This is the latest Hoyo offering from the people at General Cigar. As always I pull no punches, and I can tell you that in recent years General fare has been, well....very general. I can't recall any recent cigars from them that have knocked my socks off, I am hoping that this is the one that changes that dynamic.
The cigar presents with an intricate looking band and a beautiful cedar sheath, I have always liked this look it makes me feel like am unwrapping a present. In this case however the sheath will not just slide off, it almost as if the cigar has expanded inside of it's wooden home. After the fight to remove the cedar is over I am able to give the cigar a once over. It appears that it has expanded and I can see cracks in the wrapper that have me concerned about the smoking performance. There is also a very prominent flaw in the wrapper near the head. The cigar appears, and feels, too moist and it is overly spongy to the touch. The pre light aroma is indicative of too much moisture and it has a slight sour smell accompanied by cedar aromas from the sheath. The pre light draw shows some spice and cedar notes, but it seems to have too much resistance.
The smoke opens well, but it is not anything to trumpet from the rooftops. There are some nice flavors of cedar and tobacco, but they are not particularly deep or complex. The is a vegetal undertone here that I can only attribute to moisture in the smoke and it leads to a strange aftertaste between draws. At the back of the palate there are some fleeting ideas of clove and spice, but the overall thought here is charred. The draw is too tight, and I find this to be the case with many of General's more recent offerings. The burn is slow and lopsided, again I attribute this to the moisture in the smoke.
The first half of the smoke deteriorates further. The main profile becomes vegetal and acrid, there are almost no redeeming taste qualities in this part of the smoke. At the back of the palate some wood notes show through, but there are still some charred ideas here as well. The draw continues to be too tight and the burn has not evened out to this point.
The final half of the smoke looks like something the Roadrunner would give the Coyote. The cigar explodes and becomes somewhat akin to a broken New Year's noise maker whistle. Interestingly this is when the cigar becomes more palatable to me. The profile starts to show some cedar and spice essence that is nice. At the back of the palate there is a robust presentation of wood and tobacco that complements the front of the palate very nicely. The draw opens up, obviously, there could only be improvement once the cigar blew up. The burn becomes untenable and I forget about trying to even it out, so I just smoke a cigar that looks like a prankster put a load in.
The finish is dry, but has some cedar flavors
Appearance- 92 a very nice presentation
Taste- 83 really below average, but it could have been worse
Construction- 70 I don't know if it could get any worse that this
Strength- 85 I think a nice medium, but hard to judge
Overall- 80.5 a very poor cigar, but I have smoked other ones that I thought were average, if not slightly above
No comments:
Post a Comment