Gurkha Park Avenue – First Impression
First I must thank Cigars Direct for sending me this cigar in their care package. As the name implies, this is the first Park Avenue I have smoked, hence “First impression.” The band doesn’t have the word Gurkha anywhere on it. Instead it has the company owners name, “Khansotia & Co.” Intrigued by this cheap Gurkha, I paired with water and got to smoking.
Wrapper: Connecticut seed grown in Ecuador
Binder/Filler: Nicaragua & Dominican
Size: Torpedo 6.2 X 52
Price: Around $3.00 each
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
The light tan wrapper looked great, with a few small to medium veins here and there. When I pinched the length of the cigar, I found it to be a little spongy, but nothing I would call bad. This probably accounted for the free pre-light draw, which had a basic woody natural tobacco taste. When I sniffed the wrapper, it was similar to the pre-light taste. The foot had a similar odor, with a very slight spice (I mean VERY slight).
The ash held for about an inch, and I did no burn corrections. Despite the loose draw, I got an hour and a half of smoke time.
Flavor:
In the light bodied range, the first third opened with smooth notes of earthiness and wood. After about a half of an inch, a nice peppery spice was noticed when exhaling through the nose. The smoke feel was crisp and toasty. As this third came to a close, the body crept into the upper mild to lower medium range. Overall very nice.
The second third continued in the mild to medium body range. The smoke became very thick and creamy, while retaining a crisp feel (if that makes sense). The earthy notes pretty much went away, but I did notice them from time to time. Slight nutty nuances lingered in the finish. A sweet spice remained when exhaling though the nose.
The last third didn’t show a lot of change in the flavor profile. Woodiness remained dominant. Behind that nuts lingered, along those subtle earthy notes. The thick creamy smoke still kept it’s crisp finish (aftertaste).
Conclusion:
This was a good mild to medium bodied cigar. I think it met it’s goal – A simple, easy smoke that managed to keep me interested. I could easily smoke this in the morning with coffee, or at lunch. The Park Avenue easily puts an expensive cigar like a Macanudo Vintage to shame. I will try this cigar again. If the Park Avenue line is consistent, I’d say we have a winner here. If your experience or opinion is different, or the same, let me know.
Update 1-31-2010
I have gone through about 20 of these cigars and still have the same opinion stated above. These are just good mild sticks!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Cigar Reviews, Value Cigar. 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.
Stephen P October 20th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I had never heard of that cigar. I will have to keep an eye for it.