Ever since I started writing this blog, smoking cigars I'm going to review has become a bit of a chore. I'm not complaining, since this blog is my choice to post on and I could stop pretty much any time, but it's just one thing I've come to realize. I can't imagine how some of the pro cigar bloggers and writers out there do this so frequently. If you know you're going to review a cigar in writing for others to read, it's a bit of pressure to come up with a good description. So for this one I decided ahead of time that I would just enjoy it without putting pressure on myself to come up with a description.
So, why the hell am I sitting here writing this?! Well, very shortly after lighting the cigar I realized that this would be one of the easiest cigars to review. There's no need to try and conjure a description. This cigar describes itself to you. I didn't know that before I lit up, but I smelled the wrapper and foot, as well as taking a cold draw, as I've become accustomed to doing. The smell of the wrapper and foot were equally sweet with a bit of barnyard. The cold draw had some sweetness and some licorice. Interesting...
Upon lighting the cigar, there were very nice flavors of cedar and a little pepper. Sometimes I taste these flavors when lighting up a cigar and there's really nothing impressive about them. But with this cigar, the flavors were exciting. I guess it's all about how they present themselves. Something about this cigar just felt more balanced. Shortly after that, but still within the first inch of the cigar, there were flavors of earthiness and coffee. But these flavors didn't take over, they joined the others. Within the first half of the cigar, there was also an occasional nuttiness. The 2nd half contained all these flavors and were occasionally joined by coconut.
In a way, I'm sure this cigar could be described as complex. I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but when I was smoking it I was unconcerned about labels. The cigar made for a good companion. And it certainly didn't hurt that the draw and burn were exactly at the level I prefer. I wouldn't call them perfect, but they didn't seem far off. I didn't have much time to smoke, so I tried smoking this robusto as fast as I could hoping to be done in an hour or so. But after about 75 minutes I forced myself to put it down, even though I could have smoked it to the 90 minute mark or longer if I had time.
I would definitely recommend the Xikar HC Connecticut line to new and experienced smokers alike. It's part of a new generation of Connecticuts that's challenging pre-conceived notions. I'd even say that if you don't try at least 1 of these, you're missing out.
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