I see my friend Heiko smoked a rare Cohiba for his blog the other day, and as this was Memorial Day here in the US, I decided to copy him and smoke one of my rarest Cohibas. It is not SO rare as El Dondo's Piramide, but this will be a Siglo VI from 2003, one of the first boxes to be bought anywhere on the open market. And now there are only 7 left, lol.
Here it is posing with some of my Memorial Day choices. I originally cut a Montecristo A for this session, but it was too tight on the draw to smoke, so I left it out on a table overnight, perhaps to get to today. Only a fool lights a tight cigar after it is cut and tested. And only a bigger fool cuts a cigar, pops it into his mouth and begins toasting the foot without evaluating the draw. So the lot fell to the Siglo VI last night.
I cut a winking eye off of the barest tip of the head of the cigar, and the draw was perfect. It lit almost too fast, firing up to ramming speed in about 6 seconds. The draw was perfect on fire as well, and the smoke coursed through the stick like a perfect machine. I noted some dry spice and a little honey on the first puffs. As it burned down a bit, the burn just remained absolutely straight, and the ash was so pretty. This is a very expensive cigar, and one can easily see that in the beginning of the life of the canonazo vitola, construction was very important. This box of smokes has produced nothing but winners since the day I slid the lid back for the first time.
Twilight was coming on, so forgive the blurry shot of the burning cigar, I did not want to blast it with a flash, and the camera wanted more light to focus properly...even then, you can see the perfect ash.
The body was mild but the flavor was just short of intense. Not a LOT of things going on, some grassy sweetness and a hint of cocoa now and again, with tea somewhere way in the background. Pity. I do loves the tea. But overall, there was a lot of taste, just limited in it's scope.
I saw the wind high in the trees and realized that sitting by the pond was NOT the place to be, surrounded by a fence and in stagnant air. I moved to the front porch and the breeze instantly cooled me off and kept the skeeters away. The cigar burned to halfway and was not evolving in taste, but the power picked up a notch. I wanted more flavor out of this smoke, but my palate is too unrefined to pinpoint much. I focused on the Peewee out in the trees across the street. It called over and over for a mate, but I don't think there are many around. First I have heard is the one I hear now and again in the neighborhood. I've lived here 8 years and never heard one calling.
The cigar gained some coffee notes and lost the little tea flavor it had, which got me pretty bored pretty fast. A good cigar that is expensive does not impress me unless it is great. This one is really good in so many ways, perfect construction, great burn and draw, decent mild to medium flavor. But just not getting me over the top like a money stick should. Still glad I smoked it. and for me, this is nubbing it, but I still let it go on some more. Sadly, part of being perfectly rolled is you get a really good roll going if you ever find yourself in a position to do so. I laid it on the sink edge to wash my hands so I could take the nub shot. It rolled into the sink and sat there until I could rinse up and grab it. Such a pity such a noble cigar had to be photographed in such an embarrassing final state. A bit like Elvis dying on the toilet, I guess. You should have given me more flavor if you wanted respect.......89 points
For a person who does not smoke Non-Cuban cigars, I sure seem to be smoking a lot of them lately. I make no apology for this, but it works out to be kind of a Bonus Plan wherein I am smoking the fatty cuts off of purchases I have made for other people. Buy a box of this, receive a pack of that, etc . Buy a lot of that for others, buy a little of this for me for nostalgia purposes.
And so it was with this 'gift set' of Partagas Limited Reserve Decadas No.2, a product of General Cigar I think. Three of them are packed in a steel tin of the kind that Opus X are packed in from time to time. Make no mistake, this is a fantastic-looking cigar. Perfectly-rolled, these sport a viciously sweet looking Cameroon wrapper that I imagine was from a 1998 crop. The cello is really yellow to boot. The blend is not so special, in fact it tastes of nothing so special as any other of their hundreds of cigars I find all taste similar. But it is still a fine cigar. The lighting and burning were agonizingly slow. By this I mean that I smoked it in a situation that many of us are familiar with, a hard days work, followed by a cool beverage and a cigar. But I was bone tired and it was clear this cigar was not going to be a 1998 tinderbox special that would burn like a wind-driven blaze on a hot Texas day. But the more I relaxed, the more the cigar began to affect me positively. I was still a yawning machine and the beer had two too many ounces in it and the cigar had two too many inches on it.
There were deep and intense flavors of espresso and dark dried fruit. There was a sweet nature in the wrapper that at times had a molasses-like quality that I liked. The burn was razor-straight and slow, with a perfect white-grey ash. It was a really good cigar that was just too much for the situation. A better cigar would have been a nice Monte No.5 or Bolivar Coronas Junior. I was thinking it was an awful shame to waste a good cigar by trying to will it across the finish line like this. But I got to the halfway point with good flavors and excellent performance. And then right out of the blue, I was released from my 'burden'. The cigar got mushy and gassy and hot after the halfway point. It began to taste bad, and left a taste of ashtray in the mouth. So I brought it upstairs, photographed it, and made a quick exit to bathroom and bed. This was a good cigar. In NC terms, a great cigar. In the end, it JUST could not carry through with it's strong points and prove to be a nubber of the highest order. But it was good.
