The Huntress

A long time back, I acquired a Padilla Artemis double torpedo box pressed beautiful cigar. It has lived in my humidor just about since I scored that box. Kept it in the top tray. Each time I opened the lid I admired the pure unadulterated gorgeousness of this stick. Should've left it there.

Instead, this afternoon, after we waved goodbye to our weekend house guest Cal, I sparked lovely Artemis up. There was good reason to celebrate. For one thing, Cal, who I had never met before, turned out to be a real quality boon companion. Next, he turned out to be good with his hands, so that between the two of us, a job which usually requires all weekend to complete, well we started at six on Friday and wrapped up by six last night. His bike was also a beautiful specimen of machinery to work on, being a perfectly preserved shining BMW chrome head R1200C. That's the very BMW model included in the Guggenheim Museum's travelling Art of the Motorcycle show. Wonderful rolling sculpture in glossy schwartz mit weiss. Incredibly, the whole project also went off without a single hitch, which just never happens on this big a job. Last but not least, Unbeknownst to us, Cal's son had recently been in an accident which left him a quad, was miraculously on the way to recovery, and Cal, of course, was footing the bills so his son wouldn't lose his house and all, so that this project turned out serendipity all around. To top it all off, as we sat at breakfast this morning after a test ride, another motorcycle friend dropped by our table, requiring help with a starter relay, so I nor had a new project for today.

So I was in an expansive mood. Swapped out the relay. Came home to the man cave. Yanked old Artemis from her honey hole. Almost seven inches long. 56 gauge. Marvelous symmetry of construction. Wonderful wrapper. Obviously, no blackwash needed to obscure this reddish marbled color. Enticing cedar and barn aroma. Tasty creamy cedar flavor. A bit light, ad too fat for my taste; but otherwise a cylindrical sotweed work of art.

Cut both ends off. Free and easy draw. Cedar and barn all up my nose. Really looking forward to burning this stick. Fired it up with one match. Aaaaahhh! Creamy super smooth cedar, clean finish, wonderful aroma, great volume.

If you like this stick, you will want to stop reading right here.

You were warned. This stick had the worst gotdamt burn I have ever seen. Can you believe it, this thing tunneled so bad and so fast that it put itself out before the cherry even burnt up the tapered part! That's right, within the first ten minutes. Great first ten, then havoc. First it would burn up one side, then it would burn up the other side, then it would go out. Over and over.

About four matches in, I took to hitting it hard and steady to keep it lit. That pace beat the cream right out of the cedar and left it turn sour. I've had better flavor with no burn problems from a six bit FX Smith Natural. Many times. Six matches in, I eventually gave up and cut the end off to start all over again. Still wouldn't burn right. Ten matches in, I just gave up entirely and chucked it.

Ought to have left it right where it was, on the top tray, where I could admire it from afar.

I am hard pressed to give this one star out of five.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

blurr

Bro, you have problems where so many others don't. I don't smoke many padillas, but the Artemis I've heard many good things about. What's your humi setup, you have issues with burns and problem sticks like nobody I've ever seen. Using beads or whatever should get your rh to 65 or so and this ends. Maybe you just prefer junk bundle cheap smokes. Something isn't right there.

Rhamlin

Bummer. I've never had one but that is a handsome stick. Shame about the burn issues. I hate it when I get a stick that just burns crazy even if the flavor is good it's hard to get enjoyment out of it.

Martel

Yeah, real bummer. It is pretty. Reminds me of an ex-girlfriend from long ago. Really pretty but not worth the trouble.

webmost

blurr:
Bro, you have problems where so many others don't. I don't smoke many padillas, but the Artemis I've heard many good things about. What's your humi setup, you have issues with burns and problem sticks like nobody I've ever seen. Using beads or whatever should get your rh to 65 or so and this ends. Maybe you just prefer junk bundle cheap smokes. Something isn't right there.

It's true, I do have my share of burn probs. These usually occur 1/2 or 2/3 down the stick on a damp day in the garage, where they'll plug up. Yesterday was dank and cold and you could smell snow in the air. This stick came from the top tray of a humidor kept at 65%.

On the other hand, the first review of Artemis I googled this morning also complained of burn issues. Right after snuffing the Quorum I fired Saturday, I burnt a Lot 23 Maduro to get the taste out of my mouth and had no issues, in similarly raw weather from the same humidor. So it's not just me and other sticks no prob. I do like some junk bundle cheap sticks, like the Factory Throwout. Others I cannot abide, like the Quorum. I just try not to keep my palate in my wallet.dank

Hard to tell.

Lee.mcglynn

That's a shame! But Padilla has had some qc issues IMO and that has put them towards the bottom of my list. I really liked the Miami oscuro's but had so many issues with burn and plugging I just gave up on them. They look great and taste great but the hassles of trying to get a ok burn was too much and I gave up.

