G.A.R. by George Rico
The cigar up for review today was sent to me by Mike. Some of you may know of him as @KnightRid on Twitter. The package contained a few cigars that he wanted my opinion on. Included in his care package was two GAR’s. I smoked them both for this review. I paired up with water and got to it.
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Corojo
Binder: Ecuadorian Connecticut
Filler: Honduras
Size: Robusto Grande 5.5 x 52
Price: Around $8.00
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
The Corojo wrapper was shiny with a few mid sized veins. Sitting atop was a nicely placed triple cap. Squeezing the length of the cigar revealed no soft spots, and the wrapper smelled of sweet wood and earth. The foot smelled similar, but had more woody notes and a bit of a peppery zing. The pre-light draw was a little stiff, but I could live with it. The pre-smoke draw had an interesting sweet taste of earth and something else I couldn’t pin down.
The burn was great, requiring no touch up’s. The ash held for well over an inch and took effort to knock off. Construction overall was great.
Flavor:
The first third began with a smooth earthy, almost woody flavor. A very slight pepper was noticed when passing through the sinus. There wasn’t anything more to it then that.
The second third began with a smooth textured smoke feel. There was a peppery component when exhaling through the nose. Literally about two times, I thought I noticed a sweet caramel. Unfortunately, that sweetness didn’t stick around. An earthy flavor lingered slightly, but transformed into nothingness. The pepper went away and became an annoying sensation in the nose.
The last third mainly had no flavor. Some draws had a sweet caramely flavor, others had nothing. At times I could pick out a bitterness that wasn’t good or bad. It was just there. When I passed the smoke through the nose, it was a somewhat harsh experience. But again, the main flavor was nothing.
Conclusion:
The first third was almost an OK medium bodied cigar. The rest of the cigar did nothing for me. The irritating smoke feel just got on my nerves after awhile. I try to focus on the positive aspects of a cigar when doing a review, but I had a hard time doing that. In all honesty this cigar was one of the most annoying reviews I’ve done in awhile. I could have written the review in a much more condensed format. “This cigar was mediocre at best.”
This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cigar Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Gene Kelly September 20th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I had a Belicoso and it was exactly as you described! Last 1/3, I chucked! Absolutely no flavor whatsoever!