When you stride up to the cash register, however, and place this outrageously expensive box of cigars on the counter, it would be nice if they performed like a top of the line cigar. And these just don't. I DO remember a Partagas Limited Reserve cigar that I really liked, though, and I smoked it way back when this cigar was JUST out on the market. It was a panatela size if I recall correctly, and absolutely delicious. You would be better-served to find THAT cigar and leave this one be. Is my assessment fair after smoking only one cigar? Of course not. But with a handmade product, you will get some duds now and again, and I seem to have found one this time.
I can remember when I first started smoking cigars, I had money in hand and eyes bigger than my humidors. One of the first cigars I ever smoked was a Macanudo Portofino. A lot of people dismiss the entire Macanudo line as the lowest common denominator, that people who smoke them don't REALLY know anything about cigars. But when you look at it through the lens of cold, hard facts, it's easy to see that maybe those people don't know what they are talking about. Macanudo is the largest-selling cigar brand in the USA, heck, even the word macanudo is slang for "great". But what makes them great? And by this, I mean 'what makes the core line of Macanudo great?' At first glance, one might guess that its because they are wrapped by the coveted Connecticut shade wrappers. But to me, the secret is in what lies beneath. Under the velvety-smooth wrapper lies a rich, dark Mexican San Andres binder. The creaminess of the wrapper would be nothing without the sweet, earthy mexican binder. It's strength helps hold the bunch together securely and allows the best rollers to roll flawless, round cigars.
But in the end, it's really is all about the flavor, (as much as I hate the "I'm all about" and "it's all about" phrases). If people who have many years of smoking experience discount the Macanudo, it might be that the blend is not powerful enough to keep their attention. The Portofino is certainly not going to change their minds. One of the main reasons I loved this cigar so much back in the olden days is that I could inhale it like a cigarette. NO ONE inhales cigars, at least not the ones who do not like to be kicked in the chest by a mule. But the Portofino was different. Not only was it sweet, creamy and silky smooth, but I could forget about cigarettes while I smoked it, which was important since I was actively quitting cigarettes for 20 years.
Bla Bla Bla, let's smoke it. This is a tubed cigar, so it goes anywhere. But it's also a lancero-shape cigar, and lately people on the net seem to be saying that the draw is no longer consistent on these. As I had just ordered a box, I was worried about that. But as I cut and tested my first Portofino in decades, the draw was perfect. It lit slowly and from the first few puffs, I was worried that I had wasted my money. Granted, these are mostly going to the troops in the end anyway, but I will make short work out of 5-6 of them. So I was worried that there was not much flavor there, and this was the first cigar of the day. I laid out a rack of beef ribs and some 'pork fingers' on the smoker, poured a Maredsous Brown abbey ale and kicked back to watch the birds. There are new arrivals in the yard the longer these new bird feeders are up. Saw my first Black-Capped Chickadees up close, I know that is not such a big deal to most people, but I have been a long-time bird lover, and there are a lot of house sparrows in this neighborhood. We have always had Cardinals, Bluejays, Robins, etc, and seeing House Finches come in and eat that we never knew were around was cool enough, but these Chickadees really got to me. SO SMALL and so unique. And while we are on small and unique, I have heard a Peewee out there, too, no mistaking THAT call, and hopefully it will find it's way to our little nature preserve we call the back yard. It's a pine-fenced corner lot in the middle of a busy older part of a major city in which we don't spray pesticides. The bird scene can get raucous on a Friday evening and tonight was looking lie a loud night.
The longer the cigar burned, the better it got. I began to find some body in there, and the signature sweet, toasty and creamy character began to shine. I got this one down to the nub, all the while enjoying an ever-increasing complexity and strength. Well, I say nubbed, I took it to an inch and a half, which for me is nubbed, especially with a long cigars. While I will not say that this is a cigar I will be smoking very many more times, it was a pleasure to smoke it again, like shaking hands with an old friend and finding them no worse for wear, tear and twenty years of time passed. And out of respect for that relationship, I WILL do what I rarely ever do, and rate this smoke. 81 points and still going strong.
I don't smoke many of these, but when I do I generally enjoy them. And why not? It's the most popular, largest-selling havana cigar in the world. But it is far from my favorite Montecristo. That award goes to the GIGANTIC flavor-bomb Monte No.5. But I am guessing you read this drek from time to time, so you KNOW that.
This Montecristo No.4 was a pale brown, kind of a washed-out looking wrapper, and slightly box-pressed. This was once my favorite factory size, the Mareva. There are SO many cigars that are classics in this size, plus short of coronas gordas, it might be the perfect cigar size. I think the coronas largas are actually better, but all three have excellent length to girth ratios. And now the perlas and minutos are my favorites, because I am easily bored, and they burn in a short amount of time.
The Monte 4 lit well and burned fast. I drank a beer with it but I can't recall what it was. Nice, huh?
