Review: Alec Bradley Tempus Magistri Maduro

Tonight's up-for-review cigar is one that redbeerd9er from Twitter pointed out to me at the Oliva event this past Friday night.  The Alec Bradley Tempus Magistri Maduro is a Limited Edition figurado in the Tempus line and is the only Tempus to feature a maduro wrapper. After doing some research, it seems that only 750 boxes (15,000 cigars) were produced for the U.S. market. Lucky for those of us in Columbus, House of Cigar still has a box on the shelf. Let's light this cigar up and see how I think it preforms.

Specifics (notes taken from http://www.acigarsmoker.com/)
Vitola: Figurado
Length: 6.5
Ring Gauge: 53
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres Maduro
Filler: Trojes, Honduras, Nicaragua
Binder: Trojes, Honduras Criollo ‘98 – Indonesia Embetunada
MSRP: Approx. $10.50
Smoking Location: House of Cigar, Columbus, Ohio
Beverage: Diet Coke


Pre-Light

Alec Bradley Tempus Magistri Maduro is a beautiful cigar to look at. It had one very minimal vein and a dark, oily maduro wrapper. The figurado shape was rolled to perfection and when held in my hand, it had a great weight and feel to it. The cigar omitted very little scent pre-light but with the cap clipped, it gave off a nice earthy tobacco aroma.  The pre-light draw was very tight and tasted like bitter chocolate.

First Third

On the first few puffs of my Alec Bradley Tempus Magistri Maduro I was hit with a strong mocha flavor and a bit of peppery spice.  I also noted a few floral notes and even a hint of cinnamon. Very flavorful!  The cigar produced a lot of thick smoke despite having a very tight draw.  The finish on the cigar was long and coated my mouth with great flavors for well over a minute between puffs. I would rate the body of the beginning of this cigar as medium.  Toward the end of my first third of this cigar, the draw started to become very problematic.

Second Third

The flavors in the second third of my Alec Bradley Tempus Magistri Maduro changed up from the first third.  The spice that I had tasted before fell off and the cigar was producing a very nice strong coffee taste. The finish on the cigar was still long and had redeveloped a lot of those bitter dark chocolate notes.  The flavors were still fantastic...the problem was the burn/draw. During the second third, I could barely draw any smoke through the tobacco. The cigar actually went out more than once, requiring me to keep reaching for the torch. I was loving the flavor profile, but the cigar was becoming unsmokable. 

Final Third and Final Thoughts

 

Before starting on my final third, I re-clipped the head. This is exactly what the cigar needed. Once clipped higher up on the stick, the draw on the smoke opened up considerably. I was again delighted with a strong coffee flavor and a bitter dark chocolate finish. The burn from here to the nub was almost prefect and the entire smoking experience improved greatly. The body ramped up a bit to in my opinion medium to medium full.

My final thoughts on the Alec Bradley Tempus Magistri Maduro are mixed.  I really loved this particular cigar's flavors. The coffee notes were really nice and relaxing and the bitter dark chocolate finish kept you on your toes between puffs. The problem was the draw/burn. Smoking a cigar that you constantly have to work at to keep lit can become very annoying. I highly recommend if you smoke this cigar to cut the head much higher then you would normally. 

Would I buy it again? If I get a chance to buy this cigar again in a few months, I would buy more.  Maybe the problems I experienced were due to a bad stick in the bunch.

Would I buy a box? I'm not sure if you can find a box of these anywhere anymore, but if you have some extra cash laying around and enjoy the Tempus line, I would recommend getting a box.

Dan