Stogie Reviews: Graycliff Double Espresso
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Even harder to find than most of Enrico Garzaroli’s Graycliff Cigars, the Double Espresso is a limited edition, one-size extension of the Espresso line.
The four and a half inch by 54 ring gauge cigar features double the ligero found in the regular Espresso line. And like most of Garzaroli’s cigars, the it isn’t cheap, with a suggested retain price of $15 per stick.
The Double Espresso sports a milk chocolate-colored Costa Rican wrapper with a filler that is a mixture of Cuban-seed corojo and Ecuadorian ligero. It is slightly spongy, which I have found to be common for most Graycliffs.
Overall, the appearance is a little rugged with a cap that is less than perfect and a couple of knots in the wrapper near the head.
For a short cigar, it packs quite a punch in the taste department with a well-balanced core of coffee, chocolate, and spice. As a coffee lover I find the aroma of this stogie quite intoxicating, reminding me of a cup of nice French vanilla.
With its voluminous creamy smoke, this cigar really hits its stride about an inch in when the saltiness fades and the sweetness is amps up a bit. It is quite the treat with an even burn and fantastic balance.
Unfortunately, given the hefty price tag, an ash that was quite flaky, and some appearance issues, I can only give the Graycliff Double Espresso three and a half stogies out of five.
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photo credit: Stogie Guys
I’d buy Graycliff Double Espresso by the box if they were ~$7-9 each (stick, not box). It is a good cigar and has a distinct flavor/draw combination.
But at my local B&M those sticks run $22.
Graycliff, as a company, must rely on single stick, one-time purchasers – somebody’s wife or gf, maybe, who thinks, “Hey, it’s expensive, I’ll try it…”
Nobody must repeat-buy those things.
I’d wager a year’s cigar budget that the P/L on the Graycliff Cigar division runs red.
Think about it, for that price, you could buy boxes of Cohibas and *still* have surplus to cover your Customs Office fines…
graycliff=fail. Even Charlie, Mac, Dennis, Frank, and the useless chick would agree. Now, lets go toe to toe on bird law!