Beech Mountain Monte #4

Got invited up to Beech Mountain, NC for a long weekend, and although it made me totally sick, I had to go.  And by that I mean that without calling in sick, there was just no way to get it done.  So if you are gonna take Friday, you might as well take Thursday.  I had no trouble calling in sick Thursday, just rolled up the car window and tried to sound confused and achey.  Friday was a bit tougher.  No cell service on the side of the mountain, had to get in the car and ride a few hundred feet up to the tippy top.  More sickness.  cough.

On the way home today, fired up a Montecristo #4.  These were Mid 2005 out of some cardboard packs of 5x5s.  Nothing but pure twang and the sweet taste of consistent Montecristo.  I find the No.4 is alot more consistent than the No.2.  I also enjoy them a bit more than the No.2.  The alltime great, to me, is the No.5.
But this was awful good.  Saw a texter while driver rolling down the road Thursday am.  He would slow down, speed up, swerve a bit, speed up to get away from the people that saw him being an idiot.  But 5-10 mins later, there he would be again.  One time, he started rolling towards the median like a NAS-CAR that had a tire go down, just a dead straight line.  He smacked the guard rail that protects the overpass pilons from people like him.  I mean, SMACKED it.  He then kind of side-swiped it, and to get it to let him go, he had to really yank on it to the right.  So then he had to correct for that.  He fish-tailed like that for about 300 feet.  Then he did the same thing, pulled onto the highway and sped away from the people who were REALLY looking at him.  I saw him exiting later on, at of all places, Cuba Landing.  Guess he needed to check the damage.

The cigar I smoked was really great.  Lots of cocoa and twang, just chock full o twang.  Nice even burn, perfect draw on the firm side, and QUITE in line with all the others I had from these packs.  Very nice cigars.  Not hard to see why they were the best selling cigar for so long.  It is funny that with all the choices out there, I tend to come back to Montecristo alot.  Must be something good going on with em.

While cooking some cheese stuffed Anaheim peppers on the grill over the weekend, I also had a 2008 El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme.  Too fresh, but very twangy and spicy.  Kind of spongy, though.  It needed to be dried out, but unlike 90% of my cigars pre-smoke, this one did not get the exile outside the box treatment.  Over all it was a good weekend for cigars, although not many were smoked.  I also smoked a few bowls of Anniversary Cake and one of Escudo.  My friends at the cabin liked the smell of that.
My thanks to my gracious and wonderful hosts.  Top choice folks.

Monte #4 - 89
ERDM Choix Supreme - 78

Too hot to smoke

110 heat index.  Can't smoke outside, the thought makes me nauseous.  Can't smoke inside, I just won't vent out cool air I paid for.  I am waiting to smoke a 2003 Por Larranga Petit Corona.  It's JUST before the bands went on all cabinet cigars.  Maybe it's an 02, I'll have to check.  Not anticipating anything great.  This has been the largest disappointment in the cigar world for some time.  Take a top class, A1, one-of-a-kind cigar with a reputation for sweet and savory caramel taste.  You could get them only about once or twice a year, and they would sell out FAST.  But then HSA figured they had a real hit on their hands, so they made them available pretty much year round now.  But unfortunately, they lost the recipe behind the stove or something, cause they SUCK now.  I have not had a good one since my box of 98s.  I think there are still a lot of people who buy these thinking any time now they ought to be fixing the problem.  But disappointment reigns.  But, be that as it may, I will soon be firing up a 02-03.  But again, it's TOO HOT!

1999 Punch Corona

I don't think I need to go into the long and played out story of the 'terrible' cigars from 1999-2000.  What may have been true then is certainly a lot less so today.  I have alot of cigars from this period in time, and the majority of them are fine.  In some ways, time heals all wounds.  In other ways, the internet takes 5 minutes to pass on partial information that people around the world put together and eventually extrapolate out into a big deal.  No one would argue that there is a bad impression worldwide of cigars from 99-00.  But today, you can also find people worldwide who will tell you, "GREAT, more for me. "

This cigar lights up like a firecracker.  It has been in a zip lock bag for three days and on a counter in the open air for a few days before that.  Right off the bat this is a medium-full bodied cigar with a short, but apparent finish of coffee on the tongue.  The draw is perfect, the wrapper is dark and rough.  The band slides freely up and down the length of the body of the cigar. 

The flavor is a little less intense than the body would suggest.  It is leathery and roasty with some coffee hints in the flavor and finish.  It burns slow and steady and straight.  There is a light note of concord grape in the nose. It is a really great cigar for smoking and talking.  As it burns down it's length, it remains arrow straight and perfect in combustion.  Not at all strange for a ten year old smoke.  I want to ash it, but it presents no fissure to show it intends to fall.  As the stick reaches halfway, the flavor is less intense but good.  Certainly smoother.

It is intense and satisfying without having so much flavor as to be worth getting distracted over.  Still, a fine palate could get alot of flavor and identify subtle nuance, which is certainly there.  But I am no connessieur.  But I now what I like.  And I know that you would like it, too.  It's not as rich and wonderful as a classic aged cigar that you pull out of a dusty old box and reverently make a show of lighting and smoking.  It's just a cheap, old, good cigar.  82.

Romeo y Julieta Tubos Romeo No.1

I let this drybox out on a counter for two days, after which I placed it in a rolled, unsealed zoplick bag.

It lit easily and instantly filled my mouth with an exquisite floral and perfumed twang.  Good draw with a punch cut and just puff after puff of great flavor, SLOWLY transitioning to more tobacco on the finish, but plenty of twang to go around up front.  Burn is razor straight with a little flaking off the main tube to mar it's nice round form.

The cigar develops a more robust flavor as it burns down it's length, with the floral elements lasting until the end, although diminished from the intense start.  This is the perfect cigar for those times when you want a cigar but do not intend to smoke that Cohiba or other expensive cigar.  It's quite a large step ahead of the classic machine made yard cigar, and in truth, it can stand beside almost anything in the catalogue of brands and vitolas.  But the price and the occasional weak example hold it back in the eyes of many. 

I like them enough to smoke them as my only cigar of the day and not feel short-changed.  Based on the low ratings already given to "much better" cigars on this blog, I am even more pleased to give this smoke an 88.  A great little corona.