Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Hybrid
Binder: Dominican Cotui
Filler: Dominican (3), USA
Size: 6 x 55
Strength: Mild/Medium
Price: $12.00
Date Released: December 2025
Quantity Released: Undisclosed
Factory: Kelner Boutique Factory, Dominican Republic

THE WHOLE MEGILLAH:
I recently spoke with Darren Cioffi, owner of Principle Cigars, and I mentioned that choosing a Gordo for a mild/medium blend may not have been optimal. I get that there is an element of smokers who can’t handle strength and who only indulge in pussy galore sticks. Most of us will smoke an easy-going blend as our first cigar of the day when our palates are clean and probably not much in our belly. Darren ignored my asinine statement. So, clearly, he disagreed.

Principle stated that the men’s ties wrapped around every fiver are real. I can attest to that. And that each pack has a different style tie. They bought thousands of ties. It’s pretty cool. But I tossed my ties as I haven’t had the need to wear one in decades.

I love floral aromas. With added notes of white grapes, white chocolate, mild peat, lots of earthy goodness, and white pepper.

I searched for reviews of this cigar so I can steal their thoughts but there are none. Gulp. Thinking for myself never ends well.

This is a thick cigar. My PerfecPunch finds this as not a threat. I squish the 11mm blade into the caperinno and without a single complaint from this self-aggrandizing tool, I’m good to go.

The cold draw is full of goodies: milk chocolate, café au lait, lemon zest, floralissimo frankincense, and powdered doughnuts.

Earthy start with the right amount of sweetness. The floral smell and cold draw translate to taste. The green grapes follow blindly. There is a touch of café au lait and white chocolate. White pepper is faint. I should have copied and pasted.

Strength is mild. Medium or medium/full has become my most favored state. Old age has turned me into a giant pussy as strong cigars give me the spins. Maybe plastic surgery will help.

The balance stuns me into a grateful dolt. I can’t wait to end this journey of the katman deteriorata. I’m tired. I want to wake up, have coffee, pet the wife, soothe the savage breast of Sammy the Cat, and smoke an unhurried cigar while watching CNN. OK, I lied about the last thing…I prefer the Stooges.

This is odd. I’m getting an Italian sausage flavor. Oh god, not another stroke. I thought I was tapped out. Clearly, this is ridiculous, or is it? Maybe it’s just meaty with Italian spices. I think that’s the same thing. My thought process has been interrupted by a commercial from Johnsonville.

I had an MRI of my neck done 3 days ago and I got the results. The test was ordered by my orthopod a year ago, but I put it off. Now he wants to see me. The scan showed what I already knew. Breaking my neck in a skydiving accident 25 years ago has reaped the whirlwind. I’m losing the use of the fingers on my right hand. I still have strength, but the digits don’t do what I tell them to do. Luckily, I have a trained marmot to help me with typing.

The blend is smoother than my transitions from describing flavors to whining about my personal life. Like buttah.

While strength hovers at mild/medium, the body is medium+.

Clove enters and wipes the Italian sausage off the map. Baked bread with garlic butter. I must be hungry. The white chocolate is a scoche shy of hot cocoa. The danger of a morning smoke is that it’s never dark. I reviewed a great smoke yesterday: West Tampa Circle of Life. It meshed the best of an A.M. cigar with the body of an after-dinner smoke.

It’s not that AI is smart, it has a mind of its own. That is the danger. I’ve created almost 200 ferret scenes of which I’ve pared them down to 31 for every day in January where they reside on my farewell/contest page. I hate AI because it is so stupidly smart.

I stare down at the brute. It’s not getting smaller. I still have 4-1/2” to go and it’s been 30 minutes. At this rate, the Haberdasher will be a 2-1/2-hour adventure. I can put it down for a bit and do my husbandly chores, but then I forget about the cigar. A Robusto or even a Toro would have been a better size. The ultimate package would have been a Corona Gorda. I’m missing something about the choice of a huge cigar with this mild profile. There must be a market, but it’s not me. Or probably not you. Mild cigars are normally marketed to unsophisticated smokers. They reside in the catalogs of Cigars International and JR Cigars.

I skip ahead. But never in public. I saunter.

I’m not wearing my Kevlar vest which was a mistake. The ash is so gentle that I’m wearing it.

Construction is excellent, which I’ve found to be the case with everything Principle sells. The burn line works in conjunction with my needs. I got nothing to complain about. Wait…er, that’s all I’ve been doing. I need to read the crap I write now and again.

Transitions could be better. The blend remains in a very pleasant stasis. It is not a complex cigar. It proffers a solid combo of flavors, but it is missing serious depth. Maybe 6 months of humidor time will fix this. At this time, the cigar lacks the criteria for being remarkable.

Skip and I were struggling musicians at age 16 (1966). I had a Knox amp which was terrible in its performance. It would die in the middle of a gig. Kicking it usually fixed it. Skip had a small Fender amp. One day, as Skip was leaving my home, we saw a kid pulling a Radio Flyer wagon. Inside the conveyance was a giant Vox Super Beatle amp. We damn near shit ourselves as this was the guitar amp of kings. And this kid couldn’t have been older than 12. The thing was two feet wide and 5 feet tall and weighed 77lbs. We were depressed for weeks. I went back inside and kicked the living shit out of my Knox.

I’ve now progressed to within 2” of the cigar finding its demise. I had hoped that the second half would swing for the fences. Instead, it limps towards home plate.

If I suck on it with extreme ways and means, it tastes pretty good. But the body has decreased. And the strength never leaves the arena of mild. It’s not enough for me. I bought two fivers. I’ve smoked four sticks. I shall keep the other fiver in repose for 6 months and revisit. It has all the guild factors to be a good cigar if it can just lift itself by its petard and go somewhere interesting.

This is a decent cigar for beginners. Or those that are afraid of cigars…but smoke them with friends to keep up.

RATING: 87

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