The Particulars

Prolegomenon and Other Random Thoughts

In basketball, your pivot foot is your foundation—it’s how you create space, set up the shot, and dictate the play. Jamond Hackley, the man behind Definition Cigars, knows a thing or two about that, drawing on his own time on the court to craft the concept for the Pi5ot, one of three cigars that Definition announced at PCA 2026. The name itself is a tribute to the folks who inspired him growing up: the “5” is a nod to Jalen Rose’s iconic jersey number from his Fab Five days at Michigan straight through his NBA career, while that striking Kelly green band honors Slippery Rock University Hall of Famer Cee Russell.

It’s a cool backstory that pays homage to his roots, and Definition says the blend, “reflects the same fundamentals that shape the game: balance, timing, leadership, and positioning yourself for what comes next,” but the real question is whether this blend can sink the shot or if it just bounces off the rim.

The Review

This review for the Definition Pi5ot (Green Band) - Toro (6 x 52) is based on the journal entry dated 2026-05-19

Appearance & Construction (0-3):  Average (2)

Who doesn’t love a dark, rich, chocolatey Mexican San Andrés wrapper with some nice, British-style random and chunky tooth? This one is a little rustic-looking with some marks, holes, and discoloration in the wrapper, and the roll itself is a bit lumpy with some edge at the seams. Accentuating the rustic vibe, both cigars I grabbed for this review had a slight curve to the roll. On the upside, the veins contrast with a very light brown, and there’s plenty of mottling and dark spots between them. The triple cap is clean and tight but still has some edge lift. The defining Definition nylon “garter belt” band is here in a beautiful, intense green.​

Draw (0-3) & Burn (0-4):  Good (3) / Great (4)

The draw is perfect and the burn starts cleanly. The ash is a very light gray, nearly white, but it’s a little flaky with small chunks falling off at the foot almost immediately. The burn is beautiful, though, featuring a nearly dead-flat burn and a razor-sharp burn line. The ash features deep, widely spaced striations and vertical cracking. The ash holds through to nearly the halfway point before falling. Except for a little bit of lost ash at the beginning, it’s a near-perfect burn.

Flavor Profile (0-5):  Good (3)

The flavors start out slightly muted with notes of earth, cedar, dark chocolate, baking spice, and black pepper. It’s a darker blend to start without a ton of intensity, but it picks up to a medium strength across the board within the first inch. It’s a bit underwhelming at the outset, but it definitely finds its footing.

From the end of the first and into the second third, dark barnyard notes emerge, along with black pepper and a raisin sweetness. It’s still very woody, but it leans more toward a charred oak than cedar at this point. The pepper varies—maybe we should say it pivots 😁—in intensity from mild to medium strength, providing flavor and a mild tingle without ever becoming overwhelming. But the charred, earthy, musty, and raisiny flavors, accented with pepper and dark chocolate, make up the majority of the blend. It’s very rich and smooth, but decidedly dark. There’s a moderate creaminess to the finish, though it gives you more of that musty barnyard dampness than a rich buttery or cream flavor.

The dark, rich profile from the second third carries right into the final third. A lot of barnyard, earth, and charred oak are still anchoring the base, while dark chocolate and raisin sweetness step in to add depth and color. Black pepper is back to a solid medium and carries through to the end. Except for the pepper burn, there’s no harshness here at all, and the only bitter notes are completely natural from the dark chocolate. Smoothness definitely abounds in this blend.

Overall Experience (0-5):  Great (4)

This is a good blend, but not a great one—at least based on this experience. If your palate draws you to dark, charred, earthy blends, you’ll really enjoy this one. But compared to the rest of the lineup, I found it a little heavy on the barnyard. There are just so many stunners in the Definition portfolio that it feels surprisingly harsh to say one is just “okay.” To Definition’s credit, I was wondering how their new blends would carve out space for each other with each of them using MSA wrappers. The Pi5ot definitely lives up to its namesake in creating that space, but it might not lead to the winning shot for everyone depending on your palate. It just didn’t land for me. I do think this one is a good candidate for an Abbina pairing to offset the heavy earthiness and elevate the raisin and dark chocolate notes, but I’ll need to decide which one and come back to it in the future. 🤔

Postscript

It’s worth noting that the second example started off a bit stronger, with the full complement of flavors in the blend hitting quickly, though it didn’t present any significant shifts in the overall profile. It did, however, have an equally beautiful burn.  This might be a blend that improves with age, needs a proper pairing, or is just going to be really palate dependent.

Overall Score and Individual Journal Entries

While the review is based off one instance of journaling this cigar; there’s a number of reasons you can have different experiences smoking the same cigar multiple times. A blend can evolve with age (for better or worse), palates evolves, preferences change, and sometimes you just get a bad example!  This section captures the ratings from each journal entry and the related journal photo.  Below you’ll find an aggregate score based on every time the cigar has been journaled. Unless it was a gift or on-off smoke, this section will be updated every time I journal this cigar!

The Flavor Wheel

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.

With every cigar I journal, I capture simple ratings of the basic flavor categories that I experience.  These are more generalized than what you would see in a review, but a distinct profile can still be built out.  When multiple instances of the same cigar have been journaled, the scores are averaged out in an attempt to build a reliable flavor profile based on my palate.

The values entered for the strength of each flavor range from 0 to 3.

• 0:   No flavor detected
• 1:   Mild flavor
• 2:   Medium flavor
• 3:   Strong flavor

Note: desktop / large screens will see a flavor wheel while mobile / small screens will see a bar chart.