Two Sides: Man O War

Toro, 6.5" x 52 ring gauge, $7.20

Keith Said:

The Man O' War is the first creation of Abdel (A.J.) Fernandez under his own name.  This cigar is billed as a medium full cigar.  It is more-or-less an exclusive of Cigars International and a few other online retailers, but it has been showing up in some B&Ms recently as well. It comes in 5 different sizes.  The cigar we are reviewing today is the toro size.  This cigar is comprised of Nicaraguan fillers and binders all covered by an Ecuadorian habano wrapper.  The band is quite large and is very nice looking.  The center of the band looks like a Trojan helmet, or the one Marvin the Martian wore in the Bugs Bunny cartoons depending on how you look at it.

 On inspection of the cigar before I lit it up I observed a very toothy chocolate brown wrapper that was very oily.  It was so oily that I still felt the oil on my fingers even after I set the cigar down.  When the cigar was felt I noticed that it was slightly lumpy and I found a couple soft spots below the bottom of the band.  When I smelled the wrapper I got definite notes of manure, when the foot was smelled I noticed chocolate.  Once I clipped it I was rewarded with a very free draw with a cold draw taste of chocolate.  One thing of note is I always gotten a very good draw from any of the A.J. Fernandez cigars I've tried.

Once I lit the cigar up, I was hit with a lot of spice and a nice taste of chocolate.  As the cigar progressed through the first third I also received notes of leather, cinnamon, nuts, and woody flavors.  The draw continued to be excellent and produced lots of smoke.  The ash held on for about an inch and a half and was a brownish grey.

As the second third started the flavor mellowed out with most of the spice going away.  The main flavors in this part of the cigar were chocolate and cream.  The cigar was solidly in the medium to medium-full range.  The burn was slightly wavy and did need to be touched up once.  When I took of the band it came off very easily.

Into the final third of this cigar the strength took it up a bit with the spice coming back.  The chocolate and leather flavors built above the other flavors of this cigar.  The burn and draw continued on great until the end.

While the cigar doesn't change flavors a lot, you tend to get the same flavors most of the way through just varying which one is on top at the moment, this was a very enjoyable cigar.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this cigar and will definitely pick up more of these as soon as I am able to.  In my opinion Abdel really has the more full bodied cigars figured out.

Body: 8/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 7/10

AFP Scale
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 9.5/10

Dave Said:

The wrapper of my Man O War was medium-dark brown, oily and well-applied. There were a few medium-to-large veins but nothing that really looked like trouble. The feel was firm head-to-foot, but not rock hard. I got rich chocolate and earth on the wrapper and an even richer chocolate along with some barnyard from the foot. I would call the MoW band a little comically overblown, but well-done nonetheless--it does put you "on notice" that you're getting a "killer" smoke.

Upon initial light-up, I got notes of leather, earth and black pepper. The first third continued to have plenty of that pepper along with a nice earthy base. There were hints of coffee bitterness and chocolate sweetness from time-to-time, too. The draw was just a little tight as I had observed in prelight, but it was nowhere near unsmokeable and this was the first time I can remember getting a less-than-great draw on any variety of Man O War. The ash did hold on pretty well until just under an inch before showing signs that it would need to be tapped off.

In the second third the earthiness increased and the pepper decreased, but I also started to get some ammoniated flavor which just was not pleasant--again, this is not something I have experienced in previous samples of these cigars (I smoked about 5 of them in the last month). The burn line stayed pretty straight until near the end of the third when it started to canoe a bit. The body was shaping up as medium-to-full.

The final third had more coffee and a little less ammonia, but still mostly a distinct earthniess. I have to admit I usually really enjoy these sticks, but this one just did not hit the mark of greatness I am used to in the MoW line. Most likely it was just a bum stick that needed to be aged a little longer, but unfortunately, there is no way to tell that before you start smoking. All the other samples I bought at the same time were just fine. Usually, these cigars are ones I can highly recommend; this particular sample would rate at a 6 or 6.5 on a 10 point scale, but normally they rate a 9 or so. After smoking both good and bad, I'm giving them a rating somewhere in the upper end of the middle.

Body: 7/10

Strength: 7/10

Complexity: 6/100

AFP Scale

Prelight: 2/2

Construction: 1.5/2

Flavor: 4/5

Value: 1/1

Total: 8.5/10

Agree, disagree, or have your own thoughts you would like to share on this cigar? Please leave a comment and speak your mind!