Graycliff Espresso Robusto

[Ringo]

OK here's another cigar I'll probably get made fun of for reviewing, but I can take it. Just know that I didn't pay anywhere near the normal price for mine. I got an email from c.c offering a fiver for $39 so I jumped on it. These aren't the cheaper Double Espresso (which sounds like it would cost more, but doesn't) but the regular, full line Espresso. OK here goes. First of all this is a very strong cigar. It is not, as that stupid magazine the Robb Report called it, "hallucinatory." Maybe for those jokers it was, but for me it was just a strong cigar. I didn't see any pink elephants or UFO's or anything else except the view from the front of my garage, where I was sitting in a chair smoking it. I would not recommend this cigar to a newbie. The first several pulls were pretty harsh, but at the same time they were tame: it wasn't the harshness of a strong but cheap cigar that tears your throat up and gives you a bad taste in your mouth for days afterwards, but a pedigreed sort of harshness that didn't take too long to develop into quite the tasty cigar. I was getting several different flavors in there, all of which I forgot because I'm getting old and I smoked it a few days ago. But there were a quite a few things going on there. By 1/3 I was really enjoying the cigar and it kept on getting mellower and tastier as I smoked it to the nub.

Graycliff cigars don't get a lot of respect here, partially (and fairly) because of their price. It's a bit out of line. But if you can get a five pack of the real deal Graycliff cigars, not the diluted, cheaper versions but the full on Graycliff (Espresso only in my case, I haven't tried any others) for $39 I'd say jump on it. I'd do it again if it came around again, but I still have four left (I bought them a couple of years ago and let them hang out for a while before I smoked one, it was while my palate was out of whack and I wasn't smoking but I didn't want to pass up the deal).

So there's my review of the Graycliff Espresso Robusto. It's a good cigar. Just don't pay $20 for one, or whatever they usually cost. Ringo score: 8/10

Next time I'll review a Gurkha so I can complete the cycle of cigars to review that I will get made fun of for smoking (Drew Natural, Graycliff Espresso and then a Gurkha). But at the end of the day it all boils down to whether I like a cigar or not, not who made it.