20. Bandolera Wanted
This was an interesting looking 8” stick from the Po Boy III set that had an angry looking Mexican gentleman, sombrero and all smoking a cigar on the band. It had a darker wrapper with quite a few small veins, but no construction issues. It was nicely rolled without any soft spots. The foot was completely full and the cap blended well into the body of the cigar. I punched it and it had a decent draw with a mellow profile like fresh baked bread.
This stick was surprisingly abrasive from the first couple puffs. It was definitely a medium profile stick, but without any finesse in how it delivered itself. The flavors were a bit acrid and unpleasant. I’m not opposed to peppery cigars, but I like the pepper flavor to be “clean” and defined. This vacillated between woody, peppery, and some other strong tastes that I had a hard time defining, but without marrying them together. It was like the crude brute force of a street brawl as opposed to the artistry of a well trained boxer in the ring. Both are examples of violence, but one is by far more palatable because it is orchestrated well. In the end, the entire cigar smoked like a nub (not the brand, but the portion of a stick). It seemed to be a jumbled collective that never hit on much of anything.

The single best part of the cigar: Construction. Nice looking, great burn.
The single worst part of the cigar: The horrible blending, though I would be somewhat interested to see what it tasted like with a year on it.
Overall rating on a scale of 1-10: 5.9 (Words like crude, offensive, and unrefined come immediately to mind with I think of the flavors.