SCDLH La Fuerza (now with pictures)

[Puros Y Vino]

San Cristobal De La Habana Fuerza

FEB 2009 OMA

Milky wrapper. Spongy, some softspots. Bit of a box press. A tad veiny.

Aroma at cold: coffee, light earth,tobacco.

Cold draw is easy. Taste of "Trinidad" the wrapper. Sourdough. mainly.

First third.

Light tobacco, coffee tastes. Creamy coffee. Slight tannic & bitter finish. Not unpleasant though

Reminds me of Monte4. Some sweet milky finish now and then. White ash. Very flaky. Some cedar woodsiness.Very muted hints of nutmeg. Burn slightly askew but not troublesome. Very voluminous amounts of creamy smoke. Smooth, draw. As I touch up the lopsided edge the ash nearby practically melts. Very brittle ash indeed. Very dry on the palate. Might pair well with coffee. Very much a spice and coffee driven cigar in this third.

Second Third

Still some nice creamy coffee. Very slight hint of pepper on the finish. Some toasty tobacco appears. Still some slightly bitter notes throughout. Getting white pepper on the finish. More toasty tobacco. Pepper seems to be on order for this third. A little bit of nutmeg on the finish now and then make things interesting. Less smoke at this point and the draw has firmed up a bit. Beans make an appearance!

Third Third.

A bit of nutmeg to open up. Still avery dry cigar. More toasty tobacco. Some of the nicotine has crept up. No real buzz. But it's there. Drat. Cigar goes out. Relight time. Done. More toasty tobacco, some beans. My mistake. This cigar shows some power in this third. The taste profile is mostly toasty tobacco. That beany taste comes around too now and then. Draw improves. Loads of smoke reappear. The ash is very brittle.Falls off in small chunks. The wife just hands me a double espresso. It goe well with the cigar. Plain old tobacco with some beaniness thrown in following another relight. Kind of a "dirty" taste as it nears the end of this third. After a few more pleasant draws, the cigar goes out and I'm done.

Final Thoughts.

This is my first ever SCDLH La Fuerza. I purposely wrote a shorter review as I found that I can relax more by just jotting down a few notes now and then vs doing a puff by puff account. While I enjoyed the cigar I don't believe that this is a cigar I will chase down. I might try another in a while if I can get one via trade. Otherwise, in my books, there are better cigars out there.

SCORE: 87

[ajgagnon]

That pretty much sums up my experience as well... I bought a box in Cayo Santa Maria this winter and each time I have one (of the 2 or 3 so far) I get excited with the nutmeg spice and cream but then end up with a dirty, charry aftertaste from the last third. I'll leave them a bit longer and see what develops. The one I had before buying the box in Cuba seemed fantastic.

[isa]

Never had this one, thanks for your review & pics

[CanuckSARTech]

Did I give you this one, Frank?

[Puros Y Vino]

Did I give you this one, Frank?

Yup. On the way back from MTL.

[headstand]

Thanks for the review Frank.

I've only had one so far (Czars single) and it was quite tasty along the smooth milky coffee profile you encountered from time to time. No harsh, charry, dirty taste at all. In fact, in my review I suggested it would make a good cigar to give to someone who was new to our 'delightful preoccupation'. I'd be curious to hear comments about consistency on these.

[CanuckSARTech]

Yup. On the way back from MTL.

Okay. Thought I remembered that code.

These haven't been the greatest box of these that I've had before. The best I've had have been 2006 and 2008 boxes. Comparing to Czar's potential offerings, this particular box would maybe just be PE (hard to quantify Rob's standards, being this box was from another source).

I'm finding that this box is a good indicator of the vitola/marca, but they just don't have that ZING that you want. When this cigar is really on, I get caramel cappucino with white pepper and toast with the slight nutmeg tinge (the nutmeg is way more present in Diplomaticos, by comparison, but it's still sometimes there with these). They can be really really nice, but this box is just turning out to be just so-so good, unfortunately.

Maybe with some more age, they may improve a couple of points. Best one I've had from this box was an 89, best ones I've had from other boxes/years or especially in Cuba directly has been a 92.