Back by Popular Demand: Tobias' Po' Boy Masochist Extravaganza

[Tobias Lutz]

14. Duque

This is what the website says about this fine 7” stick from the Po Boy II sampler…”Duque is mild in body and it sure beats a sharp stick in the eye. Pronounced ‘du-kay’.” For starters I’m glad they cleared up the pronunciation, though it is still too close to dookie for my comfort. Second, I don’t believe I’ve ever smoke a cigar that didn’t beat “a sharp stick in the eye”, so that doesn’t elicit much confidence from me either. The MSRP on these fine cigars is $200 for a bundle of 50, but you won’t pay that- no sir, you’ll only pay .99 per churchill for these beauties. Mine was inconsistently filled, soft down the length of the cigar with what appeared to be a filled foot. There was no visible damage to the wrapper and the cap stayed intact after punching it. The draw was pretty loose and tasted a little stale/bland.

This cigar gave off A LOT of smoke. I’m talking about LP smoke levels which I enjoyed very much. The flavors began as being woody and fairly mild. After a couple inches it shifted to something more like a toasted pita. Hardly a heavy profile, but actually pretty pleasant. The cigar eventually moved back to its woody beginnings, this time with a distinct taste of cedar. As has been the tendency with these .99 sticks, it unfortunately was unable to maintain its stellar performance all the way to the finish line. It morphed to something like an oily shop-rag which really was not doing it for me.

The single best part of the cigar: The amount of smoke it gave off was beautiful
The single worst part of the cigar: The final taste that it left in my mouth was disappointing and made me feel like the cigar had been carried around in my mechanics back pocket for several days.
Overall rating on a scale of 1-10: 6.7 (good burn, lots of smoke, taste was so close…but no cigar )

[Tobias Lutz]

24. Victor Sinclair Connecticut

Still in an 8” state of mind I plucked this one out the cooler because of how unique the wrapper color was. It was ugly on several levels, but mostly the wrapper had an overly yellowish shade for a Connecticut, as if the tobacco leaf had developed cirrhosis of the liver. There were wrinkles, precarious veins, and the cap looked as if my son had attached it with a glue stick. The cigar did feel firm all the way down its length. The band looked more like a coat of arms, and the foot smelled like plain ol’ cigar tobacco. The draw was very close to perfect- neither too tight, nor too loose. It tasted of light tobacco with a slightly woody tone.
This was a very mild stick, but even early on I discovered it had enough spice to make the back of my throat tickle a little bit. There was very little in the way of discernible flavors through the first half of the stick. There were however a few issues with the burn. No real tunneling, but the burn went askew close to an inch at one point when I stepped in with a torch to correct it. When it was finally going even I began picking up on a taste like burning notebook paper that eventually became woodier. The worst was near the end when every exhalation of smoke left a shellac like aftertaste in my mouth.

The single best part of the cigar: Hmmm. I guess I’ll go with the way it was packed fully with tobacco. I definitely got my .99 worth here
The single worst part of the cigar: Where to begin? The taste, or the appearance, or the burn? Pick one.
Overall rating on a scale of 1-10: 5.3 (I have smoke sticks that were worse in each area of evaluation, but this one managed to suck in a balanced, across the board way.)