While Draw is hibernating through a Arctic vortex in Kansas, Punch takes advantage of the beautiful Phoenix weather and starts working his way through a Rodrigo Cigars sample pack; starting with a Habano Clasico.
Back in November, I responded to an e‑mail invitation from George Rodriguez to take a survey about cigar preferences. To show his appreciation, he sent me a $20 discount code to his Web store. Well, not wanting to be rude and just throw away $20, I had to accept his offer to shop for some cigars. A week later, I had in my hands a five-cigar Rodrigo Sampler. This is the first of the set:
- 5 x 50, $7 in 5‑pack
- Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano/Sumatra Hybrid
- Filler: Dominican Republic
- Binder: Dominican Republic
Prelight: Using my large punch the draw is medium-tight through this tightly-rolled stick. There is a lot of clove in the cold draw.
Start: After warming up for ⅛‑inch, the flavors in order are melon rind, onion, old leather and pepper.
An inch in those flavors have blended nicely with a fresh, almost citrus, attack and a warm mild red pepper finish. A nice balance.
As I toke away, I’m enjoying a relatively new hard funk-rock group I just discovered on the Magna Carta label — Pinnick Gales Pridgen (PGP). While this band is newish, the members are not: dUg Pinnick, bass and vocals (King’s X, KXM) — Eric Gales, guitar and vocals (Eric Gales Band, Lauryn Hill) — Thomas Pridgen, drums (ex Mars Volta, Suicidal Tendencies). I was already familiar with dUg from King’s X. (I like how he has broken convention and capitalized the second letter in his name.)
Second third: The flavor profile continues to smooth out without much change. The flavor strength is medium.
Check out this stand out track from PGP’s first of two albums to date: Hang On, Big Brother. Both albums are on Spotify.
Final third: The previous flavors have mellowed out and slid aside to allow a hydrocarbon flavor to move to the center. This shift has become less pleasant to me. That flavor is minimized by less frequent, cooler draws.
Summary: This Habano Clasico Robusto is well-named, as the flavor can be generally described as classic. It has a fairly consistent flavor throughout with no show-off back-flips or somersaults. It is comprised mostly of leather with mild melon rind and onion complexity, with just a touch of red pepper on the finish for balance. Pushing through to the nub will give you an intensity boost with hydrocarbon brightness and a good dose of pepper in the nose. The burn has been dead-on all the way. I got a good hour out of this robusto.
The other sticks in this sampler are:
- Boutique Blend G5
- La Fortaleza Elegante
- Cinco 5
- Corona Project Vol. 1
pUnch out.