Size: 6″ x 45 was measured (supposed to be 6″ x 52, Toro)
Strength: Medium-Full
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Maduro
Filler: Costa Rican, Nicaraguan and Honduran

So I’ve heard some pretty good comments on these sticks and they’re one of the weekly specials on CI this week, so I thought I’d finally give one a try since I have a few laying around the humis. So, here we go.

Appearance:
From afar this is a nice looking stick. It has a dark tasty looking wrapper with only minor veins. But, upon closer inspection two things became apparent. 1) It’s really easy to tell where the wrapper was rolled. 2) It has these interesting dots on the wrapper, mostly towards the head (see pictures below). Those two items aside, it’s not bad. I personally think the ring is quite cheesy with the Indian dude, but given the name it makes sense I guess.

Construction:
The cigar seems to be decently rolled (see comments above), but I also noticed a few things when considering the construction. One, it’s 7 off the stated ring gauge, that’s 13.5%. Two, the filler is an odd mix of colors – from quite light to quite dark and there seem to be larger sections of each (more so than normal) so they’re easily discernible. The ring was well glued together, but it did come off without any issues.

Aroma:
The aroma is quite good – that maduro spice with hints of dried fruit. Strong, full, and most importantly, tasty. It might be a bit strong for some bystanders – I’d consider it polarizing, but I like it – reminds me of a what a full tasting maduro should smell like.

Burn/Ash:
Upon lighting the burn was a little wavy (I had to use a match instead of my torch b/c I broke the tip to the butane as I was carelessly attempting to refill my torch), but now it’s pretty razor sharp. The ash is a light to medium gray mix. As I was looking at the ash and thinking to myself that the burn had just started to stray at little, the first ash fell at 1.25″ and of course it fell on me… At least it left a nice cherry. Since that ash, burn has been just a tad wavy and the second ash fell just under 1″, but I did knock it setting it down.The burn continued to be a bit wavy and each ash came fairly close to 1″.

Draw/Smoke:
Draw is perfect – medium and smoke is quite plentiful and creamy – I’d say an 8. Not a stunner, but definitely rich and creamy. The smoke continued to be rather creamy and full, but never a total wow. The draw was perfect all of the way, which was nice.

Flavor:
The flavors are what I think of as typical medium maduro – some spice, a hint of dried fruit, some sweetness, and some cocoa. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not sweet and fruity, it’s just a hint. There is some nuttiness on the exhale and definitely in the aftertaste, along with cocoa and a hint of earthiness. Even though I’ve seen this classified as a medium-full, I’m more inclined to just call it a medium. Moving past the first inch I’m getting more cocoa and coffee on the aftertaste which leads to a later nuttiness. Upon draw it’s now more earth and spice and much less sweet, almost a little bitter, in a good way. 2″ in and plenty of cocoa and earth, with a hint of spice and coffee. About half way in and the flavors are still cocoa and earth, hint of spice and nuttiness with earth and spice on the aftertaste. The aftertaste is a bit more bold now – I like it. But the sweetness is mostly gone. Just past the half way point and the flavors are earthy with a hint of leather, still that hint of spice and cocoa, but no nuttiness at the moment. It’s more of a medium-full at the moment. 2/3 of the way in and it’s mostly earth, leather and some sweetness. Spice on the aftertaste with a hint of cocoa. I keep searching for some more nuttiness, but I think it’s gone.

Overall/Value:
Unfortunately I don’t think this stick is worth $5. There are much better sticks out there that can be had for less. But, at the $2.19 for which it’s being sold on one of today’s weekly specials on CI it’s a solid pickup (and I can overlook the appearance and construction issues). A little complex, not overly so, but full of solid medium style maduro flavors (some sweet, some spice, some cocoa, earth, etc.) and it’s a very pleasant smoke. I personally would be more inclined to smoke this over a 3 Siglos for example. Definitely a good addition to the regular stash.

Retail Price: $5.00

Appearance: (2.5/5)
Construction: (3/5)
Aroma: (9/10)
Burn/Ash: (7/10)
Draw/Smoke: (18/20)
Flavor: (32.5/35)
Overall/Value: (12.5/15)
Final Score: (84.5/100)