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Clash of the Amateur Reviews - Irish v. Robby - Sponsored by MTuccelli
robbyras
Posts: 5,487 ✭
That's right... Brett and I are going head-to-head to see what happens when two amateurs review the same sticks at the exact same time.
Mike approached Brett and I independently and offered to send us a selection of sticks to review. Obviously, we said yes (duh) and we will be underway Monday. That's the goal anyway.
We will be posting our reviews at roughly the same time here in this thread. We will review the AKA Hybrid first, hopefully appearing here Monday. Then we'll cover the Rocky Patel Ocean Club, Alec Bradley Trilogy, Fonseca Habana Seleccion. We'll wrap this challenge up with the Alec Bradley Black Market.
Neither Brett nor myself have smoked any of these before, so it's an even playing field. Please chime in with feedback, jokes, one-liners, constructive criticism or even applause. I don't know what's gonna happen but I'd bet it's going to make for some fun reading!
I would like to thanks Mike for coming up with this great idea and "funding" this challenge as well. You never cease to amaze me with your generosity Bro. You're a great BORK and an even better person. I truly appreciate you my friend.
Mike approached Brett and I independently and offered to send us a selection of sticks to review. Obviously, we said yes (duh) and we will be underway Monday. That's the goal anyway.
We will be posting our reviews at roughly the same time here in this thread. We will review the AKA Hybrid first, hopefully appearing here Monday. Then we'll cover the Rocky Patel Ocean Club, Alec Bradley Trilogy, Fonseca Habana Seleccion. We'll wrap this challenge up with the Alec Bradley Black Market.
Neither Brett nor myself have smoked any of these before, so it's an even playing field. Please chime in with feedback, jokes, one-liners, constructive criticism or even applause. I don't know what's gonna happen but I'd bet it's going to make for some fun reading!
I would like to thanks Mike for coming up with this great idea and "funding" this challenge as well. You never cease to amaze me with your generosity Bro. You're a great BORK and an even better person. I truly appreciate you my friend.
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CutleryBarn
Can't wait.
Wrapper: True Hybrid - Cross-Breeding of Cameroon and 59 Cuban Seed Corojo
Binder: Dominican Ligero
Filler: Aged Dominican Piloto Cubano and Honduran Tobaccos
Vitola: Advanced Brain Stimulation (Corona Gorda?) 6x44
Accompanying Beverage: Water
I knew very little about this cigar before I smoked it. All the info above is from their website. The idea of the hybrid wrapper is pretty cool. I can't profess to know enough about the process or anything like that, so I won't. AKA started in 2010 and appears to have 2 different blends. The Hybrid Seed was grown specifically for AKA by the Eiroa Family of Camacho Cigars. The binder came from the Kelner Family who supplies Davidoff Tobaccos. The filler came from those two families as well. Just some interesting little side notes about AKA may or may not hold any relevance.
Prelight: It's a nice looking stick. The double band is a nice touch, but the font is a little hard to read. The wrapper gives of a LOT of aroma. Mainly a dank kind of smell, like wet wood or something. I don't really know what to expect, but given the prelight aroma, I'm expecting a lot of flavor. Clipped the tip with the Xi and found a clean draw that offered up some woody notes. Not ceder, but more of moist tree bark kind of smell. It smelled like a walk in the woods in a heavy fog.
Beginning: So, I toasted the foot and fired it up with a single flame torch. No problems here. The first puff was bland. It really kind of tasted like ash. But I didn't let this get me down. Over the next few minutes some flavor notes presented themselves. The "walk in the woods" flavor was really the centerpiece with some sweetness in there as well. I noticed the flavors settled on the middle of my tongue, not the tip or the back. It was like listening to a song without a tweeter or bass. It was midrange all the way. I really got nothing through the nose at the beginning either. It was really a forgettable first inch or so.
Middle: More of the same with some random explosions of dark chocolate and leather. Every 5 puffs or so I'd taste a completely different cigar. It was the same on the retrohale. Every so often I'd get a BLAST of flavor and strength. So much so that I'd have to cut the retrohale short and exhale through my mouth. This stick has some bi-polar tendencies. About halfway through I got some astringent/metallic tastes on the exhale. In a way this was a bit of a relief. I just don't think this stick was ready to be smoked.
End: Nothing really changed. Some bland puffs followed by some EXCELLENT puffs followed by some painful puffs. I'm chalking this up to a stick that is just not ready to drive yet.
Construction: Not bad. Obviously I had some issues with this cigar, but construction was not one of them. the smoke was nice and thick, the draw and burn were solid. I even like the look overall.
Final Thoughts: So, I think it needed some rest. It had very brief moments of excellence. But they were far too few to say I enjoyed it. Now, if I had another and it was more consistent, then I'd completely change my tune.
Scores:
Smoke Time: 65 minutes
Price point: N/A - but it looks like they are in the $8 range.
Appearance: 9 - The wrapper has a nice color to it. The red and silver of the band pop nicely.
