I lit this box-pressed stick on a whim from my humidor at the shop, and just wanted something mild to smoke. I decided that wasn't fair. Guy from Kuutz gave me this stick to review from 262 called the "Paradigm". Apparently, it's gotten a 91 from Cigar Snob, one of the magazines I actually still have waning respect for. We'll see.
Size is a box pressed Toro, or thereabouts, straight-cut, lit with a soft flame, drinking nothing for the moment. Yadda yadda, I treat this cigar like every other cigar I smoke - I'm giving it a fair chance.
Let's talk qualitative for a moment. The Paradigm features a Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper, Honduran binder, and a blend of Nicaraguan and Colombian fillers. No wonder my mustache has turned white. This is an interesting lineup for me. Leaving the wrapper aside for a moment, the filler/binder comes from not one or two, but three countries. I have to wonder if 262 thought more countries = more complexity or something, sadly, it's not the case.
Cigar is about medium, tested it out by retro-inhale. Not too shabby, and not unexpected. Nicaraguan tobacco tends to be more full bodied in the industry, Honduran tends to be a little milder, they met somewhere in between.
What this cigar is missing is in the flavor department. This four-country blend of a stick should be loaded with complexity, I expected rich coffee cocoa notes from the Brazilian wrapper, subtle earthy notes from the Honduran binder, and a little kick of pepper from Nicaragua's leaves. Of those three, the only one I'm tasting is a twinge of earthiness.
What I'm left with then, is this unique combination of flavors that tastes mostly bread-like going into the second third. Spice notes seem distinctly buried in the back of the palate somewhere, like they didn't want me to taste them, so 262 brands buried them out in the desert somewhere hoping I'd never find them.
When I re-lit (this smoke keeps going out, even with me puffing on it), I got a hit of leather, like I'd just walked past a leather store just as some lady came out clutching a new handbag she's just paid Coach pricing for with a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom. Great investment, idiot.
What else is there... uh... oh, draw. Draw is pretty open, which is actually surprising because the cigar looks like it's rolled pretty tightly. Also surprising, because it keeps going out as I mentioned before. Ain't this thing just a casual anomaly?
Singles are selling for 8.67 online when I checked. I can't help but bring up that manufacturers like Pepin Garcia can get you the total package for under eight bucks, when this cigar is struggling for a few cents more (keep in mind that's the online price). Variety may be the spice of life, but I cannot endorse a product that charges more for less.
I'd say I'm disappointed, but that's not entirely fair. 262 took a bold leap in combining four country's worth of tobacco into one blend, and it didn't work out exactly as planned. Perhaps they really like it, maybe they're just trying to unload it and get to the next project. But I have to give the guys credit for trying. I am not assigning this cigar an approval rating, it would not be fair.
-Ephram Rafael Nadaner
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