Cigar Review: 262 Allegiance

Vitola: Robusto
Size: 5″ x 50 ring gauge
Price $7.50 MSRP
Review sample provided by 262 Cigars

Background

A couple months ago on the Blowin’ Smoke Podcast Clint Aaron announced that they would be releasing a new cigar and had a contest to see if the listeners could come up with the name that had already been chosen.  I was very intrigued when I heard that the blend was Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers with a Nicaraguan binder with a Brazilian wrapper.  They come in 10 count boxes and two sizes, a 6″x54 box pressed toro and the 5″x50 robusto that I’m reviewing today.  According to the info I’ve heard the cigar is supposed to be released this month, but this month is rapidly coming to a close so I don’t know.  I was able to smoke one other sample before this review cigar.

Prelight

The wrapper on this cigar was a medium brown in color with some golden spots and streaks to it.  There were some medium veins to it as well and well as a good amount of oils.  When I gave it a squeeze it was fairly firm but without any soft spots.  Putting my nose to the wrapper I detected a slight aroma of barnyard with a more intense barnyard aroma coming from the foot.  After clipping it and taking a cold draw on it I tasted hints of balsa and sweetness with a good draw.

Flavor

The cigar starts off with a good amount of spice, leather, anise with a slightly sweet finish.  After about a quarter of an inch I also got what I can best describe as pipe tobacco.  No, I didn’t store the cigar in the pipe tobacco humidor.  The cigar was in the medium strength and body range to start.  As I got into the second third the spice toned itself down a bit.  The flavors were pretty consistent from the first third as well.  Moving into the final third the spice started to come back and the cigar creep-ed into medium-full range with a very slight nicotine hit coming through.  The flavors in the final third were of anise, wood, leather, with a sweet finish.

Construction

The draw on this cigar was perfect throughout.  The burn while slightly wavy at times it didn’t require any touchups.

Value

The cigar is another release from 262 that won’t break the bank.

Conclusions

While there wasn’t anything wrong, I didn’t enjoy this cigar.  If you’ve read any of my reviews or seen my tweets I don’t like the flavor of anise or black liquorice.  I don’t remember the first cigar I had having this flavor though.  I will be giving the cigar another try, especially the box pressed toro, when I can find it.  Since the price point of this cigar is very reasonable I do recommend giving it a try as you might get something different from it then I did.

By-The-Numbers

Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10