Some time ago Smithy recommended these to me, so as a little
Tribute to Smithy, yes, you will be missed,
here is my review:
Nice thin, tensile colorado wrapper,
solid construction with a slight restriction on the draw, just as I like it
and, as a matter of fact is harder to find in recent production.
Good slight barnyard smell at cold and a quaility tobacco cold draw.
Flavours in the
first third:
Dry cocoa powder and light coffee plus a seven spice mix, an occasional bitter edge.
2nd third: more sweet spices, now easier to delineate -
cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, most certainly nutmeg, and a distant pepperiness,
quality toasted tobacco
and a (bitter-) sweet note which Rob always calls molasses, and in most cases of SCdlH Principe I agree with that, however this one was more like liquorice to me but I guess it's a quite similar perception of
the odd San Cristobal sweetness nonetheless.
last third: the toasted tobacco verges more and more towards malty cereal,
more pronounced and creamy coffee flavours and, just at the end,
a beautiful exotic perfume note reminiscent of patchouli
as I sometimes find in good Montecristo's, in particular in Especial No. 2.
Moreover, a cigar of great charm and deligthful complexity,
I would rate the first half with its occasional bitter edge 89-90,
but in total, as it just got better and better,
a solid 92 - and well deserved!
Cheers,
Alex