Vitola: Toro
Size: 5.875″ x 52 ring gauge
Price $14.99
Purchased at Maxamar’s
Background
When I saw the announcement that there was going to another Mule Kick released this year I was curious to see if it would be similar to last year’s and 2012’s release or something different. I was pleasantly surprised to see that is was a combination of the older Mule Kick releases with the newer Four Kicks Maduro blend. If you want to check out Dave’s review go here. This was the second one I smoked.
Prelight
The wrapper is definitely a lot darker than the previous two releases of the Mule Kick. It is a medium dark brown in color with some blackish mottling to it. It exhibited a large amount of oils and some tooth as well. I do agree with Dave that I would have liked to see n the top band from the maduro rather than the natural cigar, but it isn’t anything major. Giving it a squeeze there was a slight amount of give but no soft sports. Putting my nose to the wrapper I noted the aroma of leather and wood with raisins coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw I noted some hints of wood and leather with some sweetness and salt.
Flavor
It starts off with a good blast of spice on the tongue and retohale. After a few puffs I started to get some earth, leather and coffee flavors from it. The cigar starts off at the upper end of medium strength. As I moved into the second third and the spice mellowed out a bit but it didn’t go away by any means. I was getting lots of earth, coffee, leather and wood flavors from it as well with a sweet finish. Even though the spice mellowed the cigar did gain in strength to medium-full. Once I moved into the final third the spice came back almost to the same intensity it was in the first third. I also noticed that my lips were feeling oily by this point in the cigar. The flavors were pretty much the same as the previous third with a little bit of graham thrown in.
Construction
The draw was good, but the burn needed a couple corrections.
Value
At free state pricing this is an excellent value for a limited edition cigar.
Conclusions
I think that this is definitely a different cigar from Crowned Heads, something bolder than their other releases. I can trace it’s lineage to the previous Mule Kick releases though. I will be picking more of these up to see how they age, and if you want one of these or any of the other releases head on over to SmallBatchCigar.com.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
Nice Review Keith, I have been fortunate enough to have the previous Mule Kicks and really enjoyed them. I must give 1 of these a try now and see how they match up. Keep up the Great work