|
Review Notes:
Mike's previously marketed these as true Macanudo seconds. Well, they taste alot like a Macanudo so there's no problem there. I mean they have that really mild buttery nut taste that doesn't get too pronounced or change the entire smoke. But, too many of these burn poorly. Mostly canoeing and quite often hard to pull.
In fairness I have had these over a year in hopes that would improve the burn. I think it may be working because, though not as easy to draw as Macs they are now drawing and burning noticably better.
Something else of note is that in the time between my purchase of these and now Mike's is no longer saying "seconds" but that they are made of the same tobaccos of which the Macanudos are made of. My guess is that the buying of several factories in the Dominican has changed the source and that in the bargain this stick was revamped. I would think that Mike's may have went to some trouble to get it right since they sell mountains of these things.
If I can wade through my remaining inventory of these I may give them another try. As I type this I'm smoking one. It started off a bit uneasy on the draw which, surprisingly massaging it in the middle helped. The taste at first was milder than even I remembered it, but it got better after about 25%, lots better in fact. Really nice and buttery nutty, just wish it had been a bit stronger as the finish almost non-existent. Here's something interesting just as I thought this was a pretty fair stick, though lightweight, I noticed the very center of the stick isn't burning as quickly as the wrapper/binder layers. I trimmed the burning middle back and it was harder and denser than it should have been. The cigar is burning better once more in spite of this anomoly.
The bottom line is "Old Fashions" have been a decent lightweight smoke if you got one that burned half decent. However, as noted, there have been some changes which likely mean they are now produced at a different factory than, say, three or so years ago. They will, at least for me, eventually get another chance before I write them off as too undependable. If the stick would burn good I'd only have one gripe and that is that they are almost too lightweight, but, hey, for better or worse that's why Macanudos exist and sell like...Well, Macanudos. Proceed with caution on these.
|
