A little coffee with my cigar

I was lucky enough to be one of the people that S. Shilala greased with a few of his experimental sticks over the summer, wherein he took a few boxes of cigars, or at least a few handfuls, and plunged them into a large container of coffee beans.  They sat there for some length of time, I haven't any real details, but I can find some here in a bit.

I was given two smokes, one was a Por Larranaga Petit Corona and one was a Bolivar Petit Corona.  Both were just hideous from the perspective of the bands.  They had had a bit too much moisture and coffee.  The cigars themselves looked OK, but overall they showed the abuse they had been subjected to but were not really any worse than you might expect, save for one item, they are a little heavy.  Not sure if it is excess moisture or too much tobacco in the roll, but I let the PLPC sit awhile, way too heavy, and decided I had to smoke the Boli PC.

It lit right up, and was very strong and a little bitter.  But the coffee nuances were there in full-strength.  Now I don't have a sophisticated palate, but I did get a sense that this cigar had been infused with PEABERRY coffee and while it stole a bit of the BPC character, it was handily replaced with the strong essence of coffee.  As with most infused cigars, this is mostly an illusion.  You get a good whiff of coffee owing to the olfactory system in your head, but the cigars themselves are mostly tobacco.  The way your sense of smell works however, you do feel like you are smoking a cigar that tastes of coffee.

I am looking forward to the KONA infused PLPC.  The Bolivar was a bit stronger than most I have had, and I did not get to smoke the whole cigar.  It had a bad habit of just pouring smoke off of the lit end, and it was all going in my face.  So I smoked about half of the stick. 

I have to give the entire project a thumbs up, mostly because I talked to Shilala and he told me all of the things that went wrong on his first experiment and how he intended to correct that if he tried it again.  I am not one to waste cigars or coffee trying to raise up a hybrid, but I am glad that Shilala did.  This was a great little smoke for the most part.  I am happy he gave me a pair of them and lucky, too, I guess.  If you know Shilala and want to give these a try, ask him when he is going to try it once more.  You'll enjoy the flavor.

This works better, obviously, than the ACID cigars.  it also works better than the Maker's Mark smokes.  In fact, these were the best flavor-enhanced smokes I have had.  I'd really like to see him come up withe some vanilla bean enhanced Short Stories.

Quick follow-up on the DEMITASSE...awesome.

WOW, just WOW.  Pulled out my last unplaced cigar, I emptied 4 boxes of Rey del Mundo cigars into another cedar box a month or two ago and had 4-5 left over that would not fit inside.  Talk about a dull, flavorless cigar.  But I hear people RAVING about them all the time.  So after smoking 4 of these so far (2012 vintage) I can only say, smoke a cigar more when its ready, rather than when YOU are ready...

WHAT a smoke.  Excellent balance and finesse, bursting with rich and creamy flavors with a ton of mouthfeel and delicious, sweet, spicy smoke.  4 boxes is not NEARLY enough.  I now understand why people love these smokes.  The overall rating for 4 sticks, 83.

The rating for this last one.....96.

Settling in - El Rey del Mundo Demitasse 2012

These cigars began life in this country a little wet.  But I had to try one, I'd never done so before.  
Ehh.  I look like that flippin gymnast girl, not impressed. 
Not worth the trouble.  However, I DID have an idea that a box of absolutely crappy smokes might not have long to be crappy....speculating on pedigree alone.  So off they went to the dark place and above you see one that poked out of the humidor to watch me while I flossed.  I wheeled around and snatched it, cut it's head off and tortured it with fire at the foot.  It relented almost immediately and gave up a hint of honey and lemon that I got from the draw-test flavors that revealed themselves.  It was mild to medium, highly aromatic and pretty darn flavorful.  It had a very similar taste to the Tainos, the discontinued churchill from ERDM.  That was unexpected, completely so.  I didn't get to smoke any cigars in New Orleans last week, so I wanted to try something soon to make sure I didn't lose your interest in this blog.  Tough in the South.  Sure, we can smoke meat year round, and often do.  But smoking in the oppressive heat is just unbearable.  So I am glad to even have an opportunity to air the house and smoke some cigars while I do it.  My house is absolutely, terrorizingly dirty.  So smoke a few cigars, air out the joint, and maybe clean up some.....tomorrow.  

Pushed up the band on this one.  EVEN with me doing something I NEVER do, re-light a cold cigar, this one smoked deliciously to the end.  I was pretty impressed, as I usually am with all small cuban cigars.  They just really do it right.  Which likely means they are going to ruin it with slicing and dicing like they did with the panatelas.  But for now, I will ALWAYS put my money on Havana's small cigars.  Until they blow it, at least.  The cigar was almost as advertised, creamy like cafe au' lait and some sweet honey notes with a characteristic Rey del Mundo citrus that I also find in La Gloria Cubana.  These are always scarce.  You have to strictly monitor many multiple stores and KEEP coming back to check on them if you want them.  Your rivals scoop them up by the 5s and 10s of boxes every time they show.  It's not an emergency stocking item, but you really need to get em when you find em.

88 points, great little cigar.