CigarChoice.net- Cigar Reviews and News

I was given this cigar by a good friend of mine, who frequents the same cigar shop as I do.  He just walked up and handed it to me.  As many of you know, recently, the Pepin “Blue Label” recently changed its band, and from what I can tell, changed the blend just a touch as well.  This cigar I got was one of the older ones.  My buddy that gave me the cigar told me he thought it was from January of 08 or maybe a little earlier.  It had been resting in his humidor, so I thought, why not light this one up, and review it for my readers?  Here we go!

Pre- Light:   As I started on this cigar, I cut it with my ever trusty Palio cutter, and lit it up with my Lotus 21 dual flame lighter.  As you guys probably have figured out, those are my two favorite tools in my cigar arsenal   As I took a pre-light draw, I got a very grassy flavor, with some nice typical pepin pepper.  It was spicy and good.  The draw was very nice.  Not too firm, but not too loose, and I was ready to toast this one up!

1/3:  As I lit this up, I got a blast of pepper, which quickly mellowed to a nice sweetness, that interchanged with the pepper flavors.  On retrohale, I got some peppery flavors with a mix of floral hints.  The draw was PERFECT.  The smoke was billowing, and a nice light gray color.  The ash was a nice light gray color and was fairly solid on the smoke.  It burned nice and even, and so far, I am really enjoying it!

2/3:  As I started in on the next portion of this cigar, I was getting more pepper, with quite a bit more floral and hints of leathery wood flavors as well.  The ash knocked off at this point, but thats ok.  Its held pretty well up to this point, and the ash was knocked off in one peice.  The smoke was still billowing greatly, and I am enjoying all the solid flavors I am getting from this cigar.

3/3:  As I finished up this cigar, the pepper came back full force, and the floral notes layed into the background, but still made themselves known to a certain extent.  I am dissapointed that this cigar is just about done.  The ash is still holding straight, and the burn line is still perfectly straight.  The smoke is billowing, and its never gotten hot up until this point.  I am really enjoying this cigar, then I realize that I won’t have my hands on any of these in the near future, since this blend of the cigar is no longer made.

Overall Impression:  I was blown away by this cigar.  It had to be one of the better cigars I’ve had in a long long long time.  I loved it so much that I bought myself one of the new blue label invictos to compare it to, and there was NO comparison.  In fact, I put the newer banded invictos in the trash about halfway through it, because it was just disgusting, in my opinion.  If you can ever manage to get your hands on a Pepin Blue Label with the “old” band, get your hand on as many of them as you can.

Smoke em if you got em, buy em if you don’t.

Scott