The Velvet Cigar

Posted By ironmeden on April 18, 2008

I’m on my knees! God, I know you can hear me, I know I don’t pray much, but I have a good reason to be asking you for this favor. “God, Please bless us with Global Warming! I will sacrifice anything you want, i’ll buy a Hummer if that pleases you! Maybe I need a private meeting with the Pope.

The constant weather changes this time of year displeases me. One day it will be 70 and the next 40 and rain.

So on a cool day with a spattering of rain I head out to Stogies on Grand for another Friday evening of smoking. I’m meeting a friend there who is getting me a prize selection of Scotch. He works for a company that sells liquor and he get me crazy deals on Scotch. I did the same deal in February, buy 2 bottles of Highland Park 15 and get one bottle of Highland Park 12 for free. I really have fallen for the Highland Park 15. It is the Scotch that I’ve been waiting for. It has a smoother taste then the 12, but still has some of the peatiness but the flavor’s are more complex and robust. It is delicious! The deal itself is less then $80 for the 3 bottles. I’m well stocked for a while.

My cigar for the evening, I decided to try a new cigar they have in the humidor, its the Savinelli Special Selection 2005. From the label its a Nicaraguan cigar. Inside the cellophane I could see some light plume at the top of the cigar. I took it out and saw a line of plume right underneath the shoulder of the cigar. The recent write up at
Keepers of the Flame had great information on Plume. The aging process of the cigar was going well for this cigar.

The size they had was the Toro 6×52. Its a nice looking cigar with a reddish hue to the wrapper. I’m not sure because of the band, that may of tainted my look of the cigar, but there was some redness to the cigar wrapper.

The band is simple, it explains what you are smoking with a red background.

I made a V-cut to the head and lit it up with a match. The first inch or so it burned a little uneven but after that it corrected itself.

From the start and all the way through to the end there was a odd aftertaste to this smoke. That flavor really took away from the enjoyment of this stick. It did have a tartness that went along with that taste. I’ve had the experience of this odd aftertaste a few times where it has a slight chemical taste.

The filler and binder are made of Nicaraguan Cuban Seed Tobacco with a Ecuadorian Habano Wrapper.

I got notes of caramel throughout with some hints of coffee.

Again the aftertaste of each draw wasn’t pleasant. The last time I reviewed a cigar like this was the Gurkha Black Dragon where I tasted a strange chemical note.

This cigar has recently been rated highly by Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Insider.

Maybe their palates are different then mine and if this same taste was prevalent in those samples, maybe thats a taste of a premium cigar, but I in my opinion would beg to differ. I didn’t get any hints of spiciness from this cigar.

So my rating for this cigar going by our new ratings scale would be 3 out of 5 which is designated as the Cloth Seat. The flavors from the cigar are good, but the aftertaste really didn’t sit well with me.

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Categories: Ecuador, Nicaragua
Tags: cigar chemical taste, plume, savinelli, special selection 2005