Blind Cigar Review: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Blind Cigar Review: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate

 

 

 

The “Revisited” review concept allow us to perform a follow up review on a cigar we have reviewed previously. These follow up reviews will be performed when the cigar has a year or more of age on them to see if time has been kind or not so kind to the cigar. The same reviewers are participating in both the original and follow up reviews whenever possible.

Vital Stats:

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.

Blind Cigar Review: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Blind Cigar Review: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate

Vitola: Double Toro
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 60
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Dominican Corojo 2006
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Factory: Corporacion Cigar Export
Blender: Augusto Reyes Sr, Augusto Reyes Jr, Nirka Reyes Estrella, and Pedro Almonte
Number of reviewers: 5—–Ron (shuckins) Dave (mdwest) Craig (WyldKnyght) Robert (NavyPiper) Emmett (rhetorik)
Price: $8.50
Age: 1 Year, 2 Months
Release Date: July 2013
Contributed by: Royal Gold Cigars

Initial Impressions

Appearance: 87

“Not the best looking cigar, but not bad. There are some prominent veins, but nothing out of the ordinary. The wrapper is a medium brown and is a little splotchy. The oddest part of this cigar is the foot, there is a whole section that looks loose, and one that looks tight.” –Emmett (rhetorik)

Aroma: 88

“The wrapper had a nice sweet honey like smell. The foot gave off a light scent of tobacco and there was a taste of light pepper and hay on the dry puff.” –Craig (WyldKnyght)

First Third

Blind Cigar Review - Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Blind Cigar Review – Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate

Flavor: 88
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

“This cigar started with a light pepper and smoky flavor. The pepper picked up right away, I felt it mostly on the back of my tongue and throat.” –Craig (WyldKnyght)

“First third starts off with wood, tobacco and a type of spice that I can’t put a name to. It’s nice and smooth, no harshness at all, just a nice all around flavor. Draw was pretty tight, requiring me to run the reamer through it, which helped a lot. Decent smoke output, and the ash lasted the entire third before dropping off. Burn is wavy throughout this third.” –Robert (NavyPiper)

Second Third

Blind Cigar Review - Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Blind Cigar Review – Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate

Flavor: 88
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

“Less pepper lets a better tasting wood come forward along with more coffee flavor. They blend together well, and when a pleasant allspice shows up to push even more of the musty taste out of the picture, it brings an enjoyable smoothness to the cigar.” –Ron (shuckins)

“The first thing to notice about this cigar at this point is that the ash hasn’t dropped yet. Very solid construction. The spice has backed off a little in this third and I’m not getting as much of the smokey flavor. I’m mostly getting cedar. I can’t exactly say why, but I’m enjoying this third more than the first. I think the edge is gone and the wood flavors are a little more pronounced.” –Emmett (rhetorik)

Final Third

Flavor: 88
Strength: Medium
Body/Complexity: Medium

Blind Cigar Review - Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Blind Cigar Review – Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate

“The earthy taste of the tobacco pops in now and then, sometimes mixing with the coffee/wood blend, other times standing alone. This lets the pepper have free range to kick at will, which it takes advantage of to provide an exciting and flavorful finish to the cigar.” –Ron (shuckins)

“Still no real change in flavor or profile. It’s pretty much been all wood, grass and tobacco from beginning to end. The blend is nice, but for the most part this has been a one dimensional stick from onset to completion.” –Dave (mdwest)

Overall Impressions

Draw: 87

“Draw was pretty tight until I reamed it. After that, it was good.” –Robert (NavyPiper)

Burn: 89

“Overall, good combustion and a straight burn line for the entirety of the smoke.” –Dave (mdwest)

Construction: 86

“A very solid feel to the cigar and a nice tight cap, but the foot was very airy because of gaps in the tobacco. This is what caused the heat and harshness at the beginning of the cigar.” –Ron (shuckins)

Overall Strength: Medium
Overall Body/Complexity: Medium
Overall Experience: 88

Blind Cigar Review: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Blind Cigar Review: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate

“An interesting cigar to smoke, with flavors that jumped around fairly often and kept the smoker on his toes.” –Ron (shuckins)

“The flavors presented were nice, but there was little going on that “wow’d” me. The first puff was identical to every remaining puff, all the way to the finish, with no changes at all in flavor, strength or complexity. Not a bad smoke, but, also not one I would likely seek out again any time soon.” –Dave (mdwest)

“Overall, this was a good cigar, not something I would smoke regularly. I would have preferred a little more flavor or flavor changes, this one was a bit one dimensional. I would smoke it again, but would definitely let it sit first and see if it would get better with some age.” –Craig (WyldKnyght)

“Overall, it was OK. Nothing earthshaking about it. It was pretty smooth, not very potent flavor wise and in regards to flavors, very consistent through the smoke. Only real change was in the final third when the spice type flavor increased a bit in strength. I’d definitely smoke another, but probably wouldn’t go out of my way to score a box.” –Robert (NavyPiper)

“I wasn’t crazy about the first third of this cigar, but things really picked up in the later thirds. The flavors weren’t too complex and there weren’t very many transitions, but the flavors were solid in the last two thirds and really enjoyable. I would definitely smoke more of these and recommend to just about anybody. I would take this golfing or sit down and appreciate it.” –Emmett (rhetorik)

Smoking Time (in minutes): 94

Original Score: 89 (Good)

To view the original review, click here.

Edit
Reviewer Appearance Aroma 1/3 2/3 3/3 Draw Burn Constr. Overall
Ron 85 85 85 88 90 92 92 85 90
Dave 87 88 88 88 88 85 88 87 88
Craig 90 90 88 88 88 85 88 87 88
Robert 85 85 88 88 88 85 83 85 85
Emmett 87 90 88 90 92 100 95 97 90

To view the complete scores and notes, click here. –

Blind Cigar Review – Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Blind Cigar Review – Revisited: Royal Gold | Kismet Fate
Appearance
87
Aroma
88
First Third
88
Second Third
88
Final Third
88
Draw
87
Burn
89
Construction
86
Overall Experience
88
88
Revisited Total Score - Good