Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Sungrown
Binder: Dominican Hybrid Olor/Piloto Seco
Filler: Dominican 2x Piloto Seco | 2x San Vicente Visus
Size: 6 x 52 Torpedo
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $28.70
My cigars have had 3 months of naked humidor time.
The cigar has been a limited release since 2013.
BACKGROUND:
From Davidoff of Geneva:
“A blend once only available seasonally in limited quantities, is now available full-time due to its high demand. The Colorado Claro series features a rare sun-grown Connecticut Ecuador wrapper reminiscent of the Cuban varietal. The wrapper has a beautiful dark, reddish-brown appearance, and produces a unique bold flavor. Coupled with binder and filler tobaccos from Dominican Republic, this blend is harmonious and elegant with complex and balanced characteristics, ideal for the medium to full-bodied cigar aficionados. The Davidoff Colorado Claro Special T is the most unique format in this series, with a change in ring gauge that produces an evolution of flavors. From a ring gauge diameter of 52 to 46, the cigar guides along varying diameters of curves in this intriguing Torpedo format. This allows a startling array of depth in its smoke. At the beginning, the cigar starts with flavors of pepper, spice, and subtle nut flavors. The blend then grows into a soft sweetness that rounds out the cigar, providing a complex and balanced palate stimulation. As the cut narrows due to the ring gauge, the crescendo of flavors, and light, peppery aftertaste slows for a time beautifully filled smoking experience. These beautifully aged tobaccos of three different Dominican Republic filler tobaccos, a Dominican Republic Piloto Seco binder, and rare Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, creates a complex medium to full bodied cigar.”
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
Strong baking spices meet the schnoz. In pursuit are notes of dark chocolate, peppery spice, orange rind, sourdough bread, cedar, and warm vanilla.
The cigar employs aged tobacco which I am justifying as the reason I am reviewing the cigar after only a 3 month stretch in my humidor. The time continuum has taught me that Davidoff blends need a lot of rest before they blossom. Exceptions to the rule occurred, but rarely.
The roller(s) did a swell job on this beautiful cigar.
Nice, sweet start. Notes of creaminess, buttery toasted bread, lemon zest, black pepper, mint, assorted baking spices, and a slight honey infusion.
Strength is medium.
The cigar is Cubanesque as promised. I’m no longer a big fan of Cubans. They have had major soil and weather issues over the years and just a few blends have survived the mess. They are overly expensive and take forever to rest before they are good to go. Who needs that aggravation? Those who have the dough and space.
This is how an expensive cigar should start. Pack a punch of complex memorandums along with the start of what could be an impactful depth of richness. A swan’s wingspan of disparate flavors both large and nuanced.
Construction tightens up like Archie Bell & The Drells. A light cigar morphs into heavy construction. It fattens like a Jamaican spliff. The burn is slow. The char line is gorgeous. Heat is this cigar’s friend. All is well, so far.
First sip of water and a smoky cedar joins the fray. The smokiness morphs once again and becomes mesquite. I need to see my doc as these brain aneurysms are beginning to annoy me.
I skip a Jim Croce song on Amazon Music. That guy really bothers me. Well, he’s dead but his awful music lives on. Sinatra covered “Bad. Bad Leroy Brown.” Sinatra is still dead, right?
The spiciness is just shy of the oomph I’d like but it hovers like an Osprey as the cigar has burned only an inch. 20 minutes. A nice slow roll. I wouldn’t get on one of those things if you paid me.
The ash has not moved and tapping it won’t dislodge it. I cover my naughty bits with aluminum foil. The heavy duty stuff.
The moment I lay the foil down, the ash falls from the cigar into my lap. My genitals laugh while dancing with matzoh in its tiny mouth. I can’t make this shit up.
The spiciness I need shows up. Cinnamon, black pepper and poblano pepper.
Strength ratchets up to medium/full at 2” burned. 40 minutes. This is going to be an easy two-hour smoke.
This is a great Davidoff blend. It’s been around 10 years in limited runs, and this is the first time I’ve smoked one. That I can remember.
