Camacho Liberty 2008
Posted By Elvis on July 20, 2008
Wow, what a week it was in my little cigar world. No, I didn’t attend the big show in Vegas, but I did enjoy reading all the other blogger’s experiences and seeing pics, etc. It’ going to be an exciting time of year from now on entering a local brick and mortar shop and seeing what new products start to trickle in. Who will get the CAO LX2 first? What about all those new Perdomos I read about? Good time of year to keep a somewhat regular tour of duty going and making the rounds at all the shops around here so I don’t miss anything new.
I started getting in the practice of this early this past week. I hit five different shops just to see what was going on and if I could find anything new to review along the way. The one place I really did hit on a number of new sticks is called Tobacco Grove and they are the biggest shop in the area, in my opinion. They also have some pretty strong ties with a lot of the cigar makers out there so they always seem to get stuff before the others. On this week’s visit, I picked up the new Camacho Liberty 2008, a Cabaiguan, a Cuvee 151 Maduro Toro Gordo and a Cusano Habano LXI Sun Grown. These were all sticks I had not yet seen around town yet. They also had a Don Pepin JJ Maduro…I smoked that up right then and there…damn good stick!
Tonight I knew I wanted to review one of these having not smoked yesterday..figured my palate would be a little sharper. I wasted no time and dug right into the most expensive of lot…the Camacho Liberty 2008. I bought one of these a few years ago and ended up donating the stick to our cigar club raffle, so I never got to sample one. In fact, I didn’t even know this was a barber pole cigar until I opened this sucker out of its wooden coffin moments ago. This is a limited cigar…only 40,000 made each year and mine is #6082. Pretty early on in the run!
First of all, this is an amazing looking cigar. The barber pole is flawless..nice thick bands of alternating maduro and bronze CT wrappers. The shape is even more impressive. It’s a slightly boxed pressed figurado that tapers near the head and the foot. I think I’ve seen this same shape on another Camacho, but nowhere else. You can tell a lot of time and care went into crafting this cigar and the numbered, wooden coffin just finishes the whole presentation. Yes, at least I feel like I’m smoking a $25 cigar.
Now, the taste left me shaking my head. I wish I had two of these sticks but with that pricetag I’m not going to be taking in another one anytime soon. I always try and be fair when talking about flavors and try a stick at least twice. You just never know…sometimes your palate is just screwed up or you get a totally different taste at night versus daytime, etc. But in this case, I can only write what I tasted this one time on this one night.
Here goes…it was flat our horrible for the first half! Perhaps these are too young…maybe they are meant to be purchased and collected and laid down for a year or more like a rich Cab wine…sure, you CAN drink it right when it’s released, but you probably want to wait a few years. That’s GOT to be what is happening here.
I got virtually no pre-light aroma and lighting up the foot of the cigar, the smoke wafted away without any real pleasant smell. The first 3 inches of this stick almost made me put it down and forget about it. It literally turned my stomach. It was grassy and completely bitter. The draw and burn was fine, but it was devoid of any complexity whatsoever or rich tobacco taste. I should say that I love Camacho…only their Legendario turns me off..it’s just too damn strong. But this barber pole creation reminded me nothing of any other Camacho. It is simply too mild and not ready to even be a good mild smoke at this point due to that bitter combination of grass and light airyness.
I can’t wait to read other reviews many months from now on what a great stick this is. It really needs to be because of the construction and the pricetag alone. I guess when I pay that much for a stick, I am much less forgiving and a little quicker to rip it. It needs to be amazing from the moment you light it up and this year’s Liberty falls very short of that adjective. Avoid it my friends…instead, buy yourself 3 or 4 of something you know to be true and good!
Elvis
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[...] sometime last year, you remember Elvis….don’t you? Here is what he had to say about the Camacho Liberty 2008.I like Camacho cigars. They have been putting out some nice medium to fuller flavored cigars the [...]