PAN Principe Review

[stormin]

I know its been done many times, but I just finished my first one so I'm going to do it again. Hope that's OK with everyone.

I live in Canada and domestic cigars are rarely sold here. If you ever do find a B&M that sells them, they are priced the same as Cubans so it’s very difficult to bring yourself to the point of actually buying one. Besides that, 95% of the selection here is Cuban and only 5% domestic so you won't normally find anything you want. With that in mind, I normally make a point of stopping @ the B&M in Buffalo whenever I am there. The other day my wife had an early flight out of Buffalo and of course I volunteered to drive her. Her flight left @ 8 AM. The store I normally go to doesn't open until 11 AM but there is another, not far from the airport that opens at 10. I dropped wifey off and went for breakfast. After that I headed to the wine store and picked up a bottle of Château Neuf de Pape and then headed to the B&M. I walked through the door @ 10:05 AM figuring to be the only one there. Much to my surprise there's already 4 fellas in the lounge puffing away! This particular store has glass cases on the walls of the lounge where the cigars are kept. I slowly circled the room picking up this and that from my list. My number #1 reason for going was to pick up and equal number of PAN's and PAM's because a) I want to try them and b) I want to send them to some BOTL’s who need a good whipping. I know my regular B&M has them, but I exited the Padron section without finding them. I ask the fella behind the counter if he had any. He pointed out 4 PAN Principes that were sitting on the counter right in front of us and says that is all he has. Now I'm a little ticked because I was hoping for Monarchs, not Principes and wanted to buy more then 4. I also wanted some PAM's since everyone raves about them. With a little impatience I told him I would take all 4. To my surprise he informs me that I can have them but he is only gonna charge me for 3 because the wrapper on the foot of the 4th one is slightly damaged! Suddenly I feel better about the whole experience! They didn't have exactly what I wanted but they treated me nice.
I had an early dinner to accommodate the kids and the gang of friends they brought. After dinner, I popped open the wine and grabbed a Principe from the humi (the damaged one) and headed out into the sunshine.

Construction - this cigar is beautiful. Perfectly made. The box press is awesome. For such a small cigar it feels solid as a rock (that's a good thing). 9/10

Pre-light - I was very concerned that this baby would have a tight draw because of the small ring gage and because it felt so firm. Much to my surprise, after I clipped it, the pre-light draw was perfect! Pre-light aroma was typically Padron and I like it! 9/10

Smoking - Huge amounts of smoke for such a little puppy. This really surprised me. It started out kind of rough tasting and very spicy, but this only lasted for the first minute or 2. After that it settled down and became very smooth. This lasted the entire way through and the burn was good. It got a little raunchy at the end, but even that didn't last. The cigar and the wine were perfectly matched. I nubbed it. 9/10

My only real complaint with the whole experience was that it ended too soon. As soon as it ended I wanted to spark up another one. I have been on a real ISOM kick as of late, but this cigar gives me some hope that there are domestics out there that can compete. Last year I was gifted the 1926 sampler box and came away disappointed. To my surprise I thought the anni was much better.

Overall – PAN Principe 8/10 (-1 for being too short a smoke).

[Rocketman248]

Great review. I love a good "how I got it" story.

[floydp]

Excellent review Norm, really like the naturals but man the maduros IMO have so much more flavor. But then again I'm a maddie hoe. So right about the construction of both. You feel like you can throw these against the wall without harm. Simply love the feel of them.