The cigar burned SO WELL, even though it developed a hard left turn in the ash.
It was one of those cigars that you constantly look at, I never understood why, but it is sort of an amazement as to how wonderful the flavor is. It gave up a wonderful cocoa powder taste that I associate with an aged Montecristo. There was a strong tobacco and steak flavor, too, that was kind of strange. I always wondered what people meant when they say a cigar tasted like roasted meat. Not that I do not know what charred meat tastes like, but it's an odd flavor in a cigar.
But there it is.
The smoke continued to get stronger as it burned down, but never got tarry or bitter. Had I any light, I would have photographed the tiny speck of cigar that was left after I was done.
DOGFISH HEAD INDIAN BROWN ALE!
THAT'S what it was. HA. Thought I was getting senile. Outside of the terrible "dried out" cigars I have smoked lately that are my own fault, I have been getting really jazzed up, because I have been having some real winners lately, and that is a bit of a BUCK to a trend around here. This smoke is another good one for the books. And I am really looking forward to my next cigar, because I have decided to bust out one of my LAST 2005 Partagas Serie P No.2 this weekend. LOOKS fantastic. We'll see how it smokes.........
This Monte............89 points.
On Friday after work, I decided to use my late afternoon and evening as an opportunity to smoke some beef ribs and flanken-cut rib meat and have a beer. And what goes better with beef and beer than a fine cigar. I selected a Diplomaticos No.5 for smoking while I lit up a chimney full of coals. I learned something on this cook that made me a little upset. I have been using the wrong fuel for years. Because I understood lump charcoal to be a superior product in comparison with charcoal briquets, I have used it exclusively for years. But it is the wrong fuel for me in two major ways, in fact the only two ways it can be wrong. I already KNEW that it is said to burn HOTTER than briquets, but I never thought of that as a bad thing. But NOW I KNOW....who cares! I smoke meat through indirect heat, and hotter has nothing to sell me. And what's more, like a supernova, it burns hot AND FAST. And I wondered why I was replacing my coals two or three times in a cook. So I ran out of lump charcoal this weekend, and while I was buying steel wire, I saw that 13.9 lb bags of Kingsford Briquets were on sale for 2 for $5.88. Great price, but NOT my good old lump coal. And here is where the learning came in. I laid in 2/3 of a chimney of briquets for a full rack of Beef Ribs, and it burned for the entire cook. I was stunned....and happy. And the ribs were fantastic by the way. So now unless I am cooking a steak, there is no need to ever buy the lump charcoal. And I rarely DO THAT. So it's bricks for me.
Where was I?? Oh yes, the Diplomaticos No.5. NOT a good cigar tonight. I bought 4 boxes a few years ago, and have had very few excellent cigars from these boxes, and tonight's smoke was poor at best. AND YET I nubbed it. It showed an occasional flash of flavor, sweet and tangy, but mostly tasted like wet newspaper.
After the ribs were done, I still had a glass of Arrogant Bastard ale left in the bomber, so I lit up a Punch Royal Selection No. 12, and burned about half of it before retiring for the evening. It was also not so hot. But when I sat down to write this, I remembered that these were from the cedar 'road' box of cigars I left in a drawer for almost a year without humidification. Derh. I am surprised either of them burned well or tasted like anything. So all in all, this evening was a major success.
No rating on either of the cigars, thanks to my own stupidity.
I thought I put this post out already, but it looks as if I did not. These cigars are my favorite style of cigar, long and thin, elegant and generally of the highest quality. This was a gift from Bill86 when I visited him in Nashville more than a year ago. I had been given a maduro wrapper model and a candela cigar from my friend Lance out on the Best Coast. It was a play on words, LANCE-ros, I guess. Clever. Definitely welcomed. They were long ago turned into historic memories, to beautiful ash and wonderful flavors and ethereal smoke.
This cigar has been sitting around for a long time waiting for the right day, and suffering from being a cracked stick. How would it smoke? Would it be a disaster or a juggernaut? Not wanting to tempt fate, I cut an inch and a quarter off of the end giving me a relatively safe cigar to light. In a word, everything about this smoke was perfect from then on. It lit like a dream, delivered a ton of fragrant smoke and burned perfectly. It changed from a green spicy, herbal powerhouse into a mild to medium bodied, full-flavored peppery mind-bender. I tasted licorice, Dr. Pepper, celery, cilantro, rosemary, bread, white pepper, cinnamon and several non-identifiable sensations.
The cigar behaved itself right up to the end when I just had to let it go after burning the band. On the one hand, I am sorry to see it be reduced to ashes. I have no more of these. But then again, I really don't need any more of them, I am not a smoker of these non-cuban cigars. But man, what a great smoke. I once had a box of candela-wrapped Arturo Fuente 858s and just could not get past the flavor of the wrapper. Even on such a thick cigar, it was always there. In this Illusione blend, it just disappears into the background, all the while contributing to the flavor in barely detectable ways. It is a true illusione. And a true star of the cigar world.
