A relaxing evening with the Perdomo P-Squared Red Label

The other night I was relaxing on my brother's patio alongside Mark and My Brother while Jimmy lay inside on the couch passed out on a hefty dosage of Benadryl. I was able to snag a wonderful cigar from Matt's humidor, as I had neglected to provide my own yet again.

The cigar I smoked was a 6.5" x 50 toro Perdomo P-Squared Red Label with a natural wrapper. I've had a few Perdomo cigars before and I don't recall being disappointed by any of them yet, and this was no exception. Before I even picked up a lighter, I was impressed by the nearly flawless craftsmanship of the stick. The entire cigar was very smooth, with a slightly oily wrapper (which is usually my preference), and a perfectly constructed cap. The only drawback was that there was a slight vein on the leaf of the wrapper, not very noticeable in the feel of the cigar, just a slight aesthetic note. To go along with my cigar, I poured about 2 fingers of Tallisker 10 Year aged Scotch, with 3 cubes of ice, and a twist of lemon.

On my brothers recommendation, I decided to punch the cigar, which I believe was the right move, as the cigar had a perfectly smooth flow the entire smoke. The cigar lit very well and burned more evenly than any cigar that I can recall smoking in the last year all the way through the end. Right from the get go, I knew that I would enjoy this smoke. The P-Squared has a very nice medium to full flavor, with definitive tones of peanut butter, black pepper, almond, cumin, and chalk. The flavor profile stayed very steady through most of the cigar; there wasn't any noticeable change until about 75-80% through the smoke. At that point, the flavor of chalk became much more prominent, and a slight bitterness began to creep it's way in. Once the bitter taste began to grow, I decided to finish my smoke. As I've been told many times before, the best way to determine when a cigar is done, is when the smoker stops truly enjoying it.

The ash of the cigar was very white the entire time, and at rest the smoke was smooth and steady, if maybe a little on the thin side. Start to finish, I believe the cigar took approximately 45 minutes to smoke with an average of 3-4 good pulls every minute or so.

I can't really think of any legitimate complaints about this cigar, other than the bitterness toward the end of my smoke.

Overall, the Perdomo P-Squared Red Label is a cigar that I very much look forward to smoking again and will most definitely recommend it to anyone with a broad pallette and a preference for medium to full bodied cigars.

Scoring:

• Appearance & Presentation: 16/20
• Lighting & Burning: 15/15
• Construction: 28/30
• Taste: 31/35
• Total: 90/100