Stopwatch: Mareva/Petit Corona

[Stormin691]

Diplomatico #4 OPM ENE 09

Construction- good

Pre-light aroma leather

Pre-light draw perfect

1st and 2nd third thick silky smoke that rolled off the tongue. Grassy, barnyard through and through.

Last 3rd hints of cocoa and coffee. No burn issues throughout. Enjoyed this one as I only have 3 left now.. 

Time 52 minutes

 

Edited July 24, 2017 by Stormin691

[Habana Mike]

For this I picked the ULA14 BPC. This box has been performing well though I really miss the cabs.

Fired it up 9:51PM 

Nice draw on this one, perfect amount of resistance and good smoke production. Starts with a nice earthy note, leather backdrop.

30 minutes later still going strong. 

Perfect burn and construction. Beyond the earth now a touch of white pepper and dark roast coffee, quite nice.

Hitting the band just past an hour in,, body and strength have appreciated a bit, not much change in flavor. 

Nubbed at 11:05PM, right about 75 minutes. 

Enjoyable stick.

[prodigy]

Monte #4
8:52 start

Creamy and nutty, hint of espresso

Latte is such a good combo!

Spicy retro, just right on spice

End of first 3rd, chocolat coming in now!

2nd 3rd,  full on chocolat bar with coffee
Light floral/woody taste lingers on the palate

End of 2nd 3rd, spice kicks in while everything else is the same

Final 3rd, chocolat is almost gone now. The spice that started coming in strong is now more of a hay flavor

Amazing draw, burn was winky at the 1st to 2nd 3rd transition. Fixed itself as I slowed down my speed.

End 9:38

46 min total time


Siglo 2

Start 7:59

Very nice draw, typical cohiba hay and honey

Pleasantly mild, light toasted tobacco

Finish on the palate is a Graham cracker sweetness of honey

Starting the 2nd 3rd. Everything is getting better! Little stronger spice now. Full on Graham cracker!

Maintained delicious creamy Graham cracker into final 3rd.

Spice is building up now

End 8:59

Exactly 1 hour smoke

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[Fugu]

8 hours ago, Habana Mike said:

Perfect burn and construction. Beyond the earth now a touch of white pepper and dark roast coffee, quite nice.

Hitting the band just past an hour in,, body and strength have appreciated a bit, not much change in flavor. 

It always surprises me as to how the CJ tends to show more of an evolution than the PC.

[Corylax18]

First PC for the weekend is going to be a Monte 4 I don't have the box code handy but I know it is a 08 date. The cigar is completely solid all the way through, but after punching with a 7mm punch, the draw seems just fine, so I dont mess with it. The cigar starts out with plenty of chocolate, nice and smooth. Some coffee starts to appear and the chocolate darkens up as we get to the 2nd third. Lots of thick smoke with every draw, there is a lot of tobacco in this little cigar and its burning very slowly, lucky me!

The chocolate dominance continues into the second third with the coffee coming and going. Just over Medium bodied so far, full in the flavor department. Into the last third earth and salt start to accompany the dark chocolate, im not getting anymore coffee. The body starts to build as I get towards the nub. Still lots of chocolate, now mixed with earth and salt. The cigar never needed a touch up and the ashes stayed solid well past 1".

I really love these cigars, and great montes in general. Going on 10 years old it never dropped below medium body, maybe the firm pack was due to a larger than normal dose of ligero? Who knows, but if I had a few boxes blended and constructed like this cigar I would be happy for the next 5 years. Total burn time: 86 min 44 sec.

[Corylax18]

The 2nd PC of the weekend was a Hoyo Coronation. I have to admit, these cigars weren't on my radar until my trip to Havana last year. I arrived at Jose Marti with some CUC left, that I wasnt going to change, so I picked up a cardboard 5x5 of these along with some belindas and a few other odds and ends to give out as gifts. 

After a few puffs of the first one, I decided the rest were staying put with me and gifted other cigars I purchased. I still have about half of those left, but this example is the first from a TOS MAR 16 box I picked up early this year. The cigar is very attractive with a colorado wrapper, but visibly lumpy. Multiple lumps/knots can be felt along the length of the cigar and after punching, the draw is tight. I get to work with the perfecdraw removing several large chunks of leaf and plenty of small cut up pieces. The draw opens up a bit, but I cant tell if its a plug toward the head or the foot causing the issues, so I light up and hope it towards the foot. 

