Folks were talking about this cigar online today, and I remembered how long it had been since I had one. I picked out a good one, which is to say I grabbed the first one out of the 3-pack. I opened the tube and found either a bit of plume or dried mold near the cap. I generally think of this as plume, since it gathered around the edge of one of the cap slices. Mold in my experience, is more of a generalized covering of an area of the cigar.
This shows you the difference between old-man vision and a sharp closeup. This looks like mold to me, but I am willing to split the difference. There is no aroma of dankness nor evidence of staining on the cigar or the cedar. Regardless, it's going to be smoked.
I pinched out a piece of the cap and lit it up. The cigar appears dry, but the gentle squeeze I give it tells me that it is well humidified. Normally I would dry this out for a day or even two, but the last time I did that the cigar tunnelled, so I decided to just shake this one out and fire it up. The first draws were strong and dry, and not very appealing. As it burned down about a half an inch, the cigar warmed up and became very aromatic and flavorful, with a lot of sweet, tangy goodness. I do not find the Siglo series to be too full of the exotic bean flavors, but there was coffee and tea in abundance. The Habano 2000 series strain of wrapper leaf bunched up in a sloppy ash, but there was no real problem with ragged burn.
I am not a big fan of the Siglos, and this one is not great, but it is a good cigar to be sure. It's got a good molasses note in the smoke and the smoke itself is plentiful. I have had much better examples of this vitola de salida, but again, I don't think of this as a great Cohiba cigar. It is however, one of those smokes that proves to me that the Cohiba name is not worth paying a premium for in every case. The bigger, thicker vitolas certainly offer more for the money, but these Siglos, the I and II, to me, are not worth the money. I could get two Bolivar Petit Coronas for the price of this cigar, and I guarantee you I'd enjoy them more. And again, this is NOT a bad cigar. It's really all in what you prefer. I would also think this would be a great smoke paired with rum or whiskey. I don't take spirits on the weekdays, lol. So who knows. The burn to the end was decent but became raggedy in the second half. And to it's credit, the cigar's flavor improved during the second half, becoming quite 'sophisticated'. Still above my head, but I can see how Cohiba fans categorize the flavor as being Cohib-esque. A bit more cedar in the end, and some chocolate, but a harsh kind of chocolate bordering on tar. But after a purge and a re-light, it is definitely chocolate. Quite light, but noticable. Given the fact that this cigar is not to my preference, and standing alone as a possible abberation, I would grade this low, perhaps 83. Good but not great.
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