Rain

blurr:
Bro, you have problems where so many others don't. I don't smoke many padillas, but the Artemis I've heard many good things about. What's your humi setup, you have issues with burns and problem sticks like nobody I've ever seen. Using beads or whatever should get your rh to 65 or so and this ends. Maybe you just prefer junk bundle cheap smokes. Something isn't right there.

Davis may have some burn problems, however, I think there is more to this.Davis gives you a no BS review. A lot of other places/people that do reviews have the sticks sent to them in order to do the review...so they can't come out and say "This thing sucks, one star." They'll fluff up the review with "This has a ton of aging potential" blah blah blah.

ddubridge

Rain:
blurr:
Bro, you have problems where so many others don't. I don't smoke many padillas, but the Artemis I've heard many good things about. What's your humi setup, you have issues with burns and problem sticks like nobody I've ever seen. Using beads or whatever should get your rh to 65 or so and this ends. Maybe you just prefer junk bundle cheap smokes. Something isn't right there.
Davis may have some burn problems, however, I think there is more to this.Davis gives you a no BS review. A lot of other places/people that do reviews have the sticks sent to them in order to do the review...so they can't come out and say "This thing sucks, one star." They'll fluff up the review with "This has a ton of aging potential" blah blah blah.

This is why I love the Webmost Reviews. Straight to the point, no bias.

webmost

Rain:
blurr:
Bro, you have problems where so many others don't. I don't smoke many padillas, but the Artemis I've heard many good things about. What's your humi setup, you have issues with burns and problem sticks like nobody I've ever seen. Using beads or whatever should get your rh to 65 or so and this ends. Maybe you just prefer junk bundle cheap smokes. Something isn't right there.
Davis may have some burn problems, however, I think there is more to this.Davis gives you a no BS review. A lot of other places/people that do reviews have the sticks sent to them in order to do the review...so they can't come out and say "This thing sucks, one star." They'll fluff up the review with "This has a ton of aging potential" blah blah blah.

Well, plus, you always get some completely irrelevant story to wade through wondering what's the point....

By the way, that reminds me, old Cal is in the dog house. While scrubbing down his header pipes in the wash room, he evidently removed the washer drain hose from the wash sink to make room. Never replaced it. Bearswatter called me irate this morning. She did a load of laundry in the washer and now the laundry room is awash.

I must admit we've had one heck of a wet wet winter here in Dull-Aware. Week after week of dank, dark, chilly Scottish summer. Yesterday, I got to overhauling the travelling motorcycle tool kit. The camera bag it lives in was damp in every compartment. I had to lay out everything on the work bench to dry, and pull out the sodden padding from inside the bag walls. When everyone else gets snow up and down the coast, we only get sleet. Have not broken out the snow shovel in anger even once.

Loved the Padilla Miami that our brother who calls himself the Catfish bombed me with last May. Delightful.

Vision

blurr:
Bro, you have problems where so many others don't. I don't smoke many padillas, but the Artemis I've heard many good things about. What's your humi setup, you have issues with burns and problem sticks like nobody I've ever seen. Using beads or whatever should get your rh to 65 or so and this ends. Maybe you just prefer junk bundle cheap smokes. Something isn't right there.

I sort of agree... I dont use matches and never cut a foot.... no matter what. I always toast the foot from about 6-10 inches and keep my smoking humi at 63-64RH. How far down the foot did you cut? What do you use for a cutter?

brianetz1

i had a few of these from my original humidor purchase from cigar.com. They are beautiful sticks, but when i smoked them they were just OK. I didn't have burn issues at all, but compared to the other sticks i was smoking they just weren't something that appealed to me......but the band is a beauty and the orange just goes so well with the color of the stick and the gold of the lion.

webmost

Vision:
I sort of agree... I dont use matches and never cut a foot.... no matter what. I always toast the foot from about 6-10 inches and keep my smoking humi at 63-64RH. How far down the foot did you cut? What do you use for a cutter?

I am very methodical in my approach.. I keep the humidor at 65. In cold weather, it tends to dive from there every few, and have to be fed a couple drops every three or four days. I nearly always smoke robustos, so there's no foot cutting involved, just uncap and go. In the very rare case where someone gives me a perfecto or double torpedo like this one, I generally turn around and give it away. This one I kept because I admired the looks. I always toast the foot of a cigar with one match. Rarely need two. With a perfecto, I'll light the skinny end and let it burn its own self up to full width. Early on, I ran through a whole box of Cusano Xclusivo Preferido Grande, which is a large perfecto, burnt them just this same way, and never had a problem. Did a load of garage work with that stick smoldering, setting it down on the workbench for extended periods. I like that stick. However, in the case of this Artemis, both ends were sealed up, so I had to nip the tip off the foot. The only cutter I use on either end is a very sharp pocket knife.

Rain

PM Davis.