Diesel

Notes of black pepper, earth and leather. Last third had difficulty with the draw. Multiple touch ups.

First cigar of the Avs game tonight. A bit tight on the draw, but the flavor has mellowed out over the 7ish years of age. Nice yellow cello. Good flavor, earthy, leathery and oaky. Nice inch and a half long ash.

The punch cut cracked the cap slightly, but since the wrapper is tough it most likely won't hurt the smoke at all. First thing I notice is the toothiness of the wrapper. It has the feel and the sturdiness of a thick twig and dark brown, almost black color. Comparing the wrapper to the ash gives a stark contrast of black and white. The ash also looks quite toothy, and is pretty sturdy, staying on for about half the cigar. The burn canoed slightly but burned mostly even. Lots of chocolate coffee flavor with an earthiness and woodiness.

Kind of surprised AJ Fernandez let this one leave the factory; the quality of the wrapper is poor, the cap cracked as I used a punch, the wrapper tore on the foot when I took off the band (big reason why I hate bands on the foot of a cigar), and the wrapper looks like it was rolled with a dry Elm tree leaf, half of it a sickly brown and half a beautiful dark brown oscuro shade. It almost looks like it was bleached in the sun. The cap was very toothy with some white tooth spots. Although I've seen people say there's no such thing as plume, I'm going to pretend that's what it was. As far as flavor goes, it has a sharp, musty ash flavor with a peppery leather earthiness. At the halfway point the musty ash flavor subsided to more of the earthiness but not much other flavor popped out. For such a lousy looking wrapper, the burn is pretty damned even. Ash consistently drops around one inch. In the last third, a plum-like flavor appeared with a cashew creaminess and gave a nice contrast to the peppery, dark earthiness. Overall not horrible, but not my ideal smoke. Ironically, I think I would have enjoyed this cigar more a year ago or more when my taste was more suited to maduro and oscuro wrappers. Toward the nub the smoke got pretty hot and I decided to put it down earlier than I typically would. The flavor did get quite a bit better toward the end but kept the leathery, earthy barnyard noted very heavy. I have 2 of these left and I hope they taste a little better in the future.

Quite chocolatey and dark coffee tasting. Also earthy and oaky. Smoked fast but was very enjoyable. Great draw, burned uneven and was touched up a few times. Full-bodied and strong flavor.

A cold 30°F smoke. Stacking inch long dimes on the ash while watching hockey. Not bad as far as freezing temperatures go. Strong maduro flavor paired with a basil hayden Manhattan and Miller high life. Oak, leathery and earthy. Not much else going on that I can taste.