Trinidad Reyes STL ENE 07

[zuma]

It is amazing how much of a dent on one's smoking jollygoodtime children put. I have two under seven. Whilst the natural upside is that one's stash ages gracefully, one doesn't...

Well, for starters it was a rather chilly arvo, 15C around here… going from clear to overcast. Tied the kids to a couple of posts of the back pergola and proceeded to have good look into the humi… hmm… took out the 6th puppy out of an STL ENE 07 box of Trinidad Reyes. I have been sampling these almost once every six months since I got'em, and they have been bonza rippers from the word go. Full bodied beauties, late arvo or after dinner smokes. I didn't expect any less from this babe.

The colorado wrapper had a rather subdued character tending towards dark tan, a bit rough looking with a hint of oily sheen. At cold, the smell was sweet cedar and leather with a faint vanilla undertone. Severed its head to find a perfect draw that left sweet leather and hay on the lips…

After gently toasting its toe, it started with dry cedar, really dry spicy cedar, with no hints of sweetness. Within the first cm the extreme dryness gave way to cream, the cedar core got a pinch black coffee, but the spice went up a few notches towards cayenne mixed with cinnamon. Kick of black pepper through the nose with a bullying hint of "do it again and I'll make your cry".

After the first cm, the core evolved into dark-roast macchiato sprinkled with sweet cayenne and cinnamon… with cinnamon and cream lingering on the palate. The spice on the lips rose to a level that it started feeling minty…

An almost sudden return to dryness and black tea core, with hints of cedar strips, came around the end of the first inch, with spicy cinnamon still on the lips; This slowly gave way to a dry back pepper core. This change in character coincided with a wonky burn and a change in the colour of the ash towards dark grey and black (in contrast with the light grey ribbed ash seem before the first inch).

Near the half mark, the pepper waned and a dark-roast espresso core arose. Still quite dry but now with hint of dry-grass sweetness. Plenty of spicy cinnamon "freshening" the lips (it felt like a blister was developing on tip of my tongue).

After rollercoaster of coffee, paprika, dry black pepper, it finally settled just before the last third into a scrumptious core of creamy leather and spicy cinnamon, akin to spicy rice pudding, with hints of burnt lime rind and burnt sugar crust. Faint hints of star anise and fennel seem to weave in an out. Towards the very end it became almost chewy in texture… nubbed till the fingers and lips hurt.

To my palate, this was a great cigar, flavourful and complex albeit needing to develop a significant measure of balance. The extreme dryness and black pepper patches seem to vary from stick to stick, which were virtually absent in two immediately prior sticks. Nevertheless, the intensity of flavour seems to be augmenting with age.

90/100 (with great potential for the 18 still sleeping)

(if I find the bloody transfer cable for the camera, I'll upload a picture or two)

[dicko]

great review. im glad you enjoyed your smoke

[lemmycaution]

Really great review

[aavkk]

Nice review and very descriptive. Makes me want to reach one from the same box code.

[dizedean]

Great Review.

I love this smoke, can't keep enough of them around.

DSS