Initial Thoughts
This review is a little different from my normal reviews. I was given 4 cigars from a guy on r/cigars. I chose to participate in a Mystery Cigar Review. So when these cigars showed up at my house I was pretty pumped to try them. It’s similar to what Cigar Aficionado does for their ratings. They blind taste everything and give it an honest score, without any sort brand affiliation to it at all. So that’s the idea behind this review as well. I smoked 2 out of the 4 for this review. I took notes from both of them and combined them together, lets jump in and talk about this Mystery Cigar.
Looks
This is a big cigar. Lately, I’ve been on a smaller vitola kick. Nothing over 5 1/2″ and usually smaller ring gauges. I don’t have the exact specs on this stick but I took some rough measurements. The stick measures around 6″ long and my guess is a 54 RG. So yeah, it’s a big stick.
It’s a figurado shape, in fact it’s a nice torpedo shaped cigar. Great looking dark wrapper, not quite a maduro, but a nice rich chocolate looking wrapper. There are a couple of big veins running down through the cigar. The most noticeable aspect of this cigar is the semi unwrapped foot and the uneven leaves of tobacco hanging out from the foot. They were finished this way for a reason. It’s very interesting and gives it a distinct look. It almost looks like the cigars that the master blenders would smoke while finalizing their blends. Even though it doesn’t have the nice and neat presentation of most cigars, it’s got a cool very unique look to it that I’m liking.
Function
When I got these cigars I was told to let them rest in my humi for a least two weeks. I know when they first arrived they were a little dry. So I made sure to get them back to where they needed with some TLC.
After a couple of weeks I figured they were ready to smoke. I rolled it between my fingers to perform the pinch test, and they felt a lot better than the first time around.
I used my back capped cutter and started chipping away at the tapered head on this stick. It took about 4-5 cuts to get down where I finally got a good cold draw. I took a couple of puffs and got a lot of air, and honestly it choked me up some. I wasn’t expecting to pull in that much. So yeah, I’ll give it good marks on the cold draw!
Smoking
This cigar was interesting to light. Since it wasn’t an evenly cut foot, it was harder to toast the foot. So instead I just held it close to the flame and started puffing. It worked really well actually. This mystery cigar just took off and started pouring out smoke. It was a white creamy smoke, and there was a ton of it!
The first third burned nice and smooth. The ash held on for close to an inch. The burn was even and incredibly easy to draw. I was impressed with the construction and quality of this cigar so far. It exceeded my expectations in regard to that.
The rest of the cigar burned similar and I never had any issues. It didn’t require a re-light or even a touch up. Way to go Mystery Cigar! Lets get into the flavor and see what’s going on.
Flavor
When I nosed the foot of the cigar, I picked up some sweet citrus. Which was interesting I had never picked up on that before. On the cold draw I noticed some sweet cocoa, but the dominate note was tobacco and earth. The cold draw even offered a nice little spice on the backend that tingled my lips.
The tobacco and earth notes were the most dominant throughout the entire cigar. From the first third to the end, they didn’t change much. I would pick up woody and earthy notes constantly. I was hoping there would be a little change throughout the cigar since it was such a big stick, but it stayed very consistent. The smoke was nice and smooth and creamy, nothing harsh or overpowering. Yet, nothing too exciting either. I just wasn’t wowed by this cigar’s flavor profile.
On both cigars towards the beginning of the final third, a lot of bitter flavors started piling up. I tried to power through on both occasions, hoping that it was just a section of the cigar. I even let it sit and cool incase I was burning it too hot. Neither seemed to help. I’m not sure if the tapered head just collected and piled up all the tar taste and delivered it at the end or what.
So that’s the reason I gave it a 7 out of 10. The construction, draw, and burn were great, but in the end I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. Before that even happened, I was left with very little taste in my mouth.
Would I Buy It Again?
I would have to say no, even though I didn’t buy them in the first place, I can’t see myself buying these again. Unless it was in a smaller size.
Is It an Every Day Smoke?
For me, No. It’s a big cigar that took almost 2 hours to smoke. Not too much flavor and the harshness at the end didn’t do anything for me either.
Would I Buy a Box?
Certainly not, unless a friend of mine really liked this cigar. I might gift them a box.
Conclusion
Overall, 7 out of 10 isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. This is a really well made cigar that has some cool features and things going for it. In the end the flavor profile just didn’t do anything for me and with the bitter ending, it’s made me bitter towards this cigar. I wish the flavor would have been different. I’m not exactly sure what would have made it better. Oh well, you can’t love every cigar out there.
