Diesel Unlimited d.5 Review

JonathanE

I was excited to turn the key on this 91, Cigar.com rated beauty after reading some rave reviews about a “supercharged” addition to the Diesel lineup and, having burnt the stick, I can tell you that the Unlimited d.5 is equal to the hype!   …part of it, at least.

I was initially impressed by the obvious quality of this handsome cigar as a careful, pre-ignition examination graded the d.5’s construction as flawless.  The oily smoothness and consistency of the wrapper with its tight cap and dark, diesel-y color make it a real eye catcher.

The Diesel’s flavor and aroma are both splendidly full but, unfortunately, the aromatic properties are just short of terrible!  The smoke is bitter and acidic and retronasal olfaction is a bad idea.  The taste on the other hand is excellent.  I enjoyed a peppery pot roast and spicy leather with a touch of bitter oak; a full, complex and engaging experience.

If not for an exhaust gas befitting its name, I’m sure the Diesel Unlimited d.5 would have scored in the high 80’s but, as it is, I held it to a 79 on the CA scale.  (- 15 from overall impression, -5 from Flavor & Body, -1 from Smoke & Burn)

xmacro

. . . looking at all the html you used, I'm not sure if you're a person or another bot . . . the fact that you're using Cigar Aficionado's scale makes me think you're a bot, or just someone who gives too much credit to CA ratings. But if you're human, I'd say give the DU another shot

JonathanE

Haha, not a bot – just wrote the review in Word. What I don't like about CA's ratings is that they have very few cigars rated below 80 and I don't think I've seen any less than 70. What's a rating scale good for if 90% of the cigars get rated in the mid to upper 80s? That's not a good discriminator. I like CA's rating strategy, not their rating results. My rating results have tagged cigars as low as 40 and as high as 95 which is much more realistic in my opinion. I may have to give the Diesel another shot. I really liked the cigar, it was just a little too harsh. I saw in some of the other reviews that the Diesel may need to age for 6 months or a year before it gets to its prime. Maybe I will take your advice, buy another and let it mature for awhile. JDE

xmacro

DU's can be a firecracker when they're fresh; I'd definitely agree to giving it a few months in the humi, they can get pretty smooth with some time on them

bigharpoon

JonathanE:

Haha, not a bot – just wrote the review in Word. What I don't like about CA's ratings is that they have very few cigars rated below 80 and I don't think I've seen any less than 70. What's a rating scale good for if 90% of the cigars get rated in the mid to upper 80s? That's not a good discriminator. I like CA's rating strategy, not their rating results. My rating results have tagged cigars as low as 40 and as high as 95 which is much more realistic in my opinion. I may have to give the Diesel another shot. I really liked the cigar, it was just a little too harsh. I saw in some of the other reviews that the Diesel may need to age for 6 months or a year before it gets to its prime. Maybe I will take your advice, buy another and let it mature for awhile. JDE

I feel the same way about the ratings. I don't put any stock in them but still, they should have some lower numbers to go along with the high ones. They would probably lose all their marketing money from any company they gave a 70 to so I doubt we'll see that happen.

Diesel Unlimited does have a pretty harsh retro-hale until it gets some rest under it's belt. Even then it's pretty strong still but better. I have a hard time letting them age for too long, they just seem to always get smoked for some reason??? The D.5 is my favorite size in the line.

JonathanE

bigharpoon:

I have a hard time letting them age for too long, they just seem to always get smoked for some reason??? The D.5 is my favorite size in the line.

I know what you're saying! The most impressive part of the Diesel is its appearance. It's really got a strong hand-cigar magnetic attraction going for it. I smoked it sooner than I was supposed to myself! {8-)

Krieg

I actually lit one of these up last night. Tasted great till about half way down then it really started to turn bitter. I figured it was getting hot so I let it sit and then tried it again...no luck. Strange...I usually have a great experience w/ the Diesel Unlimited d.5. Still love the stick though, very spicy and leathery with a snow white ash.

JonathanE

Hey, that's interesting. Did you get the stick you smoked last night from the Cigar of the Month? I wonder if we're smoking an inferior batch because I also noticed the sharp increase in acidic bitterness around half way through. The first third to one half was much better. JDE

Krieg

hmm...I got most of mine from a box purchase a while ago. However, I have been bombed with a few. The ones from the box i know of were great...not sure what happened to this one.

JonathanE

Krieg:

Still love the stick though, very spicy and leathery with a snow white ash.

