This used to be a great cigar. Let's establish at the outset that I am no fan of Edicion Limitada havana cigars. I like it even less when people lie to themselves and say "this cigar is going to be great in 5 years." Well OK, maybe not 'LIE to themselves', but remain hopeful against near-overwhelming evidence that they should abandon hope. To me that is the very story of the edicion limitadas. ONE DAY these cigars are going to be great. They HAVE to be. They're limited editions. They have a "special wrapper". Anything that looks this rumpled and mottled and costs way too much extra money HAS to be good at SOME point. Doesn't it? Sure it does.
I did enjoy the H. Upmann Magnum 48. They were good from day one and seem good even now. But these DUKES, I have no idea why they have made ME act like the rest of you. Those who know me KNOW I am not like the rest of you. I am the odd one. The belligerent one. The troll, the kook. I have to be different. I DO NOT LIKE EL cigars. I think they are a rip off. And yet here we are. Man I LOVED this cigar when it came out. And it looks like I should have smoked through all my boxes back then. Stocking up was a great idea. Saving them for a time when they would get even better was a flawed strategy. I see that now. And one day on this blog, I hope to eat my words.
To start with the cigar was cracked at the foot. I guess I dropped it one day. In fact I know I did. That's why I did not send it off to a friend in that condition. I simply replaced it with a perfect one and sent it on. But as with most cigars, I imagined this little cigar with the broken foot might improve once it burned past the damage. Maybe I should have even cut a half inch off the foot before lighting it. But it drew poorly throughout most of the smoking and tasted about as bleh as it could. Whereas my bad Montecristo No.1 from the other day had 4-5 great puffs out of an otherwise dismal smoke, this cigar was never good, not even once. I need to remind the reader here that I DO tend to smoke the misfits first, and that can lead to a lot of disappointments if smoke after smoke is messed up by cracks, holes, dowel bunches, and other forms of poor construction. I guess its a miracle I ever get a GOOD smoke. And it is for that reason that lately I have been intending to grab a great smoke right off the bat, throw economy and caution to the wind and just grab something duty-bound to be memorable. But these ugly ducklings work their way to the front of the line. I WANTED a BHK52, but the box they were in was buried at the bottom of an ice chest that was at the bottom of a stack of ice chests. I HAD a full box right on top, but I wanted the one that was open, for obvious reasons. I was going to smoke an Esplendido, but the box THEY were in was too hard to find. So I went to the dry-box to see what was in there, and the Duke was just sitting there waiting. So I cut it, poured a half of a bomber of Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale and went downstairs to smoke a cigar by the pond. I am not going to bore you with an actual review, the cigar sucked. But it just kills me that these were once one of the best cigars I owned. Now they are just blah. MAYBE they will come back again with enough time in the cooler. But isn't that JUST what they ALL say?
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