Montecristo No. 2 - UTL MAY 19 (ATWSSRW)

[saltbox]

My fiancee and I just moved into our first house! We moved down from San Francisco, which is basically perpetually 65F and overcast, to a bit further south in San Carlos, where the weather has been a lot sunnier. Nicer weather means more pleasant smoking of bigger vitolas, so I'm looking forward to busting out some churchills/DCs, but unpacking and re-arranging is still taking up most of our time.

San Francisco, with the looming wave of overcast clouds that come in as the daytime warmth fades:

San Carlos: 

I actually haven't had time to smoke in a week or so, so being able to sit down for this Monte 2 was nice. This was smoked at night, where the weather differences are less visually apparent, but San Carlos is also way less windy than San Francisco was, so there's a big improvement in conditions in that respect too.

This cigar was rested at 62RH for 9 months with about 2 years of box age. This was actually from a box from my very first purchase of Cuban cigars, so it's my most rested box, and I've only had one other cigar from it, at the 3 month rest mark, so I'm interested to see how much these have improved.

First third: Opens with a beautiful milk chocolate and biscuit cookie, almost exactly like a milk chocolate McVitie's digestive. The flavors have definitely come out more in the 6 months of additional rest they've gotten since I last smoked out of this box. Some milky coffee as well.

Middle third: The biscuit part of the flavor profile starts to come through stronger and overshadow the chocolate and coffee, which are still there but now secondary to the biscuit.

Last third: Really strong creamy coffee. The flavor profile is almost exactly that of a Starbucks Doubleshot: espresso with heavy cream and sugar, for a decadent dessert like smoke. Cigar gets a bit hot in the very last inch, but it's not too bad and it definitely seems to have receded with some time.

Overall: Really enjoyed this, especially after a week of not having time for any cigars. Not particularly complex, and the evolutions were basically just variations in strength in the basic flavors of cream, chocolate, coffee, but still extremely enjoyable. 91/100

[Kaptain Karl]

Congrats on the move man!! I had one of these yesterday that was close to what you described. Dessert in a cigar! 

[Queens88]

You guys can get McVitie’s in the US?

[saltbox]

Yep! They're not exactly everywhere, but they're not too hard to find either. Lots of Asian grocery stores out here seem to carry regional imports from all over and McVitie's are a pretty common sight.

 

Also, I don't tear them open like an animal, the wrapper just got fubar'd during the move.