Don Diego Grande
This being the very first cigar review for me, please
feel free to let me know if I
suck at this or if I'm
not doing too bad for a novice.
Here we go:
VITAL STATISTICS
Make: Don Diego
Model: Grande
Year: who knows?
Color: EMS
(all right, Matt, enough with the car analogy)
Size: 6 x 50
Country:Filler and binder are Dominican, with Connecticut shade wrapper
Price: $6.80(US)
Construction: The wrapper was
smooth with a few veins, but otherwise was nice. It was rolled well, but
was not uniform in size throughout its length. By this I mean that the
head of the cigar was smaller than the foot. Not significantly smaller,
but noticeably smaller. It also looked like the filler and binder were
lumpy. Also, the head looked like it had more layers of tobacco at the
edge of the cap than most cigars.
Cutting/Lighting: I use a cheap cutter, and always taste the wrapper at the head before I cut. This serves mainly to moisten the tobacco and prevent cracking when I cut it, but it also makes me look like I know what I'm doing, especially when I put a really comtemplative look on my face like I'm trying to place a flavor, or identify the year the wrapper was cured... But the cigar cut and lit well, and had a good draw.
How it smoked: It was a pleasant cigar, drawing a nice volume of smoke with each puff. Rather than really try to identify flavors like CA, I will simply say that the smoke had a nice aroma that was a bit spicy at times, and complex. The flavor ranged from creamy to spicy and back. I think it could have been aged more to eliminate some slightly bitter aftertastes. I did stray from my plan, in that I only smoked one, and I had it in my humidor for about a week before smoking. In the future, I will try to smoke two of each cigar, and leave them in the humidor no more than a couple days, since aging can have such a dramatic effect. I dont want to recommend a cigar to you, then say "well, you have to age it for 6 months to get the experience I got."
Cigar Aficionado: This is where I tell you if I could find a rating for the cigar in CA, and what I think of their review. The Don Diego was reviewed, this info came from the 1996 Buying Guide to Premium Cigars. They gave it an 83, which I think is low, considering the lowest rating in the book was a 72, and the highest was 96. That sort of says that this is a below average cigar. I found it to be above average, though not perfect.
Final Impressions: Being on a tight budget, $6.80 smokes are somewhat rare to me, and there are many other cigars that I would rather smoke for the same price. But if you can afford it, put 'em down for 6 or 8 months, and I bet they'd be a winner. On a scale of 1 to 10, they get a 7.5.