Review - Cohiba Red Dot - 2 - Robusto

[Texan_To_The_End]

DATE: 2006/06/21
REVIEWER: Timothy "Texan_To_The_End" Piper
CIGAR: Cohiba Red Dot - 2 - Robusto
SIZE: 5.0 X 49
ORIGIN: Santiago, Dominican Republic
WRAPPER: Cameroon (Colorado Claro)
BINDER: Indonesia
FILLER: Dominican
SHAPE: Robusto
AGE: At least a year. In my humidor since 2006/04/23
VENDOR: Gifted by Pegleg. (Thanks again!)
PRICE: Unknown. Current retail is US $6.50 each.

AMBIENCE: 9:00AM Wednesday morning. Sunny hot & humid, with humidity rising as the day progresses.

BEVERAGE: Coffee - black.

APPEARANCE: Smooth medium color wrapper; one of those extremely thin delicate wrappers, but in very good shape. A bit of a heavy stick.

PRE_LIGHT: Very little taste and smell, could be a hint of grassiness.

DRAW: A bit too tight of a draw. Used a toothpick to loosen it up a bit. Afraid to use one of my skewers because of the delicate wrapper.

FIRST_THIRD: Had a bit of a "wet-grass" taste, but very little of that. Wrapper tasted bitter and metallic.

SECOND_THIRD: Wrapper split length-wise from the cap for about two inches. Sheesh... The bitterness expanded and dominated the taste. This doesn't seem to be an age issue, but rather a property of the tobacco. This tastes like any number of bundled cheap cigars one can get for a buck apiece.

FINAL_THIRD: Wrapper didn't split any further, but I had to keep doing spit-repairs to keep it together. The bitter taste continued. A very one dimensional smoke, and it wasn't a very good dimension.

BURN: One small canoe and the wrapper problem, but other than that it burned alright.

ASH: Pure white solid ash.

SMOKE: Plenty of white smoke, but it was bland and bitter tasting.

STRENGTH: Mild turning bitter.

FLAVOUR: None to speak of.

FINISH: None to speak of.

SMOKE_TIME: 45 minutes, and I left almost two inches unsmoked.

IMPRESSION: These Red Dots are the most over-priced over-hyped cigars on the market. Every one that I've ever had has been a dissapointment.

RATING: 2 out of a possible TEN wooden matchsticks.

COMMENTS: I try to recommend people to avoid the Red Dot Cohibas, as they are pretty bad. I'd not put them as low as Cremosa's, but quality-wise I feel they should be a bundled cigar selling for under a dollar each.

PICTURES: http://tinyurl.com/zqcru

[stormin]

Nice review, thanks.

I agree with you on the low rating. I bought one last year in Buffalo. The prices there are significantly higher due to the taxes. I don't remember which one i tried but it was probably a toro. I think I paid over $10. I thought it would be a real treat. It was really well built and I didn't have the burn problems you did, but the taste! I had really high hopes for it and I think it was one of the worst tasting cigars I ever smoked. Yuck!!!

With that sort of flavor I don't know how they even sell them. Whoever came up with the blend should be ashamed. 2 out of 10 is being generous. I'm pretty sure I could roll up some fresh Kentucky Bluegrass and come up with a better flavor.

You stirred up some memories here. I didn't realize I felt so strongly about these cigars!

[Texan_To_The_End]

Originally Posted by stormin

Nice review, thanks.

With that sort of flavor I don't know how they even sell them. Whoever came up with the blend should be ashamed. 2 out of 10 is being generous. I'm pretty sure I could roll up some fresh Kentucky Bluegrass and come up with a better flavor.

You stirred up some memories here. I didn't realize I felt so strongly about these cigars!

I felt a two was pretty fair. You forget I am reviewing a variety of Thompson's House Brands, and some of those are much worse than the Red Dot's...

[Warhorse545]

Good review and I agree with the Red Dots. Not found one I have liked yet. For the cost, I expect a much better cigar.


And the new format on the reviews is much easer to read.


Stacey

[Corona Gigante]

I would have ditched that sucker as soon as it split.

Life's too short to struggle with a badly behaved cigar.

I smoked a couple of those DR Cohibas before making my mind up that they weren't worth bothering with. Another not-so-fine product of the Consolidated Dog Rocket Corporation, New York, NY.

[Texan_To_The_End]

Originally Posted by Corona Gigante

I would have ditched that sucker as soon as it split.

Life's too short to struggle with a badly behaved cigar.

I smoked a couple of those DR Cohibas before making my mind up that they weren't worth bothering with. Another not-so-fine product of the Consolidated Dog Rocket Corporation.

If I were just smoking it, I'd have put it to rest after the bitterness started in. But with cigars that I have for reviews, I feel it's only fair to hold out as long as I can. <G>

[tadams17]

Originally Posted by Texan_To_The_End

If I were just smoking it, I'd have put it to rest after the bitterness started in. But with cigars that I have for reviews, I feel it's only fair to hold out as long as I can. <G>

Way to take one for the team!

[carbonbased_al]

The Red dots suck. ANd Tim, the new format is much easier to read.

[aphexacid]

the red dots are very bad. VERY bad. especially the ones that came in the most recent holiday pack that came with the xikar cutter. i took the cutter, smoked one, hated my life for smoking it, and chucked it after 15mins.

before that i had bought a couple toro's. horrible.

the XV's are pretty good though. very mild, and smooth.

[Teninx]

I don't think much of the XV line, either.

[mhillsing23]

Agreed. The new format looks better. Thanks for sharing.

[ghost]

I was invited to a Country Club for a mixer for work and they were handing these out after dinner. Being a total noob I managed to get two of these one to smoke up right there and then and one for the humi. Needless to say that I was not too impressed either. Had some burn issues (not sure how these things were kept any way) and the overall experience was nothing special. To be honest with you I brought back from Dominican Republic some smokes being passed off as cubans which were actually much, much better than this was.

[st0neski]

thanks for the review, saved me from a bad purchase

[stogie_kanobie_one]

Thanks for the review, nice job. Course now I'm dissappointed since I'm a HUGE Cohiba fan and had had these on my try list. Probably a good thing I haven't tried one yet and I'm no longer looking forward to it.

All things considered like a kid sticking his finger in an electrical outlet, I know I'm going to end up punishing myself by buying one.

[st0neski]

Originally Posted by stogie_kanobie_one

Thanks for the review, nice job. Course now I'm dissappointed since I'm a HUGE Cohiba fan and had had these on my try list. Probably a good thing I haven't tried one yet and I'm no longer looking forward to it.

All things considered like a kid sticking his finger in an electrical outlet, I know I'm going to end up punishing myself by buying one.

whats your favorite NC Cohiba?