One Last Chance - Cohiba Siglo II 2004

After the complete embarrassment of the Cohiba Esplendido the other night, I needed to let this Blog-speriment end on something resembling a high note.  I did not want to waste one of my remaining Siglo VIs or Robustos or Lanceros, but I DID think it was OK to smoke one of my last few 2004 Siglo IIs.  I thought that there was a chance that it's oily and dark wrapper might signal something of a surprise inside.  The first surprise was the draw.  I cut the cigar and tried to draw air and it was tight.  But I would not repeat the mistake I made on the Esplendido.  I gave it a poke with a bicycle spoke, which is NOT the third line of a naughty limerick but a draw improvement strategy.  And it worked well.  This was good and bad.  It drew perfectly then, but a lot of tiny particles of tobacco dust flew into my lungs, which is likely not good, eh?  At least into my throat.  The good sign is that in the pre-light draw, I taste the most wonderful chocolate I have tasted in a cigar.  I never taste much in pre-light draws, in fact that I do not ever take note of what I taste, since it's always nothing interesting.  But I was intrigued now....

The cigar was a wonderful color; deep, dark and extremely oily.  The photo does not reflect that in any way, but it's there, believe me.  The smoke is well rolled with a few noticeable veins but the oils are what is interesting to me.  From certain angles you get that cloudy sheen, like looking at a small spiderweb in the grass from the side.  The cut was a little dusty, and the cigar lights up like it's in a race.  The smoke does not present the chocolate flavor I was waiting to taste from the pre-light draw, but it is dark and rich and leathery with a lot of spice.  This cigar is 8 years old and stout as an East German Track and Field athlete in the 72 Olympic games.  I am further intrigued.


I poured a Pina Colada and took it to the porch, and expected that the cigars flavors would mimic the drink, as it was sweet, tropical and fruity.  Surprisingly the two complimented one another without affecting the taste of either, at least to where I could detect it.  Now that's not actually true, the cigar lessened my enjoyment of the drink due to the taste buds being heated and charred by the smoke.  As I puffed into the area where 1.5 inches were burned, the cigar did not develop any different flavors, but my palate is notoriously bad, and I could tell there was something there I could not detect, like a dog whistle tooting away somewhere.  The impressive thing was the ash.  It was ridged and uniform with mostly white tones with occasional eruptions of black from within.   That's not what got my attention, though.  It was strong and straight and I have no doubt that it would have held on throughout the smoke and never ash itself.  But as I had to take it upstairs to shoot the nub, I ashed it before I could prove that to be true, lest it end up on the carpet.

I smoked it to where you see it, could have pushed the band up again, but it was hot out and the no-see-ems were beginning to find me.   Additionally there was not much left to prove to me, it had really impressed me once I ashed it the second time.  I went from smoking a stout and leathery cigar to one of almost perfumed florality and delicacy.  A real turnaround and just the surprise I was hoping for.  The Cohiba Siglo II was NOT very much like a Cohiba on this occasion, but with my attitude towards the brand just lately, that was fine with me.  I can't score it very high based on a lackluster first half, but the 3rd third and beginning of the nub was just unbelievable.  That brings it out of the high 70s to I would say......ehh, 86 points.