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Old 07-20-2009, 09:45 AM   #1
CJ3
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: The hell called New York State
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Andretti El Capitan Commendatore

Allright, so I finally got at one of them Andretti jawbreakers over the last weekend. Had enough butt time at the marina while waitin’ out another bust of an Upstate New York Summer. The tube says “El Capitan,” while the cigar’s band says “Commendatore.”

I slide the monster out, and give it the once over. The ring gauge is huge. I’m thinkin’ 60 – 70. The wrapper is obviously Connecticut, and so blond as to almost take on an orange hue. Now, I’m thinkin’ just what you’re thinkin’right about now. “How the hell is this thing gonna’ draw?” not to mention, “how the hell do these guys roll these monsters?”

I wiggle my cutter as far up the cap as it’ll go, which is no where near the full width of the cigar, and give it a nip. Hmmm…Well. Just as I expected, she’s pretty tight in the draw department. No real surprise for a cigar as big as this one is; that’s allot of tobacco to be suckin’ through. Well, there’s no goin’ back now, so I fire it up.

Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff. Well, you get the point. I get an unsatisfying little mouthful of smoke each time. And what I do get is so light, light, light, that’s its hard to form much of an impression, other than, that its very light cigar. I soldier on, though. I mean, hey, it’s a free cigar, and I promised to write a review in exchange. Besides, what the hell else have I got to do on another crappy day in the middle of another crappy Northeast Summer?

I keep on puffing, and nothing much changes really. It’s a bit of a chore, and harder than I like to work on a cigar. The body is still very light, and with only the smallish puffs of smoke I’m able to manage, it’s hard to develop much of a sense of the flavor profile of the cigar. Again, not surprising given the volume of tobacco and the size of the cigar, it begins to run a bit down one side.

So, here I am, puffin’ away, tryin’ to burn the sucker down to about the 1/3 mark so I can get a little better draw, and a little better idea of how this cigar is supposed to taste. And, again not surprisingly, I get down to about a third, and the draw’s just a little better, and the cigar gets a little body, but, not much. And so, it ends pretty much as it started; light and tight.

Now, what can I say in closing? Right at the very end I was thinkin’ that I might like this cigar if it was downsized to the point where you could actually smoke it, to oh, lets say, maybe a Churchill or so! It really seems to me that a cigar like this is best suited for someone like a groomsman in a wedding party. You know; the neophyte cigar smoker who’ll be impressed by the packaging and the size, and who won’t be knocked on his ass by the light body, even after a couple of champagne toasts.

On the other hand, even a moderately experienced cigar smoker will be disappointed by the tight draw and the lack of meaningful body or flavor. So, lets see, what would I do with this cigar? Well, unless you can really ensure a better draw somehow, I’d downsize it to the point where is becomes consistently smoke-able. Then, I’d add something to the blend to spice it up just a tad. Maybe a nice Cameroon binder? Mexican? Honduran? Something along those lines. So, Ben, when you get that all done, drop me a line. I’m ready to taste test the next batch…
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