When it’s a heavy meeting day at home, I like to enjoy a cigar when I get some free time to help center me. This morning, I pulled out one of few Red Dots I have left from a fiver I picked up a while ago. My first couple of assessments were that it was a good stick but unremarkable. I now take that back. It’s simply unremarkable. That doesn’t mean that I think it’s bad. It just doesn’t do that much for me.
It’s billed as a medium stick, but it’s medium at best. That doesn’t really bother me because I prefer milder sticks. But there’s really nothing complex about it. I smoke a lot of budget sticks as an everyday smoker, and my go-tos have way more flavor.
For instance, take the Cusano M1 (which reminds me, I have to re-stock those). It’s a cheap smoke at $55 for a 20-pack. It punches way above its weight with its flavor profile that’s full of nuts, cedar, and wood. The smoke is velvety smooth, and the construction is incredible. I love smoking one of these in the morning with a cup of coffee.
Contrast that with a 25-count box of Red Dots for $380. The steep price aside, at least to me, it has a relatively narrow flavor profile range that is rooted in earthiness – and it stays there throughout the smoke. To put it plainly, it’s just boring to me.
To be fair, perhaps the batch I got was simply past its prime. After all, I got my 5-pack on a CI special. I’ve ordered from them a lot and if it’s one thing I’ve learned, they dump their inventory, especially their Churchills. So what I think I may do is pick up another 5-pack of these, but in a smaller ring gauge to see if the flavors intensify more. I will also make sure to lay them down for months.
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