The Bespoke | Grand Cafe was created to celebrate Bespoke Cigars launching in Republic of Belarus in 2012. The first place to start selling Bespoke cigars in Minsk was The Grand Café. The blend uses fillers including aged Nicaraguan Condega Viso & Dominican Seco and USA Pennsylvanian broad-leaf.
This cigar was reviewed blind (no bands) by a panel of at least 4 reviewers. They did not know what they were smoking beforehand. The scores are an average of all the reviewers' scores with outliers removed. All of our cigars reviewed are shipped to the panelists with Boveda packs to ensure optimal smoking experience.
Vitola: Lancero Length: 7 1/2″ Ring Gauge: 39 Country of Origin: Dominican Republic Wrapper: Brazilian Cubra Binder: Kelner Private Reserve Hybrid Filler: Dominican San Vicente, Nicaraguan Condega Viso, USA Broadleaf Factory: Kelner Botique Factory Blender: Hendrik Kelner Jr. Number of reviewers: 4 – Mickey T. (irratebass) Ryan H. (Ryan H.) John A. (Bostoneo) John I. (John I.) Price: $14.00 Age: 2 Months Release Date: Contributed by: Bespoke Cigars
Initial Impressions
Appearance: 92
“A lovely lancero, oily, cocoa brown wrapper with an expertly applied piggy tail wrapper and closed foot. The wrapper seems pretty fragile as I see a few rips along the seems. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
Aroma: 88
“Musty, fermented, barny, farmy goodness. ” –John I. (John I.)
Flavor: 93 Strength: Medium Body/Complexity: Medium
“Opens with dry bready notes and pretty significant background sweetness. Burning pretty quickly and tending toward one side. Also producing a significant amount of smoke for a narrow gauge cigar. Floral notes begin to appear about fifteen minutes in playing nicely with the sweet pastry-like primary flavors. ” –John I. (John I.)
“Cold draw I picked up the wood, chocolate, coffee and baking spices. The cigar started out creamy with wood undertones. The smoke that was coming out was plenty, but wispy. The ash will not stay on, it’s not flaky it just won’t hang on.” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
Flavor: 94 Strength: Medium Body/Complexity: Medium-Full
“The cigar has mellowed out a bit more, the wood has all but gone now, and it just giving me cream and coffee flavors, this much better. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
“By the central third the burn has mostly corrected, although it’s noticeably tending to one side. No real effect on performance though. Continues to burn really fast. Twenty Five minutes in and I’m nearing the mid-point. Upside is that I’m really enjoying the flavors. Initial sweetness and bready flavors have grown much fuller as they’ve transitioned to more of a dark coffee and earthy profile. Still a fair amount of sweetness present, particularly on the retrohale. ” –John I. (John I.)
Flavor: 92 Strength: Medium Body/Complexity: Medium
“More transitions! The final third started with really earthy/dirt tones, then then about an inch in it settled back in to the creamy goodness that I was digging earlier, very interesting smoke. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
“The body grows to a nice slightly under full here. Big bold flavors of leather, vanilla, and cream dominate and only intensify as this tasty and final third ends. ” –John A. (Bostoneo)
Overall Impressions
Draw: 97
“Great open draw. Just enough resistance, but very easy drawing. ” –John I. (John I.)
Burn: 88
“No touch ups needed” –John A. (Bostoneo)
Construction: 91
“Very good construction. The cigar burned cool the entire two hours. The ash was a bit concerning though, because it wouldn’t stay on, I kept ashing on myself. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
Overall Strength: Medium Overall Body/Complexity: Medium-Full Experience Overall: 92
“This was a nice enjoyable cigar. I’m torn on if it should be enjoyed in the morning or midday though. It started out easy enough with plenty of cream and wood elements, but then got a bit harsh with a more earthy/dirt feel to it, but as soon s that started the cream. coffee came back and that’s how the cigar finished. ” –Mickey T. (irratebass)
“I would smoke again. Was an enjoyable experience.” –Ryan H. (Ryan H.)
“Wow, great stick. This is more than one box worthy. The transitions and complexities of the various delicious flavor profiles scream quality. Drop what your doing and try these now, before I buy them all!” –John A. (Bostoneo)
“I liked this a ton. Great flavors in one of my favorite vitolas. Pretty powerful cigar, but there was still a nice range of flavors, and pretty dramatic transitions from yeasty sweetness to dark rich coffee. Only drawback was the rapid burn which seemed to be due to being rather under-filled, at least in the early stages of this smoke. I’d still buy a whole bunch more. ” –John I. (John I.)
Smoking Time (in minutes): 107
Reviewer
Apr
Aro
1/3
2/3
3/3
Draw
Burn
Const
Ovr
All
Mickey T.
88
87
90
93
90
88
88
90
88
Ryan H.
90
85
85
90
85
95
88
92
88
John A.
95
97
95
95
97
100
95
95
97
John I.
95
90
92
95
95
95
90
90
95
To view the complete scores and notes, click here.
"I liked this a ton. Great flavors in one of my favorite vitolas. Pretty powerful cigar, but there was still a nice range of flavors, and pretty dramatic transitions from yeasty sweetness to dark rich coffee. Only drawback was the rapid burn which seemed to be due to being rather under-filled, at least in the early stages of this smoke. I'd still buy a whole bunch more. " -John I. (John I.)
