I just keep enjoying cigars and my friends comments on our cigar sampling. The manshed is a bit cold these days, but warm company and a good smoke help out. A little scotch doesn't hurt either. I post the latest two tastes and comments from Dave's web page.


The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - The Oliva Serie V
Today's cigar is the Oliva Serie V. I should say right from the start that this is one of my favorite cigars. I picked two up while in Topeka at Churchill's. According to the Oliva website the Serie V is a complex blend of Nicaraguan long filler tobaccos. Blended with specially fermented Jalapa Valley ligero, and finished with a high priming Habano Sun Grown Wrapper. This cigar is blended to deliver full body taste while maintaining an unparalleled smoothness.As I said I really love these cigars my only problem with them is that because they are generally so well thought of I have never seen them on sale so I always have to pay retail for them. These run anywhere from $7 to $11 per stick. Thus, I do not smoke them very often. Today we are smoking the Double Robosto size which comes in at 5 X 54.The cigar is dark brown in color with a large and ornate label. It is very elegant and attractive. The wrapper is somewhat dull and does not have an oily sheen to it. The cigar is firm to the touch and obviously firmly packed. Both Randy and I found the initial draw to be very good with just the right amount of resistance. We are pairing this cigar tonight with another one of my favorites. Randy has brought a bottle of Johhnie Walker Black out to the Man Shed and that just makes me smile. I think that this is going to be a great pairing.After clipping and lighting the cigar Randy reports that he is picking up a slightly bitter aftertaste that he describes as being bark like. His initial thoughts are that the cigar is in the medium category and possibly on the light side of that. I on the other hand find the cigar to be medium to full. I too find it to have bite at the end of the draw albeit not unpleasant like the bitterness of strong tea or coffee. My cigar burns perfectly although Randy experiences both a runner with his cigar and eventually must relight and touch up his burn line. The cigar produces a wonderful amount of smoke that has a pleasant secondary aroma. The ash is compact and white and gray in color. It holds its ash for well over an inch before I roll it off. I'm trying to avoid wearing the ash or having any of it fall into my scotch. But don't kid your self I'd fish it out and still drink it.At the midway point Randy reports that the bitterness has mellowed and now perceives the cigar to be a medium with a complex set of flavors that have evolved during the smoke. I continue to experience the cigar as being more medium to full in its flavor profile. The bitterness has mellowed for both of us which is often the case as our palettes adjust. I'm really enjoying this cigar. I find it to be rich in taste and yet also quite smooth. For me it exactly parallels the scotch. The Johhnie Walker Black is also flavorful and rich but very smooth.In the end we both enjoyed this cigar. Randy said he thought it was a very good cigar although he was disappointed with the burning problems that he had. He found it to be not as strong as a Man-O-War or Diesel but probably closer to a Rocky Patel Decade. Randy gave this cigar a score of 4. I'm a bigger fan of this cigar, in fact it is one of my all time favorites. This particular cigar lived up to my memories of having smoked these in the past. It was dark, rich, flavorful and yet smooth and consistent. I love these cigars, although I'm not a fan of having to get them retail. The price is much higher than I normally pay for cigars but frankly they are worth it. I gave this cigar a 5.This is the first review where Randy and I have scored the cigar differently. I would chock that up to the burn issues Randy had with his cigar and the fact that I have smoked a number of these and I am very fond of them. That being said we would both happily smoke these again and would definitely recommend them to our friends.
Posted by Plains Sailor at 8:54 AM 0 comments
Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Pastor and the Shrink - Cigar reviews for your Mind and Spirit - The CAO Soprano
Today's review is of the CAO Soprano. This cigar was created by CAO at the request of the folks at HBO in honor of their hit show "The Sopranos". I was a huge fan of the show and was a little worried that this might simply be a marketing gimmick. When I did some research into the cigar I found that it had been hailed as one of Cigar Aficionado's best cigars of the year in 2005. According to the CAO website the Sopranos are made with a Brazilian wrapper, Honduran binder and filler from Nicaraguan, Columbia and the Dominican Republic. This is the first Soprano either of us have ever tried. Once again we got these in an online special. They normally retail for somewhere north of $10.The cigar is a very dark brown color with very small and not at all prominent veins. It is a solid cigar that is very firmly packed. This is consistent with my experience with the CAO Brazilla (one of my favorites). Randy found the draw to be a little tight as did I but not problematic.We are pairing the smoke tonight with a Special limited Release Imperial Stout from Boulevard Brewery. this is a great example of an Imperial Stout, very rich with a chocolaty finish.This cigar burned extremely well, with a tight burn line. It held a very compact and firm ash. the ash was grey/white in color and had no blooming. It burned extremely well from start to end. Many good cigars that we have smoked have had burn problem and required touch ups and/or re-lighting. That is always disappointing. Thus, we really appreciated the exceptional burning characteristics of this cigar.Although this is a full-bodied smoke it was very smooth. It was strong but not at all overpowering. The taste stayed very consistent over the course of our smoke. Sometimes full-bodied cigars start out strong and their intensity grows. Others become increasingly acrid or bitter, this one did not. We thought it was a great smoke.It is clear that the blenders at CAO took the creation of this cigar as seriously as the folks at HBO took the Sopranos. This cigar lived up to the hype. We have not always agreed with the good folks at Cigar Aficionado, but this one they got right.We both gave this cigar a score of 4 (out of 5). Its score was hurt by its price. We would be hard pressed to pay $10 or $12 for this cigar, but would happily pay the $5 that we got them for. It is an excellent full-bodied cigar that we really enjoyed smoking. We would not offer one of these to a novice, but anyone who likes their smokes on the full side would really enjoy one of these. It paired very well with the Imperial Stout which is also a very strongly flavored beer. We will definitely be keeping our eye open for another special on these. I'd love to have a couple more in my humidor.As with all great smokes the band went up on the wall where it will remind us of a great evening where friends enjoyed a lovely smoke, good drink, and stimulating conversation in the friendly confines of the Man Shed - Bully!