Malevolent Smokazebo: Gurkha Evil Torpedo

Cigar Review: Gurkha Evil
Length: 6.5″
Ring Gauge: 53
Vitola: Torpedo
Wrapper: Brazilian
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Lower Full
Pricing: $9 (£5.50)

I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been a big Gurkha fan… I used to smoke them every once-in-awhile sometime back but haven’t had one in quite awhile… in fact I think the last Gurkha I smoked was a Avenger G5 (and, if I remember, I didn’t find it to be a good cigar)… Recently a friend suggested I try the Gurkha Evil… now with a name like that I was a bit suspicious, but I figured I’d give it a try, see what I found in it and then do a review…

The Evil is not a new cigar, it’s been out for a couple of years and is considered by Gurkha head Kaizad Hansotia one of his “bad boy” cigars (along with the Gurkha Assassin)… it’s described as a strong full-bodied cigar although I find it to be a much tamer lower full-bodied smoke… The Evil line is comprised of 5 vitolas – Robusto (5×50), Toro (6×50), Churchill (7.5×52), XO (6×60) and the one I chose to smoke, the Torpedo (6.5×53)…

The stick is comprised of a Brazilian Maduro wrapper, Dominican binder & Nicaraguan filler… The wrapper is not a dark Maduro we are normally used to, it’s a much lighter chocolate brown color that has an oily & toothy look and feel to it… the wrapper presents honey sweet tobacco & cedar notes while the foot presents more of an earthy sweet tobacco and barnyard scent… the pre-draw presents sweet tobacco and chocolate flavors and gives a clean, free-flowing draw…

Upon lighting you are presented with light black pepper/red pepper spice and muted sweet sugar cane sweetness flavor notes with a light orange citrus undernote… going into the second part of the smoke I discovered a bitter/sour orange note that while not off putting was a bit unusual… the sour flavor subsided in the third part with a bit of semi-sweet chocolate along with the continuing black pepper notes… The smoke was thick and creamy and provided a medium finish with the flavors lasting for a few minutes between puffs, retrohale presented black pepper, chocolate and coffee notes… the ash was tight & compact with as much as 2″ of ash forming before cracking…

Check out the video review below:



Cigar Review Verdict: The Evil was neither an “Evil” cigar in intensity nor was it a bad smoke… I was impressed by the flavors and smoke quality and will definitely try this line again in the future… I know there’s many Gurkha fans in the cigar aficionado world and this is one stick that while I wouldn’t go out of my way to get, I wouldn’t turn down if it was offered (or was available at a shop I was visiting)… I want to try and see how the remaining sticks of the 5-pack I bought smoke 6 months down the line…

PAIRINGS: The Evil is a lower full-bodied smoke with a sweet component running through it that makes it a good mid-day stogie… pair it with a grilled sandwich, steak, grilled or bbq’d chicken, Mexican food and a bold red wine or sweet tea or espresso latte… it’s not so strong that will overpower milder foods but not so weak that it won’t stand up bolder, spicier fare…

Review by Tony Blake's 365 Cigar Review

Coffee for the Revolution!

This is a coffee review I found on the Blog Man Seeking Coffee. Man Seeking Coffee is a humble contribution to the coffee-centric, food-writing world of blogs. Part travelogue, part review, it’s a record of successes (and failures) seeking out great cups of coffee.

CCC’s Decaf Zaragoza Mexico

Beans: Decaf 21st de Septiembre, Zaragoza, Mexico
Roaster: Counter Culture Coffee
Rating: 4*

This direct trade, organic, shade-grown, natural water process, Mexican from the 21st de Septiembre co-op was the other bag of coffee in my recent order from Counter Culture. You may remember this coffee from my glowing review of Woodberry Kitchen’s coffee service, but I hope I’m adding some nuance to that review and not just repeat myself.

The bottom line is that this coffee is pretty damned amazing. It has a slightly gritty mouthfeel and a medium to full body with notes of clove, burnt caramel, brown sugar, tobacco and a bit of orange or what sometimes suggests tomato. Despite being a darker roast, it feels like CC really nailed this one. The coffee’s smokey qualities remind me of that caterpillar with the hookah in Alice in Wonderland. Yet the darkness doesn’t obscure the touch of tang that really comes through as an espresso.

My only complaint is a very slight, harshness in the back of the throat that I couldn’t quite shake no matter how I prepared this coffee. Given it strong and delicious tobacco aftertaste, it almost feels intentional, like the sore throat that accompanies a socially-smoked cigarette.

This coffee is highly versatile which is clearly a good thing, but especially true in a decaf. While it didn’t wow me in the syphon (probably too dark), it wasn’t bad. And, it pretty much sung in any other form I tried, including the above-mentioned espresso, French Press, pour over drip or Aeropress (yikes, I’ve got to get a life).

