Review: Cusano 18 Double Connecticut

This was going to be one of my normal reviews of a cigar that I have just smoked. However you will notice that this review is very short, the reason, well lets just say I did not get more than half an inch into this cigar before I could not smoke it any further.

It all looked so promising, the wrapper looks excellent, construction is very good, the cigar has only a few veins, the cap construction was good, I was looking forward to this.

Then I lit the cigar, and things went down hill….

I could taste some flavours, but they were all drowned out by a really nasty chemical taste that remained on your palete long after you had exhaled the smoke. I hoped that this would pass and that I could get down to enjoying this cigar, however the chemical taste did not pass, and I quickly decided that I just could not smoke this cigar.

This was my first “dog rocket” (a friend of mine used the term a few weeks ago, I had not heard it before), I am hoping that I just got a bad stick, but until I can try this cigar again (not sure I will bother as there are so many cigars to choose from), then I cannot recommend them, and I cannot score them. This for me is a cigar to avoid.

Review: La Rica Torpedo Maduro

As you know I am something of a fan of the La Rica Churchill, and the Robusto was not a bad cigar, so I decided to try another sticks in the La Rica range. I have not had many Maduro wrapper cigars, so after a couple of weeks in the humidor I decided to try the Torpedo Maduro.

Normally in my reviews I rate the cigar by a number of criteria, for this review due to my experience with this stick I really cant complete a full review, as you have probably guess, this was not a happy smoking experience.

It started of quite well, this is a thick cigar (52 ring), and it feels good between your fingers, the wrapper is a lovely dark color, but it does have quite large veins, and the cap is a little rough and ready, but overall it looked quite good.

I cut the cap and gently toasted the foot, the cigar gave off a lovely slightly sweet smelling smoke as it toasted.

Initially things started really well, the cigar had a lovely rich flavor, with some really strong tones of blackberry and liquorice, I was really getting into this cigar.

Then things started to go wrong, the burn line was really erratic, and almost impossible to correct, and then worse still there would be little “flare ups” in the wrapper where it suddenly burnt very quickly. This released a strong and bitter taste, and was quite unpleasant, the longer I smoked this cigar the more of these “flare ups” occurred.

Finally it reached the point where all you could taste was the bitter flavor, and I gave up smoking the cigar and let it die, at this point I was only around a 1/5 through the cigar.

Such a shame, this started so well, and then became a really unpleasant smoke, if it had carried on as it started this would have been a really enjoyable stick.

I am hoping that I just got a bad cigar, as I cant believe that La Rica after the Churchill could produce a cigar this poor, however it will be a while before I try this again, so in the mean time buy with care!