Review: PDR Liga Especial – Reserva Superior – Salomon

My friend in the USA sent me this cigar quite a long time ago, over 2 years ago in fact. Its always looked amazing in its coffin, but for some reason I have always left it alone until the correct occasion arrises. Well in the end I just decided to give it a go, and see if smokes as good as it looks, cant wait…

Appearance 9.5/10

Come on just look at the picture, whats not to like, it looks amazing. It comes in a really nice coffin, the cigar looks perfectly rolled, the bands are very crisp and well printed, and just look at the cap and the foot, they are works of art. If it wasn’t for the slightly darker colour at the tip of the cigar I would have given this a 10.

Construction & Draw 9.0/10

Construction on this cigar is as good as it looks, the wrapper is a lovely dark chocolate colour, with a nice amount of tooth, the end caps are great, and its clearly been well rolled. Two things dropped the score, again the darker part of the wrapper near the foot of the cigar looks a little less “special” than the rest of the stick, and the initial draw, until you get past the light coloured tip and into the body of the cigar is tight, and you do have to put a bit of work in!

Flavour 6.0/10

Well this is where things start to go wrong, there is nothing bad, or unpleasant about the flavour of this cigar, I could detect an earthy note and some pepper at the beginning, about an inch in I got a little cocoa and some sweetness, and then that was it. The flavour profile did not really change from there on, the strength moved from medium to strong as I got towards the end of the cigar, but the flavours were static.

In hind sight I was bored whilst smoking this cigar, and I should have stopped around halfway through, but as this cigar looked so good I was expecting that any minute it would take off and impress. In the end this was a meeh cigar, it might work in a smaller size, but it was just dull, and I would not have another one.

Value 7.0/10

I think these were around 15 USD when they came out, from a construction and presentation point of view I would say $15 would be okay, as long as the flavour profile was up to the same standard, and unfortunately this was not the case, so not great value for money.

Summary 6.0/10

Okay the truth is that for me this cigar is all style over substance , or to put it another way its “All fur coat and no knickers”. I was so looking forward to this, as I do like other PDR cigars, but for me this was just not interesting enough, so in the end quite a disappointment…

Review: Montecristo Open Eagle

This is a cigar that I have had in the humidor for a while, on the run up to Christmas I had a number of very hard weeks at work, so once the carnage had backed off a little I decided to treat myself to something a little special. I popped into my local merchant, and picked up the Montecristo Open Eagle.

I was hoping for a couple of hours in the company of a great cigar, but unfortunately this was not to be.

Appearance 9.0/10

This is a truly beautiful cigar, the tube is well made and protects the cigar really well. The Cigar itself is a lovely medium brown, with only a few tiny long veins, it feels great between your fingers, and has a fantastic aroma.

Construction & Draw 9.0/10

The construction of this cigar is excellent,  it has a nice springy feel as you roll it between your fingers. As well as the standard Monte band it has a really good looking gold and green band. The construction of the cap is perfect, and you cant see any joins between the cap and the cigar body.

The burn on this cigar is pretty much perfect, all the way down it was straight, and the draw was absolutely top notch, the cigar also produces a lot of pleasant smelling smoke.

Flavour 6.0/10

This is a light to medium cigar, and as such I did not expect a lot of body and depth, and that’s fine, as when I initially bought it I was looking for a nice relaxing smoke. The problem is that this cigar starts light, with not a lot of flavour, there is a little hint of vanilla, and a little woody taste, but it was pretty flat. Normally you expect things to pick up the further you go down a stick, but the Monte did not get any more complex, and the flavours did not change throughout the entire smoke.

In summary the flavour of this cigar is really one dimensional, yes its a light to medium cigar, but that does not mean you cant have a good flavour profile.

Value 5.0/10

This cigar is just too expensive for the experience, yes it looks gorgeous, but you just expect a lot more for the money. Flash with no substance.

Summary 6.0/10

This is a wonderful looking cigar, but the smoking experience does not live up to the looks. At around 16 GBP tubed there is just not much going on, its a fairly one dimensional smoke, it never offends, but its totally forgettable, and at this price there are so many excellent cigars that you could choose from.

Because this is a light – medium cigar it might suit the very new smoker who is looking for a large cigar that will not over power them, but I would still suggest that there are a number of better cheaper options out there.

This is not a cigar that will find a home in my humidor.