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Evonnida · 05-26-2011, 12:02 AM

The Goods:
Cigar: Gurkha Beast
Size: 6.5x58
Build: Maduro wrapper and Dominican, Honduran and Columbian filler
This cigar had a nice dark, oily wrapper. The cigar was a bit soft to the touch, but not soft enough to be worried about. The band was a bit loose. It came right out of my Humi which was reading approximately 64% RH.
Pairing: Coffee People Donut Shop Coffee and then Arizona Sweet Tea

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I'm admittedly not a Gurkha fan. I had heard some good things about the Beast and decided to pick one up in Phil's Phreaky Phast Pass. As with most my non belicoso cigars, I punched using one of my Xikar Lighter/Punch combos. Upon doing this, the whole cap came right off... There was also a small crack in the head of the lighter. The pre-light draw had good air flow and a chocolate taste, which I usually find in maduro cigars.

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The cigar lit easily and had a nice white ash to start. However, there was almost no smoke coming from the head of the cigar. I like a lot of smoke to come out when I puff and this cigar was not delivering that. I had to double or triple puff just to get a decent amount of smoke to come out. The burn was rather wobbly from the start, but did not need touched up until later. The ash stayed white, but just didn't smoke enough. The flavor that I did get reminded me of the CAO Brazilia, a cigar I enjoy.

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I decided to cut the cigar with my Xikar xi2 and this seemed to help with the smoke output. I don't think it was just because of the cut, the longer I smoked the stick, it seemed to warm up and open up. The flavor remained chocolaty, with a hint of leather. As it was moving along, another crack in the wrapper developed, near the burn line. The wrapper then began to flake at the same point.

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I was able to burn right through the flaking wrapper and the ash remained a beautiful clean white. Phil (poneill272) was smoking the same cigar and we both remarked that the cigar was a bit boring. The flavor, while enjoyable was the same as it was when I lit the cigar, almost an hour ago. While some cigars can pull this off, the Beast did not do it very well. I was still drinking coffee at this point, which paired well with cigar at first, bringing out the flavors early, but now seemed stronger than the cigar. At about the halfway point, the stick developed more burn issues. The burn line was all over the place, eventually needing a touch up.

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After the touch up, I switched to the sweet tea. The sweet tea also helped with the nicotine kick I was starting to feel. I had a full stomach (albeit full of Chinese food), but needed the sugar. The sweet tea initially changed the cigar's flavor, oddly enough to that of coffee. That may be just been the remnants of the coffee on my palate, but it was kind of nice. Sadly enough, that quickly went away and the cigar became bipolar. I would have a puff with a nice smooth flavor and the next puff would be harsh and bitter. After a few of these I decided I was done, leaving about an inch left. Overall smoke time was about 1.5 hours and I'm a pretty quick smoker. The Beast was just okay to me. For the flavor I would rather a CAO Brazilia or a Fuente 8-5-8 Maduro. Both have better, more varying flavors and are cheaper.

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