Havana Dreams #1 Review

[dannyboy]

So, a while back I posted about how my girlfriend rocks and she bought me some cigars on her trip to Tampa (she stopped down in Y'bor City). She had no idea what they were, just that she got them at a shop called Havana Dreams and that they roll them in their shop. The only thing she knew to ask for was "strong and spicy" and this is what they recomended for her. I believe this is the same place that DWSC Bob stopped in on his trip to Y'bor City.

Well, I just smoked the #1. I thought that a review might be in order.

Havana Dreams #1 is a 6.5"x52 Torpedo shaped cigar. According to the site, they use Domincan filler, they do not specify the binder and wrapper types, so I assume they are also Domincan. This particular cigar is listed at $4 each.

The wrapper was a dark brown with some veins. Nice and oily. It had a few minor flaws (2 small holes which looked almost like some small teeth had taken a bite, but not beetle like holes). The prelight aroma was nothing spectacular, just nice strong tobacco flavor. Prelight draw was suprisingly loose, but not negativley so. The prelight flavor was very grassy and vegetal. I could tell this was a young cigar, the first time I have been able to tast youth.

Upon lighting, the grassy, vegetal taste was very prominent. It was interesting that he "young" flavor I have read about and had not yet experienced jumped right out at me. There was plenty of smoke and the ash was very dark, but a bit loose. Draw was just where I like it, I guess the prelight test draw just caught me off gaurd as Torps are usually a bit tighter (at least the way I cut them).

After about the first 3/4" the vegetal/grassy taste diminished and made way for strong tobacco flavor that was smoother and had a bit of a leather tone to it. It was still a bit harsh and young tasting, but smoother than the first bit.

Ash lasted to about 1" then fell. The smoke required a couple of touch-ups and 2 relights, but this may have been due to the fact that I was wandering around town and forgetting to puff regularly. The smoother leather tones lasted until the last 2" at which point it became a bit harsh. At this point, I had to relight and it was very bitter. After a purge, that smooth leather taste came back full force, but this time it was clearer and more pronounced.

I smoked this one down to about an inch. Would have kept smoking this, but I was back from my walk and didn;t feel much like sitting outside to finish it.

My constant thought throughout this smoke was "damn this is gonna be good after some aging." I have another one that my girlfriend brought me, I think I will let it sit for at least another 3 months, maybe longer. I am looking forward to smoking this with some age on it. It was good today, but it will probably be spectacular with a bit of age on it.

At $4 a stick, I would say this is a pretty good buy, especially if you have the time and capacity for long term storage. Even young, as it was, I would give it about a 4 out of 5. Taste was good, but construction was abit lacking. I will post a review many moons from now as to how the other one stands up. For now, it is going into the bottom of the humi so that I can forget about it for a while. All in all, I would say that my girlfriend did very well for not knowing what she was doing.