Gurkha Grand Reserve Maduro

Good morning! Here's one that was given to me by a friend.

Gurkha Grand Reserve Maduro 5.0"x50 Robusto

Construction:
These cigars must be factory rejects because this one was ugly. The wrapper was uneven with wrinkles, the seams were visible, there were a couple minor holes, and even the band wasn't put on evenly. Gurkha is always tight-lipped about what goes into their cigars, and this is no exception. All I know is that the filler is made up of long leaf grown from Cuban seed throughout Central America....nothing like being vague right? These "special" fillers are all wrapped up in an extra-fermented Broadleaf maduro wrapper.....how about a bunch of vague wrapped up in more vague....:)

Good smoke....rough look

Pre-light:
You know the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover"? Cigars are the epitome of this. This stick looked like it was wrapped by handicapped blind man with no fingers. This thing was u-g-l-y. Once I got past the outer appearance (took me about 0.5 nanoseconds), I got on to the enjoying part. The cigar had warm tobacco hints with a slight earthiness. There were no soft spots so that means the internals were better than the outside.

Smoking:
I opened this stick with my double-guillotine cutter and the cold draw brought nice spice and raisin flavors from the aged tobacco. Once lit, the draw was good and solid. The cigar had a solid burn that didn't require any touch-ups, and the draw stayed nice and cool all the way into the nub....think half-inch mark. The flavors were fairly basic, nothing too complex. Solid tobacco and warm earth throughout. All in all a good smoke. I will end up trying almost any cigar now, because I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of this ugly-Betty.

Keep Smokin!

Mick