🔥 Buy 5-Pack 🔥

Unlit Impressions

Structurally sound to the extreme, the build on every Bay City cigar I have ever touched has been a shining example of what stogie construction and assembly should be. Tight seams, flush cap, attractive veins, and not a mottled misstep to be seen with the perfect amount of barrel spring. Brilliantly built. Bravo.

Cacao bean colored and showing more tooth by the day, the Mexican-born external leaf on this blend is a mixture of maduro and mahogany. Medium amounts of sorghum and molasses serve the senses a funky sweet-and-sour set of secondary smells, with oiled leather being the predominant player. 

Further down toward the foot, there is a mixture of dried tea leaves, mulled wine spices, dark soil, and a chocolate raisin mixture. Sticky in a malty way, and finished with candied dates, I continue to find this moment in the smoking ritual to be quite exceptional each time. Interestingly, notable amounts of cinnamon and coriander powder could both be detected on this review cigar, which I do not recall encountering in either of the two previous smokes I puffed last year.

Cold draws are a straightforward mixture of what was smelled on both the wrapper and the foot and feature a faint generic spiciness that is more a sensation than a taste, with a muted sweetness following thereafter. 

Initial Smoke

Cinnamon and sugar-dusted cookies, roasted walnuts, and lots of leather and soil let you know that the first third is going to be filled with flavor. A v-cut in play, the draw pushes forth a medium-bodied blend of malts and milk. 

1st Half

What was teased in initial impressions proves to be quite true after a few more minutes, when malted bread and almond milk make their way into second place behind a sizable amount of leather. The more you puff, the more bits of black licorice and a bold soil taste start to take over the cigar flavor profile. 

Down another centimeter or two, and the soil strengthens to the point of being first up on the tasting table. Behind that comes a milk chocolate mixture and some more leather. This may seem a touch simple by certain smoking standards, but it tastes balanced and very clean, with zero burn to be felt. 

Retrohales offer a touch of white pepper and cinnamon, as well as some pleasant oak and cedar smells, with the sweetness of the tobacco coming to the tongue after each exhale.  

2nd Half

As almond milk and mixed cocoa flavors continue to form, a mild Sumatran tobacco taste takes on the task of being the supporting actor in this saga. Medium-powered and medium in flavor and body, the backend of this blend is not so big as it is bullheaded in its determination to remain true to the flavors that it has formed. 

The major transition that occurs in the second half can be instantly found within the first few minutes of the final third. Here is where the malted milk starts to sour, leaving you adrift in a field of grass flavors and a muddy finish. Fuller in flavor, this funky, borderline full moment in the cigar is marked by a mixture of bitter coffee, charred wood, and a resinous finish further down past where the cigar band once sat. 

Parting Puffs

An extra year of age may have made the first two thirds of this cigar significantly smoother, but it seems to have missed the memo that parting puffs also need a little massaging as well.

Salt. Coffee. Funk. Those are your core parting puff cigar flavor profiles here. We'll let you decide as to whether they ring your bell or not.

Ash / Burn / Smoke / Draw

Near-perfect construction results in a near-perfect burn. That is what a premium long-filler cigar review should read each time. While I did have some significant issues with the combustion of the No. 162 by Lovely Cigars last autumn, this Bay City Maduro blend has proven to be a real trooper each and every time, with even the sharpest dip in the carbon ring self-correcting a minute or two later. 

Furthermore, the grade of medium-bodied smoke formation and the draw that makes it all possible is just as close to perfection as possible, and not once did the cigar sway from its due course save for the slits in the ash that formed every so often. 

Final Thoughts 

If a year of aging has allowed the majority of the Bay City Maduro to settle into such a smooth and well-rounded smoke, I wonder what another dozen months will do for the final third and parting puffs. The way in which the flavors within this blend build and balance one another out is a sizable shift from the first cigar I smoked in the spring of 2024, as well as the second stick I lit up last autumn. 

Missed opportunities are still detectable, with an increasingly imbalanced final third and unpleasant parting puffs being my biggest complaints. The blend is also a bit repetitive at times, especially right in the center of the stick when leather and milky cocoa combine. 

But at least it's consistent and delivers damn good flavor, with just enough Sumatran tobacco to keep your tongue guessing as you go. Oh, and it burns with the very best of the best in that Klaro cigar chest. Just one more example of how a reliable and rewarding, yet utterly obscure boutique cigar blend honoring Green Bay can provide just as much (if not more) smoking pleasure as a stick from one of the big guys. 

Stogie Specs