12-05-2006, 04:56 PM
OK, Lets start by saying these cigars have travelled a hell of a lot of miles in a short space of time.
Seller to Skipper to my house to Baku to Ralphs house. All within 6 weeks, so they were on a plane twice to cover a few thousand miles each trip, have been out of a decent humidification device for god only knows how long and have been re-humidified at least twice.
My buddy Ralph won an auction for the Ltd edition humidor, and as a result managed to buy all 48 of the sticks from the seller for a good price as well. He sold me 10 for cost price of the sticks, without the cost of the humidor, so I was already happy with his deal and resulting deal to me.
Even happier when he came out for my farewell dinner this evening and had 2 Tony cigars in his pocket, one for each of us to try.
I have only smoked the soldier size, so was salivating at the thought of smoking a Tony this evening before flying home for Christmas in the morning ...... a great way to end my tour I'm sure you will agree.
So, where do I start with the Tony.
The look of this stick is very impressive, dark, oily and big. I sniffed at it for an age before deciding it was time for it to perish.
I snipped it with my Xikar, only just, as the ring of this cigar is a little larger than the cutter can cope with, but managed to get enough of a cut on it to be happy with the size of snip to allow me to draw on it the same as I am more than happy with many other smokes, this was a good start for me to be able to get a decent cut on the cap for such a large cigar.
The pre-light draw was pleasant ........ thats as best a description I can give it as I was expecting something more from this in comparison to the soldier.
Lighting was easy, and soon it was burning straight and true with a very easy draw to gather together a nice mouthful of smoke. I have to say at this point I was a little taken aback by how low to medium strength this cigar appeared to me. Again I was expecting a lot more on this occasion when taking in to account the variations available between the soldier and the Tony. I guess I expected it to be a soldier with bolts on, but it was nowhere near that.
It was just about 5 minutes into the cigar that I noticed that the wrapper was not a happy bunny. It had started to come apart in a couple of places, and began to take up far more of my time than I would have liked to give it just to keep it burning straight and not unravelling completely. Ralph was also experiancing some similar difficulties with his cigar. I can only put this down to the amount of travelling these cigars had done in such a short space of time, and the presumed lack of proper humidification they had experianced over approx a 6 week period.
This aside, I have to say that it was a fairly none exciting smoke, not overly flavourful but also not too tobacco-ie, and although it started to gain momentum the further down it got, it was not until the last quarter of the cigar that I began to really enjoy the flavours and strength that it gave. It was even less exciting for the people in the cafe as none of them seemed at all bothered by the smoke it gave off, or lack of it as I noticed.
I reckon that with between 6 months and a year's age on them, this will mature into a nice smoke. At the moment I would have to say it was dissappointing concidering the other options available out there for a lot less hard earned.
Overall, I am glad I have ten to age ....... I am dissappointed that they have not survived the amount of travelling they have had to endure very well, more so as Skipper added extra packaging to protect them, and I even hand carried the box from Aberdeen to London and on to Baku........... but I dont think I would have spent the high bucks that I have seen some of them demand when there are cheaper cigars on the market that give a bigger bang for the buck.
In summary, it was a pleasant medium flavoured, medium strength cigar that did not travel well, but should however age into a nice easy smoke.
Dave.
Seller to Skipper to my house to Baku to Ralphs house. All within 6 weeks, so they were on a plane twice to cover a few thousand miles each trip, have been out of a decent humidification device for god only knows how long and have been re-humidified at least twice.
My buddy Ralph won an auction for the Ltd edition humidor, and as a result managed to buy all 48 of the sticks from the seller for a good price as well. He sold me 10 for cost price of the sticks, without the cost of the humidor, so I was already happy with his deal and resulting deal to me.
Even happier when he came out for my farewell dinner this evening and had 2 Tony cigars in his pocket, one for each of us to try.
I have only smoked the soldier size, so was salivating at the thought of smoking a Tony this evening before flying home for Christmas in the morning ...... a great way to end my tour I'm sure you will agree.
So, where do I start with the Tony.
The look of this stick is very impressive, dark, oily and big. I sniffed at it for an age before deciding it was time for it to perish.
I snipped it with my Xikar, only just, as the ring of this cigar is a little larger than the cutter can cope with, but managed to get enough of a cut on it to be happy with the size of snip to allow me to draw on it the same as I am more than happy with many other smokes, this was a good start for me to be able to get a decent cut on the cap for such a large cigar.
The pre-light draw was pleasant ........ thats as best a description I can give it as I was expecting something more from this in comparison to the soldier.
Lighting was easy, and soon it was burning straight and true with a very easy draw to gather together a nice mouthful of smoke. I have to say at this point I was a little taken aback by how low to medium strength this cigar appeared to me. Again I was expecting a lot more on this occasion when taking in to account the variations available between the soldier and the Tony. I guess I expected it to be a soldier with bolts on, but it was nowhere near that.
It was just about 5 minutes into the cigar that I noticed that the wrapper was not a happy bunny. It had started to come apart in a couple of places, and began to take up far more of my time than I would have liked to give it just to keep it burning straight and not unravelling completely. Ralph was also experiancing some similar difficulties with his cigar. I can only put this down to the amount of travelling these cigars had done in such a short space of time, and the presumed lack of proper humidification they had experianced over approx a 6 week period.
This aside, I have to say that it was a fairly none exciting smoke, not overly flavourful but also not too tobacco-ie, and although it started to gain momentum the further down it got, it was not until the last quarter of the cigar that I began to really enjoy the flavours and strength that it gave. It was even less exciting for the people in the cafe as none of them seemed at all bothered by the smoke it gave off, or lack of it as I noticed.
I reckon that with between 6 months and a year's age on them, this will mature into a nice smoke. At the moment I would have to say it was dissappointing concidering the other options available out there for a lot less hard earned.
Overall, I am glad I have ten to age ....... I am dissappointed that they have not survived the amount of travelling they have had to endure very well, more so as Skipper added extra packaging to protect them, and I even hand carried the box from Aberdeen to London and on to Baku........... but I dont think I would have spent the high bucks that I have seen some of them demand when there are cheaper cigars on the market that give a bigger bang for the buck.
In summary, it was a pleasant medium flavoured, medium strength cigar that did not travel well, but should however age into a nice easy smoke.
Dave.
The 2 most important days of your life are: The day you were born & the day you find out why