5. Ron Mexico

I should preface by saying that I really wanted this one to be decent. For all the crap this cigar takes- being the butt of so many jokes, I hoped it would be a diamond in the rough. That said, I think I was still objective.

This was one of the 7” churchills from the Po Boy II. It was firmly packed and the foot appeared full. There were some wrinkles and veins in the wrapper but nothing too bad. There was a ¾” crack from the head down the length of the cigar which proved to be inconsequential. It smelled pretty tasty out of the drybox compared to some of the others I’ve smoked so far. I punched it and the cold draw was pretty tight but I didn’t taste anything repulsive. It burned true all the way down with zero touch-ups.

The cigar started off with just a basic mild tobacco flavor, nothing notable. There was zero sweetness and at some points the flavor actually bordered on astringent, but it was never so bad as to make me want to put it out. Toward the middle it developed a tangy (not twangy mind you) profile that at once tasted interesting and cheap. Like a bottle of Bud Light Lime. The cigar really began to fail taste wise when I got further down and it started to give hints of gasoline in the retrohale. This was just downright unpleasant.

Single best part of the cigar: Was the construction. I’ve had $5-6 dollar smokes that weren’t rolled this well.

Single worst part of the cigar: The petrol taste in the ending parts of the stick was simply gross.

An overall rating on a scale of 1-10: 7.0 (Yes, the last flavor profile was bad, but this stick was made much better than I expected any of the Po Boys to be.)