Ramon Allones Maestro Review

[smokin5]

I received this as part of a sampler a couple of months ago and smoked it last week. Just found my notes on it.
This is a good cigar for those who don't like to finish what they start. Unlike stogies that you smoke the first 2/3 just to get to the best (last)part, this was reverse. It started with promise & delivered ashes.

OK, basic details:
Size: 5.5" x 54 ring Body: Medium Filler: Dom. Rep., Nicaragua Wrapper: Dominican Republic Natural
It's a pretty stick, I'll say that. Deep brown wrapper with a cedar sleeve.
Sturdy, thick & oily with 2 large veins running up the entire length.
(Gosh, this is sounding like a **** novel).
My prelight thoughts are: "Let's light it!" I pour a Makers Mark on the rocks & get down to business.

Good draw, not too loose or tight, delivers good quantity of smoke.
It starts with a mostly tobacco & cedar taste, soon joined by espresso & ginger. Reminds me of a Torano Signature. Then it gets slightly peppery.
The flavor is sweeter when I catch the exhaled smoke in my nose & bring it in. The pepper wanes as quickly as it came.
About an inch in, the espresso & ginger fade, replaced by a somewhat sharp charcoal taste, similar to a Sosa Wavell I had. At the end of the first third, the espresso reappears, but the flavor is still predominately charcoal.

Into the second third, there's less charcoal & more pleasant cedar & spice. More like how it began. But I soon get an aftertaste I can only describe as sharp & oily. The combination of taste/aftertaste is like sweet & sour. I'm not sure I like it, but I continue on. There is little change in this section, though the bitterness does slightly fade. Maybe I'm just getting used to it.

At about the half-way mark, it becomes brutal. Nothing but acrid charcoal & wood. I imagine if you put out a campfire with cheap tequila & licked the dead ashes, it would taste very close.
Purging attempts fail as miserably as it tastes.
I couldn't take it, so I pitched it at least 2.5" left on it.


I've never had a "real" Ramon Allones, but based on the great things I've heard, the company should sue General Cigar for slanderously foisting this stick under the same name. CA gave it an 83, but I think the reviewer had dyslexia.
Needless to say, I do NOT recommend this cigar. To be fair, though, I've only had this one, & maybe I got a bowser. But honestly, I'll never buy another one.