Cigar:            Arturo Fuente 8-5-8

Size:             45 x 6"

Wrapper:          Cameroon EMS

Binder:           DR

Filler:           DR

Flavor Body:      Medium

Stength:          Medium

Country:          DR   

Suspected Age:   

Vendor/Price:     Gift from Gregg Krogstad

Beverage(s):      Water

Smoke time:       1:15

Date:             2004-07-10

Posted to ASC:   

Overall score:    3.5/5.0

Overall:    Very nice cigar until the ashiness.  A nice staple.  Try more A.Fuente products.  The DR tobacco is similar to Honduran, but not as much "green" to the nuttiness and there is a bit of pepper.

Ambience:   Smoked at the Crowne Plaza Old Mill Hotel in Omaha, NE.  Smoked it outside first under a copse of trees, until I found a blooded tick walking across my bare foot and squished it.  I assume it was my blood since I was the only mammal within a couple of hundred feet. So I moved and sat under the hotel parking lot sign on a low wall overlooking the Dodge Street / 108th Street / Highway 680 interchange.  Wind was blowing pretty hard.  Solid overcast, 85 degrees and 80% humidity, quite pleasant.

Construction:     Well constructed with an lightly oily wrapper with medium veins.  No soft spots.  Mild, sweet aroma.

Prelight:   Wrapper split when cut - no factor.  Easy draw with slight pepper spice and mild tobacco flavor.

First third:      Easily lit with a good volume of smoke.  A green, sweet nuttiness with pepper spice.  "Greeness" mellowed over the third.  Pepper remained constant.  Ashed itself at 1.5".  Burn was a little jagged, but the wind was blowing.  It stayed lit.

Second third:     The nuttiness mellowed having lost the "green" edge.  Now the finish is sweet.  Pepper still remains constant.  The stick got better during the second third.  Ashed itself again at 1.5".

Third third:      More of the same.  Ashed at about 1.5" then became ashy.  At 2" left I abandoned it due to ashy.  Moderate nicotine buzz.