Cigar Weekly

JinE · 01-27-2002, 06:15 PM

The Cigar: Don Rafael Unknown Vitola (Robusto sized)
The Grade: AA++A+A+++AAA+A+A+++

http://www.mindspring.com/~jine/Don_Rafael.jpg

In the cigar business there are a LOT of guys named Don. Don Thomas, Tito, Rene, Xavier, Melo, Leo, Juan, Diego, Alberto, Mateo, etc. Through luck of the Irish (and the generosity of a JRbbs'r, Freenuke) I came across an interesting cigar by the name of Don Rafael. Who is this Don Rafael you ask? I ask the same question myself… and turned to the Internet for my answer. Could this Don turn out to be the ultimate Don of cigars? Where did Don come from, and how did Don get into the cigar business? Join me on an interesting journey into the life, the times, the story of Don Rafael….

It turns out that Don Rafael is a hard person to pin down. Most if not all of the information to be found for a search of “Rafael, Don” is written in Spanish. I cannot be sure if this is the same person, but it seems Don is a man of many ambitions and is found on quite a few web pages (over 34,000 matches). He’s an architect, teacher, musician, enemy to Zorro, Mexican outlaw, and finally a flamenco dancer (whatever the heck that is). Since we are more interested in the cigar and not the world of Flamenco dancing, I abandoned my hopes for a biography of Don Rafael and turned instead to the cigar.

I my searches I did found out that Don Rafael is a Victor Sinclair product. Victor Sinclair Cigars was founded with the help of the world famous fighting cock named “Harry”. That is a story best told another day…

All of the web pages contained the exact same description for Don’s cigars:

“The Don Rafael is constructed for everyone. With Dominican filler and binder, the mild, full flavor is enjoyable any time of the day. The smooth, mellow aroma will not linger.”

My particular entry was covered in some of the most yellow cello this feller has ever seen. The D.Raf was so covered in sparkly bloom I wondered at first if the cigar had been dropped in some mica-filled dirt (it sure did smell that way). The foot of the cigar had a “squished” appearance, with a subtle Nike symbol embossed upon the wrapper. Toasting the foot filled the smoke shed with an aroma of burnt wicker furniture (I actually did a double take to make sure there was non burning). If anyone has bought the $4 torch lighter at JR’s stores with the ever-dangerous “locked into full-flame” switch on it and dropped it while sitting in the hammock in the furniture section of JR’s burlington store… you know exactly what smell I’m talking about.

This cigar would be best described as “full-body”. Each puff on the cigar left my mouth full of bits of cigar, with me eventually spitting them out all over my body. I don’t see how even after 30 minutes of smoking a cigar that I was still getting bits of leaf in my mouth, unfathomable! The draw was VERY loose. The flavor profile can best be described as non-existent. This is a great change of pace from the Andy Warhol I last reviewed with a flavor profile of K-9 excrement. As an experiment I pulled the straw out of my old empty Slurpie cup and sucked on it a couple of times. Except for the absence of smoke (and bits of cigar in my mouth) the flavors were pretty similar to the Don Rafael. If you are a Macanudo fan you might enjoy these as a milder alternative to your favorite cigar. The cigar’s real rating would be a D+. I gave it an AA+A+A+++ in hoped that someone would see only the rating and not read the rest of this long-winded post. Since freenuke was (un)kind enough to give me two each of three different Vitolas I was hoping I could trick someone into trading me a Opus or a 858-sg for the rest of them. Don’t let anyone in on this little secret.

-Jin “Don Rafael Scored 101 in CA” E

PS.

Though as a rule I never trade away a cigar given to me I will make an exception for these fine top shelf cigars in hopes that someone could find as much pleasure in them as I did. It will take at least an AF sun grown to get it out of my humidor though… but I will trade one away if you want to taste what an AAA+A++A++A++ rated cigar tastes like.

01-27-2002, 06:15 PM	#1
JinE Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: War Eagle Country, Alabama Posts: 302	The Cigar: Don Rafael Unknown Vitola (Robusto sized) The Grade: AA++A+A+++AAA+A+A+++ http://www.mindspring.com/~jine/Don_Rafael.jpg In the cigar business there are a LOT of guys named Don. Don Thomas, Tito, Rene, Xavier, Melo, Leo, Juan, Diego, Alberto, Mateo, etc. Through luck of the Irish (and the generosity of a JRbbs'r, Freenuke) I came across an interesting cigar by the name of Don Rafael. Who is this Don Rafael you ask? I ask the same question myself… and turned to the Internet for my answer. Could this Don turn out to be the ultimate Don of cigars? Where did Don come from, and how did Don get into the cigar business? Join me on an interesting journey into the life, the times, the story of Don Rafael…. It turns out that Don Rafael is a hard person to pin down. Most if not all of the information to be found for a search of “Rafael, Don” is written in Spanish. I cannot be sure if this is the same person, but it seems Don is a man of many ambitions and is found on quite a few web pages (over 34,000 matches). He’s an architect, teacher, musician, enemy to Zorro, Mexican outlaw, and finally a flamenco dancer (whatever the heck that is). Since we are more interested in the cigar and not the world of Flamenco dancing, I abandoned my hopes for a biography of Don Rafael and turned instead to the cigar. I my searches I did found out that Don Rafael is a Victor Sinclair product. Victor Sinclair Cigars was founded with the help of the world famous fighting cock named “Harry”. That is a story best told another day… All of the web pages contained the exact same description for Don’s cigars: “The Don Rafael is constructed for everyone. With Dominican filler and binder, the mild, full flavor is enjoyable any time of the day. The smooth, mellow aroma will not linger.” My particular entry was covered in some of the most yellow cello this feller has ever seen. The D.Raf was so covered in sparkly bloom I wondered at first if the cigar had been dropped in some mica-filled dirt (it sure did smell that way). The foot of the cigar had a “squished” appearance, with a subtle Nike symbol embossed upon the wrapper. Toasting the foot filled the smoke shed with an aroma of burnt wicker furniture (I actually did a double take to make sure there was non burning). If anyone has bought the $4 torch lighter at JR’s stores with the ever-dangerous “locked into full-flame” switch on it and dropped it while sitting in the hammock in the furniture section of JR’s burlington store… you know exactly what smell I’m talking about. This cigar would be best described as “full-body”. Each puff on the cigar left my mouth full of bits of cigar, with me eventually spitting them out all over my body. I don’t see how even after 30 minutes of smoking a cigar that I was still getting bits of leaf in my mouth, unfathomable! The draw was VERY loose. The flavor profile can best be described as non-existent. This is a great change of pace from the Andy Warhol I last reviewed with a flavor profile of K-9 excrement. As an experiment I pulled the straw out of my old empty Slurpie cup and sucked on it a couple of times. Except for the absence of smoke (and bits of cigar in my mouth) the flavors were pretty similar to the Don Rafael. If you are a Macanudo fan you might enjoy these as a milder alternative to your favorite cigar. The cigar’s real rating would be a D+. I gave it an AA+A+A+++ in hoped that someone would see only the rating and not read the rest of this long-winded post. Since freenuke was (un)kind enough to give me two each of three different Vitolas I was hoping I could trick someone into trading me a Opus or a 858-sg for the rest of them. Don’t let anyone in on this little secret. -Jin “Don Rafael Scored 101 in CA” E PS. Though as a rule I never trade away a cigar given to me I will make an exception for these fine top shelf cigars in hopes that someone could find as much pleasure in them as I did. It will take at least an AF sun grown to get it out of my humidor though… but I will trade one away if you want to taste what an AAA+A++A++A++ rated cigar tastes like.