Cuaba Divinos 2007

This is a box of cigars that I was extremely surprised and obviously pleased to open.  It was as dark as any box of regular production habanos I had ever seen.  These were darker than some Edicion Limitadas or "Maduro" wrapped Cohibas I have seen lately.  The wrapper color was reminiscent of the 1980s habanos I remember vaguely.  It was not as beautiful, for the former wrappers were extremely toothy and oily and just as black as anything you see today termed oscuro in the non-cuban ranks.  I held onto them as long as I could, but was talked out of the box by a friend in Michigan.  He was kind enough to cut one out for me once he took possession of them, and it was this cigar that died tonight.
I poured a pint of Abita ANDYGATOR to go with it, and it was not a terrible pairing, but this beer is not what I would call a premium beer, despite it's being sold alongside today's craft beers.  After many sips, I finally pinned down the last time I tasted the same general profile, and that was in Dixie Beer, which is ironic, as the Abita is also brewed in LA.  Heck,  Dixie is not even brewed in New Orleans anymore, leaving after the brewery was damaged during Katrina.

I put a wedge cut on it and lit it with no trouble, and it drew very well.  It burned extremely slowly and gave up smoke that I'd term medium to stingy, leaning towards medium.  The flavors I noticed were a very light tea, a predominant Oaky taste with some light coffee.  It burned through half it's length before beginning to change somewhat.  As this stick begins about as short as a minuto, there was precious little cigar to go when this change for the better occurred.  Still, with the slow burn, I was satisfied with the cigar, despite having a weak flavor profile.  The second half was much more creamy, also bearing slight hints of what the brand is generally known for, a grassy, more vegetal yet rich flavor.  I believe that living in a desktop for over a month may have had something to do with it.  I would counsel the new owner of the cigars to let them sit for a year before consuming the majority of the box, and to also store away 5 for a LONG term aging experiment that I KNOW will result in fine little cigars.  But as this one smoke went, I'd have to give it a low score, perhaps 80.  A good smoke for a Friday evening, but it could have been much better.