I’m giving this coffee a 4. Just to be clear, it probably wouldn’t stand up to the most highly celebrated caffeinated coffees, but then again I’ve never met a decaf that could. However, it can more than hold its own against pretty much any decaf out there and can probably best many darker roasted regulars as well. I’d say this is just about the best darn decaf I’ve had in a long, long time.

* Organize your life around this coffee. Drop everything, re-schedule your appointments or plan a trip if necessary.

John Shuttleworth Save The Whale

SAVE THE WHALE- LYRICS

Save the whale
Its, fins, its hump, its tail
Stop the slaughter, don’t you think you ought ter
(keep 'em in the water, save the...)
Save the whale?

We don’t have to kill the whale
To have a lovely time
There are lots of other fish
Upon which we can dine
Pilchards in tomato sauce-
An old favourite of mine
And tuna chunks in brine
And tuna chunks in brine

Don’t be naughty Norway
To kill the whale’s a crime
There are lots of other fish
Upon which you can dine
Have you tried a cod portion
In parsley sauce – divine!
And tuna chunks in brine
And tune chunks in brine.

(Everybody!)

Save the whale
Its fins, its hump, its tail
Stop the slaughter
Don’t you think you ought to save the whale…

Crow-Hair-Girl

Unknown artist

Charlie's Aunt Theatre Review

By Brandon Thomas
Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
Review by David Chadderton

While most comedies rarely work in their entirety outside the period and society in which they were first conceived, Liverpool-born Brandon Thomas's classic farce has remained a favourite on both the professional and the amateur stage for nearly 120 years.

Set in the world of the young, idle upper classes in late Victorian England, Oxford students Jack Chesney and Charles Wykeham have invited Kitty Verdun and Amy Spettigue to their rooms at college to propose to them. Charles's aunt, whom he has never met, is now a wealthy widow and is coming over from Brazil, but when she sends a telegram to cancel her visit (and the girls won't stay without a chaperone), they persuade their friend Lord Fancourt Babberley (Babs) to dress up and impersonate Charley's Aunt. The stage is set for lots of chases, scenes of mistaken identity, conversations at crossed purposes and wildly improbable coincidences, all important elements of classic farce.

While it still raises a lot of laughs, this is very much a play of its time; chaperones, letters of permission to marry and audience sympathy for a son of the aristocracy who cannot pay his champagne bill are all relics of a past age that wouldn't work in a modern play. Some of the comedy and characters too are straight out of music hall or silent comedy films, such as the repeated line "where did you get that hat?" and the wound-up ball of fury that is guardian to the girls, Stephen Spettigue, but its strangeness can be refreshing as well as dating the piece.

Braham Murray's production is certainly fast-moving and filled with set pieces of physical comedy. However these set pieces look a little too deliberately staged for the whole thing to flow smoothly and naturally. For instance, there is a superbly-executed move when 'Charley's Aunt' launches himself into his costume in the middle of a forward roll, but those of us who couldn't see him wandering through the audience were left looking at the other two boys holding the costume in a way that could only be a set-up for this move. Perhaps in another week or so these rough edges will smooth out and the misdirection will be more effective.

The play depends very heavily on having a good physical comic in the title role, and certainly Oliver Gomm has the physical presence and the comic delivery to pull this off, resulting in some very funny moments of both physical and verbal comedy. However he has been given a bit too much licence by the director, indulging in some rather over-the-top silly voices and some physical routines are padded out with pointless muttering and hand waving. If the director could reign in some of the self-indulgence in Gomm's performance, this could be a truly great comic performance to remember.

1906 Poster of Etienne Girardot as Charlie's Aunt

Gomm has excellent support from Jack Farthing as Jack Chesney with Brodie Ross as a fawning, nervous Charles Wykeham. Stephen Hudson is superb as the disapproving, put-upon servant Brassett. Malcolm Rennie gives a wonderful red-faced angry portrayal of Stephen Spettigue who falls for the fake Charley's Aunt, and there is a nice subtle performance from Michael Elwyn as Jack's father Sir Francis Chesney. The female characters don't get a great deal to do, but Annabel Scholey and Sarah Ovens pull off the characters of Kitty and Amy perfectly, and there is a noble and playful portrayal of the real aunt, Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez, from Briony McRoberts with a simpering Ela Delahay, the object of Babs's affection, played by Elizabeth Crarer by her side.

At its best this production can produce loud belly laughs from the audience but it is rather uneven. If the mechanics of the routines can be smoothed over and better concealed and the more indulgent excesses of the performers reigned in a bit, this could be a really great production rather than one with some great moments.