Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5″ x 50 ring gauge
Price $9.00 MSRP
Obtained From SmallBatchCigar.com as a review sample
Background
Today I have another installment looking at one of the latest releases from Lost & Found. As with most of these releases there isn’t much known about the blend, other than it having a Sumatra wrapper. They come packed in brown paper, 10 to a package. On the front of the sticker it says that there were 1500 cigars, so 150 bundles. This was my first experience with the cigar.
Prelight
The cigar was ruddy brown in color, with some tooth and a slight amount of oils to it. It also was slightly lumpy and showed quite a few veins. Now for a bit of a pet peeve: the cigar has no banding. Normally that wouldn’t bother me so much, but the Skinsuit is exactly the same size and they look to be nearly the same color. If they didn’t have cellophane on it so I could write on it what they were, there would have been no telling them apart. When I gave it a squeeze there was slight amount of give and no soft spots. Putting my nose to the wrapper I could detect the aroma of leather from the wrapper with barnyard and BBQ coming from the foot. After clipping it and taking a cold draw I got a good draw with some saltiness on the tongue.
Flavor
It starts off with flavors of wood, leather, cream and some spice on the retrohale. After taking a few puffs on it the spice started to build a good amount. Towards the end if the first third I noted some earthy and sweet flavors as well. The cigar starts off at the upper end of medium strength. As I moved into the second third the sweetness became more prominent and it joined flavors of wood and leather. The strength of the cigar built a bit and approached the medium-full range. Once I got into the final third the flavors I detected were of green herbs, leather, ginger and earth all with a sweet finish. The cigar stayed in the medium full range.
Construction
I didn’t have any problem with the draw but the burn was slightly wavy.
Value
To me $9 seems a little high for this cigar. I know it is a limited release but there are other cigars I’d rather have for the price.
Conclusions
Overall this was a pretty good cigar. It wasn’t anything earth-shattering though. However there wasn’t anything bad about the cigar, so it may hit someone else completely different.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
To each their own, personally I think with a LE Release there should be some band. To me unbanded cigars are house blends, bulk production, etc.