Thompson - Don Lugo Churchill Natural - Revised

Here's another stick from Thompson Cigar's Five Don's Sampler. The cold aroma at the foot was nearly non existent as was any flavor from the heavy wrapper and the cold and very tight draw tasted a bit like old earth. Upon lighting this cigar, two things struck  me at the same time, the nice sweet and spicy aroma, and a very bitter harshness that felt like it was destroying my tongue. This harshness and bite were so overwhelming that it was nearly impossible to judge any flavors other than bitter, which by the way were prevalent until about the halfway point.

By the halfway point the bitterness and bite were both fading away, but boy my tongue had already paid a price on the first half, to be replaced by a smooth earthiness. The draw had also started to ease up and the uneven burn had now corrected itself .

Reaching the final third, the bitterness and bite were gone, the draw had improved dramatically and a dark chocolate flavor crept in to complement the smooth earthiness already present. This cigar finish up very well,  maybe even better than some of the others in this sampler. Not wanting to give any cigar a bad review, I went to Thompsoncigar.com; there were no negative comments posted on this stick, actually everyone like it, so perhaps I just got the one bad stick. With that said I will review another in the next couple weeks and compare it with the results today. These sell for $2.40 per stick on the Thompson site in bundles of 25. Until I smoke another, the jury is still out on this cigar.

Well I smoked the second stick today. Like the first cigar, it lacked aroma, the draw was to tight (which never did loosen up like the last one), had a mild yet non-complex flavor blend and produced smoke with a nice aroma. However, I was pleased that this stick did not have the same bitterness or harshness that the last sample had. Compared to over the counter gas station smoke this one rates a bit above, but at the $2.40 price tag I don't think it's a good deal unless you can find it in a sampler for around a buck a stick.