Pueblo Dominicano II, Pueblo Dominicano II reviews, Cigar Guide

Pueblo Dominicano II  

By: Bob Hritsko (cigarreviews@bullz-eye.com)

06/13/2007

Cigars Home / Vices Channel / Bullz-Eye Home

Had a hard frustrating day?  Reach for a cigar

A few columns ago I quoted Evelyn Waugh, the quintessential man of letters, who reportedly once said: "The most futile and disastrous day seems well spent when it is reviewed through the blue, fragrant smoke of a Havana cigar." Though I did not have a Havana to smoke at the time, I did live this out over a disastrous few-day stretch and used a good Dominican as a decent substitute. 

I won’t bore you with the details, and I also want to protect the innocent, but have come to the realization that:

• There are a lot of incompetent people in the workforce today – good help is hard to find.
• The processes that these incompetents put into place are ineffective (a real surprise, huh?) and frustrating.

An organization that embodies this better than most is the antiquated Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). It took me two-plus hours to get a replacement drivers license. I’ve lived in three states and the DMVs are equivalent in their similarities – the processes they employ are slow and broken! If this is my tax dollars at work, then spend them differently! The height of inefficiency at my local DMV: You get to wait in a long winding line to talk to the one customer service person who allows you to state your business, then he or she assigns you a “now serving” number. You then hope to find a seat among the other poor souls, who are waiting a second time in the process, hoping their number is called quickly.  

Being a glutton for punishment, I leave the DMV and go to the tire dealer for new tires on the family truckster. Of course, I am told that it will be an hour and a half wait before they can get to it. The frustrating waits associated with these two activities cost me almost a full day of doing something more productive – like organizing my sock drawer.  

I’m here to tell you first-hand that frustration is the one emotion that a cigar can help to alleviate. 

That night as the sun was setting, I fired up a cigar for no other reason that I frickin’ earned it. As sure as the sun is hot, the stress seemed to work its way out of me. I also wondered why I didn’t just take cigars with me to these classic time-sucking activities. We all eventually learn; on my next trip to the tire store or the DMV, I will be packing (an enjoyable smoke).  

If you haven’t had one to cure your ills, let’s get smokin’ the Pueblo Dominicano II.

Cigar Review: 

Pueblo Dominicano II

Size: Belicoso 5 inches long, 52 ring gauge

Price: $8 to $10 range 

The Pueblo Dominicano II is manufactured in the Dominican Republic by one of the oldest cigar makers from the region, the respected La Aurora Company. This is a Dominican Puro (made with only Dominican grown tobacco), a select, well-aged blend.  

Tobacco blend:

• Wrapper: Dominican Republic (aged four years)
• Filler: Dominican Republic
• Binder: Dominican Republic 
  

Context

I purchased a five-pack of these via an internet cigar retailer site. I smoked one of them within one week of receipt, and have been saving the other ones in the humidor. As I have mentioned in the past, I usually buy at least two of the same cigar a time, smoking one immediately and aging the other(s) to see how aging affects a particular smoke. This review is of a cigar aged four months. It was smoked on my screen porch with ice water. In this case, with or without humidor time, this cigar was a very good smoke. Aging will typically smooth or mellow the cigar flavor a little, and this was no exception.  

Look and feel

This cigar is a looker all the way around. The torpedo head highlights top-notch construction. The wrapper is of obvious quality. No fault whatsoever was found in the look and feel of this cigar.  

Aroma and Taste

After my standard double guillotine cut, it took just a little up-front work to get it burning evenly. The pre-lit draw had a unique, pleasing flavor with the slightest sweetness to it. The opening followed through with a slight sweetness in the smoke, reminiscent of a graham cracker. This smoke did possess some spice and as you smoked it down, the earlier sweeter flavors gave way to a stronger flavored, toasty smoke. I was unhappy that it would not stay lit very long if you removed it from your mouth; it required a number of re-lights to smoke the whole thing and this cost the cigar a 9+ rating.  

Rating: 8.8 (on a scale of 1 to 10)

These cigars have a complex taste profile and will leave you with a good nicotine buzz. 

Keep the comments and recommendations coming – email: cigarreviews@bullz-eye.com 

Thought fort the day:

"The only way to break a bad habit was to replace it with a better habit." 
~ Jack Nicholson, American actor, explaining why he switched from cigarettes to cigars 

DISCLAIMER:  At the risk of sounding too much like a TV commercial, I do want to sincerely state:  This feature is NOT intended to advocate the smoking of cigars any more or any less than you already do, nor do I intend to influence the non-smoker to begin smoking cigars.  Make no mistake about it; CIGAR SMOKING MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.