shaxbeard

Last night after work, I go home to find my house the exploding mess
it inevitably becomes whenever I spend lots of time traveling (which I
did a lot of this month). Yes, I could have done dishes; yes, I could
have picked things up and put them away; no, I didn't do any of those
things. What I did was put a leash on the dog and grab one of the 8 or
9 sticks I picked up at my local this past weekend.

The stick I chose was a Las Cabrillas Cortez--a robusto in a maduro
wrapper. Handmade in Honduras, Las Cabrillas is an all-Mexican blend
of leaves rolled in a rustic Connecticut Shade wrapper. I didn't write
that last sentence, by the way; I copied it off some random Web site.
Basically, I picked this thing up because it was cheap and I thought,
"Hey, never heard of this."

As soon as I took this out of its cello, I was pretty sure I was going
to hate it. It has a funky aroma pre-light, and even the pre-light
draw on it is a little ammoniac. Plus it felt a little loose to me as
I rolled it between my fingers. Oh, well. A dog rocket for dog walking
somehow seemed fitting.

The first couple puffs seemed to confirm my initial suspicions. Kind
of bitter, harsh ammonia taste. But after about a block/five or six
puffs, this thing started to mellow out in a major way. This is a
medium-bodied cigar that leans toward the mild side, in my opinion.
After the initial acridness, the flavor of the smoke made me think
mostly of leather. Not club chair, butter-to-the-touch,
I'm-a-man-of-distinction leather--more like "Get yer hand off my
biker's jacket" leather. But it was a good taste.

By the middle, the flavor on this changed again. The leather was still
there in the background but a warmer flavor started to dominate. I
don't know what the heck that flavor was, but I liked it. That flavor
stayed through until the end. This cigar never got a bitter
aftertaste, not even at the end when it finished very mildly. It
burned somewhat unevenly but did ac***ulate a good amount of gray
speckled ash (about 1 1/2 inches)

I wouldn't call this a great cigar, and I wouldn't even call it the
greatest cheap cigar (Hello, Sancho Panza Double Maduro!), but I think
it's pretty darn good for $1.50 each box price. I give it a decent B
when you factor in the price.

Rob
Shaxbeard