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Reviews
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Views
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Date product posted
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0
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155
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Fri May 16, 2008
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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No recommendations
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None indicated
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None indicated
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Description:
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Cigar: Ashton Benchmade
Environment: About 10:00am, upper 70's, and calm. Cigar has been stored at 65-67% rh for the past three days and dropped off by the Ashton rep prior to that.
Prelight:
Appearance: Well shaped robusto with a short pigtail. Wrapper is mottled medium-to-dark brown with a very fine veins running the length of the cigar.
Feel: Firm overall with no hard or soft spots.
Wrapper scent: Little bit of barnyard
Scent @ foot: Same as the wrapper, much fainter.
Prep: V-cut dead center
Tongue: no tingle
Flavor on draw: Caramel. Draw was just fine.
Smoke:
Light: Toasted the foot evenly. Medium gray smoke. Mild woody taste initially.
First third - Medium body. Woody, earthy taste with a faint sweetness (caramel?) - nothing over-powering about this stick. Light gray, flakey ash. Mascara line is somewhat wide and black. At one point, it was burning a little fast on one side, so I set it down for a bit and it self-corrected. Darn tasty so far with a good amount of smoke and great draw. At times, the flavor profile reminds me a bit of the RP Edge Missile, but not as strong. Ash dropped at about 1.5" - not bad for a short filler.
Second third - More of the same. Medium body/strength (not what I am used to from Pepin), good burn, lots of smoke, same flakey ash. Haven't picked up on any spice/pepper. Still a goodly volume of smoke and great burn.
Final third - Draw is still fine, as is the smoke. No bite and the smoke/stick remains cool. Very consistent smoke front to back.
I like this cigar, and plan to pick up a few - great box price. Would recommend for a medium morning smoke - or to anyone who enjoys a medium cigar.
Webmeister scale:
0 - Really did not like this one.
1 - Not bad, but not memorable
2 - Maybe, but I'd like to try another stick
X 3 - Pretty darn good - I think I'll buy a fiver
4 - This is a keeper - gimme a box for bombing!
5 - A great stick - buying a box to keep for myself!
On the "official" scale, I am going to be generous when I give this an 8 overall. For me, that is high praise for a short filler. Another job well done by Don Pepin!
8 for construction
8 for draw, ash, and volume of smoke
8 for taste and complexity
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