The price is hefty for an American cigar. (I get hate mail from my Commonwealth and Euro readers about my definition of ‘expensive’).
“Harvest Moon.” Neil Young. I had a friend that was a few years older than me back in the early 2000’s who worked as tour manager for the first two tours of C,S,N, & Y. He said Young was an arrogant S.O.B. He got even at a plush event decades later when he approached Young and shook his hand and then asked his name. Young exploded with fury that my friend didn’t know who he was. Good times.
At the same time in the early 2000’s, I auditioned for a band in the SF Bay area with people who idolized Gerry Rafferty. I left before playing a note.
Strength is robbing me of my vision. Just in case you don’t know this…excessive masturbation when you were young does not grow hair on your palms. It does remove essential eyesight. Just a friendly warning and heads up.
Flavors are seemingly canonized at this point. Creaminess, lemon citrus, spiciness, honey, black tea, smoky wood, baking spices, and toasted bread. It works.
I’m not a big fan of Dominican tobacco. I find it can be listless in the wrong hands. I dislike Honduran tobacco even more. But this mixture is a stroke and a pull on my palate in the right way. The Ecuadorian Connie Sungrown wrapper gives the cigar some additional sweetness and punch I find alluring and despot-like.
At the end of the song “Brown Eye Girl” by Van Morrison, Young Philly thought he was singing Shit Fuck Shit Fuck, etc. Turns out he was singing, “Bit by Bit, Bit by Bit. I prefer my deluded version.
Complexity is dazzling. Transitions are in constant motion. The finish flourishes with single minded depth that makes this a very knotty cigar.
It is a blend that demands you pay attention. You can’t just puff away like a chimney. It requires respect. Puffs to only be taken every few minutes to let the cigar address your palate accurately.
The char line has been dead nuts the entire time.
The halfway point arrives at one hour.
I don’t often get to smoke a cigar this toasty. It certainly reminds me of a Cuban blend.
Still, it is a lot of dough for one cigar. I expect nothing less for a stick at this price point. So, there’s that…
Oh lord. “American Pie.” My first audition in London…the British musicians loved Don McLean. They asked if I could play bass like his bassist. I exited the building.
For my trip to Europe, I had a special bass cab built. It held an 18” Altec Lansing speaker. The wood was 9 ply oak. It could survive exiting a jetliner at 30,000 feet. Man, it was heavy. It replaced my luggage due to weight, so I was allowed only a carry-on for everything I owned. I didn’t consider the number of cobblestone streets I would have to push it across to get from one point to another. I was young. A month later, I had arms like Popeye. But then I got the gig with Curved Air and I had all the free equipment I could wish for. And roadies to carry the shit. Every musician deserves a time once in their lives where someone else carries the gear.
Drummer Hal Blaine used a cartage company to move his recording set. It cost, in today’s money, $925 for them to move it and set it up by an expert. Every time he came to my studio, I paid drummer Stephen Hodges to use his set. He loved it because Blaine was a great hang. That man was a storyteller extraordinaire. I never met a man that could drop names of the most famous people in show biz like Hal. He could tell you intimate stories about playing with Elvis, Sinatra, Paul Simon and everyone in between.
I can’t find the starting point for the two cigar bands. If only I could see…
And then I realize that the cigar is tapered. The glue has become warm. I slide them both off. Beware of dementia.
I forgot. The cigar. Once again, the construction has proven to be magical. Those rollers had to be expensive. Same flavors as before…just a whole lot more intensity as the cigar boils down to 2” left. 90 minutes.
Not a flavor bomb. Just exceedingly complex and rich. Seasoned smokers can milk the shit out of this stick. Great cigar for newbies to dip their toes into. The strength does not pass the medium/full range. And you gotta get used to the swoons at some time in your cigar life.
The cigar is worth the dough for an extra treat you can convince yourself you deserve.
Small Batch Cigar allows you to purchase just three at a time so you can hide the damage from your wife. Atlantic Cigar allows you single purchases.
You can purchase these cigars from two of my sponsors: Small Batch Cigar (10% off with promo code ‘katman’) and Atlantic Cigar (no promo code).
RATING: 95
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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
