“Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.” If the Shakespearean recipe for Witches Brew from the story Macbeth sounds like a horrendous concoction to you, then I'd have to agree. It's not something I want to guzzle down. I think I would prefer something like Witches Brew Brownie Cauldron. Gotta love Halloween recipes! There is however another Witches Brew that I hadn't sampled yet and that's from the industry titan, AJ Fernandez. In fact, this will be my first Diesel cigar in general. It's from AJ, so it's bound to taste better than snake bake with frog toes! Let's cut it up and boil it.
The Deets
Cigar: Diesel Wicked Witches Brew
Origin: Estelí, Nicaragua
Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez de Nicaragua
Size: 5.8 x 54 Perfecto
Wrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf
Binder: Nicaraguan Habano (Estelí)
Filler: Nicaraguan Ligero
Appearance 9/10
This perfecto is a beautiful shape. I like how the foot doesn't taper to an extremely small foot and is a more gentle transition. Those tiny nipple foot perfectos never seem to light correctly and have a wild burn line. The wrapper is pretty much void of all veins with a satin smooth feel. Wrap job is solid with no snaggable edges. There were a couple locations where I could see dried up shiny gum, but it's nothing to worry about. The cap was better than average for a perfecto and doesn't appear that it's just waiting for the snip to fall off. Good looking smoke here.
Draw 8.5/10
The cauldron was jammed packed here, so I went with a hearty straight cut while being mindful to not go too far down that tapered head. Draw at the beginning was very tight. I performed some minor pokes without removing any tobacco and it was smooth sailing from there on out. My draw issues were over after the first 1" or so.
Burn/Construction 8.5/10
A bit like the draw, I did have to play around with it at the beginning. While the foot started out better than many perfectos, it still wanted to sizzle a little faster here & there. The 1st third definitely needed a few touchups to get everything in line. After a little over an inch the burn started to behave and no more flame was needed. Overall though this was a well built cigar and had a longer run time than most.
Taste 9/10
1/3 - The brew beginning delivers notes of light black tea, general dusty barn, and some mineral earth. Continuing to stir, a mix of milk chocolate and baking cocoa appear. The finish is very soft while also being full body with notes of fresh oak and hearty black coffee.
2/3 - Easing into the 2nd third and the mineral aspect of the earth has disappeared. Fresh cut grass makes an entrance and the milk chocolate tastes a pinch sweeter. Oak and black coffee are still rocking the retro.
3/3 - Moving into the last leg, the flavor profile has become richer & fuller while still maintaining an overall softness on the palate. I'm unable to pick up additional notes beyond the 2nd third, but they're bolder and ligero full.
Overall 8.8/10
Despite being a smidge above a 1-trick pony in the flavor department, I found this to be a very enjoyable cigar. Nothing complex here. No long lists of flavor notes, but what Witches Brew does it does very well. I did have to fiddle with it at the beginning, but I liked it enough to smoke the nub until my fingers were on fire. I can see myself picking up a fiver of these. If they all smoke like this one then it could get pushed into box-worthy territory. This is a brew you should try for sure.
**Number of cigars smoked for the review: 1
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