Thursday, May 31, 2007

Saint Luis Rey Reserva Especial Belicoso


6 1/8" x 52, Natural

Strength: Full Bodied
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan, Peruvian
Origin: Honduras

Appearance
: This cigar looked pretty decent. A nice firmly wrapped tan torpedo, with no soft spots or major construction flaws. No Issues to speak of.

PreLight: A pre light nosing revealed this cigar kinda smelled like poo. I really didn't think too negatively about it though, because many a poo smelling cigar wound up smoking great! Clip was easy and the pre light draw yielded notes of earthiness and leather.

Burn/Draw: Burn was even and never an issue. The draw was a bit tight for my taste but not bad at all. Again, it was more of a personal preference thing. The ash was grey and white mottled and firm and held a long time.

Flavors: This really cannot be overstated. This cigar was GROSS. I mean almost gag inducing. When I first toasted and lit this cigar the aroma of the smoke was that of cauterized skin. This is not good. Thankfully that note tailed off quickly, but the dominant flavor of this smoke was a bad vegetal note not unlike rancid vegetables. For some stupid reason I kept smoking it (out of some misplaced journalistic integrity for my review, or maybe I just kept thinking "This has to get better!". It didn't.) until the end, and it just didn't get much better. I will not be smoking this cigar ever again. Gag.

Not Recommended.

TomC