Ken Byron Ventures Diogenes Club 2023

The cigar provides some earth, wood, peaty vegetation, mild smoke, tart and tangy citrus, grass, tea, herbs, floralness, light spice as the lead component. The nutty, earthy, woody, bready brown burley cavendish is a supporting player. The black stoved Virginia offers some stewed dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, and mild sugar. The fairly sweet, slightly bitter dark chocolate and creamy vanilla toppings lightly more than moderately tone down the tobaccos as they harmonize the experience. The strength is a couple of steps past the center of mild to medium. The nic-hit is in that center. The taste is a slot below the medium mark. Won’t bite or get harsh. The toppings effectively squash the majority of the rough edges. It burns cool and clean at a reasonable rate with a very consistent creamy sweet, fruity, cigarish, lightly nutty, rich flavor that extends to the short lived, pleasant after taste. The room note is pleasant. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. A very comfortable, easy going all day smoke. The main difference in this version and the previous one is the change in toppings. The tobaccos are a notch less obvious here. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks