2007 Montecristo No.2

After some ingrate took my last cigar, I thought this blog would be over.  The guy had a bit of a reading comprehension problem, or maybe he had a FEAR issue, but in any event, he became a real dick.  So me being the kind of guy I am, I let the titty-baby win, let him feel like he was justified in crying like a newbie baby and ignoring the risks involved in what he wash trying to do.  So I sent him all of my cigars and banished him from the kingdom forever.  Too long a story to go into here, and the individual is not worth spending any more ink on.

But a kind soul I know was hanging out with me, and asked me why I had no cue-ban cigars to smoke.  I told him about the weasel out in California, and he offered me a Montecristo No.2 to salve my spirit.  We were already knee deep in other cigars, so I put it into my box for another time and thanked him for his generosity.  And after a tough week in the salt mines, I decided to light her up on the porch.  

I poured a Holy Sheet Ale that I got at Peabody's Wine and Liquors in Boone, NC a few years back and headed out to cut her and light her.  I put the tiniest cut on it and it drew a little too easy, but upon lighting it, the smoke control was pretty good.

It looks like my nails could use a cleaning, but I just cut and edged my grass, so I am not going to get worked up about anyone seeing it.  The flavors were pretty weak, but I could tell it wanted to open up a bit more, and figured when the thing burned down a bit, it would come into it's own.  There was a decent breeze to keep the skeeters at bay, and it had been a VERY cool day for early July.  The cigar was a well-rolled work of art, a nice deep medium brown with no red in the leaf.  The smoke was initially just some light leather and toast.

As I got down to the middle, a rich and creamy and slightly oily cocoa flavor came into the smoke, with a hint of what I used to get from a Cohiba Behike 52, a 'last sip of milk in a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles" kind of taste.  I like that taste.  The coolness is there, the chocolaty flavor is there, the powdery creaminess is there.  

The only thing that made it less than perfect was the slightly acidic note I got every few puffs, but it was just as well, if you like a cigar's taste too much, you are bound to overheat it and ruin the experience.  I was not going to do THAT, because this cigar improved steadily from first puff to near the end.

With the half a beer gone, (It had come in sort of a bomber ) I had no choice but to pick up the pace a bit on the smoke, but that's when disaster struck, I over-puffed it in trying to get that last bit of cocoa-ey goodness out of it.  Where you see it is where I left it only moments later.  It was a great smoke, thanks Bill.  If I had to score the smoke with the weak start and tarry end, it could easily go as low as 80 points.  But since many cigars start slow, and I caused the melt down at the end, I score it 87 points.  A pretty fine Montecristo No.2  nothing close to the potential of the vaunted legend, but after the week I had, a perfect ending.