Umbagog Bronzeback

Purchased: 10-pack Rothschild (5 X 48)
Store: BestCigarPrices.com
Price: $87.99
Buy Again: Yes. In the process right now…
Box Worthy: They don’t come in boxes, only bundles, but I’d buy these by the box
Experience Rating: 97

Katman raved about this, so I followed his lead and got myself a bundle. I’ve only had them in a week, but curiosity got the best of me, and I had to try one out. Okay… Here’s my verdict: It’s only going to get better with time. BUT! What it has on offer right now is right in my f-in’ wheelhouse. Holy shit!

I haven’t been a huge fan of the Umbagog in the past. I’ve had a few and they just didn’t do it for me. I felt that it was just an ass-kicker that didn’t have much else to offer other than strength. I’ve had the same reaction to the LFD DL series. Tons of strength but the flavors get lost in the strength the cigar.

But this? This Umbagog Bronzeback is on a whole different level! It’s supposed to be an affordable cigar. And our expectation of affordable cigars is that there’s not much to them, except for the fact that folks like Paul Stulac have completely redefined what can be offered in an affordable stick. And it looks like Saka took a page from Stulac’s book. At least for me, where the original Umbagog was an affordable ass-kicker, the Bronzeback is also affordable but providing a layer of complexity that blows the original out of the water.

As far as flavors are concerned, I’ve tasted them before: coffee, cacao, stone fruit, cedar, vanilla, toffee, black pepper, red pepper spice. But it’s not a replay of another stick with Nic guts. It always amazes me how blenders can produce blends that contain familiar characteristics but present them in unique ways by varying the amount and timing of different flavor elements. And Saka accomplished this with the Bronzeback exceedingly well!

Take construction for instance. The stick is rolled to perfection. The skin is smooth with just a few small veins. Seams are visible but tight. It’s also solid with some heft. I was likening it to holding a small candle. The draw is firm but not overly tight. I used an 8mm punch to smoke it, and it drew nicely.

The burn has been relatively straight. I’m smoking outside, so I was expecting some occasional wonkiness. I did make a couple of small corrections because I was being anal about the burn line, but most just burned off on their own. But where this stick really hits is in the way it smokes.

This stick is more refined, sophisticated, and complex than it should be. Like the original, it’s an ass-kicker in strength – and nicotine. But it’s also nuanced in how it delivers its blow. Comparing the Bronzeback to the original, it’s akin to comparing Mohammed Ali to George Foreman. Both delivered vicious punches but where Foreman took a straight-ahead, bulldozer like approach to his fighting, Ali danced and flitted about the ring and played rope-a-dope with his opponents, tiring them out until he’d hit them with a flurry of punches that sent them back to their ancestors.

And all this from just a week of sitting! I’m going to rest the others for at least a couple of months. I’m looking forward to seeing what that does. Something tells me I’m in for a real treat!

As I sit here writing, I’ve just entered the final third of the cigar and I’m a bit woozy from the onslaught of strength and nicotine that has barraged me. But I’m not sick. I’m purely satisfied. It has been one of those sticks that just made drop what I was doing and enjoy everything it had on offer. I was enjoying it so much that I often had to stop writing.

Get some. You won’t regret it.