The Velvet Cigar

Posted By ironmeden on February 9, 2008

Elvis and I are going to try a dual blog posting. We both lit up the King Conch Maduro tonight.

Last year a co-worker went down to Key West, Florida and came upon the Conch Republic Cigar Company. He purchased a 5 pack sampler of the Natural wrapper and handed them out to us at work. I smoked it up and really enjoyed the cigar. It was unique and different with a lot of fruity notes.

About a week ago the guys who got a sample cigar started talking about getting more. We all chipped in on 4 sample packs, two 5 packs of the Natural and two 5 packs of the Maduro. With our order they gave samples of their King Conch cigars which are 54×6 1/2. The cigar is like a large Perfecto cigar.

I was really excited to try the Maduro. I wanted to find out the difference between the Natural and Maduro wrapper. I remembered the Natural wrapper having a lot of fruity notes.

The King Conch has a unique look to it. It has a Torpedo head and as the cigar gets to the foot it has a large bulge and then its tapered at the end with about a 1/2 inch ‘wick’.

The band is quite simple. It has accents of blue, gold and white with a gold Conch shell in the middle of the band..

The wrapper appears smooth with some noticeable veins. The cigar has a spongy feel to it as I rolled my fingers around the cigar. I made a V-Cut to the cigar. The first initial taste unlit, it has a sweet taste and loose draw.

I lit the cigar with a match, the ‘wick’ lights up right away and burns away quickly after the first puffs it gets to the bulk of the cigar. The pre light draw is prevalent throughout the cigar, it has a smooth and easy draw as you smoke through it.

Noticeable sweetness gives the cigar a very enjoyable flavor. It has woodsy notes and at times a cherry flavor. This is one difference I can note between this and Natural wrapper. The Natural wrapper seemed to give off more lemon tones giving it a lighter taste, where as Maduro wrapper has a more definite cherry flavor.

The burn of the cigar was even and the ash was gray with white accents.

Now as the cigar got down to the last 2 inches, the middle of my tongue started to almost get a burning sensation. This was odd since I was not getting any peppery or spicy tones from the cigar. It just snuck up on me, It was quite enjoyable to have this come out of nowhere, it’s like they put some secret tobacco in the end of the cigar to keep you guessing.

Conch Republic Cigars really has rolled some great cigars. They are very different from any cigar i’ve smoked before. I highly recommend their line of cigars.

Elvis:
I would pick out this cigar right away in a shop’s humidor if I was looking for something new if only because of the crazy shape it’s in with the swollen bulging end on it. When I lit up the nub I was amazed at how loose the draw was considering the air was coming only from a quarter inch circumference area. As the cigar neared the battle of the bulge I quickly noticed a big hole going up the cigar about an inch. I believe this comes from a rolling process where they wrap the cigar around some kind of reed or plastic spacer to help aid the draw and then they must pull it out when they are done. And I think it was a good idea considering the funnel like shape to help you get a good even burn up to the bulbous end. The aroma and the flavor was quite lively from this Honduran leaf work of art. I didn’t get the cherry notes Ironmeden got, but I think what he’s getting at is that the flavor was very complex and layered. This is labeled as a full bodied cigar. In fact Conch conveniently matches the strength of a cigar directly with the size. If you pick up a Corona or even smaller Conch, it’s going to be on the mild side…if it’s bigger like this one it means it’s strong. Very handy. The flavors really danced giving you some milk chocolate with a tiny bit of spice back and forth. I didn’t feel or taste any of the strength until the last third and I got the exact sensation Iron described…a tingling sensation on the very tip of the tongue. If not careful, you could burn your tongue as the flavor and literal heat of the smoke ramped up at this point. Conch…what is the plural of Conch anyway….Conchs…no, Conchesses….well, the gaggle of Conch cigars come in generous boxes of 25 and the prices are down right a steal and the King Conch is the most expensive one.

Here in Minnesota, they would run around $10 per stick and for the near two hour very unique smoking experience, it’s well worth every penny. Not to mention, how else can you enjoy the uniqueness of Key West in the winter without blowing a bunch of dough and flying down there? Might be hard to find at a local shop outside of Key West, but ask your retailer to get some in! Or you can just go online and get a sampler.

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Categories: Conneticut, Ecuador, Honduras, Maduro
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