Saint Luis Rey Serie A 2005

I was handed this cigar at THE herf of all herfs this summer. There seems to be an endless stream of true havana fans at these events, walking around to friends they have developed over the years, and making new friends, with a open box of great cigars, giving them freely. This is how I came to be in posession of this
lovely corona gorda.

I estimate it's boxing date at 2005 based on a few things: it's general wraper shade, the looseness of the band, and the flavor of the smoke. This wrapper is the standard Habana 2000 wrapper all too common at that time. I am no fan of the Habana 2000 wrapper. It just has a bitter taste that I never liked, and it never burns all that well, no matter how old it gets. It started appearing on cigars in 2002-3 as I recall. What's more, once the seeds were secreted out of Cuba, every manufacturer outside of Cuba was trying to force it
on the public as this fantastic wrapper. Yech.

Once lit, the cigar is extremely stingy with the smoke. The draw is on the tight side of medium and the burn is all over the place. Usually a tight draw leads to a pretty even burn but not this time. HINTS of creaminess and a whisper of twang in the smoke, but it is mostly just medium-bodied, mild flavor. It is just a touch cedary, but the flavor is not very impressive.

I paired the cigar with a short glass of Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond Rye with a little ice.  I thought maybe the cigar would be coaxed into revealing something with the delicious whiskey sharing my attention, but that shows you how truly stingy the smoke was....nothing.  Tobacco, obviously, but just nothing all that impressive. 

Now with ALL of that said, the cigar was not terrible at all, I enjoyed the time spent out on the stoop watching the Sunday traffic go by.  There was a hot girl in short-shorts in mid October walking her pitbull down the sidewalk that I would have missed otherwise.  I had no idea there were hot girls in my neighborhood.  OK, there is one right across the street, but she likes...enough about all that.  The cigar rates a dismal 79, just not too much going on in there.