15. Don Brotto Seleccion Privada

This was from the Po Boy III selection and in turn was an 8” Churchill that is not available for individual purchase. The light wrapper had a couple small wrinkles and minimal veins. It was filled well and had a bountiful foot. There was no visible damage, but the cap did split some when I punch it. The cold draw was incredibly tight. Too tight to smoke, so I used a toothpick to improve the draw a little before lighting.

My first observation was the lack of smoke associated with this stick. It just didn’t produce much, and what it did offer was extremely mild. After an inch or so we got going and the flavors also became more interesting. The first was something similar to pine shavings (like you would put in a hamster’s cage). This began to give way to a more floral taste that wasn’t overwhelming and was pretty pleasant. Along the way I also noticed that the ash hung very tight to this cigar. Even sticking it out the window at 75mph wasn’t enough to knock it off until it was over an inch long. Close to halfway through the stick the smoke really began to pick up and the cigar ended quite nicely.

The single best part of the cigar: Was the flavor. It was pretty mild, but stayed interesting.
The single worst part of the cigar: The tight draw and how long it took to really get the smoke going.
Overall rating on a scale of 1-10: 8/10 (If the fill had been less tight this could have gone as high as an 8.5)