Acid Kuba Kuba Staff Review
For today’s staff review, I am stepping outside of my comfort zone for an eye-opening, olfactory tour de force as I detour into a floral landscape of potpourri, lilac, herbs, and botanicals that could rival a blast of Febreze to the face.
This is the first staff review I’ve conducted where I had to procure a cigar from quarantine. No, the cigars aren’t infected or contagious. Quite the contrary, they’re infused. So instead of selecting my cigars from the general population, they were retrieved from solitary confinement. I implore everybody who smokes and enjoys cigars NOT to mix flavored or infused cigars with other normal, non-imbued cigars.
Mixing infused cigars into your collection guarantees every cigar will exhibit a flavored taste with a perfume-like aroma. You’ll be in the market for a new humidor, too, unless you want your humidor and its contents to smell and taste like honey or fabric softener. The flavoring from infused cigars can permeate the pores of a cedar-lined humidor in a matter of minutes. Save yourself the agony and pick up an inexpensive, superbly crafted Artisan Champagne Humidor exclusively for all of your flavored cigars and allow them to continue resting in an unrestrained capacity.
Acid Kuba Kuba is the 5 x 54 chunkadelic Robusto that put the psychedelic Acid brand and Drew Estate on the map back in the day. An intriguing infusion of essential oils and botanicals permeates the air in the office even before the cellophane is removed from the cigar. I detect sweet floral notes punctuated with an earthy citrus. Fans of Earl Grey tea will recognize the bergamot scent immediately. It’s not cloying or overpowering. It’s actually quite pleasant. Once unsheathed from the cellophane, the pre-light aroma is magnified and scintillates in the nasal cavity.
The cigar is a bit hefty and has excellent balance in the hand. The Sumatra wrapper is supple, unctuous and glistens in the light. It’s firmly rolled with no soft spots or plugs detected from head to foot. I excise the cap of the cigar with my reliable Xikar Xi1 Cutter and take a cold draw. A saccharin-like sweetness is detected and ushers in a sweet bouquet of figs, bergamot, and patchouli counterbalanced by resinous pine-needle underpinnings. At this point, some would say this infusion confusion is blasphemous. I prefer to call it unique…
As flame touches foot, the cigar quickly and evenly ignites and emits fragrant, thick clouds of smoke that draw the attention of my fellow coworkers. The room note is sweet with a curious odor of cedar, lavender, and dried fruits. Oddly, and perhaps thankfully, none of these aromatic enigmas make an appearance in the cigar’s tasting notes.
The taste is sweet on the lips and coats the palate with notes of dried fruits, reminiscent of fruitcake and sweetened Earl Grey tea. Noticeably absent are the rich, spicy tobacco notes I crave. As the cigar progresses, a solid snow-white ash tips off on an average of every 20 minutes. At each interval, a nearly one-inch solid ash drops into the ashtray.
Acid Kuba Kuba requires a few pinpoint touchups with my lighter to keep the burn even. No noticeable transitions are detected in the cigar aside from a drastic increase in its flavor. I let the cigar extinguish itself after about 45-minutes. At inception, the smoke was sweet but eventually it evolved with tart notes of sour cherries before an herbaceous, grassy, and fleeting encore set in.
I was a bit apprehensive smoking this cigar as my previous experience with flavored cigars was limited to the Anisette-drenched Avanti brand. If you’re familiar with these types of cigars, they look and taste like something you could plug a flat tire with. I’m happy to report Acid Kuba Kuba is of a different ilk. It is a cigar you should experience at least once. As a regular headliner in our rotation of deeply discounted Holt’s deals, and a cigar worthy of my recommendation, what’ve you got to lose with Acid Kuba Kuba?
Until next time, long ashes to you!
