Wrapper: Cuban
Binder: Cuban
Filler: Cuban
Size: 5 x 48 Robusto
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $20.00
Box Date: September 2020
THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
Rated 91 by Cigar Aficionado. If they have no skin in the game, I tend to believe CA’s assessments.
A slick oily wrapper. The color of a Mars sunset.
Aromas from the wrapper are bare but present enough so I can deduce black coffee, baking spices, and barnyard. 5-year-old cigars tend to lose the vigor of their aromata. I am willing to give that up for an astral cigar experience.
I use the 8mm poker on my PerfecPunch. All cream. The draw is a tad tight but I am sure it will open once set afire. My PerfecDraw stands down.
The cold draw follows the lead of the mere trifecta of wrapper aromas: Coffee, baking spices, salty dog, almonds, and cedar.
Like I knew it would. Every Joe loves this cigar. My cred is on the line…what else is new.
Immediate cosmotonal richness. Flavors spread out in surround sound fashion: Warm French bread, coffee, graham cracker, milk chocolate, natural sweetness, toasty cedar, and only a hint of spiciness.
I refrain from using the term ‘velvety,’ but in this case it is exactly how this cigar tastes. Three notches above splendid.
Every critique of this cigar points out very similar responses. Who doesn’t love a blend that is consistent no matter the palate. We all laugh when schmoes like me use a laundry list of flavor wheel points that the smoker reading that review never tastes when it is their turn at the wheel.
Think Fuente and Kelner. The best of both. This is how they mutually train their Dominican leaves to behave. To get that Cuban taste they love.
The ash is as fragile as my ego. It’s OK. I am not fond of the flaming lap.
The burn line is severe. Dead nuts perfect.
Strength is a moderate medium. I know what’s coming but I’m sure five years of aging has taken the sting out.
Baked bread is the most often used term. And it is spot on. How do they do this? How do they get a bunch of dead leaves to taste like a bake shop? Amazing.
But hang on, there is an extreme floral taste that I swear tastes like lip stick. Chicks are accustomed to this taste. But for guys, it is only when we kiss our Désirée that we know how it tastes. Pretty cool.
Despite this being a small cigar, it takes a leisurely approach. 15 minutes and only an inch down the tubes. Using my slide rule, I am confident that this will be a 75-minute smoke…give or take an hour or two.
After returning to the States from my intro to big time music, I couldn’t wait to visit session extraordinaire reed player Fred Selden to show him how I did. I played my recordings for him. He nodded his approval. I don’t think he cared for it, but he was my cousin and didn’t want to hurt my feelings. He asked me if I wanted to go into the studio and play the song perfectly on the first take…or play it over and over like musicians of my ilk tend to do? He suggested I become a pro musician instead of a rock musician. I nodded like a puppy dog waiting for a dangling treat. I studied hard so I could become proficient in reading notes. A few years later, I got bold. I played electric upright in a 12-piece jazz band, where I was required to play my parts perfectly on the first read. Honestly. I preferred to play it over and over like every other rock band on the planet. I never sweated so much in the studio as I did with that 12 piece.
Transitions are adept in fooling me that there are none. It is so smooth that I barely acknowledge movement. Hot cocoa, toffee, black coffee, slight acidic quality, baked bread, graham cracker, candy cane sweetness, white pepper, a touch of mineral, and ginger. The silkiest flavor bomb I have smoked in a long time.
The first half dawdles impressively. It burns out at the 45 minute mark. My slide rule was wrong. The blend is complex. It tastes expensive. We rarely get to say this. Not our fault.
August 9, 1974. I hurriedly moved from my hotel room to the waiting car to take us to the auditorium where Curved Air would headline. I was almost out the door as I passed the small lounge where I saw Richard Nixon’s face on a black and white TV. I had followed the Watergate scandal. And here he was…resigning. I couldn’t move. Our road manager angrily got out of the car and raced into the hotel to tell me to get my ass moving. I said I’d get a taxi. I sat for an hour watching German television. Before the concert began, I walked up to Sonja’s mic stand and told the audience, “That bum Nixon resigned.” Cheers went up and I watched 1500 Germans dance in the aisles. Life was good.
I reviewed the Cuban Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill a few days ago. I rated it 100. It deserved every digit. The Famosos is on equal ground. Look at your humidor and count the number of $20 sticks. It can be overwhelming because you can’t get a decent stick for much less than two sawbucks. Welcome to 2025. This blend towers above most in that price category.
Every man jack of the flavors and depth I described earlier are now in overdrive. Well, smack my ass and call me Judy. This is a dandy of a smoke. I wonder if the cigar really needs 5 years of humi time or will a desperate smoker cede to his/her baser instincts and smoke it 4 months in? This is why God invented the box purchase.
The floral lipstick is dreamlike. The mocha java is fabulous. The bakery shop is open for business.
SBC and I put together a new katman five count sampler. It will show up later today. You get to try a couple sticks from their new Avowed Cigar Co. blends…plus three other gems from my top cigars of 2024.
The claim of medium/full kicks in. Slowly I turned. Now it’s a bona fide flavor bomb. It is starting to kick my arse, but I don’t care. I have a song in my heart while desperate for this cigar journey not to end. At my age, it is probably foolish to buy Cubans and then wait 5 years. But I can dream.
The cigar band disappears. A giant gulp turns into blubbering. More yapping comes to mind. The cigar is in its last death throes. The end is near.
It is impossible to ask more from a cigar blend. Is it perfect for this moment in time? Hell yeah. Yet these cigars are as different as Abbott & Costello and The Three Stooges.
I know that professional reviewers have a distinct set of rules for grading a cigar. Never once have we seen them venture into territory of how I and a few other reviewers tend to frequently rate cigars. But it’s all the same. You just gotta’ matriculate their low 90’s into my high 90’s. Smokers get just as confused with my ratings as they do with the pros.
If I was a rich man, I’d biddy biddy bum so I could smoke a Famosos and a Wide Churchill every day. But I’m always up for a treat.
Find them. Buy them. Let ‘em rest.
RATING: 100
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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
