Alec Bradley Black Market Special Perfecto

 1. April 10th, 2021: This is a solid cigar in a solid box:

Here is a short description from fumar.ch

"..a Jamastran tobacco insert from Honduras and long filler tobacco leaves from Panama, with a Sumatra [Equadorian] binder and with a well-aged, dark brown Nicaraguan Jalapa wrapper."

Construction: It's 6 1/4 inches (or three quarters?) by 54; quite a big cigar with a weighty feel, very smooth construction, beautiful mottled dark brown, oily, Jalapa wrapper.

Draw: started out as though it was plugged but after the first half inch, draw became easy with just the right amount of resistance.

Burn: Impeccable, razor sharp, burn. I haven't seen such a burn for many cigars. It was quite impressive.

Flavour: The first inch was extremely tasty. I've read that the perfecto vitola can begin with an intense blast of flavour, due to the greater ratio of wrapper and binder to filler in the pointed head of the cigar. This appeared to be the case in this cigar. After that, flavour was still rich and delectable, but mildly bitter, although not overwhelming. The bitterness became intense towards the middle and then dissipated. Despite the bitterness, flavour was quite complex and pleasurable with rich dark coffee and perhaps a hint of pepper. One of the reviewers, Richard L, of Thompsoncigar.com described it thus:

Alec Bradley Black Market Perfecto Review 05/16/2018 | Back Yard | Tea 5.0/5.0 Smell: Chocolate mocha. Cold Draw: Spicy mocha First impression: Sweetness and very white pepper. Retro-hale spicy cinnamon cedar sugar, watery mouth. 1/3: This cigar is strong, can knock you off. Taste medium to full body, closer to medium body. Very sweet, oily, pepper. Very smooth. Retro-hale citrus cedar vanilla. Pepper dies down. 2/3: Creamy sweet dark chocolate with pepper on the background. Very pleasant taste. It's a very strong cigar (not the taste), even I have to intake some real can sugar to dodge it. 3/3: Even more smotther than before! Creamy dark mocha chocolate sweetness with sweet cedar retro-hale. Beatifully made. Perfecto, very interesting size, extremely easy to light up. Good draw. Cool smoke. Great burn. Medium amount of smoke. Nice looking white ash. Extremely nice sweet tobacco flavor with dark mocha creamy note. This cigar is great!
 

I didn't find it so strong. Nor did I find the flavour sweet. As I mentioned, I found it more on the bitter side, but not unpleasantly so. Storage for six months to a year might well improve the flavour. Let's see if I can last that long.

Body: Full body throughout. I was impressed by the body: flavour was packed with the smallest puff.

Strength: Quite strong but not overwhelming. I would say, just enough strength to balance the flavour.

Finish: Long, satisfying finish.

Aroma: Dry aroma, curiously, mild peppermint; a light, pleasant aroma but not remarkable. 

Consistency: Apart from the intense bitterness in the middle, and the smooth flavour blast at the beginning, quite consistent flavour, burn and, after the initial plug, draw.

Time smoke: 90 minutes

Overall: Quite enjoyable down to the nub. Well balanced strength and flavour. Even the bitterness was not so bitter as to be unpleasant. 

The ash was beautifully layered. It was remarkably consistent and tenacious. It really didn't want to become dislodged.

I listened throughout to a podcast with Megyn Kelly, Alan Dershowitz and two other lawyers, analysing evidence, so far, for the prosecution in the George Floyd case. Being a lawyer myself, I appreciated the weighing of evidence. Dershowitz made the observation that the most important issue for a criminal defence is the decision whether or not to put the accused on the stand. One of the other lawyers said that it would be futile to put the accused on the stand. "What could he possibly add that you couldn't get from other witnesses?" he asked. "What questions would you ask him?" This question met with blank silence. It will be interesting to see what happens.

2. May 24th, 2021: A pleasant 90 minutes on the seashore listening to Kelly and Dershowitz again, this time on the Israel/Hamas conflict. The perfecto is a lovely vitola. It fits well in the hand. It's easy on to draw. Flavour was a pleasant but nothing special black coffee hue - just lacking that depth of complexity to make it great, but satisfying enough to puff on for an hour and a half while listening to the debate. There was no pronounced bitterness; although bitterness is within the coffee-flavour profile of the cigar.

The podcast was a debate between Alan Dershowitz, Jew, and Shadi Hamid, Palestinian. Megyn Kelly made a fine umpire. Surprising was how much the Jew and the Palestinian agreed upon. Both came across as sincere commenters. Hamid, however, fell short in one specific: he criticized Israel for civilian Palestinian deaths; but when Dershowitz ask him, "What would you do differently if you were Israel and your population were being terrorized by a group that doesn't care about civilians?" Hamid didn't answer the question.

3. September 6th, 2021: Much the same dark flavour profile as those above: a magnificent blast of flavour in the first half inch, dissipating to a dark roast, espresso, flavour, slightly sour aftertaste and occasional sweetness. 

Burn was not razor-sharp, but adequate. Draw was easy enough. 

The outstanding aspect of this cigar was a deep, rich, dark, complex, aroma. 

The cigar was a little on the dry side despite its oily texture. Although other cigars in the same humidor were moist and spongy, this one felt bone dry. A couple of cracks appeared in the wrapper after both the half hour and the hour mark, but flavour and burn were not compromised. Quite satisfying. 90 minutes.

A beautiful oily wrapper

4. June 1st, 2024: Sour and lacking in complexity. Pleasant puff at best.