Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man | Cigar Reviews by the Katman

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican
Size: 5 x 50 Robusto
Body: Medium/Full
Price: $13.95 MSRP
Humidor Time: 4 Weeks
Number of cigars smoked prior to review: 0

Today we take a look at the Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man.
Thanks to Jeremy Schaeffer for the couple of sticks. He also supplied me with the Master Mason blend I just reviewed.

BACKGROUND:
H & S sells six blends: Entered Apprentice (Blue band), Fellowcraft (Blue band), Master Mason (Blue band), Traveling Man (Purple band), Veiled Prophet (Red band), and Shriner (Dark red band). Very little information on individual blends on both the web site and other review sites.

The definition of Traveling Man as described by the Masons:
“If they are truly masons it is simple to find out. All you have to do is ask them “Are you a traveling man?” If they respond with, “Yes I am. I am traveling from the west to the east”. Then you ask them “And what is it that you seek in the east?” They should respond with “I am seeking the point of illumination”.

The cigar band shows an inscription of 2B1 SK1. The Masonic symbol separates the two notations. The Masonic symbol stands for the letter “A” in this mystery.
Put it together, and it says: TO BE ONE ASK ONE. Clever, huh?

Factory: Ventura Cigar Company
President & CEO: Ed Kashouty
Co-Founder and Manager: George Dakrat

From the Hiram & Solomon web site:
“Continuing in the long Masonic tradition of Brotherly Friendship and Fellowship.”
“This is what Hiram & Solomon Cigars is all about. One of our guiding principles is to bring Mason brothers together in the harmony of a good cigar. Pull up a chair, sit back, light up one of our Master Mason cigars, and enjoy the history.

“Ed Kashouty’s heart, a past master got together with his friend George Dakrat, who is also an ardent cigar smoker; Dakrat himself, being a big supporter of the ideas and principles of Freemasonry. With a perfect occurrence of events and without purposely seeking each other out, paths crossed, and WB Kashouty and Dakrat, became acquainted with Harry Rockefella (sic), an established entrepreneur, well rounded in the tobacco industry, already having created exemplary lines of cigars. This was fate in action.”

I used this quote with the H & S Master Mason and I think it is a great one:
A profound comment from the Toasted Foot review site:
“My feeling on the price is this: At under $10 this is a great cigar, $10-$15 this is an okay cigar and at $15+ I feel like I’m being taken advantage of.”

SIZES AND PRICING:
H & S only sells to B & M’s. So getting the price on two sticks was like pulling teeth. There is a long list of B&M’s on the H & S web site.
Online store, Stogie’s World Class Cigars sells the Master Mason, Fellowcraft, and Apprentice. Prices range from $11.95-$17.95.

Traveling Man cannot be found anywhere online. Check the retailer list on the H & S web site.
Robusto: 5 x 50 $13.95
Churchill: 7 x 48 $17.95
Torpedo: 6 x 52 $17.95

DESCRIPTION:
Beautiful stick. An oily pecan/penny colored wrapper.
Seams are tights. Both small and large veins abound.
The triple cap is a work of art.
Solid stick. Not worried. The Master Mason was jam packed and had a perfect draw.

AROMAS AND COLD DRAW NOTES:
From the shaft, I can smell orange liqueur, spiciness, honey, cocoa, cedar, mint leaves, and earthwoodleather.
From the clipped cap and the foot, I smell dark chocolate, pepper, espresso, orange citrus, golden raisins, cedar, and cream.
The cold draw presents flavors of bitterness, pepper, chocolate, sweetness, cedar, orange citrus, and raisins.

FIRST THIRD:
I loved the Hiram & Solomon Master Mason.

The Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man starts very creamy with a small dose of black pepper…followed by a nice dash of cocoa, malts, coffee, and a tin roof sundae.
The draw is a little tight. But clearing it with my cigar awl scares me. The Master Mason seemed to be a bit over packed as well.

