Gurkha...

havlow

Allright since joining these forums I've been looking at what a lot of people are enjoying as well as doing some investigating on my own. I read a lot of good things about the Gurkhas. So I was at the local B&M last week and found a Gurkha 5 pack that had a Regent, Legend, G3 another with a red label and a bunch of G's around it and another that I'm too lazy to go back to the humidor and look at. So far I have to say I'm fairly unimpressed. Regent - Lit this one up after about 3 days in rest in my Humidor and it was a decent smoke for the first third but really didn't float my boat. Then it just went to pieces and I had to kill it before it hit the label as I feared it would come apart completely. I chalked it up to a bad cigar or perhaps needed more time in the Humidor. Legend - Stayed together very well to the end and I smoked it to the nub, however, for a 16 dollar stick it didn't really give me all that I wanted. Good Ash, draw and lots of good smoke but again not feeling the high dollar value. Multiple G's on the Red Band - This one came unwrapped after the first third, however, I did actually enjoy the blend despite this. Very much a tease. My questions to you guys are the following: What are your favorites? Do you recommend this brand sitting in the humidor a little longer after purchase? Does this brand consistently have wrapper issues?

docbp87

Gurkhas are really hit and miss for a lot of people here. I have had some that have blown me away, and some that are no good at all.

Stryker808

Welcome to the club. Gurkhas I love - none, Gurkhas ill smoke - centurian, beauty (the conn. wrapper one), legend, Park Ave., the old shaggy foot. I have smoked a lot of gurkha is the past years, and I have had some wrapper issues, but not a lot. I used to like them when I first started out, but lost interest when they came out with there millionth line. Talk about shotgunning $hit on a wall and hopeing something sticks. I have had terrible customer service from them in the past, and Im always suspicious when $35 a stick beauties and $20 a stick Titans go on sale, 5ers for $20.....hmmmm.....OK I just don't like them. But like the post above said, its hit or miss. I don't mean to discourage anyone from trying something new sorry. Edit* - I aged some legend perfectos for 3 years. They were good, but a friend of mine was blown away by them, so I gave em away. But yeah they age well i guess.

betasynn

I like to give my Gurkha's to friends that don't smoke. To me, they're pretty similar to Macanudo, by and large.

stephen_hannibal

betasynn:

I like to give my Gurkha's to friends that don't smoke. To me, they're pretty similar to Macanudo, by and large.

PFFFFT... whatev!

kuzi16

betasynn:

I like to give my Gurkha's to friends that don't smoke. To me, they're pretty similar to Macanudo, by and large.

no... i disagree

macanudo has no flavor IMHO
gurkha has flavor, just little flavor variation from label to label. that flavor, save for a few, is unimpressive for the price.

i am a fan of the regent and the centurian and from time to time i enjoy a legend but all in all, ive moved on from gurkha.

undulac

For me, there are just too many of them. I have had a few in samplers and a single here and there, but I don't want to put the $ into finding a few that I like out of the whole bunch. There are too many other good sticks out there.

Krieg

I have tried a few Ghurkas, and it seems the only one I have really liked is the Park Ave. I liked that one, but generally in the past I have had many construction problems with the sticks i tried, anywhere from the wrapper coming off to plugs in the middle of the cigar. I was fed up with them till laker sent me a few to try, that's how I stumbled across the park ave, which imo was a good smoke. Last one I tried was a micro batch cigar. It was ok, at least it didn't fall apart on me while smoking it.

rossdavey2

+1 I have had issues with every G I have smoked apart form Park Ave. I'm not buy G's again unless they are so cheap I poop my pants. Which doesn't happen often because that is cheap indeed.

ironhorse

rossdavey2:

+1 I have had issues with every G I have smoked apart form Park Ave. I'm not buy G's again unless they are so cheap I poop my pants. Which doesn't happen often because that is cheap indeed.

are you intending to relate how cheap pooping your pants is compared to how cheap an item can be? because pooping can be expensive depending on what type of food makes up the poop or the actions needed to poop, such as if you need special medication to make you poop. I've made poop with food that has cost me up wards of 200 dollars! Now the action of pooping is usually free, but if you get blocked up with cheap poop, you may need an expensive enima to complete the action.

