Cigar Review: Garofalo

Because of recent changes, I’ve had to make some changes in the way I write some reviews…this is a “Road Rage Review,” recorded while driving to work and later transcribed.

• Vitola: Robusto
• 5” x 50 ring gauge 
• Price $6.79
• Samples provided by United Cigar

Background

At the risk of offending the sensibilities of some (I’m looking at you, Cooper), a few weeks ago I got an unexpected package in the mail…more cigars from United Cigar, the same folks that had sent samples of Atabey (great stick!), Byron (good stick…at least the blend I got, but very pricey), and Bandolero (another good stick) a month or so before. This time around the cigars were labeled “Garofalo” and my first reaction was, “Why the heck did Janeane Garofalo come out with her own cigar line and why would I want to smoke anything that ignorant commie-prog had anything to do with?” Then I read the enclosed letter that explained that the cigar was named for David Garofalo, the owner of United Cigar (and Two Guys Smoke Shop).

The Garofalo is made by Nick Perdomo to celebrate Garofalo’s 50th birthday and the letter touted this is the first time “since Zino Davidoff” that a a cigar was named for a shop owner. That may be true, but it also invites some pretty lofty comparisons. This stick is comprised of Nicaraguan fillers from Jalapa and Esteli, a Nicaraguan binder, and an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper leaf. I smoked a couple samples before I got around to this review sample.

Prelight

The band of the Garofalo is attractive, although I have to admit that it made me think “Graycliff” on first glance. Not so much because of the black, white and gold colors, but because of the overly ornate “G.”

The wrapper color was a golden with no obvious flaws, although a few veins from the binder popped through. Sniffing the cigar, I got typical Conny grassiness and hay on the wrapper along with earth and more hay on the foot. After cutting, the prelight draw was excellent I got some light cinnamon and creamy grassy notes, as well as just a touch of earthiness.

Flavor

Once lit, I got flavors of earth, cream and a touch of pepper on the palate. And as would bone expected in a Nicaraguan-based blend, there was quite a bit of pepper on the nose. As I got into the cigar, I found that it was a fairly mild cigar at the beginning…maybe a 3 on a 10 scale…the upper end of truly mild. Smoking a few of these before this review, I found that they do increase in body a bit as it goes along, and I also discovered that this blends works best when paired with coffee…which is what I did during this drive-to-work review.

As I got toward the second third, the Nicaraguan earthiness definitely came through more prominently, while there was still a creamy grassiness from the wrapper leaf. Smoking this cigar by itself, I didn’t find it to be “great,” but I did find it to be quite pleasant when accompanied with my morning coffee; and because of that I did get some “bleed over” of coffee flavor as the smoking continued.

In the end, the cigar went a little flat in flavor…not “bad,” but just not all that impressive or complex in the last third.

Construction

Build quality was just about perfect; the draw was very good, the burn line was very even despite driving while smoking, and the ash was solid.

Value

The price is very nice on these and the experience at least matches it, so I’d call it good value.

Conclusions

I’m a much bigger fan of Perdomo’s Maduro-wrapped blends than any of their others. That being said, this Connecticut Shade-wrapped Garofalo was quite nice most of the way from beginning to end when I took a sip of coffee and a sip of cigar smoke. Whether joking or serious, the press release that accompanied these cigar compared the Garofalo to a Davidoff; that really doesn’t hold up well as Davidoff is a whole different class of smoke, but this cigar is inexpensive and very decent in flavor so I would smoke it again. If you want to give them a try, you can buy them at 2 Guys Smoke Shop online.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10