[Editor's Note: This is the second review in a new section on the site titled "Vintage Smokes", in which we will be reviewing some extremely aged cigars...In order to be considered for this section, the cigars reviewed will be AT LEAST 20 years old, and will consist of both Cuban and non Cuban cigars...Also, there will not be a final score given, since alot of these that I will be reviewing are extremely rare, there is really nothing to compare them too. ~.ed]

The next review in our Vintage Smokes section is a Robert Burns from 1930s (ish)…

Now, I have always enjoyed smoking vintage cigars (and this one was about 80 years old), if only because I know I am smoking a piece of history…things were VERY different back when this cigar came off the machine, and I am always amazed at the quality of the construction…

Anyway, some history for those of you that don’t know…Robert Burns (along with Muriel and White Owl and others) were known as “Clear Havanas”, and were basically machine made cigars (albeit small by today’s standards) that used various amounts of Cuban tobacco in their products…Usually, the filler was long filler imported from Havana, the binders usually came from the CT Valley and the wrappers came from Sumatra or Central America (or in some cases, the wrappers were imported Havana tobacco as well)…

One interesting note: the cigars were called “Clear Havanas” because customs officials used to sit in the factories, and clear the tobacco used in them through customs as it was brought up from the warehouse basement.

The cigars were produced my the hundreds of thousands every year in states like New York, Florida and Pennsylvania, and at their hayday, there were more then Ten Thousand different brands of Clear Havana cigars, most of varying quality….

Just for comparison’s sake, here is a photograph of the cello the cigar came in, compared to one from this year…

And just for fun, here is a old commercial for the Robert Burns cigar from the 1950s…

Enough of the history, let’s get down to business!

• Cigar Reviewed: Robert Burns (1930s)
• Country of Origin: America
  
• Wrapper: Unknown for sure
• Binder: Unknown for sure
• Filler: Unknown for sure
• Size: 5.5 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 42
• Vitola: Unknown (Perfecto?)
  
• Est. Price: Varies Wildly (about $.10 when Originally Sold)
• Date Produced: 1930s

The first thing I noticed when looking at this cigar was the small hole right dab in the center of the stick…I assume it was a beetle hole (it sure looks like one) but there were no other indications of infestation, and that sure was not going to stop me from smoking it…(and I am pretty sure the beetle is long dead by now)…

The light brown wrapper itself is quite a bit more rough as the Romeo y Julieta Perfectos from 1968 that I reviewed…it smelled slightly of tobacco and nothing else, and was slightly spongy when squeezed (and amazingly enough, there was not a soft spot under the beetle hole)…

The cigar lit very easily, and I did get a bit of pepper at the beginning, followed by a taste of cedar and aged tobacco that remained for the entire 1st third of the cigar…a very pleasant taste, but not overly noteworthy (other then being pleasant, obviously)…

During the Second Third, I ran into a problem…I assumed the hole in the cigar would give me issues, but I did not realize how bad it would effect the draw of the cigar…when the burn hit about the start of the 2nd third, I was almost unable to get any draw at all out of the cigar…until I had the bright Idea to put my finger over the hole when drawing, and BAM! that fixed it, the stick started drawing like a champ again…as long as I put my finger over the hole, it drew like a champ…

And as an added bonus, when I took my finger away from the hole, the smoke started coming out of THAT hole ONLY, and not off the end of the lit cigar, which made for a pretty kickass photo…

In terms of flavor, the Second Third was much the same as the First…Cedar was definitely the dominate taste, and the pepper that was present in the first third calmed down until it was almost non existent…I was rolling along just great, thinking it would be another boring stick…

Until I hit about halfway through the Final Third, when I was BLASTED by a bomb of spice…I literally sat up in my chair (and scared the sleeping cat next to me in the process) when it happened, it was so out of the blue…It made my mouth tingle, and almost overwhelmed any other flavor there was in the stick…it did not get hot at the end, but the spice lasted until I put it down…

Final Notes:

• The Burn on this cigar was great all the way through, and the draw was PERFECT (as long as I plugged up the beetle hole, of course)…I was amazed by the quality of the construction of this 80 year old cigar, which beat out quite a few newer cigars I have smoked…
• I loved the old band, but I am a sucker for such things…
• The final smoking time for this cigar was 1 hour and 10 minutes, and I was taking my time for sure…I was quite a bit surprised at how slow this stick smoked as well, almost like it was MEANT to smoke that slow…

The Bottom Line: I enjoyed this smoke quite a bit more then the Romeo y Julieta Perfectos from 1968 that I reviewed a few weeks ago, due mainly to the construction and the flavors that changed constantly…While I would not put it anywhere close to one of the best smokes I have had, the combination of the said construction and flavors, along with the fact that it was a 80 year old smoke definitely made a great impression on me…I would smoke more of these if I had them…