Puff Cigar Discussion Forums

duckmanco · 10-25-2007, 10:54 PM

Well everyone, I finally broke one of these out of the box I received a week or so back. The wife's 2 hour prime time block of bad TV started, so I hit the back deck with one of these and figured lets go for it.

As I said these had been resting for a week or so at about 65% in my cabinet.

INITIAL

The presentation of these cigars is that of a FAR more expensive stick. The box is a deep stained varnish variety much like the perdomo lot 23 maduro box, quite pleasing to the eye. The cigar is also a nice leathery brown. Lets move on to the things that matter.

FLAVOR

I purchased a sampler and liked them enough to purchase this box especially given the price. I paid around 52 for a box of 25 shipped, before shipping they were 47 or so from lilbrown.com At that price, I had to go for it.

UNREAL. The review at stogieguys.com AND the cuban crafters website tasting notes are DEAD ON. The first few puffs are creamy, graham cinnamon like flavors that COAT your palate. The smoke is naturally sweet, and there is the tiniest hint of some kind of spice. Within the first inch you are greeted with a noticeable flavor of black licorice, which I have NEVER tasted in a cigar, along with that initial creamy sweet smoke that is buttery smooth in texture. Moving into the 2nd third nice hints of sweet chocolate, not the dark chocolate found in the Oliva serie V, but a nice melted sweet chocolate note. The final third of the cigar I picked up a nutty cocoa thing going on and still found the smoke to be creamy and smooth.

All the while, the smoke stays cool, probably because of the 6x54 size. The final third, you get an amped up body with more of the chocolate turning into cocoa with some more spice. Still maintains its initial smoothness. Also, I did detect, upon reading the cuban crafters site, a floral note work its way into the smoke every so often. Truth be told, I only noticed this upon reading the site but it helped me identify the flavor. I am certainly not an expert and my palate for cigars is very very new, about 11 months old or so.
DRAW

Being that this is a torpedo, I found the draw to be perfect because I clipped it until it was for me. My first clip of a little less than a quarter inch proved to be too restrictive. I clipped just a touch more and found the perfect draw. This stick delivers BOMBS (to quote txmatt) of thick, rich, white smoke that pours out of your mouth for a fortnight. I love this feature in a cigar, so to me it was great.

So, a glowing review, absolutely, but here is "a" negative about this cigar. The burn on the wrapper was AWFUL. I touched it up many many times. To me, I could not give 2 flying _ _ _ _ _ about this as I keep my torch handy and don't mind playing with fire. I take the Pete Johnson stance with this point and therefore do not consider it a problem whatsoever, you may. To be fair, I do recognize that if lit with matches and thats all that was available to you at the time, it would be a pain, but oh well.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I love the flavors of this cigar at damn near any price, but at 2 bucks a stick for a 2+ hour smoke, its damn near unbeatable. The richness, smoothness and flavors combine into a dream of a cigar without being harsh or spicy. This cigar is also known to get much better with humi time, but with it this good off the truck, I cannot wait to taste it later.

I think this is important to note, I am a 100% maduro smoker, sad and a little classless I admit, but those are the flavors I like. I typically wont look at anything that doesn't have a maduro wrapper. I love the fullness and richness that those wrappers tend to offer. This cigar, not being a maduro, but a criollo wrapped cigar has opened me up to new things, and that alone speaks volumes IMHO.

One last point, txmatt really deserves a lot of credit for pointing us in the direction of great cheap smokes, and this ladies and gents is by far my favorite on that quest so far. SOOO, at 2 bucks a stick, with the excellent rich flavors sans too much spice, this is a no brainier. As always, I am still new to this game, and stopped writing so many reviews because I realized that I probably liked anything back then, but I felt compelled to share this with everyone. So take my opinion with a grain of salt, sorry about the long review, but I highly recommend them if you could not tell.

Marlboro Cigars · 10-25-2007, 11:19 PM

Thanks for the great review; these are one of my favorites that I enjoy much more than many other pricer smokes.

gary106334 · 10-26-2007, 01:52 AM

Thanks for the review.

txmatt · 10-26-2007, 04:10 PM

Another happy customer..

The Kiki Browns are really the gem of his factory IMHO. I typically get the 4.5x54 Botella figurados, but the torpedo is great as well.

The cigar has a decent amount of Criollo in the blend so if you are a fan of this leaf you really need to try the cigar.

In my experience burn issues are common but draw issues and voids are not. If you let the cigar sit out to dry a few hours before lighting it the burn will be better. As you noted though, a crooked burn gives me an excuse to play with my lighter..

Bob · 10-26-2007, 04:33 PM

The only thing I will add to this is that I like this cigar !! Not that my opinion matters. Just one of my likes.

kas · 10-26-2007, 05:35 PM

Dumb question, but what distinguishes criollo from other tobacco as far as look and taste?
Also, why are the Top25 cigar rating so pathetic for the Kiki Browns? I'm inclined to believe the extended reviews I read here, but trying to reconcile the divergent opinions. Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by txmatt

Another happy customer..

The Kiki Browns are really the gem of his factory IMHO. I typically get the 4.5x54 Botella figurados, but the torpedo is great as well.

The cigar has a decent amount of Criollo in the blend so if you are a fan of this leaf you really need to try the cigar.

In my experience burn issues are common but draw issues and voids are not. If you let the cigar sit out to dry a few hours before lighting it the burn will be better. As you noted though, a crooked burn gives me an excuse to play with my lighter..

kas · 10-26-2007, 05:43 PM

One other question: Where can you find samplers of these cigars? I only seem to have found boxes for sale. Thanks guys.

txmatt · 10-26-2007, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kas

One other question: Where can you find samplers of these cigars? I only seem to have found boxes for sale. Thanks guys.

You can get a sampler from Cuban Crafters here:
http://www.cubancrafters.com/products.php/item_id/255

As for the varied opinions I don't know really what to tell you. Preferences in cigar taste are subjective. Some people are put off by burn issues more than I am. Flavor is the most important aspect in a cigar to me; when I can find a cigar that tastes good and costs only a buck fifty a stick I will excuse the fact I have to touch it up. Other people that rate it low just might not like the flavor of Criollo; it has a unique flavor.

BroNeilson · 10-27-2007, 05:29 AM

Great review. I love these cigars, haven't found a cigar as cheap as these that tastes nearly as good.

scoot · 10-30-2007, 02:23 AM

I've been waiting for the boxes of the little perfectos to grab some. The browns really are the best of Kiki's offerings, especially if you enjoy Criollo, like Matt said.