Alec Bradley Medalist

Customer Reviews

Great mild to broaden the beginner palate
Vitola in question: Robusto, 5x52
I'll preface this, as I do my other reviews, with: I'm a cigar amateur and my sense of taste is muddled by a remarkably poor sense of smell, so your mileage may vary. Also for context, in the five-pack I was trying, one of them had a cracking wrapper at the foot and signs of cracking near the head so I opted to light it the same day I received it. I usually like to let the shipped cigars stabilize at the minimum for a few days. However, the combination of minor, most likely shipping, damage and these shipping with a pair of 69% Boveda size 8s let me jump the gun a little.

With the minor damage, I elected to use a punch rather than my normal straight cut to try to preserve the wrapper integrity.
Construction was nice and solid on the undamaged cigars. An oily sheen on an otherwise smooth wrapper. You could see the seams, but barely felt them if you traced it out. Smell was of light wood and a general sweetness I couldn't pin down.
Draw was a little tight with a single, 7mm punch so I ended up punching it twice more. I expected the wrapper damage near the head to open up, but thankfully it never did. Prelight draw was light wood, a vague sweetness I still couldn't pin down, and a vague nip of pepper on the tip of the tongue.
Burn was uneven at first, mainly due to the crack. I had to relight it once after I got distracted by a turkey vulture in my backyard but after that faux pas I only had to lightly touch it up once around the last third. I rather enjoyed this one, and seriously nubbed it after about 90 minutes.
Flavor was great for a mild. The predominant flavors were of baking spices and of freshly cut hardwood, with toasted walnuts and bit of pepper to the finish. The smoke was creamy and plentiful. By the second third it was mostly hardwood with a bit of toasted walnut on the nose. The last third was more of the same, except with a hair more pepper and heat.

I don't generally like mild cigars as every one I've tried has the same burnt toast flavor, but I rather liked this one. I'm happy to say I didn't get any burnt toast at any point. I liked it enough that I nubbed it down to about an inch just to see how it tasted. I'll definitely keep a few of these around when I want something on the milder side.
Review by Robert on 6/9/2023

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