Buyer’s Remorse….Camacho SLR Maduro Perfecto #2
Posted By Elvis on July 25, 2008
God, I’m an impulsive buyer. Everyone knows it…but no one ever tries to stop me. I think they like it because it means free drinks, dinners or in this case cigars for them! I don’t blame them…I like to be the bigshot and hey, I’m getting a hell of a lot of points on that Disney credit card going. Yes, I have kids…I don’t go to Disney World to check out all the 8 year olds..don’t worry.
Well, the other night I was out with the usual crew of buddies and we hit two different smoke shops with dinner in between. The second shop’s owner once had the notion from someone that our little blog here promoted buying sticks online only and didn’t fully support the brick and mortar experience. Anyone who reads this thing regularly knows we love the B&M’s and often blog about our experiences within their walls. We cleared this fallacy up with the owner, but it has always stuck in my craw. So after a big meal there I was in his shop looking around all over for something to grab my eye. You guys know what I mean…depending on your mood, you want something to speak to you and call you to smoke it. Well, I was getting no vibe from any of the hundreds of sleeping boxes. That is until I saw the Camacho area. I’ve been into Camacho lately after having never smoked them for almost 7 years. And I remembered my experience a few months back with their SLR Maduro. It was so creamy and chewy and chocolately with just a little kick, that I now had that cigar on the brain. But the shop has been out of the torpedos I like and had bought for quite some time. All they had was a Perfecto #1 in stock…a tiny little thing not worth my time. I looked into the rafters hoping to see a backlog of unopened boxes and I spied something called a Perfecto #2. They only had one box and I pleaded with the worker there to crack it open so I could inspect the measurements. Well, it looked like it would work…I now find out that it comes in at 5×44 with a perfecto like torpedo head and foot. Much smaller than I would normally consider buying especially after dinner and only a two hour window to enjoy a big stogie. But I couldn’t resist the calling…quickly doing the math in my head and wanting to help out the shop, I suddenly said, “I’ll take the whole box”. What???!! Oh my Lord, what was I doing?? I’ve only bought one other box from a Minnesota shop since the 70% tax took hold making boxes here double what you can buy them online for. Now, don’t let me contradict myself… I frequently buy tons of single sticks in the shops….but I rarely buy a whole box of anything anywhere!
So I lit one up in their spacious lounge and handed some out to the fellas. It was a quick smoke. All the flavors that I remembered were there..the creaminess left a nice film on my palate as I smoked it down and there was a slight pepper in the back of my throat to compliment the earthy maduro tones. Great taste. But the stick was very unimpressive looking. I remember the torpedo being packed full like other Camachos I’ve had. This little perfecto was loose and extremely dry looking and to the touch. I smoked another when I got home that night to be sure of my buyer’s remorse. Yep. I should have sampled this size before committing to a full 25 battallion of the things. It was also just way too small for my liking..I like to typically enjoy just one cigar before bedtime and with this one, I could smoke 3 of them in the same timeframe. The wrapper is dark, but ugly. It reminds me of the Padron line in how course and dull it looks. Ugh.
Now, on the plus side, I can see myself smoking these in the rare times I smoke during the day on a Sunday or something. And I think I got myself kind of a rare gem. Looking online, it was hard to find a retailer that had these in stock and looking for online reviews yielded nothing. So, either everyone has avoided these like the plague or they are hard to come by. I see them everywhere in the natural wrapper, but the maduro is a bit of an enigma.
If you can find the Toros or Torpedos on these, try a couple for sure. But leave these two Perfecto sizes by the wayside. And don’t buy a box of something if you haven’t tried that stick in that particular size! That’s what I learned on this night. But at least I helped support a B&M in a very big way! If anyone wants to buy about 20 of these sticks, drop me a line…they’re on clearance in my humidor!
Elvis
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I smoked the one you gave me last night. It is a quick smoke, maybe about 50 minutes. There is a harshness to the cigar, but it has a lot of chocolate/coffee notes with a slight creaminess. I think if you let it sit for a few months, this cigar may mellow out.