Benchmade by Ashton
Once again, I found myself checking out another cheap cigar while browsing a local shop. The Benchmade is a brand of Ashton, and is blended by Jose Pepin Garcia. What drew me to it was the price, and the fact that it is a Nicaraguan puro from Ashton. I figured for two bucks, grabbing a couple to review couldn’t hurt. I filled up my glass of water and bring you my thoughts…
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder & Filler: Nicaragua
Size: Robusto 5 x 50
Price: Around $2.50
Pre-Smoke & Construction:
Giving the cigar the old once over, I found it to be visually appealing. The dark brown wrapper had some small veins, but otherwise no mentionable flaws. Pinching the cigar revealed a soft spot or two, but nothing of concern. The wrapper had an earthy. grassy odor. The foot almost had no smell at all, other then a very slight pepper. The pre-light draw was free, and had a sweet natural tobacco taste.
The burn required no corrections, and the flakey ash held for about a half of an inch.
Flavor:
Peppery spice greeted me in the first third. Beneath the spice were woody and earthy notes. I couldn’t pull any other flavors at this point.
The second third increased in strength slightly. The woody flavors took on a sweet tinge, while the earthy flavors fell further into the background. That peppery zing remained.
The smoke feel in the last third became thick and a little creamy. When passing through the nose, the pepper was still present. If anything, the pepper was the dominant flavor. It mingled with the woody flavor for an overall enjoyable smoke.
Conclusion:
The Benchmade is a decent medium bodied cigar. As I often say about bundle or value cigars, a cheaper price often means a less complex flavor profile. This is the case with the Benchmade. It wasn’t bad by any means. You easily get what you pay for. I say give it a try, and see if it is for you.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 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.
Rick December 18th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Thanks for the review Tom. I’ve had quite a few of these and find them to be a decent lunch time smoke for the price.