A Macanudo Duo – part 2

To pick up where we left off, today is the second in a two part series reviewing the new gigante shapes from Macanudo.  This shape has become very popular in recent years and I expect that we will see even larger cigars in August at the national trade show.  By the way, what is the largest real cigar you know of or have smoked?  I have seen a cigar called the chief by Puros Indios.  Someone gave it to me as a gift many years ago.  It came in its own coffin and was 18″ long with a ring gauge of about 65.  I remember lighting it at some point and taking a few puffs… Let us know what the biggest you’ve ever seen/smoked by leaving comments.

To look at the cigar is enjoyable.  It has a rich dark brown color with an oily and toothsome touch.  My particular stick was densely packed and somewhat hard to light.  Once it was going it did stay lit throughout the smoke.  But, for quite some time it was a very hard draw that produced very little smoke.

When you smoke a maduro wrapped cigar you expect more flavor.  That was definitely the case here as I found the cigar to be much more flavorful that its Cafe counterpart.  You also come to expect a very sharp or full expression from a maduro.  This disproves that by being rather mild as far as maduro goes.  I would think of this as a light to medium bodied cigar.  As such, it will make a great introduction to a new smoker who may have never tried a maduro wrapper before.

The flavors that I got were predominantly chocolate and cream.  AS the cigar matured, there was a slight hint of spice but nothing overpowering at all.  In the final quarter of the smoke the draw opened up and the cigar returned to its creamy profile.

My cigar did not burn evenly and I had to touch it up a few times.  It seemed as though the tobacco was to tightly packed in a spot and that caused the problem.  Very unusual for a General Cigar product.

At $8.00 you get a lot of cigar for your bucks and it might be a nice smoke for someone who wants a very mild maduro.  But, I think I’d look in another direction for something at that price.