Bolivar Gold Medal

Description

Bolívar New Gold Medal Review
Last Tuesday, I was sitting on a milk crate in my garage with the ghostsof unfinished projects all around me. There’s a smell garages have, when you haven’t really lived in them for two years — musty with the stench of old sawdust and spilled motor oil and cold concrete. There was a 1974 Honda CB750 I had been eying under a tarp since my daughter was born. She’s starting middle school now.

Product Specifications

Construction: The Gold Standard?

I’ve got totell you, the first thing that doesn’t come out — it’s not tobacco, it’s theater. This thing is lined in gold foil like halfway. And it has that more professional, chocolatier bar or regal bar feel to it as well. On the2023’s new one — which I have — it’s indeed embossed right into thefoil;” It’s a nice touch, though I’ve always found the foil a bit fussy.

You have to slide it off, or peel it back, and I always think I’m going to nick thewrapper underneat h with my fingernail. After I’d removed the foil, the leaf beneath was an old-school Cuban Colorado — nutty brown with a mellow oil sheen that caught the garage’s lowlight. This is not the svelte 42 ring gauge Lonsdale of yesteryear. The new size is 48 ring gauge.

In my hands, it seemed firmer, “more contemporary.” I have always been a fan of the Lonsdale, but there’s something about 48 gauge when I know i’m gonna be sitting that just feels right. It’s big without being so large that you feel likeblasting your teeth against a flashlight. I gave the cap a quick snip. The cold draw was a tick snug — classic Cuba, no?

And I’ve learned not to panic when a Cuban hasa steady stick. Usually when the heat smacks, the gymculture cools. Off the foot it was barnyard and cedar. No chemical rudeness: Just fermentedtobacco, thanks.

It had the smell of a library, if the library books were made out of dried leaves. Solid. The First Third: The Reacquaintance
It’s a trip, to slam one after years away.

If I were shaking hands with a long-lost friend in a new city, the balance of that first draw would provide an equivalent. It’s as Bolívarish as they come — earthy, raw, direct — but it did not punch mein the throat. I remember the old Bolívars as these massive powerhouses that would leave you reeling if you hadn’t eaten a rump steak first. This one?

It’s more polite. First few sips wasall cedar and a very specific “toasty” note. You know when you toast bread a tiny stepbeyond golden, but it smells amazing? That, and a bite of black pepper on the back end ofthe tongue.

Good smoke and though quite firm, it drew. I sat there on my milk crate, exhaling clouds up to the rafters, watching smoke snake around an old ladder. The “Cuban twang” was there — that somewhat acidic, citrusty thing you just don’t really find in Nicaraguan orDominican leaf. It’s a vibe, man.

It really is. The Second Third-The Sweet Spot. AND YOU’RE SO BEAUTIFUL TOO! The stick hit its stride around 20 minutes in.

That’s where the New GoldMedal thing was starting to find its footing. It left to pepper, and thiscream “almost butters” feeling took off. Then I started to taste somebrown sugar. It wasn’t like having a lollipop or whatever; not like that, it waslike the smell of a bakery three blocks away.

It was humble, hugging the ground behind a dense wall of cedarand earth. The burn line was one of the cleanest I had ever seen. (Even though my garage is a refrigerator,I didn’t have to go back over these!) The ash was burning gray, holding to the cigar for an inch and a half before I grew restless and flicked it off into an old coffee can I used as an ashtray. Medium and the intensity did not change medium. I was not dizzy, which was just as well; the last thing I wanted to do upon returning indoors was stumble headfirst into a lawnmower.

It felt balanced. It were as if someone who had that roll in the first place gave afuck about passing flavors. The Final Third:The Long Farewell
As I approached the final couple of inches, lo and behold! that “Bolívar” identity had returned (somewhat) authoritatively.

The earthiness turned a bit darker, evolving from “gardensoil” to “espresso grounds.” It starts to heat up but it’s still silky. I’ve had cigars that become, by the end, a bitter dead thing; this one remainedfairly clean. The cedar came more to the forefront and I picked up a little bit more of that, andthe brown sugar note turned into more of a toasted-nuts flavor. I found myself slowing down.

I didn’t want to finish it. Not simply because the cigar was good, but also because when that cigar was over, I had to come back inand be a “grown-up” again. Smoked it all the way down until my finger tips were getting warmI nubbed that bitch. It wasnt harsh, butfirm and warm with a nice finish and follow through on the palate.

Andit seemed a nice ending to a story I didn’t know I was telling. Pairing Recommendations
I didn’t want to freak out while I was outside inthe garage, so I calmed my mind with only a thermos of black coffee.

Honestly? It was perfect. The bitterness of the coffee cut the creaminess ofthe cigar and extracted that brown sugar note. Instead, I’d hit a boozy rum number — say, Havana Club 7.

You want to pair it with somethingthat has a bit of molasses sweetness to play with the earthy Bolívar backdrop. If you’re a scotch guy, maybe try to avoid the super peaty stuff; it might bury those delicate cedar notes. Good, well-balanced bourbon would be fine too. Buthonestly, the only thing this slim stick needs to go from quotidian to showstopping is a fine espresso.

The Verdict
Cigar Started the Buzz?

Is the Bolívar New Gold Medal “the biggest” cigar ever? I don’t know. I don’t like the sounds of wordslike that. What I can tell you is that it’s a way bigger experience.

It’s got the history, it’s got that flashy gold foil if you need to get fancy, and it’s got a flavor profile that wink-winks complexity without being overly exhausting.

It’s a medium-boded cigar that looks like it might be an easy fit. And if you’re a history buff, you’ll appreciate the Vuelta Abajo tobacco and classic construction.

If you smoke occasionally, the strengthisn’t too intense. Stepping up toa 48 ring gauge from the original 42 was a good move by Habanos S.A., freeing up the flavors and also inncreasing its impact in-hand. Sitting alone in the dark, with a whiff of the New Gold Medal hanging moistly in the air, I felt like I’d missed this. It was not only the tobacco, but beingcompelled to waitfor it.

A 6 1/2in cigarshould notbe hurried. It demands 90 minutes of your life in return for an alibi to remain sedentary. For a stonybrook like me, man that hadn’t slept in years, that was the entire value of te LEDHFUCKIN price tag. If you find a box at La Casa del Habano, get em.

Now it’s “yeah,they’re here all year,” and yet “Bolívar Gold Medals” are Bolívar Gold Medals, and there will always be a special place in my heart for them. Even if you’re puffing it outside on a milk crate in a dirty garage, this one’ll make you feel like king of your own little concrete empire. Solid. Truly solid.