Had the opportunity to fire up a Gurkha "Beauty" last night, in the 'saloman' shape/size. I had ordered mine as part of the box of 10, from Cigars International auction site, cigarbid.com. I ended up paying just under $3.00 each for my box. Cigar International's usual price is $69.95 per box of ten for this saloman. Retail in a Bricks-and-mortar retail shop seems to vary somewhere between $12.00 - $ 17.00 each. MSRP for a box of ten is $350.00 (Gurkha is always a bit on the high side (can we say extravagent?) in their 'suggested retails'. I was very pleased with the deal I scored in the auction, for sure.
This is a mild - medium bodied smoke, with a light colored, tightly wrapped 'seamless', Equadorian Connecticut wrapper, which I found to be very fragile. Binder ans filler were from Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, respectively. Pre-light inspection revealed the Beauty had very few, very minor, veins showing, and a light, very pleasant aroma. The construction was great, and the saloman shape just presents a very pleasing and 'expensive looking' cigar. As most Gurkha bands are, this one is a cigar-work-of-art.
I found myself wanting to hurry through the lighting, but knew such a nice looking stick deserved the proper 'ceremony'. After cutting, the cigar lit easily, and burned evenly throughout. The draw was just a teeny bit on the tight side, but not excessively so, and the cigar produced a generous amount of smoke. I didn't have to relight, even though I was certainly taking my time in smoking this one.
Gurkha apparently rates this as one of their better smokes and I would have to agree. After the initial 'big kaboom' of flavors, the smoke settled down into a good balanced mix of tastes, with predominately (to me) bread and nutty flavors, with some woody tinges as well. . I also could detect what I could only describe as a slightly salty flavor (and no, the dog didn't pee on it before I lit it!) There was a very minimum of spices, too, in the final third. All in all, it was 'rich' and the flavors blended very well.
This was a true pleasure to smoke. It was one of those cigars that I was enjoying so much, I truly found myself wishing it had been longer. After about 90 minutes, I had pretty much 'nubbed' it, and another good draw or two would have come very close to producing some very warm fingertips. As I finally laid the nub to rest, I admitted the cigar was appropriated named, and I was pleased in thinking I still have nine more of these saloman 'beauties' in the humidor. along with a few in the toro size as well. This is one of those 'special occasion' cigars, and worthy of any celebration calling for an 'upper crust' cigar.
I highly recommend this cigar. I would have to give it a 93 rating.
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