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tekeeladude
Forum Moderator
Registered: March 2007
Location: Omaha
Posts: 2043
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Review Date: Sat May 26, 2007
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Would you recommend this to someone? Yes |
Price you paid? In US$: None indicated
| Rating: 7
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Using ICRS for CigarLive.
Scent of Wrapper: Earthy barnyard smell
Scent at Foot: Sweet Hay, earthy, and touch of cedar
Wrapper: Box pressed with rustic characteristics. Quite a few veins with a few being large. Wrapper has a few areas that don't lay flat against lower layer. (This did not have any affect on the flavor or burn.) Cap applied very well -- no unraveling.
Feel: Slight sponginess from head to foot.
Tongue: (I have never pressed my tongue to the freshly cut end before--different experience) Tingly sensation with a touch of bitterness and ends with a spice like horseradish.
Flavor on Draw: Bit of sweetness with mainly a hay/straw flavor.
Taste: The first flavor was of tea. This changed to a roasted coffee flavor and remained throughout most of the cigar. At one point early in the cigar, I got a little spice, but that quickly faded. Toward the end, the flavor changed to more of a espresso-like taste. Picked up a little dark chocolate essence. Around the 2 inch point, the cigar became a little bitter. Overall a nice taste.
Strength: This cigar had a medium strength up to the end and changed to a medium-full strength.
Feeling: This is another category I have not encountered before. This cigar was really relaxing. Burned well with just a touch of slow spots, that quickly corrected itself. Enjoyable cigar.
Scent of Smoke: I was outside and there was a slight breeze the entire time. I could never really get much a a scent of the smoke. What I did seemed mild.
Heat on Finders and in Mouth: I did not encounter any heat from this cigar.
Draw: IMO, a perfect draw. Just a slight bit of resistance.
Finish: Nice finish.
Other aspects of the Cigar Smoking Experience: Seemed pretty one-dimensional.
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We're the last of the radio-free, piss and vinegar, American independents! ~ Roger Clyne
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Ceedee
Forum Moderator
Registered: March 2007
Location: The Blacktop Lounge - Matthews NC
Posts: 5511
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Review Date: Sun May 27, 2007
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Would you recommend this to someone? Yes |
Price you paid? In US$: None indicated
| Rating: 7
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Pros:
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Wonderful construction, wrapper is appealing and taste profile is one that most will enjoy
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Cons:
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My cigar had a bit of a musty smell-taste to begin with
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Scent of Wrapper: Earthy, a little grass-like and perhaps musty?
Scent at Foot: Slight musty scent with some more vegetal hints.
Wrapper: Square-pressed, with a wonderful dark brown maduro color. Wonderfully wrapped, cap is a bit loose. Somewhat rustic looking with med-small veins.
Feel: Overall, firm feeling. A bit of give to the stick though.
Tongue: Wrapper is sweet and a bit spicy. Cut end of the cigar is somewhat bitter and spicy - pepper.
Taste: Upon pre-light draw, I found that the musty smell I had noticed was apparent in the draw. I lit the cigar and for the first 1/2 inch, I was not pleased with the taste. Musty. Most likely the cigar was over-humidified when stored at some point or during the journey to me, the musties caught on. After the first 3/4 of an inch, I did get some better flavors to come to the fore. I tasted a bit of cedar and leather - at first very softly, then with more strength around the 1 inch mark. Bitter coffee and another taste that I cannot pinpoint (vegetal) came in to play. More leather and cedar came forward by the 1/2 mark and from then on the coffee-like taste and leather dominated the taste profile.
Strength: More of a medium strength cigar in terms of nicotine. Flavor also met the medium category when discussing the body of the cigar.
Feeling: Well, at first I was disappointed with the cigar as it I figured that I would have to put it down due to the musty tastes I was seeing. However, the musty taste did mostly disappear after the 1 inch mark and flavors caught me and kept me smoking the cigar to the nub. Overall, I would say that I was able to relax and feel content with this maduro.
Scent of Smoke: A nice mild, sweet tobacco smell. Some scent of wood and normal tobacco.
Heat on Finders and in Mouth: No overall notice of heat per se. Burn was pretty normal for a maduro as this was.
Draw: Wonderful draw. Just right for this cigar.
Finish: Finish was not too long or too short. Took puffs roughly every minute and had no residual tastes once mustiness faded.
Other aspects of the Cigar Smoking Experience: This was a good, solid smoke. I would like to take a chance to try another shortly to compare with this one, without having the musty start. I enjoyed this stick's flavor profile from roughly the half mark, more and more. I would say that for maduro lovers, this will be a cigar that you will enjoy.