Construction: 9 - No issues.
Draw: 9 - No issues.
Flavor: 7.5 - This is the hard part. If the flavors that I had glimpses of were more prominent, then we'd have a nice stick, but give the behavior or this one, I just don't know.
Overall ? - I'm not gonna score it. If I were, I'd give this one a 7. But I just don't feel comfortable doing that considering the issues.
I can't wait to see what Brett (and maybe Mike) has to say about his experience. I think I got a stinker, but if he had a similar experience, maybe it's just a bad cigar. I really hope his worked out better.
Backstory and Construction:
So this cigar was created by the new boutique cigar company AKA and in their own words: We basically wanted to have an American Themed Company that is for us Americans. So for everyone who is Proud to be an American, You Are American KickAss.
The filler and wrapper are all grown by the Kelner and Eiroa families on the farms of the Comacho Estate.
The Wrapper is a hybrid of a Cameroon and 59 Cuban Seed Corojo aged 5 years prior to rolling.
The binder is 4 year aged Ligero leaf grown in the Dominican by the same people that grow for Davidoff.
The filler is a 4 and 5 Year Aged Dominican Piloto Cubano and Honduran leaves grown by both the Eiroa and Kelner families.
Appearance:
The triple cap is gorgeous and the reddish brown wrapper has a good tooth to it with two dominant veins that each run about half the length of the stick. It has a slightly spongy feel to the stick however and I think that it may have been rolled a bit young due to it being pretty damp and fresh. The double band of red and gold is quite elegant and simple.
Nose:
The nose on the wrapper is heavy of damp tobacco and some hay with a note of sweet clover honey to it. Off of the foot, a very young and damp tobacco is even stronger with a stronger honey as well.
Lick:
Honestly I barely got any flavor at all off of the lick, but it was mildly tangy and very very light hay and oak.
Cut/Dry Draw:
I cut the stick with my Xi cutter and it cut cleanly and easily. The dry draw had just a slight resistance to it, and the taste revealed more of the same from the nose off of the foot and wrapper.
1st Light and Third:
Light up time is 1:55pm. I toasted the foot with a single torch and it lit quickly and easily. It immediately starts to produce a large amount of smoke right off the bat, and an ample amount of spice and white pepper immediately presents itself along with some oak and a facet of young leather (the smell/taste of the brand new deerskin gloves etc). The hay on the dry draw isnt evident at ALL but the honey sweetness is there, but is picked up on the retrohale and the finish, which is somewhat of a long finish. The ash holds tight but is a dark gray with black ringing around it. See picture:
Its burning quicker than I expected having already gone through just under 1 in just under 10 minutes. It has however gone through a change already, by having a very pronounced and robust honey and cedar blending seamlessly. It I something that not only balances well but is also one of the more unique flavors Ive had in a medium body cigar. Some half and half tasting cream joins in but is only evident at the very first hit of the smoke and on the finish but disappearing in between. The burn is running slightly but so far isnt requiring a touch-up. The body is a light-ish medium and the flavor is medium+ but seems to be building nicely. The smoke is a light mouth feel but has a large production volume! The spice has really mellowed out and only comes out at the back of the tongue with the finish and having the pepper completely gone. The honey sweetness continues to grow for me with even more oak and cedar balancing in as well but adding a smoky quality to it almost as a flavor you would get from hickory chips being used in bbq smoking. The ash at the far point of the run has reached over 1.5 so I decide to ash it before I wear it again like I normally do lol.
2nd Third:
I use this opportunity to touch up the run and even out the burn. After I touch it up and ash it I take another draw on it and it has gone through another change and it has officially signaled the 2nd third. The oak has changed to a chewy and spicier robustness and the half and half cream has grown into a full on heavy sweet cream mixed with unfiltered clover honey. The previous flavors are still there but only as an afterthought. Im able to pinpoint the exact sweet cream flavor this reminds me of, Coldstone Creamery (An Ice cream company in Colorado) Sweet Cream chewy ice cream. It is now the first thing to hit your palate and then evolves into a hickory and slight oak smokiness. I ash it again after another inch has burned away and at this time it ends the 2nd third.
Final Third:
The final third doesnt go through a whole bunch of other changes and it finished out pretty darned well, but the major highlights and changes were the body getting stronger and getting chewier and smokier. The honey and cream is now only evident on the finish, with spice and pepper finally picking up at the end of the stick near the nub. By the time it gets down to the nub however, it has become a strong full body smoke and only becomes bitter at the very end where the tar builds up. Finish time is 3:15pm.
Final Thoughts:
Total smoke time is 1 hour and 20 minutes. It was a smoke that really snuck up on me, and was truly enjoyable. I have to say that the past couple of weeks I have truly been spoiled with magnificent masterpiece cigars, but this one was something special considering that AKA only came out in 2010 and is this special right off the bat.
Final Rating: 4 out of 5 Tobacco Leaves
CutleryBarn