Flavors open up very nicely, lots of proofing bread dough flavors and a dark fruity sweetness. Just like the 5x5s! The draw is too tight, but a few large pulls generates good smoke output. The flavors don't evolve much as the cigars progresses, but I work through the worst knot about half way through the 2nd thrid. The draw opens up significantly from there, but the burn doesnt improve much, the wrapper isnt burning at mo\any of the underfilled spots. As I get to the final third I hit a setion that just wont burn. I try two relights within a 1/4" and the cigar goes out quickly both times. They are certainly young, but the core flavors I have seen in previous examples are there in spades. Rough edge abound, and I hope construction isnt an issue with the rest of the box. I plan to give these atleast another year before trying another, but I have high hopes for the rest of the box based on this cigar. I have noticed darker wrappers on these than most Hoyos and I also notice a different flavor profile than the typical hoyo. These are a hidden gem in the PC realm and are probably already on the 2018 cut list. 72 minutes

[PigFish]

Diplomaticos #4 

Another silly video from Isla Pigfish!

I have smoked only two really good cigars this month... both Diplomaticos!

...an hour of pure smoking bliss!

Enjoy... -Piggy

[mrretrohale]

my first and only punch pc in my collection. Fragrant tobacco aromas with some sweet and floral notes cold. Rich chocolate and coffee flavours which ramped up throughout the cigar. Minor draw issues in the second third skewing my opinion. Final third-initial flavours returned with some heat and sweetness. Generally enjoyable cigar but would sample a few more before getting a box


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[soutso]

9 hours ago, PigFish said:

Diplomaticos #4 

Another silly video from Isla Pigfish!

I have smoked only two really good cigars this month... both Diplomaticos!

...an hour of pure smoking bliss!

Enjoy... -Piggy

Hey Piggy,

Great effort on the vid. FYI I have smoked the odd 500 year old cigar that you've sent me (this is a dig at your age lol... though I'll take this chance to comment on your impressive biceps - there's some big guns there ??) and I just want to add that a lot of what you describe, especially the non-taste but 'feel' elements to the older cigars, can still be found in the odd 2014 ply HDM Du Depute and Du Prince and with Trinidad Reyes. I've definitely experienced this with them, not every stick, as consistency varies but I know that it's there.

Cheers!

Nik

[PigFish]

13 hours ago, soutso said:

Hey Piggy,

Great effort on the vid. FYI I have smoked the odd 500 year old cigar that you've sent me (this is a dig at your age lol... though I'll take this chance to comment on your impressive biceps - there's some big guns there ??) and I just want to add that a lot of what you describe, especially the non-taste but 'feel' elements to the older cigars, can still be found in the odd 2014 ply HDM Du Depute and Du Prince and with Trinidad Reyes. I've definitely experienced this with them, not every stick, as consistency varies but I know that it's there.

Cheers!

Nik

... -LOL

Smoked a '15 du Depute the other day and was not impressed much. Du Dep has always been a bit iffy, so it could be just a shallow cigar. As I have been poking through some of the '14 and '15 cigars I have, I have found a lot of disappointments. Again, could be crap luck. Only time will tell...

I really enjoyed this cigar as I did the '01 D-1 from the day before.

Maybe it is time to break into that last cab of '98 Partagas PC's... 

Cheers mate! -R

[PigFish]

On 7/24/2017 at 10:53 AM, Corylax18 said:

The 2nd PC of the weekend was a Hoyo Coronation. I have to admit, these cigars weren't on my radar until my trip to Havana last year. I arrived at Jose Marti with some CUC left, that I wasnt going to change, so I picked up a cardboard 5x5 of these along with some belindas and a few other odds and ends to give out as gifts. 

After a few puffs of the first one, I decided the rest were staying put with me and gifted other cigars I purchased. I still have about half of those left, but this example is the first from a TOS MAR 16 box I picked up early this year. The cigar is very attractive with a colorado wrapper, but visibly lumpy. Multiple lumps/knots can be felt along the length of the cigar and after punching, the draw is tight. I get to work with the perfecdraw removing several large chunks of leaf and plenty of small cut up pieces. The draw opens up a bit, but I cant tell if its a plug toward the head or the foot causing the issues, so I light up and hope it towards the foot. 

