JANUARY 22, 2023 - PHIL KURUT, COMEDY - CIGARS - MUSIC
THE T. MADURO BY CALDWELL, AJ FERNANDEZ, AND BOOTH TORO (6 x 52)
WRAPPER: MEXICAN SAN ANDRÉS
BINDER: NICARAGUA
FILLER: NICARAGUA
Better late than never. Here we go with T.
A smooth draw brings in earth, spice, prune, and dirty chocolate. Dirty chocolate? Think the five-second rule after dropping a chocolate bar on a dirt dusted driveway.
Excellent smoke output.
Prune and dirty chocolate are intertwined through the retrohale. The finish splashes spice all over but not obnoxiously. The spice complements prune and dark chocolate quite well.
The ash hangs on well and breaks off easily.
As the T moves on after the first third, the notes tend to trail off. It remains to be a very smooth smoke, but the excitement begins to dwindle. A hint of chocolate here and there, and dark chocolate drops in on the finish, fades, and then later peeks out just a bit.
It reminds me of a movie that gives a bunch of action up front and then spends a lot of time establishing characters. “Oh, the main character splits wood, and his sidekick paints. Cool. When do they start blowing up things again?”
On a side note, does anyone really care if an action hero has a love interest? I just want to see them kick butt and blow up things. No need for romance.
Maybe this is just an intermission. Maybe.
Fast-forward. This has been a fairly long intermission. More wood splitting and painting. There has been some coffee, and that’s good, but I really want to get some more explosions and fight scenes. Maybe this is a romantic comedy. Those are even worse.
A guy and his funny friends keep us laughing for 10 to 20 minutes. He finds a girl. Nothing funny really happens. They break up for some stupid reason. His friends tell him to forget about her. They see each other again on the street or at a mall. They have an awkward conversation, get back together for no real reason, and then the credits roll.
Spoiler alert: As a whole, that’s neither romantic or comedic.
In fairness, T isn’t a romantic comedy.
Drama? Ugh. I hope not.
Okay, so maybe the first third was like a movie trailer. They show us all the good stuff so we get excited and go see the movie. Then we get to the movie, and we realize the trailer was the best thing about the movie. The movie wasn’t “bad”, but it wasn’t quite the trailer either.
Whatever.
So, if T were a movie. It was easy to watch, and it didn’t have any annoying characters or subtitles (no burn or draw issues). It’s something to do on a Sunday. Fair enough.
SMOKE TIME: 1 hr. 38 mins.
RATING: 2.75 / 4 - Something to do on a Sunday.