Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Man O War Side Project Little Devil Review

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Sun Grown
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $7.00

As many of my readers probably know, I am a huge fan of A.J. Fernandez's cigars. When I first experienced the original Man O War several years ago, I was instantly hooked. I was browsing a few websites late last week and noticed that there were a few new blends that came out with the Man O War name on them. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab a box of them. So I chose these "Little Devils" because they were the perfect size for me to enjoy any time of day.

The wrapper on this cigar is a medium to dark shade of brown and is very smooth and oily. The cam is made up of two layers and is topped off with a nice twisted end. There is actually a closed foot on this cigar as well which makes it very easy to light. There are no thick veins running through this cigar. There are a few thin veins, but nothing out of the ordinary. The cigar is pretty solid all the way through with a slightly softer foot. Before I lit this cigar, I noticed that it gave off a strong smell of pepper and chocolate.


Once I lit up this cigar, I was punched with a mouthful of pepper. The pepper quickly mellowed out and this let out a complex combination of cedar, chocolate and coffee. The pepper literally only mellowed out for about five puffs or so because it picked right back up again.

About an inch of the way into this cigar, the cedar notes in this cigar changed over into more of an oak flavor. The pepper becomes a little bit overpowering and it mutes out some of the more subtle flavors. The sweet undertones are still peeking through but they are just overshadowed a bit.

When I burned down to the second third, it seemed as though I might get a little nit of a break from the strong pepper. The sweetness of the cedar came back quite a bit and the coffee flavors came out a little bit more too. By halfway the earthy tones really came out. The cedar and coffee notes coated my palate while the pepper completely covered my tongue.

The last couple inches became much more full bodied. The sweetness of the cedar is completely gone, which gave way to more coffee flavor. The finish was the strongest part of this cigar hands down. The flavors focused around the coffee and earth while the spice acted as more of on accent flavor.

The ash on this cigar was a nice marbling of several shades of gray. The ash held on until about the halfway point and was very nicely layered. The burn was perfectly even all the way through. The draw was very easy and produced a very thick white smoke which gave off a very peppery aroma.

This cigar started off very full bodied, mellowed out in the mid-section, then picked right back up towards the end. This cigar was great all the way through. And, with all of the spice, it certainly earned the title of "Little Devil." I give this cigar a 9 out of 10.

Thanks for reading,

Zack the Stogie Man

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