Graycliff Pirate (white label) Review

[IHT]

got this via trade with Churchlady (if this was not a Pirate, please correct me). told her i'd write an honest review... i'm going off memory, as i just had it about an hour ago after lunch.

construction was very nice on the outside, but while it burned, i noticed a small area where there was no filler for the length of the cigar, which is common. it didn't affect the burn much, and the draw was excellent.

initial tastes were the ones i despise from domestic cigars, that harsh earthy metallic taste, but luckily it soon changed to a more smooth/creamy flavor. i had to purge it pretty often or else it went back to the overly earthy metallic aftertaste that causes me to spit every so often.
made plenty of smoke, nice draw the entire time, as i said before... ash was very solid and nearly had to be pounded off the first time at the 1 inch mark (i really had to purge it to get that taste out of there).
had some punch to it. of course i was at a buddies house and only had a small lunch.
there were times when it was really really good, it never got "bad", so don't read into that way.

um... i don't know what else to say. it was pretty smooth/creamy. heavy smoke, if you know what i'm saying. on the drive back to work, i though to myself, "pretty long finish, almost like a small meal in itself". you all know what i'm saying, i hope.

if i could compare it to something, i'd have to say it was better than an Olivia Master Blend for sure (which is one of the best domestic cigars i've had, to me). remember, these are my tastes. i do NOT like a lot of domestics because i feel like i'm smoking charred dirt.

i told myself i would NOT try to compare it to, uh, a cuban cigar... so i won't.

i'll leave it at this: this is a very good cigar, a bit too $$$ for what you get back, as i find it hard to pay over $12-18 a stick and it not be damn good. call me a cheapskate, that's cool (if i spend $400 on a box, it better knock my socks off). would i grab this one over my favorite domestic (Trilogy Authentic Corojo) if they were all free? depends on the mood i was in, but i'd probably grab the funky triangle pressed cigar nobody else seems to like. if it didn't have that dirty/earthy metallic aftertaste, it would probably be tops on my list of domestics.

hope this helps anyone out there.

[moki]

Yeah I agree, it's a decent smoking cigar, but not worth the premium they want for it, IMHO.

The Espresso, on the other hand -- that is one firebrand of a Graycliff. It's a very, very interesting smoke -- almost too strong for me. The ones I have I'm planning to stash away for a bit before smoking them.

Still, very nice bittersweet chocolate/cocoa flavors in the Espresso, appropriately enough.