Ave Maria Holy Grail (Salomon)

[chain_gang]

1/4:

Started off ultra mild and very bland, with almost nothing there. A mixture of nutty, earthy, and woody notes slowly came to light. Cherry wood, and most likely walnuts. Mild bodied and flavored.

2/4:

A nice transition near the widest portion. For a bit, the wood seemed to have turned into a semi-aromatic tea - still lightly flavored. Towards the end, the nutty turned into something that I couldn't identify. Still pretty mild.

3/4:

Unable to figure out what the transition was, I began to think of the flavor wheel's sectors. Cereal grains was something that stuck in my mind, but I still couldn't pinpoint the taste to that sector. Thought of the different grains, and oats started coming to mind more and more as I smoked. Started to think of the dust smell from a bag of rolled oats - that was getting closer to what I believe the taste was. Then I began to think "derivatives of oat", since it wasn't exactly oat, and came to identify it more as an oat-soaked water kinda taste. But, there I go thinking too much again and now publicly making an ass of myself - but, it won't be the last time.

4/4:

Tossed shortly into it. Wrapper turned to shit, so I broke it off and smoked it wrapper-free for a couple minutes while thinking of the Ezra Zion sticks that I remembered seeing that came without wrappers - something about raw cigars or something. Wasn't bad, and the wrapper wasn't really giving it much taste - at least at this point. Thought about how I can make my own "raw cigars" or whatever they were...at home.

Construction:

Restrictive draw throughout. Stick seemed to taste better with a higher-than-normal pace, and it burned much better due to the uptick in pace - probably the draw issue. Weak wrapper - tried the ol' pinch-n-roll to free-up the draw, but the wrapper started cracking.

Judgement:

Pretty good for a mild stick. Some nice transitions kept it interesting. Got it for a buck, and it easily smoked great for that price; and I'd even say it smoked easily above it, but nowhere near the MSRP. This stick upped my respect for Ave Maria, and I'd eventually like to return and re-review to some of the past sticks I've smoked and probably (too lazy to check) reviewed negatively. I probably won't be back to the Holy Grail due to the size and mildness, but I'd happily smoke another if one were to find it's way in my tuppie. Recommended.