601 Blue Label by EO

601 Blue Label by EO (Robusto, 5.25 x 52)
blended by Don Pepin Garcia
(With special Kilted Irish guest star!)



Wow...what a day...I'm finishing up a really enjoyable fantasy/sci-fi book, enjoying beautiful sunny weather, and I have a great stogie and a brand new cigar accessory to try out! My sister and brother-in-law bought me that cool (pictured) cigar scissors from Cuban Crafters for my birthday and this is my first try at using it!

This short and stocky robusto cigar smells really good-kinda tart (cherries?) and spicey. It has a dark and oily wrapper (maduro) and is in a slight blox press-which I enjoy much more than the full box press. I don't think a cigar should really have "corners".

The cigar scissors performed flawlessly. It has three cool blades in kind of a circular array cut the stogie from all sides-very, very cool. Since Cuban Crafters made this (they also made the incredibly resilient double-g cutter Dad got me a few years back) I'm looking forward to enjoing this scissors for many years to come!

Upon initial lighting, the cigar delivered DPG pepper and some floral notes-very aromatic. In fact, I think that throughout this cigar I was enjoying the aroma as much as or more than the flavor.


Here I am enjoying this stogie...


As you can see, the burn on this bad boy was solid. The stogie had great construction, even in the SW Kansas wind.

The defining element of this smoke, I think, is its strength. After the first few puffs, I spent most of my time thinking "what the hell are these flavors I'm getting?"...there was this kind of "wall" of flavor" that kept pounding me after every puff but I couldn't make out any specifics. It does taste a little similar to some of the La Flor Dominican (Double Ligeros) I've had and I associate this strong but unspecific flavor rush to the ligero.

Overall, this stogie rates a 3 on my four point scale. It's a really good cigar-and would be great if I could have enjoyed some more specific flavors. I enjoyed it but I spent most of my time waiting for something to happen that never did. I don't think mild cigar smokers would enjoy it much though. It runs around $8 in cigar stores but in samplers (like I got it) it was closer to $4.




Here's my sweet wife, who came out to help me enjoy the 601 Blue.


And here, as promised, is the mighty Irish warrior Thane. I was discussing kilts with Michelle (I think the Reid men should all get them!) and Michelel remembered that she had a small one of her clan (the Lamont clan of Ireland). Thane was VERY excited and spent the evening kilted and ready to vanquish enemies!