Like It

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Cigar Review: Gurkha Black Dragon

Gurkha Black Dragon Robusto

Wrapper: Dark 5 year old Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro
Binder: Cameroon
Fillers: Dominican
Size: 4.25 x 52
Made in Honduras

No wonder I like this cigar. The Maduro wrapper gives it a little punch and the Cameroon binder settles the smoke with some nice earthy and nutty undertones. The cigar always has some rich tobacco notes with a little sweet but spicy style. The smoke is graceful and complex. To me it is medium in body with the complexity kicking it up to a 5.5 or a 6 on my strength scale.

I just picked up 20 of these beauties last Friday. I like to keep them in the humidor for a week or more to settle them from the shipping experience and these were cold from the weather while being shipped. But, it is only Tuesday and I can’t keep my grimy little fingers off of them.

The one that I selected is interesting. It is almost flat on one side; yes the complete one side is flat. Like a carpenters pencil. If you were going to lay this cigar on a table this would be the side to put in on, it would not roll away. This should not be for a high-end cigar but, at the price I picked them up for from CI, that could be why they can sell them at that price. Oh well, the tobacco is all the same.

I’ll have to add on to this review in a few weeks because I am experiencing (I think; I hope) the shipping effect. The cigar wants to canoe – burn to one side. When you have to work the cigar with the lighter, to get it to burn even, here is a good little tip: after torching the side that is not burning blow on the end that you just lit; holding the cigar about a foot away from you. This will remove any gases from the butane and the burning of the tobacco leaf. This helps to maintain a pleasant smoke. I see so many guys at the cigar store holding the cigar in their mouth and placing that flame right on the end and puffing away and then later complain that their cigar is bitter and burnt in taste.

The cigar has settled down on the canoeing effect on the second half. I am only getting that graceful creamy characteristic once in awhile, with the stronger spicy notes coming into play from this smoke. Not the usual smoke for me from this cigar but, still enjoyable. I still smoked it down to the nub and today’s taste was clearly a 6 strength rating.

No comments:

Post a Comment