I’ve got an oddball for you guys today. Padilla is a well known line of cigars, and the Achilles is no newcomer, but the double happiness is quite a stranger to the party. I’ve been sitting on this one for awhile, and I finally decided to smoke it last night. It was cold and windy, and though the smoke lasted quite a long time, I couldn’t enjoy much of the stogie’s aroma as the wind quickly swept it away.

Vitola: 

Here we get to the interesting stuff. The Achilles is a modest 5×48 cigar; however, two Achilles sticks have been rolled end to end (or foot to foot if you will) to create an extra long cigar. The process as I understand is very difficult, and there aren’t many people who can successfully roll one of these bad boys. The result is an 11×48 cigar (there’s a 1″ “spacer” between each cigar) that kicks some ass. The wrapper is smooth and flawless, not an aberrant vein to be seen anywhere. Shade is light, like milk chocolate. It’s been sitting in my humidor for some time now, and I can’t really tell what I’m smelling off the wrapper. I decide to guillotine cut, as the 48 gauge is not conducive to a punch. Bear in mind, you should probably cut both ends (since they’re foot to foot, you’ve got two caps) before lighting to make the draw easier.

Dry Draw:

Dry draw brought some serious coffee notes. A little light sweetness, slightly sugary accompanies the coffee. Draw is a little hard, but that’s a reasonable expectation from an 11″ stogie. I will note that the draw smoothed out considerably about 3″ in, which was a nice relief.

Smoke:

First half of the cigar let out very little smoke, though this is not something I generally like to rate cigars on. I’ve had excellent cigars with little smoke and horrible cigars that smoked like a chimney. It’s just not something I like to base the cigar’s integrity on. The aroma out of the cigar was very sweet,with much more of the coffee taste I picked up in the pre-light draw. This was pretty consistent throughout the smoke, with the notable exception of the mid cigar “spacer” that I’ll discuss later.

Flavor:

Oh boy, this stick was quite flavorful. There’s an important note I’d like to make about the cigar’s flavors an the peculiar way it’s constructed. Due to the foot to foot construction, it’s really like smoking two cigars backwards. You start out with the first cigar’s final third, then middle section, and finally the first third. You then reverse the process as you move past the “spacer” and continue the cigar as you might ordinarily do: first third, second third, final third. The result is that you get each third twice, and you can really notice when you start picking up on flavors you’ve already tasted. The final third of the cigar (and incidentally the first section smoked) was delicious. A rich woodiness with spices, notably nutmeg. The smoke was warm and really helped to balance the cold night. Second third brought some coffee flavors and sweetness, with a pinch of sweet cedar and earth. Also quite enjoyable, but not quite as good as that nutmeg spicy flavor I started with. The first third (now right about the middle of the cigar) is dry and tastes again of wood, but not quite the same as the final third. Almost like dry hay. Odd, and not quite  what I was expecting. As the cigar edges into the discolored (discolored on purpose mind you) “spacer”, there develops a distasteful acrid flavor. I’m not quite sure what’s happened, but it’s not really enjoyable and I know there’s a joke in here somewhere about the Achille’s “foot” being weak. Once the spacer has passed, the thirds continue once again, in reverse order to what I just smoked. To re-iterate, I’ve smoked: final third > second third> first third> “spacer”> first third> second third> final third. The second time I experienced the thirds were spot on to the first time, which is pleasant experience.

Verdict:

Overall, this was a nice smoke. The double happiness construction is odd, but makes for a nice change to a standard stogie. I’m not quite sure what happened with the flavors in the middle “spacer”, but they weakened the cigar a bit. I’m sure a standard Achilles would make for a very nice smoke, and I wouldn’t hesitate to smoke another one.