I love the cause that goes with the Arturo Fuente Rare Pink Vintage 1960's Short Story, and I love the packaging, but I am not sold on the cigar. The blend has solid core flavors of citrus, cedar and pepper, but I was hoping for a little more. The wrapper is very dominant on the cigar, and it has a nice profile, but I think it needs to be balanced out some and the way to do that is by providing a larger offering.
I really enjoyed the Davidoff Dominicana Robusto, and it is nice to see a cigar like this being made by Davidoff again. It is one of those Dominican focused cigars that are full in flavors and body, but not overly strong at the same time. There is balance to the cigar, and because of that, it is appealing to many smokers.
It is incredible what a different vitola can do for a cigar. Well, it is incredible what a ring gauge can do for a cigar. This is a blend that excels with a smaller ring gauge and stronger wrapper presence. The JRE Aladino Habano Vintage Selection Elegante was balanced throughout, but it had depth and complexity. Great burn and draw as well.
While the Camacho Factory Unleashed does not smoke like a Camacho, it does show some qualities of blends coming out of their Honduran factory. You can get the Honduran, Dominican, Nicaraguan and Ecuadorian tobacco flavors. Good cigar, though not quite sure it does well as a Camacho. It’s not really a Camacho, AVO or Davidoff.
This was a good cigar, and it was nice to see a blend like this from E.P. Carrillo again. The E.P. Carrillo Short Run Retro 2021 Short Play had nice flavors of spices, earth, wood, and the overall barnyard qualities were fantastic. It started off a little bit stronger than it finished, but I like when a cigar does that. Really was great to smoke an E.P. Carrillo Short Run offering with the original bands.
I really enjoyed the JRE Aladino Corojo Reserva Figurado. It is a great blend that produces lovely flavors from beginning to end. Wonderful balance and nice strength and body. For those of you who hate large ring gauges, you will not mind the larger ring gauge with the Toro or the Figurado. It is a line, that when it's in the right vitola, produces an amazing Honduran puro.
The Crowned Heads The Lost Angel TAA 2021 did a good job of balancing out Mexican San Andres and Brazilian Mata Fina, while having them be the focus of the blend and delivering their positive qualities. The cigar had a nice balance between sweet and spicy, and the earth presence was perfect as well. With that, you can’t go wrong with a matte black band. It just looks awesome.
The Tatuaje Fausto The Old Man and the C Lancero is a solid lancero and my experience when I was done was that this was not as strong as the original Fausto, but more complex overall as a blend. The flavors were superior. There was balance and substance with this cigar. Really well made cigar.
The Diesel Crucible is a solid cigar and a strong one at that. It is not my cup of tea, due to the strength, but it is right in line with the Diesel brand and a cigar I could enjoy from time to time. This is an evening cigar for me.
The Drew Estate Undercrown 10 Toro was a good cigar. It was a little one dimensional, and a little heavy on the earth, but there were some flavors that popped out throughout. I would have liked for a stronger finish, and I think that would have made a difference in the cigar. I am interested in smoking the blend in a smaller vitola offering, and really seeing how it smokes all around.
