Before we kick into it, I realised last week that my reviews no longer explain the review criteria, and that that may be very confusing for people wondering how I come to my score. So I’m fixing that today!
My reviews rate each cigar on 10 factors and each factor gets a rating out of 10 giving me an overall out of 100. The 10 factors are: Construction, Draw, Burn, Flavour, 1/3 overall, 2/3 overall, 3/3 overall, Journey (how well it flows), Value for money and Overall Enjoyment. so there you go, that’s the process. I don’t list everything in the tables as I a) don’t think it’s all relevant outside of the scoring process and b) don’t want to give away my exact process for every stick!
With that said and done, let’s take a look at how this stick is put together.
| Brand | Nicaragua |
| Size | Nuggs Sample |
| Origin | Nicaragua (and Colorado is guess) |
| Wrapper | Ecuadorian Habano |
| Binder | Unknown |
| Filler | Unknown |
Ok… so a little unknown and a very weird comment on the origins. If you don’t know about this cigar already you might be wondering, what’s with the Colorado mention? Well that’s because this cigar is infused with CBD oil… so yeah, it needs to go to Colorado for that part!
| Construction | 9/10 |
| Burn | 9/10 |
| Draw | 9/10 |
| Flavour | 8/10 |
| Complexity | 8/10 |
| Strength | 6/10 |
Construction & Burn: Construction and Burn are both near perfect. It’s a well made cigar. The construction dropped a point for me due to a small split in the cap that may very well have happened during one of the many shipments, draw was great, if anything a little too much and it burnt very well.
Flavour & Complexity: Flavour wise it’s nothing crazy uncommon, with earth, spices, wood and nut. The most unusual and dominant note was the flavour of herbs or Tea. The complexity is where things get interesting. There is a good layer of complexity present. But is it from the tobacco or the CBD? And if it’s the CBD is it really there or not? I’ll let you be the judge of that but I’m scoring it based of the level present regardless.
Strength: This is a mid strength cigar, with a mid body, but remember it also has that CBD oil so it’s mellow to smoke… or makes you mellow, or something about mellow at least.
Overall: For the first time during a review (that I can recall at least) I don’t really know what to say about this cigar… First and foremost I’m not one to suggest that I’m a fan of infused cigars, but that’s generally speaking from a flavour point of view and well this infusing isn’t flavour based.
On the cold draw there is a strong amount of herb flavour, almost black tea. I’m guessing this comes from the CBD. Other points I noted that could be CBD related was a rather oily mouthfeel and a really, really relaxing vibe… Now for the big question. What rating does it get? Well it’s a 88 from me. I would like to see how the Maduro stacks up as I think it would be even better but I’m damn happy with this stick and I’d def smoke one again. Also note: This version (the Habano) has 20mgs of CBD in it, the San Andreas Maduro on the other hand has 100mgs! I’m not sure how I feel about that either haha.
