After smoking one of these gigantic pillars of multi-colored tobacco for a recent edition of Your Questions My Answers, I thought it might be fun to give it a proper review. As I mentioned in the video, I’m intrigued by cigars with multiple wrappers. They’re fun to look at (and to watch being rolled), they’re harder to make, and they add a little more danger to the burn. I find them immensely satisfying to watch when the dual wrappers burn properly, and even more satisfying to mention when they don’t. (Is that mean?)

If you saw the episode, you probably remember that I wasn’t terribly impressed with the cigar. (If you didn’t, why not? Go check it out!) But since it was the first I’d ever smoked, there was always the chance that it was a fluke. A one off. The Primer Mundo Rosado Oscuro I had in the next episode was a dud, and I know those are usually great. So it’s possible that this one was a fluke too. Heck, a slick write up of the cigar I read said it had a “zesty” flavor. Happily, I had a few more in my humidor to investigare. Here’s what I found.

Cigar Stats:
Size: 8.5 x 52
Wrapper: Cameroon, Brazilian Habana 2000
Binder: Nicaraguan (?)
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan
Smoking Time: 2 1/2 hours
Beverage: Water
Price: ~$4.00

8 and a half inches of tobacco starts here…

The Pre-Smoke
A dos capas cigar is one you’ll definitely want to spend some time admiring before you smoke. (Not to mention before you buy!) Not only is it a work of incredible handiwork, it’s at least twice as susceptible to wrapper tears as your average cigar. Case in point, I found a tear in the maduro wrapper in the first third of this cigar.

With the wrapper contrast, a crack is hard to miss!

Beyond having a striking appearance, and massive size, I found it had a great scent. A very sweet compost aroma greeted my nose. As I made my way down to the foot, the compost scent became denser and stronger, and was joined by some chocolate. If the aroma is any indicator, I’m in for a fantastic smoke. I clipped the head with my flamboyantly-red Xikar and found the cold taste be a light combination of molasses and licorice. Very interesting indeed.

The Burn
It’s hard to find too much wrong with the burn. For the most part, the burn line of this cigar was pretty even. It did stray at points, but never really got out of control, and never required my intervention. It also produced respectable ashes between 3/4 of an inch to nearly an inch and a half. The draw was also good, and the smoke was light and even. Overall I’d give the cigar good marks for the burn.

The Flavor
The first puff off this cigar is so very promising. I got a wonderful earthy flavor with a fantastically sweet toffee finish that lingered a long time. Unfortunately, every puff that followed it, down the entire 8 and a half inch length was a mere mild shadow of that first puff.

The sweetness, in one form or another continued throughout the first two thirds. Sometimes it like toffee, other times it was almost like marshmallow or even caramel, but it was never very pronounced. A good way through the first third, the predominant flavor was a slightly creamy paper. In the second third, hints of earth and coffee appeared, but were so mild as to be very difficult to detect.

Once you finally do get down to the final third, the body does begin to inch up toward medium, and the flavor becomes a bit more leathery, with some spiciness.

The Price
These are quite as easy to find as they were when I picked up my fiver a couple of months back. For quite a while, these were going for around $40 for a pack of then, or around $4 a stick. That’s a lot of tobacco and skilled rolling for the price, and it’s really hard to take issue with it.

The Verdict
My friends, what we have here is the Hawaiian shirt of cigars. It’s flashy, it isn’t terribly refined, and it has all the time in the world to linger on the beach with it’s pot belly hanging out. This cigar seems to be more about the message it sends out than the qualities of the contained tobacco. It says I have all the time in the world, and I want to you know it. I’m not saying the cigar is exactly bad, per se, there’s just not much in that acre of tightly rolled leaves under that pretty barber pole exterior. It appears that my first experience with this cigar was dead on.

What surprises me is how quickly it smokes for it’s size. I would have pegged it a solid three hour smoke. And I think I know why it passed so quickly. Because the flavors were so light, I found my self puffing more frequently than I might otherwise with a fuller, more satisfying cigar. I may have made it to three hours if I smoked it down to the nub, but I gotta say, I started to get tired of it.

However, I can see this as being a good smoke for somebody who prefers mild, but flashy cigars. I would just advise against paying your normal Gurkha retail price for these.

Liked It: Somewhat
Buy It Again: Unlikely
Recommend It: To mild cigar smokers with plenty of time

Tower of Burn
Here for your viewing pleasure is my trademark Tower of Burn.

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