Flavors open up very nicely, lots of proofing bread dough flavors and a dark fruity sweetness. Just like the 5x5s! The draw is too tight, but a few large pulls generates good smoke output. The flavors don't evolve much as the cigars progresses, but I work through the worst knot about half way through the 2nd thrid. The draw opens up significantly from there, but the burn doesnt improve much, the wrapper isnt burning at mo\any of the underfilled spots. As I get to the final third I hit a setion that just wont burn. I try two relights within a 1/4" and the cigar goes out quickly both times. They are certainly young, but the core flavors I have seen in previous examples are there in spades. Rough edge abound, and I hope construction isnt an issue with the rest of the box. I plan to give these atleast another year before trying another, but I have high hopes for the rest of the box based on this cigar. I have noticed darker wrappers on these than most Hoyos and I also notice a different flavor profile than the typical hoyo. These are a hidden gem in the PC realm and are probably already on the 2018 cut list. 72 minutes

How difficult can it be to roll a good PC??? This is a rhetorical question... Experiencing the same so many times with newer cigars really makes my blood boil...!

-Piggy

[planetary]

Ok, it's Tuesday, so it's time to summarize findings thus far.  (Will keep updating the data if more reviews roll in.)

Petit Corona data.
Previous Robusto data.

Cigars smoked	42
Mean (average) duration	64	minutes
Median duration	63	minutes
Mode	52	minutes
Std Dev	13	minutes

As a reminder, the average for Robustos was 70 minutes with 44 samples.

Cigar choices were more varied:

 

Duration graph compared to the normal curve.  Not too bad a fit, overall.

And finally, the correlation between time of day and duration was noticed *very weakly* this time around:

As @PigFish observed in his video review, other factors like construction and personal style probably matter much more.

I have some thoughts about comparisons between vitolas, but might wait to see if we get more sets of data before building some of that out.

Do let me know if you'd like to see other data or visualizations, as well!

[Corylax18]

5 hours ago, PigFish said:

How difficult can it be to roll a good PC??? This is a rhetorical question... Experiencing the same so many times with newer cigars really makes my blood boil...!

-Piggy

You would think it would be one of the first vitolas a roller would learn, right in the middle in terms of length and girth. It bugs me less with lower priced cigars, but its stunning they can't/won't fix the issue. Its been close to two decades since serious construction issues started to become a problem they haven't found a way to figure it out. Something along the lines of Ken's "numbered roller" idea would be great. I have a feeling a lot of rollers would have to find new jobs.

[Philc2001]

I got home a little early today and decided to spark a Monte #4, MOB MAR 15. It was dry boxed for 4 days, and was a little stiff, but draw was perfect.

I've always liked the Monte PC, but at times it has been both immensely gratifying and extremely disappointing. The one I smoked today was very good, but not the best, I would rate it an 8.5/10. There were some elements of coffee and vanilla, and some wafts of Cuban twang, I enjoyed the aroma.

These past few weeks I have been trying to slow down smoking and my stop watch on my phone confirms it. It lasted 1 hour and 23 minutes. Not bad compared to 3 hours it took me to smoke Lusitania on Saturday.

Here are the pictures;





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[PigFish]

1 hour ago, Corylax18 said:

You would think it would be one of the first vitolas a roller would learn, right in the middle in terms of length and girth. It bugs me less with lower priced cigars, but its stunning they can't/won't fix the issue. Its been close to two decades since serious construction issues started to become a problem they haven't found a way to figure it out. Something along the lines of Ken's "numbered roller" idea would be great. I have a feeling a lot of rollers would have to find new jobs.

... when you pay them 20CUC a month, you should expect shit...! Pay them fair, set them up in profit sharing and give them some reason beyond nationalism to be proud of their work.

Teams, with mentors, competition for top honors (meaning spiffs and monetary rewards)... Ability to move up in the industry without party affiliation... 

Threats only work on people that value a job that is worthy of being valued. The poor Cubans are treated as sub-human by their government. Humanity and dignity first... and the cigars will follow!

-Piggy

[Ferrero]

Thanks for participating again folks. Getting a good gauge of smoking times thanks to @planetary!

This weeks winner is: @Diabolicalpherpher. Congratulations! PM me your preferred shipping details when you get the chance.

[planetary]

Congrats and enjoy, @Diabolicalpherpher!

[mkz]

Nice one @Diabolicalpherpher! 

[Diabolicalpherpher]

Thank you FOH.  Feeling very lucky!

[JohnS]

Congratulations @Diabolicalpherpher! Enjoy your sampler!

[Projectal]

Congrats Diabolicalpherfer.

[Jose_A_Rodriguez]

Congrats @Diabolicalpherpher