Arandoza Defcon

[jefslat]

Arandoza's most full flavored cigar as described by the reps at IPCPR.

The foot of the cigarshows a nice blend of tobaccos with a good earthy aroma. The wrapper is nice, dark and smooth. The cigar had an easy pre-light draw with some bitter flavors to the tongue. Cut nice and clean with my Palio cutter.

A bit harsh at the light, but the harshness evens out fairly quickly. Very clean burn.

Paired this cigar with an Independence Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout, which turned out to be a bit full for this particular cigar; a creamy stout with a bit of a backbite which is not what I generally expect from an oatmeal ale.

The flavor past the initial harshness settled down to a medium-full cigar, not as full as what I was expecting from this cigar, but still very flavorful, very similar to the Arandoza Red series, but with an oscuro wrapper.

Light gray ash is a bit flaky and tended to drop flakes in my lap, just a bit messy.

Remained a smooth smoking cigar; the strength built as the cigar progressed to a solid medium-full smoke.

At 1/3 the cigar started to get hot, with the strength of the cigar building accordingly.

Put the cigar down just past 1/4 of the cigar left when it was too hot to draw and hold.

Overall impressions - not as full as I was expecting (not necessarily a bad thing), full bodied as expected as the cigar progressed. Still, overall an enjoyable cigar and I give it 3.5/5.

Joe Bob says Check It Out.