The Excalibur No. 5 is a Lonsdale size cigar from Hoyo de Monterrey. The cigar is made in Honduras with a U.S.A. Connecticut Shade wrapper, a U.S.A. Connecticut Broadleaf binder and mixture of filler tobaccos from Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.
Aroma
You will notice that I did not include the word ‘flavor’ in this section. That’s because the cigar, for me, had virtually no flavor at all. The toasting of the foot gave off an aroma reminiscent of autumn leave burning. After the cigar was lit the burning leaves smelled more like wet leaves. I kept puffing on it expecting something to change but it never did. The only taste I had in my mouth was just the dryness from the smoke but no flavor.Draw and Construction
The cap of this cigar is very crude and uneven. After punching the head I could barely get any draw at all. I even used a cigar spike to put through the length of the stick to try to open it up but it did not do any good. The wrapper is very shiny with visible veins. Squeezing the cigar it seemed soft and felt like many poor grade short fills I have smoked in my past. In 20 minutes the cigar had burned down to the 4” mark and still no change in the draw. 30 minutes into the cigar and half of it gone I just let it burn out. The ash never fell off and the burn was perfectly even. After the cigar went out I dissected it to see the insides. All of the tobacco was quite course looking with lots of veins and some of the leaves looked green.Value
I smoked two of these cigars and decided not to bother to smoke the third one I bought. If there is one thing I cannot stand it is a cigar that will not draw properly. This is one more for the ‘don’t bother to try’ category. If you are still game to smoke one of these you will find them for around $3.50 to $4.00 per stick. They can also be purchased in boxes of 20 for under $60.