The lesson is.....do not take pooping for granted!

but aside from my daily lessons, I also agree that Gurkha can be very hit or miss. And I have missed more than I have hit. I'd say I've enjoyed 3 out of the 10 varieties of theirs I've had

sightunseen

Most of the Gurkha's I've had were just "meh." The only ones that stood out for me were the Regent Nepalese Warrior, Park Ave, and Micro-Batch TPB-1.

rossdavey2

Lol. More like "whow thats so cheap I *** myself a little", not "man I ate bad mexican last night and my 3rd fart ran behind my knee."

havlow

From Cigars to discussing the economics of bowel movements...good times. It sounds like a lot of people had similar problems that I did and I also had concerns about the sheer number of blends and lines available. I agree however, that the Legend stick was not worth $16 dollars seeing that it only graded higher than the others due to the wrapper staying on. I'm also not trying to through Gurkha under the bus, I have gotten some great insight on this brand and it appears that people either love them or hate them. I am definitely curious about the other two sticks I have left over but I'm going to let them sit in the humi another month or so and then give them a try.

Russ55

kuzi16:

the regent and the centurian and from time to time i enjoy a legend

For those of you who don't want to spend the time and the money to try every gurhka brand out there these are the three I'd try. No, you are not guaranteed to like them, and yes there are lots of people who don't like these three, but these give you a good shot at finding a stick you may like.

I've heard Gurkha described as "a 5 dollar cigar in a 50 dollar box" (J0z3r? I think) and to an extent I think it's true. The MSRP is too high for what you get. At least on the ones I've tried. I'd also recommend trying the Gurkhas that are made by blenders that you already like. For instance, the ones made by AJ Fernandez.

rwheelwright

Gurkha bas been hit or miss with me too. I liked the Beauty but not enough to pay $30 a piece. I really liked the first Shaggy natural I had. The last two were ok. My first Centurion was freaking awesome. Since then they have just been ok. I like the Genghis Kahn. I just think that the consistency is not there.

sightunseen

I think they've stretched themselves thin with all those blends they've come out with, not unlike RP. Personally, I would like it more if a company focused on perfecting a handful of fantastic blends rather than making 1 or 2 good ones and a ton of mediocre ones. The current approach just screams "used car salesmen."

gdsim1

"Rolls Royce of Cigars" my @ss! Have had the same experience as seemingly every other BOTL here with nearly every Gurkha Ive tried - construction issue after construction issue after construction issue. The only sticks of theirs I have found to be worth my time & $$$ have been the Park Avenue, and oddly enough, their Sherpa Cafe - which is another of their economically (about $3/stick) priced offerings. Forgot about them in the bottom of the humi for about 6 months or so, and it apparently did them a world of good.

Centurians? Every single one I have tried has unraveled. Titan II's? Tasty, but had burn issues & D@MN sure nto worth the $20 per stick price tag. Seems to me, the cheaper stick you buy from Gurkha the better off you are... if I were Rolls Royce, I think I would be suing... :-)

Hayblet

All in all I can't say I've had a bad Gurkha yet had a Series 3 with a bit of a tight draw but no complaints other than that. I love the Centurian, had a Grand Envoy 2 days ago that was perfect, I just want to try them all. Really kick myself for not buying the Shaggy foot one's on a sister site the other week.

stephen_hannibal

I agree with Hayblet, Gurkha's been a really solid brand for me.
I've liked all the ones I had.

Duder2

For me, Gurkha is hit or miss. I generally haven't really had any construction issues, but the blends I generally really like, or really don't. I have enjoyed the process of discovery though, and it hasn't cost too much because I hunt out the good deals here on Ccom. So far some of the blends I like are the Legend, Micro batch VH1, Centurian, Royal Brigade(this one really grew on me after plenty of rest time), Doble Maduro(awesome!), Shaggy, Titan, Beauty Maduro, there are more but that's off the top of my head.

phobicsquirrel

The thing is, kuzi hit a good point. Several of the sticks have a very similar taste. Though moving to the beast/beauty/triple ligero/turk they are all pretty much good smokes. The centurian is a good cigar though I would never buy it at the msrp. Those are about the extent of good gurkha's that I can say are good. The grand age and gangas khan are pretty tasty though they are hard to come by on a deal, so they usually have to be had at a higher price. I really like the Green/Red dragons as well as the dragon fires and dragon furys, then again they are usually had at a higher price than you can find the ones I first mentioned. The Titan 1 is also a good stick in my opinion, though I wasn't as fond of the titan 2.

