Alec & Bradley

Gatekeeper

TL;DR - an approachable smoke, though I recommend pairing as it's a bit too dark on it's own. Dark roasted oak and espresso bean. Recommended 👍 Aged 8 mos, dry-boxed 7 hours ⏳️ Pre-light pleasant barnyard. Light-up is easy 👌 Starting core is roasted oak. Draw is great. Construction is good enough. Cap along with the top wrapper of cigar cracked when cutting. Initial impressions: roasted oak continues, espresso bean joins in. Linear. Burn 🔥 is great. Doesn't get better 👍 Dark flavors and medium nicotine. Pairing: this would likely pair well with just about anything that's barrel aged. Various wines, cognac, whiskey and bourbon come to mind. Taking this a little further, I don't know that this is a good cigar unless it's paired. Not sure it's interesting enough on its own.

A small package with the corona that is still full of pepper and leather notes. Bits of bold spices appear periodically. The draw was a tad tight, but the burn stayed fairly even with only a single correction.

Good burn, I love the artwork on the band. Thick smoke with nice notes.

Really good stick. Notes of dark chocolate and bread in the beginning then added a little black pepper ,vanilla cream, and cedar midway. Then a nice cherry flavee came on at the the end mixed with cream and cedar. Perfect draw and burn. Didn’t have to touch it up at all. Will definitely add to regular rotation

Beautiful construction and appearance. Punch cut. Dark, earthy smooth start. Medium clouds but consistent. Stays lit well. Extremely good burn. Head buzz coming on strong

1st time smoking this one, given to me by a childhood friend. Really solid everyday smoke. Nothing extravagant but absolutely nothing off putting or foul. Decent burn, better than average draw and an excellent retro hale for the price. I got some dry leather, toasted coconut, both green coffee and dark roast simultaneously, as well as a subtle bit of cacao nibs. At this price, you can't go wrong. If you haven't had one, give it a shot. You'll enjoy it.