This one is a smooth but elegant smoke. Flavor portrays of a mellow creamy oak tone. The draw has just the right amount of resistance, and the burn remained very even. Solid firm construction.
Solid construction, great ash throughout. Did a hot purge going into the final⅓.
I normally don't get a lot of flavors from cigars. However, on initial light up, I got straight up burning oak flavor. A few minutes in, still had oak, but was getting some other tastes that I can't quite put a name to. On the retrohale, I got very distinct Anise flavor. The anise flavor stayed as it smoked, but did lessen in the 2nd ⅓, and was non-existent in the final ⅓. In the 2nd ⅓, the strong oak flavor gave way to some notes of walnut. Those 2 wood notes stayed til the end. I also detected some butterscotch or caramel in the 1st half of the smoke.
All in all, I've never experienced this many distinct flavors from a cigar. The burn was almost perfect, it was a nice tight construction, and solid tight light grey ash throughout.
Kinda dried out the mouth though. (For those of you who took English Lit and French in high school, it was somewhat astringent. For those of us that took Auto-shop, Welding, and Machine shop, it gave me a bit of cotton-mouth. Lol)
Construction was a bit off in places. Less form in the middle of the cigar and the cap had an off touch-up spot done to it. Drink pairing really helped to mellow it out.