This is an expensive cigar. As a matter of fact, all the blends from Hiram & Solomon are very expensive.
I faithfully follow the guideline that Toasted Foot expounded on. Yet, I don’t understand why a Robusto is $14. Sure it can be had online for $2 less in your local B & M. May God bless you, depending on which state you live in, when it comes to adding your state taxes to these sticks.
The Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man doesn’t have the starting pizazz that the Master Mason had. I gave the MM a 95 because it deserved it. It started with an explosion of flavor and headed on the yellow brick road from that point forward.

The Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man lacks the big bang. It starts off very mellow without much excitement or the panache that the MM had. This is a shame. Was looking forward to the TM being every bit as good as the MM.

Strength is low on the medium body side.
I’m half an inch in and I’m waiting for the Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man to kick into high gear.

There are several reviews of the Master Mason but almost none of the Traveling Man. Hmmmm…
The char line is doing well. The tough draw is like sucking on a flat straw.
The cigar awl becomes a necessity.
This is turning out like a $5 Torano blend.

And then the char line goes to shit on me. How can there be so much difference between the Traveling Man and the Master Mason? Especially at the same expensive price points?
Man, I’m disappointed.
This will be a short review.

It is now clearly evident why there are virtually no reviews of the Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man. It’s a dud. An expensive dud. Can you imagine spending nearly $20 on A Churchill? Fuck me.
No transitions of the meek flavor profile. No complexity. No character. No oomph. The spiciness disappeared 5 minutes into the stick. Now it’s just plain blah.

SECOND THIRD:
Smoke time is 20 minutes. This is due to the several times I had to burn away half an inch of cigar wrapper to correct a runaway burn line.
Strength is still barely medium body.

You can see in the above photo that there is a very sloppy seam. Fingers crossed it doesn’t come loose.
There is some improvement. A few of the minimalistic flavors begin to appear with a little more significance…such as creaminess, black pepper, chocolate, malt, and fruit.
That’s all folks.

I am flummoxed that a manufacturer could put a brilliant blend like the Master Mason fall flat on his face with a different blend. The Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man is beyond disappointing.

This is a giant waste of my time. Poor Jeremy. This good man got me a couple of these sticks, along with the Master Mason, and now I feel like I’ve let him down.
The most torturous thing about the Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man is that it is so packed that the smoke time drags on and on….

If just something would happen. C’mon, man. Stop being the crypt keeper and come to life!
The halfway point is upon me.
Smoke time is 35 minutes. Time has slowed down as I haven’t had to torch the foot to correct it for a while.
At this point, my only wish is that the last third brings life to the monster. Maybe if a lightning bolt hit it.

The TM canoes on me once again. Sonovabitch!

I realize now I made a big mistake. I have two sticks…should have smoked one prior to this interview and then I could have put the kibosh on this review.
I’m not exaggerating when I declare the Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man has as close to no flavors as any cigar I’ve smoked.

Between the lousy construction and the total lack of character, here comes the low rating.
I have no idea why I’m wasting time on photos.
I should have taken one photo for the top of the page and put my camera away for the day.

Sweetness begins to build a platform. Building on that platform are weak flavors of chocolate, raisins, malt, creaminess, no spice whatsoever, and fruit. This is the closest the cigar has come to tasting as good as a $5 Torano.

Even if the last third redeems itself, there is no way I can recommend this cigar. The price alone disqualifies this real piece of work.
I spent the day, yesterday, writing some after thoughts for this review. Another story. I’m yanking it. Not going to waste a story on a dud cigar.

LAST THIRD:
Smoke time is 50 minutes.
The canoe returns.

To complete the circle of torture, I am forced to listen to the band Yes on the music channel. Some bands last the test of time. Yes doesn’t.

My first cigar of the day always presents the best a cigar has to offer on a nice fresh palate. I can’t even imagine what the Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man tastes like in the middle of the day after a couple of cigars.

The last third is actually worse. Zero flavors. Zero.
Strength makes it to a solid medium body.
Another manufacturer with blinders on.
I’m done. Trust me. You don’t want the Hiram & Solomon Traveling Man. If you want to try the Master Mason, go for it. A great cigar.

RATING: 60
(I use my own rating system. Cracks me up reading about the other systems that are supposed to be fair, objective, and equal. No matter the system, it is subjective. It is impossible to be objective, no matter how complex a rating system is, because it is your opinion. They just don’t get it.)