The Velvet Cigar

Posted By Elvis on February 1, 2008

As I let up tonight’s cigar, I kept singing in my mind, “Thank Heaven…for little girllllssss…they keep on getting smaller all the time…”. And then I realized that was Omar Sharif and not Omar Ortez the maker of this hallucinating cigar I had just started to take in. And then upon more research I realized that the lyrics go “….they get bigger everyday..” which totally makes sense…oh, and it was Maurice Chevalier singing and not Sharif. Wow, this cigar has made me loopy already!

I had heard about the Omar Ortez Original somewhere before I got the e-mail from Tampa Humidor saying that this was their cigar special of the week..if you ordered 6 for a mere $18, they would throw in 3 more with free shipping. Well, ok then….I’ve had quite a few $3 sticks and they always suck, so something that’s supposed to be a genuinely good cigar and that was now only $2 per stick…I was reeled right in.

These nice looking sticks are bandless…a trend I think started by the Edge. But even the Edge now sports a band on the foot. And the Omars come in giant trunks of 60 sticks normally much like the Edge crates of 50. The cigar looks like a blue collar guy’s cigar…nice and veiny with some of those “Chucky” like stitches across them. It’s quite toothy (meaning it has lots of little tiny round bumps across the wrapper) and a nice dark brown. Doesn’t appear to be oozing any oils, but it is a heavy cigar in the hand which makes me feel like I got a steal on these. Looking down the barrel of this gun I notice something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before…the middle filler is noticably darker than the rest of the filler and stands out in that pattented “V” fold to the tobacco as its rolled. Maybe this is where they keep the ligero leaves, right at the heart of the cigar?

I held this stick in mouth for awhile while getting my computer ready for the review and the unlit flavor really started burning the back of my throat as the juices got flowing. Oh boy…I started to get really worried but also excited to take my medicine tonight….reminded me of a 50′s father saying, “Now this will only hurt for a bit” right before he walloped his misbehaving son. Unfortunately, my own father never gave me such a warning…he just cracked me a good one out of nowhere when I needed it!

Dammit…digressing again. I made a V cut and lit this baby up and I’ve got to say that I would have preferred the harsh discipline to the harshness and overwhelming pepper and spice that immediately took my breath away. Yikes! This must be a Nicaraguan wrapper at the very least since it reminded me of some of the Don Pepins or Tatuajes out there right now flying off the shelves. Thank God this harshness quickly cooled and the cigar really became pure flavor. OK…time to research.

Well, I was correct…and oh so correct….the Omar is actually a Nicaraguan puro meaning all the tobacco in the cigar is from Nicaragua. I read a couple of reviews and suprisingly one of them says the cigar is milder at the beginning. Maybe if I had been sipping a whiskey beforehand, it wouldn’t have bit me so hard, but I would have to disagree with that review. Now, the sticks I got were the Toro size…54×6. Maybe some of the the other sizes in the line take the “edge” off…no pun intended.

As I get into it, the smoke takes on some woody flavors and the aroma of the smoke is very thick and pleasant. This is one of the first cigars where I completely noticed a definite change as you smoke it down….I mean it becomes two or three very unique cigars. By the lower third I get almost a mild sweetness with one exception….this thing is heady and will make you weak in the knees. You can feel the power in your legs and belly when you are finished but thankfully without the spins. And it kind of takes you by surprise because the cigar ends on such a great smooth chocolately note that you don’t know your ass has been kicked until you get up.

Overall, this is a good cigar and one of the best bargains out there if you like full bodied sticks. If I was to become a one cigar man, for the price and flavor I would really have to think about making these my everyday smokes but this is because I mainly smoke at night before bed. If you were to attempt to light these up as you do yardwork or relax with on some summer day you might get a headache for the remainder of it.

By the way, I just want to plug Tampa Humidor (www.tampahumidor.com). The sticks arrived with a water pillow which is huge here in the Minnesota winters…especially when it’s been well below zero for the last few weeks. If that pillow had not been in the bag, they would have needed some serious time to re-humidfy or you would risk them cracking. Tampa Humidor offers some of the most ridiculous and insane weekly specials that I’ve seen. It’s a great place to sign up for their e-mail list and try some cigars when they are having a deal. Their normal prices are comparable to all the others and maybe even a little higher, but the specials really tempt you to buy something just for the bargain. Ironically though I cannot see the Omars on their normal list of cigars online, but they do appear in the beautiful and well layed out catalogue I just got in the mail…normally $3 a stick and just $150 for a box of 60! Wow. Get some buddies together and go in on a chest of these today!

Elvis

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Categories: Cigar Indulgence, Nicaragua
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