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Old 05-11-2009, 01:56 PM   #1
mealstrom
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Milwaukee, WI
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Andretti: Robusto Maduro (lots o' pics)



I'm guessing on the sizes and am not sure what the cigar is made of. I checked out the website at Pacific Cigar but couldn't find the stats.



Andretti Robusto Maduro
Ring Gauge: 50
Length: 5
Body: Medium
Filler: ?
Wrapper: ?
Binder: ?
Shape: Robusto

1=TERRIBLE 2=SUBPAR 3=AVERAGE 4=GREAT 5=AMAZING
Appearance: 5
Taste: 4
Draw: 4
Ash: 3
Smoke: 5
Overall Experience: 4
TOTAL SCORE: 25 (of 30)


First, let me thank Ben Brignola for letting me review these cigars. I feel very privileged to be part of the test group.


Appearance: These are some beautiful cigars. The packaging is very top-notch and high class. After working in a cigar shop for a few years I can tell you these cigars are going to look amazing on the shelves, which goes a long way to being able to sell the cigars.







The cigars have a beautiful, toothy wrapper. Construction is impeccable and the wrappers have that nice rough, veiny surface that I love in full-flavored cigars. They also have a really cool wrapped foot that shows they put a little something extra into the construction of the cigars. (Although for burn consistency I discovered it's better to just pull the wrapped foot off before lighting.)





The Cigar:


First 1/2: The prelight draw (after pulling off the foot wrap) was about medium filled and seemed very consistent. The initial taste was sweet - almost like a Flor de Oliva natural. Not quite that sweet, but almost there. I'm thinking it must be the gum they use to attach the cap, but that's just my best guess. After lighting the cigar started out very well. Nice and sweet with definite almond and nut tastes. The sweetness gave the cigar a slight natural vanilla taste (not the intentionally flavored vanilla, but the kind that tastes like a combo of the wrapper and the gum). Very nutty with a full-bodied strength that fell about in the medium range of a full-flavored cigar.





Last 1/2: By this point the sweetness has faded (another clue that it might be the gum on the cap), but the strong nutty flavor has stayed with a dry cedar taste coming through. The flavor has 'dried out' in that the flavors you get at this point are woody, nutty, with the taste of the smoke really coming through. The construction has remained completely consistent, as well as the flavor. There's not a lot of complexity throughout the life of the cigar, but the flavors are still very consistent and nice.


Ash/Smoke: The smoke was very thick and flavorful and smelled great. You never had to fight to get a good puff of smoke, which is a testament to the construction. The ash was a little disappointing as it was flaky, fell off pretty easily, and tended not to hang on for very long.


Construction: The construction was great and consistent throughout, although toward the end it did seem to soften up a bit. I found myself biting down on the head a little more to keep it from getting too loose. The cigar also started to explode toward the end, which I think it probably because these cigars are pretty fresh so haven't had much of a chance to lose some of their latent moisture. The cigar also developed a pretty heavy runner. I first blamed the wind, but after a few touchups it still stayed. I also smoked the natural a few days later and it developed a pretty heavy runner too. I'm thinking with some time to stabilize this won't be a problem.






Overall: Great cigar and definitely worth trying. I purposely didn't look at any projected prices so I could give an honest opinion of how much I'd pay for this cigar. I think if it's in the $5 range (for the robusto) it's a GREAT deal, and they could probably get away with charging in the $7 - $8 range for it. At no point did this cigar get bitter or tannic. It had a consistent, smooth flavor that stayed consistent throughout the entire cigar.



There are a lot more pics below, and if anyone wants any hi-res copies for backgrounds or whatever just let me know and I'll send them your way.








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