Bolivar Gran Bretaña.

A friend of mine, in a manner most secretive, asked me to go with him and take a gander into one of his most prized boxes.

Inside, he had a rather astonishing selection of the international Bolivar series, some for the UAE, some for Italy, and various others, including the Gran Bretaña, which he gave me as a present to smoke that eve.

Now, enough about the how, and more about the what 🙂

A Vitola, light brown on color, and slightly oily wrapper. My initial impression was that it was going to be a light smoke just from looking at it.

A pretty stick, though with my lack of knowledge of Cubans, I may have overlooked it unless someone recommended it to me.

Now… as far as flavor notes… Holy Moley. Best way I can describe it is… powdered chocolate. Very subtle sweet cocoa undertones, smooth and superbly consistent throughout. I was thoroughly sad when I got to the end and could not hold on to the poor little nub of cigar left.

It is a cigar to smoke when one is by themselves though, I think, as the subtle complexities of the flavors might be overlooked while engaged in conversations and such. Definitely a “me time” cigar.

I’m glad that my fellow smokers here are changing my opinion on Cubans. Excellent stick, and would recommend it if you can find it, though I hear they are now hard to find.

I would not recommend it to beginners due to the subtle nature of the notes may go overlooked and the fact that it is a pricy stick. For those of you long time smokers… well, I don’t really need to tell you to like this stick or not 😉

90% (A).

Ramone Allones

Now this is a surprise to me. A Cuban that I thoroughly, THOROUGHLY, enjoyed.

I’ve always thought for the most part that Cubans were average and the allure was in how hard some may be to get. But not this one. On with the review 🙂

First thing I noticed was the oily, toothy wrapper, so from an aesthetics viewpoint, this piqued my interest form the get go. Once lit, it started and stayed smooth all they way till I was burning my fingers at the end. Draw was relaxed, but not overly easy. Perfect. It burned a little uneven at the end, but that was most likely my fault. Notes included nuts, cream, a very slight and vague hint of cinnamon, all very pleasant on the tongue. A consistent sweet flavor undertone throughout, with a decently complex mix of tastes to keep things interesting.

Medium body, as far as strength, but a very satisfying cigar, whether smoking by yourself while pondering deep thoughts or with fellow smokers over drinks.

I highly recommend this stick if you can find it. Well worth the time and money.

A 93 (A). Excellent gaddam cigar 🙂

Partagas Colabrus

A very interesting experience. I have smoked quite a few Partagas in my day, most the Series 2 and the D4, and was expecting a similar type of taste from this stick (can you call it stick? it was more of a twizzler).

A very thick, chocolate taste, very smooth, almost Padron like in it’s quality of flavor, if not draw. Consistent burn despite the shape, took about 45 minutes or so to smoke. Most pleasant thing about it was the sharing experience of it with two fellow smokers If you have the chance to smoke one with friends, i highly recommend it.

a 90 (A-) in my book. Would definitely try it again.