Illimunati Crusade – Looking for a Way Home

Last night, I lit an Illuminati Crusade.  I’m pretty sure that I picked it up at an event here in Florida.  Without really knowing anything about this cigar or its inspiration I gave it a shot.  When you first look at the cigar, it looks nice.  It has a dark wrapper of Habano seed from Ecuador, and an oily texture.  There were some large veins, but they didn’t seem to interfere in any way.

Lighting the cigar was easy and the draw was fine.  The cigar produced a good amount of heavy smoke.  The first few puffs were bitter, with a fair amount of pepper.  While the bitterness slowly dissolved, the sharpness remained through most of the smoke.  I thought the flavor was one note, significantly heat or spice.  It didn’t change at all until the last few puffs which went bitter as the first.

While the cigar seems well constructed in that there were no obvious flaws, it did not burn evenly.  The ash was a dark gray and held about half an inch.

At over $6.50 per stick this cigar is more than I would want to pay for a short robusto without tons of good flavors.