"No frills, just fantastic tobacco..."

This should be the slogan for Blackbird Cigar Co.'s "Glitch Claro" as it describes the cigar in all of its glory. Follow that with some descriptors about notes of ginger snaps, toasted almonds, and mild sunny spiced tones and you'll be in business.  

But there's more to this cigar than just that, as I recently discovered that there's much more buried deep within the folds of this blend's ultra crisp Connecticut Shade wrapper.

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Unlit Impressions 

Nothing special to see here. Just a well-rolled, properly filled, smooth-looking, Ecuador-grown Connecticut Shade-wrapped robusto.

Blackbird's "GLITCH" typography in all caps sits above the smaller "CLARO" wrapper designation printed in straw yellow underneath. In matching form, all of the fiber-optics art on the band matches the rest of the line. Not a Blackbird to be seen anywhere though, which is true for each cigar band in this series, yet still remains odd to me.

The aromas along the barrel are light, refreshing, and a little bit punchy when smelled toward the foot. Like a hard lemonade with a splash of ginger simple syrup inside, then topped with sweetgrass. All told this makes for a very pleasant prelit impression.  

Initial Smoke   

Lightly peppered, with familiar shade-grown cigar tastes of grassy sweetness, toast, and brown sugar start you off. This soon shifts to a green tea taste, along with a deeper Mild+ body and flavor that surely is constructed from that presumably San Andrés Mexican binder. 

1st Half  

Ritz crackers join the party after the first 15 minutes or so, and a mellow ginger spice taste blends with a mild, lemon tanginess toward the tail end of each low-temp exhale. It's a salivating sensation and taste combo and one that comes rounded by rich nutty notes of toasted almonds.   

2nd Half   

Strength is still a mild mixture throughout the second half, with flavors remaining on the upper end of mild, earning this blend a Medium– rating in my cigar record book.  

Tastes of lemons, ginger, and straw all give way for a saltine cracker note, as well as a toasty, dried oak tannin taste. There are some baking spice notes at play behind the scenes too, making for a fine little ginger snap cookie profile. This makes for a tasty alternative to the typical graham cracker notes everyone raves about in certain cigar flavor profiles. 

Parting Puffs     

"Good to the last puff..." would probably make for another outstanding slogan for this cigar blend. Puffed slowly, with as much ash as possible still hanging on, and you'll be able to preserve those flavor profiles from earlier all the way up until your fingertips start to singe. Ya'll are getting an A+ for the closing portions of this blend Blackbird.  

Ash / Burn / Smoke / Draw  

While the first stick burned beautifully, and only offered a stray flake of ash as a reason to complain, my secondary review cigar required a pretty lengthy touchup toward the start of the final third. 

Outside of that these smokes burned splendidly, offering a perfect draw and a nice, rounded mouthfeel of smoke with every pull. Very cool burning blends too! 

Final Thoughts 

For the money, it's tough to beat Blackbird's "Glitch Claro" in robusto form. Performance, value, construction, and flavor are all there in droves, and my heavens what a flavor profile this blend brings to the smoking table. 

If the first third had been able to bring out more of those toasted almond tones I would have scored this blend higher. The same can be said for the oaky tannin notes, which eluded me on both sticks all the way up until parting puffs were about to begin. 

But these are small complaints when considering the surprising host of perks that Blackbird has blended into each cigar. This earns the "Glitch Claro" its place in the running for best mild cigar of the year in my cigar book. Well done fellas... 

Cigar Stats