Pre-light Experience

Seth: The Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2 is lovely in hand. The cigar is rolled well, it’s firm in hand and finished with a lovely cap. It sports a nice Natural looking wrapper that has some tooth and small veins throughout. The cigar delivers aromas of cedar, tobacco, barnyard and soft spices.
John: The Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2 has a Colorado-colored wrapper and appears to be a Toro vitola. The wrapper has a mottled texture to it. I weighed the cigar at 14.7 grams and measured the humidity at 60.3% with the HumidiMeter Pro. Aromas from the wrapper included dry wood and mild hay. From the foot, I was getting sweet hay, grass and wood.
Jiunn: The Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2 wrapper sits at the duller side of Colorado. Veins are well pressed, seams tight, bunch and roll even and the head is well wrapped and capped. Pre-light aromas consist of faint cedar and black tea.

Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2

First Third

Seth: The first third begins with light peanut butter notes that are paired with cream, earth, tobacco and cedar notes. Strength and body are around the medium level, and it’s a nice soft start to the cigar.
John: The first third gets going with an intense sweet tobacco leading off, followed by a combination of cinnamon, wood and bread through the center of the profile. The post draw is made up of sweet nuttiness and wood. The sweet tobacco and pastry-like notes become more defined through the retrohale. Grass and hay join the finish at roughly the one-inch mark. As the cigar approaches the halfway point of the first third, some dry hay comes into the finish at light plus strength.
Jiunn: The first third has an easy going and balanced approach to the flavor profile. Creamy roasted nuts, cedar wood with smooth tannins and soil graininess. Retrohaling brings a surprising amount of dried red pepper punch. The finish shows lingering cedar wood and nuts. Strength and body is medium.

Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2

Second Third

Seth: The second third continues to deliver those cedar, earth and tobacco notes. Faint cream and peanut butter with some spices. Like before, medium in strength and body.
John: The second third gets going with sweet tobacco leading, while wood and grass combine through the center of the profile with some nuttiness underneath. The cigar finishes with delayed baking spices through the post draw. One interesting observation as the second third continues is that there are pockets of tobacco sparking as they combust. As the second third progresses, dry hay settles into the post draw and is joined by some delayed tannic wood. By the bottom half, tannic wood has begun to define the finish, while hay defines the post draw with some delayed bitterness.
Jiunn: The second third’s flavors are lackluster as there’s a stale cedar and construction paper note that forms. These notes do a good job of derailing the other flavors. Strength and body remains medium.

Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2

Final Third

Seth: The final third is identical to that of the second. Lovely finish with a nice peanut spice. Medium in strength and body.
John: The last third gets going with sweet, tannic and dry wood leading off, lingering into the finish and being joined on the post draw by bitterness. By the halfway point of the final third, the post draw is defined by bitter hay. Through the bottom half, the bitterness begins lingering between draws and develops enough intensity to create some tongue bite.
Jiunn: Not much new to report as the final third is the same as second third. Still a lackluster experience with stale cedar and construction paper being center stage. Strength and body finishes medium.

Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2

Burn

Seth: The cigar had a perfect burn from beginning to end.
John: The burn was straight through the first third, with the ash dropping in one-inch increments. The burn developed some minor waviness through the second third before returning to a relatively straight burn through the last third.
Jiunn: Great burn performance featuring an even burn, tight ashes, ample smoke production and cool burning temperatures.

Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2

Draw

Seth: The cigar had a perfect draw.
John: The draw measured 30 inches of water on the Cigar Medics draw tester. Subjectively, it was perfectly in the ideal range between open and resistant.
Jiunn: The draw was also great as it hit the ideal balance of air flow and resistance.

Overall

Seth: The Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2 is a good cigar. It kept my interest from beginning to end, and it has a nice core flavor profile. It helped that the burn and draw were perfect from start to finish as well. The peanut notes were great with the cream and cedar, and while softer, I have not had a flavor profile like this since the Humo Jaguar 14 years ago. I am interested in knowing this cigar. I can see myself buying some down the road.
John: The Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2 opened with an enjoyable combination of intense sweet tobacco, cinnamon, bread and wood. The pastry-like qualities through the retrohale, along with the sweet nuttiness in the post draw, gave the first third a richness that stood out as the strongest portion of the smoking experience. The gradual addition of grass and hay added another layer without upsetting the overall balance. The second third maintained much of the sweetness but began shifting toward a drier profile as hay and tannic wood steadily gained prominence. An interesting combustion characteristic appeared, with small pockets of tobacco visibly sparking as they burned, though this didn’t negatively impact the burn performance. By the latter half of the second third, delayed bitterness began creeping into the profile, foreshadowing the final third. The last third saw bitterness become the defining characteristic of the experience. Bitter hay, dry wood and tannic wood gradually overwhelmed the sweeter elements from earlier in the cigar, with the bitterness eventually lingering between draws and creating noticeable tongue bite. While the cigar showed good complexity and balance through the opening third, it couldn’t maintain that momentum into the latter stages. Construction was excellent throughout, with an ideal draw and a burn that required no intervention from first light to the nub. Total smoking time was 1 hour and 54 minutes.
Jiunn: The first third of the Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2 showed a lot of promise as the profile was harmonious and smooth. But by the time the second third came, the stale cedar and construction paper notes derailed the profile and made it less enjoyable. Not a bad cigar, just overall average.

Seth Geise

SCORE

6.82

Cost/Point

$0.73

Scoring System

John McTavish

SCORE

5.75

Cost/Point

$0.87

Scoring System

Jiunn Liu

SCORE

6.10

Cost/Point

$0.82

Scoring System

Team Cigar Review: Micallef Color Blend Bundle #2