Smoked: Caldwell Blind Man's Bluff Maduro

Smoked at: Sharonville, Ohio

I have smoked Caldwell Blind Man’s Bluff Maduro many times in the past. I just realized I have never actually reviewed the cigar. A couple of years ago, I smoked one for the first time in 5 years and thought the Maduro was absolutely terrific. Since then, I haven’t been wowed by the Blind Man’s Bluff but have found it an enjoyable smoke.

Caldwell Blind Man’s Bluff Maduro uses Dominican filler, a Sumatran binder and an oily rustic dark chocolate brown Pennsylvania Broadleaf Maduro wrapper with tight seams and barely visible veins.

For openers, you get dark chocolate, dark roast coffee, oak, pepper, earth and leather. Fruit pops up in the background – kind of like berries, like blueberry jam. There’s also a couple of puffs of citrus hiding behind the berries The oak morphs into charred wood during the second third. The retrohale is pepper and earth. The cigar is medium-full bodied and medium-full strength.

Construction: loose draw, generous smoke output, flaky ash that somehow held pretty tight, but an extremely wavy burn line that required numerous touchups and never did get under control.

I’ve smoked the Blind Man’s Bluff Habano, Connecticut and Maduro and have enjoyed every one of them. The Maduro is one of Caldwell’s infrequent forays into the medium-full bodied range. He is, by his own admission, a fan of medium to mild cigars. The Blind Man’s Bluff Maduro is the darker, bolder side of Caldwell.

It’s interesting that I was knocked out by the taste when I smoked this cigar some years ago. This time I have to rate it an average smoke. Did my palate change? Did I get an inferior stick this time? Maybe just a different time, a different place. The loose draw, the burn line issues and frequent touchups certainly hindered my enjoyment of the cigar. It gets a 3 overall.