The Evil Genius White Chapel 3.5″ x 42 is a short ride worth mounting up for.

Wrapper: Habano
Binder: sun grown Ecuadorian Sumatra
Filler: Three ligeros including a Pennsylvanian, and one seco

Draw: A similarly good-looking stick similar to its brother the Black Chapel (reviewed here), but with a lighter wrapper. Aroma is of raisin sweetness and barnyard/urea. My stick is slightly soft overall, despite what appears to be dense filler. Cold draw is loose with the small punch, and tastes of raisins, mildly sweet.

Punch: And I’m getting a bit of milk chocolate aroma, too. The cold draw is loose-medium with a very mild bile like bitterness. Here is our interview with Alex Hirsch, the Head Honcho of Evil Genius Cigars, at the last IPCPR show.

D: Starting up the attack is smooth, initially, but the middle finish is habanero-marinated green chilies thrust under my tongue!

P: Wait a minute … does yours look like this? Mine starts off slightly friendlier than its Black sibling — harsh hardwood, quickly followed by sugar cane sweetness with some green bell pepper in the back of the throat; not the inferno you just described.

D: Okay, wait, maybe that was ignition flavors. Moments later, the middle is strong, sweet corrugated cardboard dust, and green pepper/green chili on the aftertaste. I got a whiff of cocoa once or twice, too.

P: That’s more like it. After ¼ inch mine has smoothed out considerably. It is a solid medium intensity of sweet floral honeysuckle. Do you remember how we used to pick the blooms and suck the juice out of flowering honeysuckle blooms? Like that. But now, still within the first ¾ inch I’m getting fresh green bean right along side, and some possum sweat creeping in. Just kidding — I’ve never tasted possum sweat (that I know of), but there is something of a musky component present.

D: Yes, much smoother. This, I like. As for possum sweat, I use a deodorant. But there is something musky about this cigar now. And yes, it just transitioned through everything we’ve written here in just ¾ inch!

P: Excactusly. The flavor is shape shifting within a blend of the same set of component flavors.

D: Does that include tire rubber? Becauze I get that every now and then, too.

P: Good call. I hadn’t identified that but it has been in the mix, too. But of late the dominant flavor has been a floral baby powder.

D: My burn so far has been rather uneven; I’ve already purged-away one peninsula, and another one is creeping now. However, I’m getting a mouthful of a wonderful web-like smoke. It expands and stretches and strings slowly away on the breeze this evening. Verrry nice.

P: My burn has been good; but then I haven’t let it idle much at all due to the flavors being so good, enticing me to keep puffing away at it.

D: My first ash dropped at about an inch, and the ash after that kinda fragged out, like something escaped the Bishop’s blessing. As I’m rolling this around, I about make myself sick: I am already feeling this cigar. This little nub of a cigar. Wow. So starting into the middle, the flavor has kind of stopped its wandering, settling into a happy blend of all that has gone before. Everything is in pretty equal measure; there’s no stand out right now.

P: At halfway my ash is still hanging on – tight and white (a tighty-whity?), no flaking. See the photo. I concur with your flavor description, still dominant is the floral baby powder – nicely balanced, medium intensity.

Starting the last third (and let’s be honest, on a 3–1/2″ stick that is right close to the nub — see the photo.) the flavors have blended enough to no longer have the same charm as previously. About time to put it down.

D: Yes, good assessment. I’m getting some sulfur and ash nuance, at just over a finger remaining. A little lime, too. Not the earlier bouquet. It’s also really hard to handle; I’ve burned myself once already.

Burn it or Spurn it?

Punch: Absolutely a rip roaring burner. After pushing through the light-up harshness, it shifted into a medium-full intensity complexity of floral fresh green bean and baby powder. For the duration It shifted around within that profile maintaining a high interest quotient. My burn was dead on for the full length and the ash never dropped off. This Evil Genius White Chapel will go on my favorites list.

D: Its a short trip, but enjoy it while it lasts (burn, with prejudice). Complexity is medium, intensity is medium-to-full, and strength is medium-full plus. I’m a little too dizzy to type, but what Punch said is dead-on. I’m looking forward to trying my White Chapel robusto size!