Appearance 7.5/10
The wrapper on this cigar is quite a light brown (the picture is not very good), there are a number of small veins on the wrapper, and a couple of slightly ragged edges, but nothing to worry about. Overall the cigar feels firm with a little spring when squeezed.
The band is smart, and relatively understated.
Construction & Draw 8.0/10
This is quite a well made cigar, the wrapper is tight and well packed with tobacco, the cap construction is good, and it did not feel like it would unravel unlike some other small, low priced cigars. The draw on this cigar surprised me most, normally cheap small cigars have a very tight draw, or are so loose that that you think you are sucking on thin air, not this cigar, it has an excellent draw, better than many larger cigars I have had.
For a cigar of this size the draw is extremely impressive.
Flavour 7.5/10
The cigar starts with quite a strong peppery flavour, along with a strong tobacco taste, the great draw on this stick makes it easy to savour the flavours this cigar produces.
After about 1/2 an inch the pepper flavour backs off, the flavours mellow, and you get a stronger sweet tobacco taste. The burn was initially a bit ragged, but this corrected itself after a while, once corrected the burn was razor sharp.
About half way through the cigar I began to detect a slightly woody (possibly oak) flavour, this was a nice addition, and stopped the flavour of the stick being one dimensional.
The pepper taste returned in last third, the sweetness backed off, and the woody flavour remained. All in all the flavour profile is not massively complex, but is very good for a cigar at this price, and far better than most at twice the price.
Value 9.5/10
What can you say, this cigar is 3.59 GBP, at this price its amazing value for money. The construction is good, the draw is excellent, and the flavour is far better than you should expect at this price. This cigar is around half the price of the Winston Churchill Lancaster, and in my opinion is just as good.
Summary 8.0/10
This is a good solid stick, I think you have to look at the price when scoring it, at 3.59 this is a great value 45 minute smoke, so I think an 8 is fair. If you want a 35-45 minute smoke at a good price this is a great little cigar.
I am going to add a few more of these to my humidor for when I want a quick decent smoke, I will also see if there is a sampler pack for the others in the Inka range, if I do I will review them as soon as I smoke them.
You simply cant argue with the value for money this cigar represents, its quite a bargain.
I paired this cigar with a Talisker 10 year single malt, and the two worked very well together. I was expecting the Talisker to over power this cigar due to its peat and pepper, but the pepper in the Inka seemed work compliment the Talisker, and the pairing worked well.
UK Cigarnewbie 