Honest cigar reviews. One question.
Cigar and gear reviews with no score inflation and no 100-point theater. Every review shows the street price, what I actually paid, and where the stick came from... then answers the only question that matters: would I smoke it again?
The cigar scale
Box Buy · 4/4 A box stays on hand at all times. Regular rotation.
Five-Pack · 3/4 Yes, I'd buy it again. A few live in the humidor.
Hand-Me-One · 2/4 Wouldn't spend my own money. Wouldn't turn one down.
Not Even Free · 1/4 I'd rather smoke nothing.
Latest reviews
Perez-Carrillo La Historia Silk Toro Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). There's a cream-leather-coffee cigar in here that kept trying to show up, but a bitterness that never left, a wrapper that cracked in at least six places, and touch-up after touch-up on the burn is not a $16.50 experience.
Liga Privada No. 9 Toro Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4). A leather-coffee-cream cigar with no bitterness, a near-perfect draw, and the most smoke production I've ever had from a cigar... it doesn't transition much, it just does what it does extremely well. The construction hiccups it had, I'm laying at the fee
My Father La Promesa Corona Gorda Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). The first two thirds were genuinely good... leather, coffee, peanut shell drifting into cashew, a sweet cream that kept coming back, and a retro that smoked like a different cigar than the draw all night. Two things pull it down: a draw that stayed snu
La Flor Dominicana Andalusian Bull Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). The best-constructed cigar I've ever had in my hand, wrapped around a flavor profile that had me watching the clock for the last hour... and at $25 a stick, construction alone can't carry that.
Arturo Fuente Añejo No. 77 "The Shark" Review
Verdict: Box Buy (4/4). Complex, layered, and phenomenal start to finish... at $23 a stick I'll be setting money aside and buying a box at the next drop. The only question I'm still chewing on is which vitola that box ends up being.
Oliva Serie V Melanio Figurado Review
Verdict: Hand-Me-One (2/4). Nothing bad, nothing good, just nothing... the most forgettable cigar I've smoked in a long time, from a line that's supposed to be phenomenal. I'd smoke one if you handed it to me. I wouldn't buy another, and I don't know how this cigar earns the rati
AJ Fernandez New World Gobernador Toro Review
Verdict: Five-Pack (3/4). Good flavor the whole way through... but good, not great, and that's what keeps it out of box territory. The draw didn't help its case either, running a touch too tight and tightening up toward the midway mark. At $8.70 street, and closer to six bucks a
Romeo y Julieta Habana Reserve Robusto Review
Verdict: Not Even Free (1/4)... bitter from the first inch to the last, on a draw so tight I never got a normal mouthful of smoke out of it. Two full relights, better than a dozen touch-ups, a second cut before I ever lit it, a draw tool run halfway up the cigar, and none of it m
Crowned Heads Mil Días Maduro Edmundo Review
Verdict: Not Even Free (1/4). It fought me the whole night on a tight draw and a crooked burn, and every time it went wavy it slid into a sour, bitter note I don't want to chase. The even stretches were okay, but they almost never showed up.
Perdomo Legacy Nicaraguan Shade-Grown Epicure Review
Verdict: Box Buy (4/4). Sweet cream, roasted cashew, and a baking spice retrohale that never turned harsh... I already own a box of these, and I'd pay full retail for the next one.