26. Cuban Delight
This 7” stick has interested me since I first unpacked the Po Boy II sampler. Firstly, the band caught my eye because the shade of green in the center is reminiscent of the paint in my grandmother’s house when I was growing up, and I dig anything that reminds me of my grandmother. Secondly, it advertises itself as a “Premium Cigar”. Always be wary of a stick that feels the need to promote itself as “premium”. Finally, it clearly says on the band “Export of Cuba”, even though the CI site states it is made in the DR. While total bs, I found this amusing. It was a medium brown stick with some wrinkles in the wrapped and a handful of moderately sized veins. The cap was a little shoddy and the foot was slightly damaged. It did however feel pretty full and the draw was moderately tight with “darker” flavors- slightly bitter and more robust.
This one started off rather bold with a strong medium profile and a fair amount of kick. There was faint leather and an oily nuttiness that came through early on. The smoke then settled down into a mild-medium place with woody flavors and remained as such through the duration of the cigar. The burn was decent and the flavors weren’t bad, but they certainly were not stellar. I’ve smoked a very limited number of habanos in my life, but I assure you that this was so far removed from what I expect when I light a CC that it wasn’t even funny. I actually read the CI reviews for this stick and most people seem to buy a flavored version rather than the Churchill. In the end I think it would have been better simply by being able to produce more smoke. It didn’t reward you with much quantity or quality wise.

The single best part of the cigar: The name/band/claim of origin. Amusing to say the least.
The single worst part of the cigar: The lack of smoke. You didn’t get much and so the flavors had to stand on their own (which was unfortunate).
Overall rating on a scale of 1-10: 6.8 (Nothing fantastic, but it gets the job done. Definitely NOT an export of Cuba )