What did you smoke today? (Non-Habanos Edition)

[coffeecup]

This afternoon I had a 7X50 El Caudillio Maduro cigar. I decided to dig thru my oldest coolerator and came across this cigar that I had smoked in my early days (2009); surprised that I still had one. This cigar came from Thompsons in my early days of returning to cigars and at the time I thought that these were very good cigars. Smoking this thing now let me know that I have come a long way; it is shocking that I had once thought these were great cigars. This cigar is absolutely nothing; not bad or good, but simply nothing. I can say that I was surprised. I had been told in my early days by a Puffer named "Cigary" that the joy is in the journey and he was so right. I topped off this cigar with a large hot mug of coffee and the coffee was delicious.

[RogueBallBoy]

+11 tonight.

[Cool Breeze]

Enjoying my favorite cheap stick tonight, a Pinar Del Rio Oscuro.
Delicious sweet smoke. If you like natural sweetness with a little bit of spice, you need to try this one.

Best $1.50 I've ever spent on a cigar.

[Usafvet509]

Put to death by fire, one Mark Twain #1. Poor thing, it took beatings (nicks and tears, nay, gouges) from getting bumped around against boxes in my fridgedor, put the soldier outta his misery, along with his buddy Coors Light

[allusred]

This afternoon I had a 7X50 El Caudillio Maduro cigar. I decided to dig thru my oldest coolerator and came across this cigar that I had smoked in my early days (2009); surprised that I still had one. This cigar came from Thompsons in my early days of returning to cigars and at the time I thought that these were very good cigars. Smoking this thing now let me know that I have come a long way; it is shocking that I had once thought these were great cigars. This cigar is absolutely nothing; not bad or good, but simply nothing. I can say that I was surprised. I had been told in my early days by a Puffer named "Cigary" that the joy is in the journey and he was so right. I topped off this cigar with a large hot mug of coffee and the coffee was delicious.

Been missing your always interesting posts (reviews really) hope to see them more often now.

[allusred]

My father Cedros Deluxe Cervantes...6.5x44 On a bit of a coffee binge,finished third cup so lit this cigar before hitting that fourth cupa Java.

[Bruck]

Enjoying my favorite cheap stick tonight, a Pinar Del Rio Oscuro.
Delicious sweet smoke. If you like natural sweetness with a little bit of spice, you need to try this one.

Best $1.50 I've ever spent on a cigar.

I like the occasional PDR Reserva Limitada, which is a dark habano, not sure how it would compare to the Oscuro. But they are very smoky, with an unpleasant "room note" according to the wife and daughter of Bruck. Normally they're tolerant of smoking in the truck, as long as I ventilate. But a couple weeks ago I lit one while taking said daughter back to school, and they made me douse it as they were about to puke.

One can find them on the devil site in the $2 range. Pretty good for the money IMHO.

[Bruck]

Currently smoking a Brohiba. With my current batch I'm doing some experimenting with some different blends. The one I'm smoking right now is a Kentucky puro I thought I'd try a cigar made entirely from leaves that I get from a grower in that fine state.

Wrapper is KY-grown CT broadleaf and the binder is KY "one sucker" (a dark air variety). The filler is a single leaf of KY dark air (not one-sucker). I had to recheck my log - one leaf? Normally 3-4 leaves go into the filler of a toro-sized stick. But then I remembered, those leaves are massive, up to 2' long.

Anyway, the flavor's not bad but a little flat. I guess you just need some Hispanic leaves to make a good blend. OTOH, it's only got a few weeks' rest on it, so that might be a factor. The burn was a little rough at first, but after the first half inch or so it straightened out and is burning nicely now. & Uncle Nic definitely showed up for the party!

[NeverBend]

Enjoying my favorite cheap stick tonight, a Pinar Del Rio Oscuro.
Delicious sweet smoke. If you like natural sweetness with a little bit of spice, you need to try this one.
Best $1.50 I've ever spent on a cigar.

I like the occasional PDR Reserva Limitada, which is a dark habano, not sure how it would compare to the Oscuro. But they are very smoky, with an unpleasant "room note" according to the wife and daughter of Bruck. Normally they're tolerant of smoking in the truck, as long as I ventilate. But a couple weeks ago I lit one while taking said daughter back to school, and they made me douse it as they were about to puke.

One can find them on the devil site in the $2 range. Pretty good for the money IMHO.

Between Pinar del Rio and Obsidian, Flores y Rodriguez make a lot of lines, including one under their name. I've found them to be cookie-cutter acceptable construction, decent leaf but lacking age and often similar to each other. At $4 a stick I'd pass but some are excellent budget stretchers at half the price (or less).

Obsidian Toro (maduro), with a year at 68-rh and a year at 62-rh, aged into a full-bodied, satisfying smoke. Possibly my favorite Flores y Rodriguez product FOTT anyway, I just happened to store these this way with good results. I'll age my remaining Obsidian and Obsidian White Noise this way and see if they respond similarly.

I thought the PdR Seleccion to be their most ambitious effort but it's only consistent in driving into a ditch about halfway through. The PdR Reserva Limitada seems to be a light version of the Seleccion but not as inconsistent. Both are on the smoky side but the FyR line, Genios and Magicos, were WAY to smoky for me.

PdR Classico is a solid Ecuador-CT wrapper smoke (I've spoken about it before).

2007 Macanudo Hyde Park with New Mexico Pinon coffee (light) from @Chico.Ortiz108 on a beautiful and seasonally cool morning. This Mac has more life than yesterdays but it would have been better 5 years ago. Thanks to all my Coffee Angels and their little conspiracy .

[Cool Breeze]

At $4 a stick I'd pass but some are excellent budget stretchers at half the price (or less).

Agreed.
I like the PDR Habano Sungrown and the Oscuro.

You can usually find them on the devil site cheap. The last time I ordered some I picked up two 5ers for $7 each. At $1.40 a stick, I'm in.
I have heard they have some stinkers as well though.
One thing I notice about the Oscuro is that it is really good (to me anyway) for about half of the stick. Then it gets pretty boring and then it gets bitter. I usually don't smoke them all the way to the nub. Usually they are set down about the time they reach the band.

But hey, it's not a $12 Padron, it's a yard gar/deer campfire stick, and a perfectly acceptable one.