Hey, just realized you claimed a "snow white ash." My ash was actually on the grey side. Does that mean it was over humidified? Might that have contributed to the harshness that I experienced? JDE

Krieg

hmm...not sure if the humidity has anything to do with the ash color. Humidity will affect burning more than anything, the ash color comes from the type of soil the tobacco grew in (minerals and fertilizers used..etc)

JonathanE

That's interesting. I rated the cigar down a point for the ash actually. It was one of the darkest I've seen that didn't come from a cigar purchased at the Base Exchange that I never should have smoked! I expected better... Again, I wonder about the lot? Maybe I got a bad one? JDE

Krieg

JonathanE:

That's interesting. I rated the cigar down a point for the ash actually. It was one of the darkest I've seen that didn't come from a cigar purchased at the Base Exchange that I never should have smoked! I expected better... Again, I wonder about the lot? Maybe I got a bad one? JDE

Well I might have gotten an older cigar made w/ different tobacco. That's the nature of the game w/ cigars...the tobacco they use one year for the stick will be gone the next so they have to tweak the blend to get the taste back with different tobacco. Thats why my RP 1990's taste a ton better than the ones coming out today. (imo)

Vidarien

Krieg:

That's the nature of the game w/ cigars...the tobacco they use one year for the stick will be gone the next so they have to tweak the blend to get the taste back with different tobacco. Thats why my RP 1990's taste a ton better than the ones coming out today. (imo)

Thats not an imo, thats a so help me god truth. Had i known what was going to happen, i wouldve stuffed an emergency box of 1990's in my basement for...emergencies..of course, alas all gone.

JonathanE

Darien, I don't like your signature quote! It's true! It is always windy over here and it really does make for a time of it.

JDE

Krieg

Vidarien:

Krieg:

That's the nature of the game w/ cigars...the tobacco they use one year for the stick will be gone the next so they have to tweak the blend to get the taste back with different tobacco. Thats why my RP 1990's taste a ton better than the ones coming out today. (imo)

Thats not an imo, thats a so help me god truth. Had i known what was going to happen, i wouldve stuffed an emergency box of 1990's in my basement for...emergencies..of course, alas all gone.

yeah...hopefully the 90's will get better again down the road...hoping anyway. 90 was one of my favorite smokes along w/ the Decade.

boydmcgowan

Krieg:

hmm...not sure if the humidity has anything to do with the ash color. Humidity will affect burning more than anything, the ash color comes from the type of soil the tobacco grew in (minerals and fertilizers used..etc)

JonathanE:

That's interesting. I rated the cigar down a point for the ash actually. It was one of the darkest I've seen that didn't come from a cigar purchased at the Base Exchange that I never should have smoked! I expected better... Again, I wonder about the lot? Maybe I got a bad one? JDE

Jonathan, just wanted to bring this up since I've been thinking aobut it and to expand on what Krieg said because he brings up an important point here. A lot of people have different ideas about ashes and think they realate directly to quality. Ash color does not tell you much about the quality of the leaf, however it does tell you where the leaf was grown, in what conditions(sun vs shade, etc), and what what type of soil it was grown in. I'm sure alot of the forum vets could tell you more specifics on what the colors mean, I can't, but I did just want to point out that ash color does not tell you much about quality.

boydmcgowan

Jonathan, also wanted to welcome you to the forums and give you some props for posting a review with your very first post. Thats bada$$ man. Keep the posts coming, this is an awesome group of guys here, I've learned a ton.

so, welcome brother.

JonathanE

I like how there's not a bunch of flaming and BS on this board, it really does seem to be full of decent folk!

On the ash topic, does the humidity that the cigar has been stored at affect the ash? It's extremely humid here sometimes so I've wondered...

JDE

Krieg

JonathanE:

I like how there's not a bunch of flaming and BS on this board, it really does seem to be full of decent folk!

On the ash topic, does the humidity that the cigar has been stored at affect the ash? It's extremely humid here sometimes so I've wondered...

JDE

As far as I understand, humidity shouldn't affect ash.

boydmcgowan

Just getting back into town here . . .

So yeah, I have no real clue here on humidity affecting ash, but like Krieg here said already, I wouldn't think it would have any impact at all.

But this got me thinking about something else, so I had another thought for you. My brother lives somewhere with ridiculous humidity and heat as well and has a hard time with keeping his humidity down at 75% and under as well. So I just recomended him to the heartfelt industries website to check out their beads, and I would recoment the same thing for you as well. The cool thing about the beads is that they absorb excess moisture in the air, like they should for you, as well as put out moisture in dry climates like mine in Northern California.

So I'm not exactly sure how they'd work for you, but I would imagine that you could put in double the required amount (they have a calculator on the website) and they should help regulate the humidity inside your humidor at 65% or 70% until they filled up (they would be mostly clear and your humidity would rise again) at which point you could just pull them out and hit them with a hair drier to dry them back out again.

Anyway just a thought since my brother has the same issue and I just recomended those to him. Let us know what you think.

JonathanE

That's a great thought. I like the idea of a two way system: something that will add as needed AND remove as needed.

JDE