atlantic Cigar (no promo code), and Cigar Page (no promo code).
RATING: 95
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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
