Cheap Cigar Calls for a Cheap Drink!

First ever drink review by the Metalbass!

Jim Beam Rye, the rotgut with the yellow label. Totally different than Jim Beam Bourbon, the vile concoction in the white label.

This rye whiskey is $9.99 just across the border from where I live, and it's hard to find for some reason. It's got a sweet aroma and a caramel-like, mild flavor. Nothing to wreak havoc on your esophagus. My buddy and I drank half the bottle in four days. Compliments my collection of cheap and fine cigars by accenting the tobacco flavours. There is not much smokiness in this liquor. Overall, I highly recommend this rye because it's flavourful, easy on the palette and the wallet, and perfectly compliments a yummy cigar! Score is 90!

JR Alternatives

I have in my humidor a few cigars of JR's fantastic Edicion Limitada JR alt. cigars. The Montecristo C and Edmundo are both medium-full bodied cigars and the bottom line is: they're cheap and tasty! That is what this blog is all about. Order them now, before the marketing geniuses at JR realize that they can double the price on these cigars. These are better than their Ultimates!

Review of La Vieja Habana Chateau Corona, Corojo wrapper

The LVH CCC cigar is a good example of how a low-priced cigar can have plenty of flavor and great construction. There is a slight spice, medium flavor, and smooth draw and a good yet only slight aftertaste. The corojo wrapper really has a nice aroma (word of caution - when I first got my box and brought it home, it smelled like farm because it reminded of cow and earth. Luckily the aroma disappeared when I removed the cigars from the box and tossed box and the bed of tobacco leaves out).

Mixed filler cigars have really come a long way, and this is one of the best. I enjoyed a few LVH cigars in the past, when the box prices were about $10-$15 less, but even with the price increase, these cigars are still a fantastic bargain in my opinion. Drew Estate has done a good job and I highly recommend these cigars.

Famous Dominican 1000 Torpedo

The quick review: Got it for $16/bundle. Normally somewhere in the $30 range for 20 cigars. I got 4 off of www.cigarauctioneer.com . Sold one bundle, gave one away, and kept two bundles. Normally it's a good idea to let the cigars sit in your humidor for a few weeks before trying the first one. But the metalbass way is to smoke one immediately, then determine how you want to proceed based on the initial taste. One bundle had bands (Famous Smoke Dominican 1000) and the other bundle had no bands. I smoked one from each and I must say, these are very good cigars. Mild to medium in flavor, slight spiciness, plenty of smoke, good draw. Almost leathery. I am not an expert at describing a cigar's taste other than tobacco, peppery, spicy, coffee-like, and leathery. Anybody that describes a cigar as having hints of nutmeg, durian, or whatever is full of it. Anyways, these cigars are good. I've already smoked about four of them, and I'm going to have to let them age so that I don't smoke everday.

Chairman's Choice President Cigar

Wow, I must say I like Famous Smoke alot. They have good deals, and their cigars tend to be just right on the humidification side. I have very rarely gotten lousy cigars from them. Today's review is on Chairman's Choice President cigars. Got two boxes of 25 for $19.95 each off of FSS's auction site. Using the tried and true metalbass cigar/drink sampling method, I opened the boxes, put them in my humidor, and smoked one cigar. Lit it, sat outside, nice and sunny, drink in hand was a bottle of Foster's lager. I like a good drink with a cigar. Beer can be light or dark, preferably dark when I have a cigar, but sometimes a lighter beer helps cleanse the palate rather than enhance the flavor of the cigar. In this case, what little flavor I got from the CCP cigar was washed out by the beer. Hmmm, me thinks that this cigar is a bit too mild. No hints of spice, panties, nothing. A few days later I smoked another CCP, this time accompanied by a martini in Ann Arbor. Two of my friends also partook in one of these cigars. This time, still mild, but a bit more flavorul, enough to hold it's own with the martini. Came back home and a few days later, tried one more while working. No drink on hand this time. Flavor was stronger yet still mild, slight spice, draw was a bit loose but on a summer day, sometimes you just don't want to think about what you're smoking and just enjoy the weather. Don't pay full price for this closeout from the makers of Troya cigars. Instead, buy it at the rock bottom auction price that FSS puts these out at every now and then. I'm sure they still make like $10 off of a box. I still think that this cigar may get better with age, and it's definitely better than any machine made junk out there that I see the old guys smoke. Really, don't smoke everday. If you do, stick to cigarettes.