As a pretty big fan of Alec Bradley and the Tempus I have been wanting to check this cigar out for a while. Last month I was in the store and spent the $10.50 per cigar and purchased two of them.
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Alec Bradley – Tempus – Magistri Maduro [ 6 3/4″ x 53 – Figurado]
Following my regular rituals when reviewing a cigars I first glanced over the cigar to see a very dark high sheen veiny wrapper with a semi-sloppy cap. Upon closer inspection I noticed a small hole in the wrapper with a small bit of tooth and I actually remeasured it to check the size and it was a slight bit longer than the 6 1/2″ it is advertised at measuring 6 3/4″. The construction was tiny bit sloppy with some lifted wrapper and smashed cap but nothing that bothered me too much. The pre-light aroma was of a slightly rotten citrus and a faint cherry wood.
From there I went ahead and cut the cigar with my V-Guillotine cutter and took a pre-light draw to see if the cigar had a light draw or if it was plugged. It had a nice light draw but I happened to notice some dye on me. To check I grabbed a paper towel and rolled Tempus over the it and observed a dark stain on the paper towel. I have heard of this from some of the so called triple maduros out there but was kind of surprised to see it from this cigar.
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So I grabbed a wooden match and it lit quite easily. The draw was probably the best I have had of any Figurado cigar I have ever smoked but right of the bat the cigar started to have an uneven burn. It had what I would consider a light-medium body and some decent complexity. As far as burn construction the first ash fell off right away at just under an inch as the flavors settled down a little bit. The second ash got to right around two inches and the flavors remained the same. The third ash again only burned down to around one inch. After that I smoke for another 15 minutes and was pretty much finished. At the end I spent around 1:15 smoking this cigar granted I was smoking it fairly fast which I normally do not do.
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The cigar flavors seemed to be heavily masked by the overwhelming licorice flavored wrapper but I could still get some notes of a light amount of pepper and some faint cherry wood. As with a few other cigars I have smoke I noticed a film that coated my mouth after smoking this 1/4 of the way through of which I am not a fan. There wasn’t very much heat build up until the last inch of the cigar and regarding impurity buildup I started noticing it around the last third of the cigar with a mild ammonia taste in the smoke. A positive was that it had a barely noticeable nicotine level although I will say the buzz factor was pretty low.
Overall the cigar had a great amount of smoke which I always enjoy, but the overwhelming wrapper flavor for me just killed any hope for this cigar. If your a Tempus fan or someone who likes double or triple maduros and a light-to-medium bodied cigar I might recommend giving this cigar a try. For anyone else I would probably recommend skipping this one. I don’t think there is enough value in this cigar at $10.50 that it’s worth trying for the average cigar smoker. This is a cigar that I will smoke again only because I have a second one and I want to give it a second chance but as far now I won’t be purchasing this cigar again or buying a box in the future.
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