This cigar sports a medium brown Cameroon wrapper that is slightly “toothy.” Thin veining adorns this stogie with one small vein running the length of the body. The finish on the head was poor while the cap was thin and unattractive.

The pre-light aroma on this Cameroon wrapper produced aromas of sweet hay. Clipping the cap with my Paliò cutter, I take a pre-light draw. The draw seemed slightly firm, with notes of hay and nuts. I toasted the foot with my Zippo/Z-Plus lighter before taking a few pulls to begin my journey with this cigar.

The cigar started out medium in body with a woody theme. Strong notes of sweet hay and nuts accompany this flavor in the beginning, but these flavors are fairly short lived as the cigar flavor develops into dry cedar with a “tangy” aftertaste.

At roughly the halfway point, the cigar takes a turn for the worse. The flavor suddenly becomes very sharp and acrid. I continue for another half inch to see if the situation changes for the better. Fortunately, it did, as the smoke returned to the flavor of mild cedar with a slight salty undertone. It is at this point that the light spiciness of the Cameroon wrapper was evident.


This cigar displayed an excellent burn despite other problems. It had a very fine burn line with no observed scalloping or unevenness. The ash was pearl gray in color that neither flaked, nor cracked. When I brushed the ash off at the one-inch mark, the pellet broke flush with the foot. Having little density to it, the ash disintegrated with a gentle touch. No cinder cone was observed during the experience, nor was there evidence of any tunneling within the burning filler.

The second tasting of the Belmore Cameroon Selection was way off from the first in the Flavor and Aroma category. The only explanation that I can come up with is that the fillers, or possibly one leaf, were not properly fermented, giving off the unpleasant taste of ammonia while it burned. I could have purged the cigar in an attempt to burn off any unpleasant tars, but felt that since the change was so sudden, it was probably a deeper issue within the cigar.

We’ll be giving this cigar two more chances here at Stogie Fresh, the next one being in three months.

~Blake