Here's a brand new cigar offering from our friends at Cusano.
Back when I enjoyed more mild-flavored cigars, the Cusano 18 "Double Connecticut Shade" often found it's way into my humidor based on it's delicicious flavor and incredible value. Since I frequent fuller-flavored cigars now, and especially love maduros, I was anticipating this would be a hit.
The stogie reviewed here is the toro size. (They have only released this in a robusto, a toro, and a curchill so far).
Here is a bit on the tobacco comprising this stick:
The New Cusano 18 Paired Maduro encompasses a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper from 1996, San Vincente Olor binder from 1999, and a combo of Dominican and Brazilian filler leaves from 1985 (hence the "18 year" designation), 1996 and 1999.
It sounds good, no?
Well, it is! The cigar is brand new, so the one I smoked was fresh off the truck, so to speak, (no age at all). The construction was great, with a nice feel of heft to the cigar. There were very few veins on the wrapper, and it had a wonderful oily sheen to it. The cellophane had a slightly yellow tinit to it after taking it off, due to the oiliness of the wrapper leaves.
The ash was a perfect, even shade of white, and held on to one inch easily, unitl I pushed it off. The first third of the cigar was smooth, rich and tasted like expresso. A definite medium-full bodied smoke. The subtle maduro sweetness increased as the ash burned down. In the middle portion of the cigar, it was decidedly full-bodied. Peppery. Spicy. But still sweetly delicious with unerlying chocolate notes. I detected caramel as I exhaled.
The burn was straight, and never needed touching up. However, the cigar did go out on me twice as I was talking alot! (Probably due to the "freshness" of it.....possibly over-humidified, as I smoked it immediately after buying it)
The last third was making my head buzz. Very strong, but still sweet and delicious. The pepper/spicyness was coming on full-bore toward the end, with huge amounts of smoke from just a small sip. This toro smoked more like a churchill......as it took a LONG time to smoke, even though the draw was quite easy. (I never had to pull very to get a large mouthfull of smoke)
....and I found myself being quite surprised how long it lasted. Well over an hour for a diminutive toro-sized smoke. It just kept going and going, and going! What a bargain!
All in all, I'd give this one a "two-thumbs-up". Great taste, long lasting, perfect burn and construction, and an incredible value to boot. A single only cost $3.69 retail, and that was even at a liquor store, not an established tobacco shop. I think they can be found online even cheaper.
I also think that with a bit of age on it, this could be one incredible smoke!
Give this one a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed. But hurry, as I believe these are a limited production cigar. They won't last long when word gets out on these
Final verdict: Uniputt gives this stick
nine balls (that's three sleeves!) out of a dozen, not bad considering it had no age whatsoever.