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"Vini, Vidi, Fodi!"
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silentjon
Senior Member
Registered: April 2007
Location: Plains
Posts: 2489
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Review Date: Mon June 4, 2007
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Would you recommend this to someone? Yes |
Price you paid? In US$: None indicated
| Rating: 7
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Pros:
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Great construction
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Cons:
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Slight musty flavor and scent
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Scent of Wrapper: Earthy and slightly musty.
Appearance: Great construction - no major blemishes.
Draw: Very easy draw.
Strength: Medium-bodied, strengthed the final third.
Burn: Fairly uniform burn.
Heat on the fingers and in mouth: Remained cool thoughout.
This was my first experience with a Bucanero cigar. The slightly musty flavor disappeared shortly after being lit. Very nice construction - no burn or draw issues. Nice maduro flavor thoughout, although not complex. Strengthen nicely the last third. A very solid cigar.
Overall rating: 7.00/10.00
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Mithrandir
Active Member
Registered: March 2007
Location: Spencerport, NY
Posts: 303
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Review Date: Tue June 5, 2007
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Would you recommend this to someone? No |
Price you paid? In US$: None indicated
| Rating: 7
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The El Capitan was smoked during the day with a cup of coffee. The construction was okay and it had a very nice feel to it. There was a hint of ammonia, perhaps, in the prelight smell which to me indicated that maybe some downtime in the humi, a month or two, might serve it well. But I forged ahead since we are required to do these reviews within 3 weeks of receipt and I've had these for a week and a half already and have one more to go.
No problem with the light and burn throughout the cigar.
The cigar maintained the same flavor and strength the whole way so a 1/3, 2/3 etc review is not necessary.
The earth tones and wood tones were present but muted. It seemed as they would break through at any moment, however, they remained subdued through the entire smoke. That hint of ammonia crept in every once in a while which confirmed that a resting period would have helped. I don't mind resting a cigar, but when I find a cigar that I can enjoy right of the truck, it is a bonus.
I decided to visit the Bucanero website and found that the maduro sampler had a $32 price tag on it which translates to $6/cigar. It would be difficult for myself to pay this amount knowing that I have other cigars in my humi that are similar in price yet deliver more pronounced earthy/woody flavors and have somewhat of a build and change in flavor tones during the smoke.
All in all, I can see where the El Capitan could be an outstanding cigar with a few months on them. I would be interested in knowing how much age was on this cigar when I received it.
At this point, I would not recommend this cigar but I could have a different opinion if I smoked this towards the end of the summer.
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All we have to decide Frodo, is what we do with the time we've been given.
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jkim05
Getting Active
Registered: April 2007
Location: Rockville, MD
Posts: 69
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Review Date: Wed June 20, 2007
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Would you recommend this to someone? Yes |
Price you paid? In US$: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Great flavour and complexity
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Cons:
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Perhaps a bit young
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I smoked this cigar while working on some stuff for a summer school I'm working with. My friend Josh was also smoking a cigar, a Petrus. We just finished playing Mario Party 8 on the Wii and had eaten dinner a couple hours earlier. This cigar was accompanied by a glass of Johnnie Walker Black.
Initial Impressions: This cigar looked well constructed, and with the exception of a few veins was smooth and attractive. Not extraordinarily aromatic prelight, but the cigar did give off a nice tobacco aroma; about what you would expect from a cigar, nothing unusual.
I cut it with a double guillotine and it cut cleanly, but there seemed to be a bit of a divot in the center of the cut. The draw was a little tight, and had a nice amount of resistance that made you pull a little, but not plugged by any stretch. The cigar had been stored for a few weeks at 65-67% relative humidity and 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit. Hopefully the tight draw does not result in any burn issues or other problems. The prelight draw is also just a relatively plain tobacco flavour, with hints of leather and of dry oak. The cigar leaves a nice tingle on my lips initially.
The beginning of the cigar produces decent smoke, and doesn't go out even though I neglect it to write this review. The flavour is definitely mild and while producing sufficient volumes of smoke, the flavour is not as intense as I was anticipating. Hopefully it kicks it up a notch as it goes along. The flavour continues to be woody with the faintest hints of black pepper spice. The finish is not too long at this point and my mouth stays moist, but not to the point of slobbering all over myself. The aroma off the end of the cigar is of tobacco and leather. Now as I begin to get into the smoke a tad (~1cm) the flavours are definitely coming on a little stronger. Still pretty mild though. I can begin to taste the expected maduro sweetness.
