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.)