Zen & the Art of the Cigar

Size: 7” x 49

Vitola: Churchill

Wrapper: Rosado Ecuadorian Sumatra

Origin: Nicaragua

Age: 2 months

This is a pretty popular cigar right now, it’s also pretty hard to find.  This is the first of the Monster “Out-of-Costume” Series from marketing mastermind Pete Johnson of Tatuaje cigars (Havana Cellars).  The “Out-of-Costume”  (OOC) series concept is to take the last year’s Monster Series cigar, put it in new packaging, sans coffin-shaped box, a name it as the actor who famously played the Monster.  So, since last year’s Monster was The Frank (after Frankenstein’s Monster), the first OOC will be called Boris – after Boris Karloff.  The Boris cigar is slightly shorter than The Frank, and has a different wrapper.  The Frank had a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper; the Boris has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper.  Of course these are super-duper limited; only 1000 boxes of 10 were made.

As an aside, I’d like to point out what my local owner did with the Monster Series this year.  Instead of selling boxes of Boris and Dracs to whom ever showed up first,  he broke them up into little samplers, giving many more people an opportunity to try a cool limited cigar.  Nice job, Hal!

So due to their limited availability, I could have squirreled it away only to peak at it and giggle with glee, but instead I just smoked it.  It is a cigar after all (plus I have a few more).

This was a very dark cigar; I was hard pressed to find any Rosado like shade to it at all.  The wrapper was a little “rustic”, good rich color and tooth, but fairly veiny.  The cigar gave a little in the middle, which found me hoping it wasn’t under filled and/or would tunnel on me.

The Boris took a light easy and delivered ample smoke in the first few puffs.  The burn was nice and slow, so I was able to sit back and enjoy the flavors.

One thing that struck me at first was that there was no Pepin “bite” to the cigar.  Most cigars wunderkind Don Pepin Garcia blends have a distinct bite to them.  It’s almost like that feeling you get in your mouth when you bite into a tart Granny Smith apple.  I’m not a fan at all of this, so it was a pleasant surprise to find it absent.

The first third was full bodied but not overpowering, rich with black coffee, leather, white pepper and a bit of almond on the finish.
Midway though, my fears were realized when the cigar began to tunnel on me.  The middle was clearly under filled, so much that I could almost squeeze the cigar completely together.  But I labored on and it corrected itself after an inch and a half.

The second half of the cigar was exceptional.  After the tunneling was over, the burn corrected itself and the cigar mellowed a bit in oomph but ramped up in flavor.  Tons of bittersweet cocoa, espresso and leather exploded across my palate at every puff.  The aroma was earthy and meaty, and the finish was very long with licorice abound.

I smoked this one to the nub, savoring every puff.  What a great tasting cigar!

So the construction had issues, but the flavor made up for it.  This was a better cigar than The Frank by a mile.  So if you were lucky enough to get a Boris – find a nice cozy chair on Halloween and smoke it!

Rating: 91 (A-)