sparkospunky's Full Review: Macanudo Ascot 10 Tins
The Macanudo Ascot is a cigarillo style smoke with a length of 4 3/16 and a ring size of 32, so you can easily see that it's a pretty small cigar. I picked up a tin of these (there are ten cigars in a tin, pardon the pun) to have something on hand that I could smoke pretty quickly when time wouldn't permit me to smoke a larger, regular sized cigar. I finished the tin and came away with rather mixed feelings about this little cigar.
The Macanudo Ascot appears to be a well-made cigar. The natural wrapper was almost seamless, and it enclosed a mixture of two or three different fillers. I really don't know what those fillers were, but I would suspect that one of them might be ligero leaf, which accounts for the rather robust flavor of these sticks. The Macanudo Ascot looked like a miniature version of one of Macanudo's Churchill style cigars, right down to the green, gold and white label.
I would characterize this cigar as being rather full-bodied. My preference is for a medium-bodied cigar, but I was able to tolerate this one pretty well because of its size, and the fact that it only took about 15 minutes to smoke. If this cigar was in a Toro version or a Churchill size, my socks would have been blown off well before the finish, and I would have been more than a little green around the gills. The Macanudo Ascot was strong, but I handled it well, for the reasons I've stated.
As you might expect from a stronger cigar, I detected flavors of roasted coffee and dark chocolate. These flavors were presented rather well and balanced out nicely, and the finish reminded me of roasted nuts. There was no unpleasant aftertaste that I commonly associate with stronger cigars, and the overall taste and aroma passed the test.
The burn was another matter--even though it was even, I had to relight every one of these cigars about halfway through the smoke. The draw left a lot to be desired, and that probably caused the problem, but the small ring size may have contributed also.
So I guess I'm a little conflicted on the Macanudo Ascot--the flavor and aroma was fine, but relighting was a major issue. I probably won't buy these again, but the idea of a quick smoke intrigues me, so I'll probably cast about for some other brands in a cigarillo size.
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