The burn at this point is nice and even having corrected the initial unevenness caused by my lighting job. There is a bit more spice on the finish now.
Moving through the first inch, the spice is definitely kicking up now. There is also a vegetal taste that I am recognizing now, not anything specific, just a slight green flavour. The draw continues to have some resistance, but the cigar is smoking well with no difficulting pulling out smoke. There is a small section burning a tad slower than the rest of the cigar, I wanted to let it even itself out, but I got impatient and it didn't seem like it was working so I proceeded to touch it up. Nice maduro flavour on the finish.
As I was thinking about the cigar and how the draw seemed to be loosening up, I took a puff and just dropped the whole cigar on myself like an idiot. I hurriedly grabbed it and tossed it in the ashtray and the ash fell off leaving a cone in the center surround by a moat, surrounded by a wall of the wrapper. I lit the wrapper a little and continued to smoke it. It's continuing to smoke well and it seems like the flavour is balancing out nicely now, it's started to hit it's stride as I move towards the end of the first third.
Moving into the second third, the burn is a bit weird, but that might be due to my having dropped the cigar. Also, it seems to be burning quite slowly, granted I am working on something else and am smoking the cigar a bit slower than usual, but it is taking a good amount of time to move through. It is enjoyable though.
I just finished my work and it's been a good hour into the smoke now. I'm starting to really get some great flavour from this cigar now and the maduro flavour is being more pronounced.
I'm finally at the halfway point, and I've begun to realize that this cigar is taking a long, long time...we'll see if I can finish it. It felt a little like it was going out on me now, so I took the time to relight it. Unfortunately post-relight the burn seemed to become uneven again. I guess I was puffing a bit hard though so that is not entirely the cigar's fault. After a touch up it seems to be okay again. At this point in the cigar, I think it's pretty medium bodied, nice volume of smoke, nice flavour, but nothing outstanding. I've smoked better, though the flavour, nicotine content and amount of smoke and mouthfeel seem to all be consistent, which I would consider to be a plus.
It's definitely requiring a bit more babysitting at this point in the second third of the cigar and seems to be burning faster as well. Whereas earlier in the cigar it's sweet spot seemed be a slower smoking rate, it's definitely requiring more frequent puffs in order to keep the burn consistent and not let it go out as it seems to want to do. The draw has tightened up a bit, but it's also producing more smoke now. I'm beginning to get a bit of a nicotine buzz as well. The spice has stepped up a bit on my tongue and the back half of my mouth, mostly around the top of my throat and the sides of the back of my mouth. It's also burning a tad hotter, but all of this is probably due to the faster smoking rate. I'm having to puff at least twice a minute to keep it burning right, but the flavour is not getting harsh at all yet. I'm enjoying this cigar more and more now.
The smoke coming off of the cigar is much more aromatic now. The finish has a red berry flavour to it now. My only wish at this point is that the cigar would have smoked like this from the beginning. My attempts to smoke faster earlier only led to a strange burn and hints towards a harsher flavour, but now, other than the hotter temperature it's smoking awesomely.
Moving into the final third of the cigar, the cigar has come together nicely. Rich flavourful smoke full of tobacco flavours and berries along with a great maduro flavour. The wrapper has held up nicely throughout the smoke despite my dropping it several times and I've had no splits or real runs. The wrapper did seem to burn a tad slow for me though compared to the filler.
I've gotten a nice nic buzz now probably due to the sheer length of the smoke, but it's nothing really overpowering. I would still rate this as a medium bodied smoke for the most part. It's getting about to the end for me at about an inch, I would nub this if I was smoking with some other people, but my friend has been done with his cigar for a while and I'm about ready to call it quits on this one.
I was worried earlier that the cigar would not live up it's price point, but although I'm not sure if it's totally worth it on a regular basis, I would not be opposed to paying MSRP on occasion for a change of pace and for it's complexity as a cigar. Definitely spend some time with this cigar and my recommendation would be to keep this cigar hot as it seems to benefit from that. This cigar took me well over 2 hours, but I tend to smoke slower when I review cigars and that was even while blazing through the second half of the cigar. I would time this to be right around the 2 hour mark for most people and as an ideal smoking target. Expect to speed up as the flavour increases in flavour and complexity as it goes along.
In conclusion, a nice smoke definitely worth keeping a couple in the humidor, though not a box purchase for me. Flavour a 7.5 out of 10, Burn 7 out of 10, overall smoking experience 8 out of 10. Though there are other cigars I would much more readily reach for in my humidor, I would not pass up an opportunity to smoke one again if the mood struck me right. Thanks for bearing with me through my review.
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