Out of how many cigars they have, and ones that I like I would say they are one of my top cigar makers. If you ever get to try a platinum/grand/royal reserve they are very tasty as well. I think a lot of people do is think of them as high priced so they must be good, well if you look around you can get a lot of the sticks pretty cheap and thus they equal out more. Most of the new lines I have not enjoyed as much. I still say that out of all the other manufacturers out there, gurkha makes more sticks that I enjoy out of any other. Alec Bradley/LFD/TAT/AF all make good sticks and probably over par with most of gurkha though some gurkha's I down right love, though stick for sticks I enjoy gurkha more, there are more for me to chose that I enjoy. Would I pay the high prices for them, NO!!! I get them when they go on sale and don't look back.

martymcg43

black dragons are good gurkhas

j0z3r

Russ55:

I've heard Gurkha described as "a 5 dollar cigar in a 50 dollar box" (J0z3r? I think) and to an extent I think it's true.

Can't take credit for that one Russ, but I do tend to agree with it. For me Gurkha has been an adventure in mediocrity save for a select few blends. I will continue to smoke the Regent, Centurian and Legend perfecto, the one caveat is that the price has to be right, I'll never pay retail for a Gurkha because to me they're just not worth it.

TatuajeVI

"An adventure in mediocrity" nice one!

I've not smoked a lot of different Gurkhas. The ones I've had have been ok, but nothing special. With the exception of the first Micro-batch VH-7 I smoked. It was (to steal a previous quote from this thread) so good "I pooped my pants." It is one of those smokes that I'll never forget because it was that good. After every puff I would stare at it, drool, and then ****. I purchased 4 more the next day, and sadly the next one I smoked was not good - fell apart and tasted bitter. Since then, I haven't smoked another, but I will soon. They'll have 6 months or more in the humidor by the time I get to them, and hopefully they will be as fantastic as the first one.

PuroFreak

I've had several of the Gurks and the ones that stand out for me are #1 the Centurian! I've had many of them and they have always been a fantastic smoke. #2 The Legend. They are good smokes, but do a lot better with some age on them. And #3 the Shaggy. I've had a tight draw on a couple of them, but always have great flavor!

ironhorse

Some people have made the correlation between Rocky Patel and Gurkha being a little overextended with their blending and I will agree with that to a point. I think rocky has a good set of reliable base cigars such as the Vintage 1990's and 92's. The SunGrown, Connecticut, and Decade and then after that it can be a little out there. But I will also say that at least I don't have nearly the construction and burn issues with RP's that I do with Gurkhas. It's one thing to be uninteresting, its quite another to annoy me enough to throw my cigar at a wall.

unmerrymelodies

Like most on here I haven't had too many Gurkha's and what I have had I wasn't impressed with. So far I haven't liked any of the Empire Series that I've smoked (II, III, and V) or the Park Ave. However, I did really enjoy the Evil and thought the Warlord was a pretty good smoke as well. I think I'd pick up and Evil again, but other than that I've pretty much given up on Gurkha, there are too many other cigars out there that it is stupid to keep wasting my time and money trying to see if the hype is justified.

ENFIDL

When I first started looking at the Gurkha cigars I felt like I was getting lost due to the vast array they make. I have only tried one so far, a Gurkha Legend, thanks to Lilwing and I really enjoyed it. I thought it had a great taste and was a solid cigar. I did have some burn issues but it got pretty windy right after I had lit up so I'm not blaming it on the cigar. I have a Park Ave and Sherpa Cafe resting right now, thanks Coachjamie and Gdsim1, and I can't wait to try them. I have been looking at getting the premium box set with the Titan, Titan II, Beast, Double Maduro, Signature 101 and Legend in it.

havlow

Lots of good feedback here and I appreciate all the feedback. I think the Legend is a good smoke and I'll agree for the most part with everyone about too many blends. I went to my local B&M today and asked them if they planned to stock them anytime soon and was astounded that they had never even heard of the brand!!! They carry the usuals (Monte Cristo, Punch, Macanudo, Cohiba, etc) as well as the RP's, CAO and Acid Brands as well so I found it very strange that they've missed Gurkha's entirely considering it does have the so-called title of "Worlds Most Expensive Cigar" in the HMR stick. However, I feel that if I can be an agent for change in my neck of the woods and bring more of a selection in house I'll definitely push for this brand despite my experiences.

cabinetmaker

Microbatch S-2, centurian are the two I like best, I liked the cognac tasting one too, the infused one.