Montecristo #2 - 2020 (AARW)

[Edicion]

Blind tasting of a Montecristo #2

Me and the boys regularly meet up and like to challenge ourselves by doing blind cigar tastings. We rotate between us who does the selection of cigars. One picks the cigars, and the rest will do the actual tasting.

Having the same cigar from the same box, and seasoned smokers discussing, working together, trying to pick what it is. To you it might seem an easy task but trust me – we often get it wrong.

For this week’s challenge we went to a local B&M with an adjacent lounge. One of the boys (let’s call him Buddy) chose which cigar to have, the lounge staff then cut off the bands, put the bands in a bag, hid them from us, so that only this week’s picker Buddy knew that we were smoking Montecristo #2s. The challenge was on for the rest of us, myself, @KavalanWhisky and @Billybats.

When we saw the cigar for the first time, we all felt it was easy. It was a large torpedo. How hard can it be?😝

Next, we tried to distinguish some flavors.

I had a tiny bit of nuts, a hint a coffee, some earthiness but really, nothing much. I felt it was a light to medium and not particularly good if I may be honest. The initial third reminded me a lot of a Magnum 46 but that went away later. 

Billybats got a lot of sweet potato, spices with medium aroma. Very typical of a Diplomatico #2 he said, “unique to them”. Honestly, neither me nor Kavalanwhisky got any of that so I 100% thought he was making things up.😜

Could it be an H Upmann #2, I said out loud?

By now Buddy, who had picked the cigars was probably thinking we were a bunch of amateurs. He was saying things like, we were “distracted by our conversation”, a Japanese show on TV, it was “not the best representation” of this particular cigar, "young" etc to give us some face.

At least we managed to agree that it was not a Mon 2. Yes, that’s right, 100% not a Mon 2. Could it be a Romeo Y Julieta? We didn’t think so, none of that cherry flavor was there (if there ever is…😜) For sure it was not a Partagas P2 - no way. 

Things were about to get weirder.

Kavalanwhisky was 100% sure it was not a Dip 2 nor an Upmann #2. He said he had never had this cigar before and thought it could be a Vegas Robaina Unicos. Both me and Billybats rejected that since we both had Robainas before and had none of the deep, dark, earthy, plum, burn sugar, woody notes. Plus, since Kavalanwhisky never had one, how could he guess that…? Come on man.😂

About halfway in and a good 40 minutes later, it was time to make our final decisions on what we thought it was:

1. I went with HU#2 (100% sure with the unmistakable initial Mag 46 flavor, I lied to myself)
2. Kavalanwhisky said it VRU (despite never having had one before)
3. Billybats was 100% sure it was a Dip 2 (that sweet potato. Of course it was)

By now you have realized we were all wrong. And our so-called Buddy now revealed that he had picked a Montecristo #2.😭

How could we get it so wrong?😓 A quintessential and unmistakable cigar, probably one of the best cigars out there. Rich flavors of leather, sweet spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, wood note and chocolate. Oh dear.

Buddy continued to say we did a good job and that we were distracted by this and that, more kind words, but he was surprised the strong chocolate flavor in the second third didn’t lead us to figure it out.

Truth to be told, as mature, adult men do, some harsh words were said to defend ourselves. We started to look for excuses to explain our failures: “Fake cigar for sure”, “worst Mon 2 I have ever had in my life”, “give me the box code I will never buy this again”, “yeah and post it on FOH to warn others”, “it has none of the qualities I look for in a Mon 2 and I have had tons of them” etc etc. Sore losers united.

We finished the cigars and that was it.

The challenge was over, had to lick our wounds and come back next time more prepared. Still not fully satisfied, a bit confused and upset (don’t tell me it’s just cigars man!😤).

As tradition goes, we got the bands back in the bag from the staff and here is what we saw…

A Vegas Robaina band...

H Upmann...

Diplomatico...

Montecristo…

We looked to our “Buddy” thinking WHAT ON EARTH you said it was a MON 2….but he looked as surprised as us. Probably even more since he had picked four Montecristos to begin with. What was going on...

Final revelation: The staff went completely rogue on us.

They had not listened to Buddy’s instructions at all, so when he left the room, instead of taking the Mon 2s he had picked, they went ahead and pick four (4!) different cigars for us to blind taste and by pure karma, luck, chance, Buddy got the Mon 2 – the one he chosen from the beginning, so he was always in the know that it was a Mon 2 and had no clue we had other brands. 

I definitely got the HU#2 – it could not be anything else or it was the worst Mon 2 in the world ever!

Kavalanwhisky the Vegas Robaina (which he picked despite never had one – huge kudos💯)

Billybats the Dip 2 – Of course the sweet potato was spot on😎

After laughing so much some of us had to change pants💩, in the end we were all happy that Montecristo #2 was and still is one of the best cigars out there. Reputation restored. Not that it was ever in question..ehum.

Thanks to Buddy for making a blind tasting legendary. Always good banter with @KavalanWhisky and @Billybats so see you at the next one.

Disclaimer (just wanted to share this story anyhow but any prizes will be shared among us 4, please cut sticks in equal shares as necessary).

[JohnS]

Fantastic review, thanks for sharing this story! 👍

[griller]

Great read, thanks! Need to come up with a practical joke to play on the staff now...

[Edicion]

Thanks @JohnS I don't think anyone else will read the whole thing so appreciate the effort! 

If someone else does read it to the end there is a point, but 4-12 minutes of your life will be gone. So you can just look at the pictures and save some time. 

Cheers! 

 

[Billybats]

48 minutes ago, Edicion said:

Blind tasting of a Montecristo #2

Me and the boys regularly meet up and like to challenge ourselves by doing blind cigar tastings. We rotate between us who does the selection of cigars. One picks the cigars, and the rest will do the actual tasting.

Having the same cigar from the same box, and seasoned smokers discussing, working together, trying to pick what it is. To you it might seem an easy task but trust me – we often get it wrong.

For this week’s challenge we went to a local B&M with an adjacent lounge. One of the boys (let’s call him Buddy) chose which cigar to have, the lounge staff then cut off the bands, put the bands in a bag, hid them from us, so that only this week’s picker Buddy knew that we were smoking Montecristo #2s. The challenge was on for the rest of us, myself, @KavalanWhisky and @Billybats.

When we saw the cigar for the first time, we all felt it was easy. It was a large torpedo. How hard can it be?😝

Next, we tried to distinguish some flavors.

I had a tiny bit of nuts, a hint a coffee, some earthiness but really, nothing much. I felt it was a light to medium and not particularly good if I may be honest. The initial third reminded me a lot of a Magnum 46 but that went away later. 

Billybats got a lot of sweet potato, spices with medium aroma. Very typical of a Diplomatico #2 he said, “unique to them”. Honestly, neither me nor Kavalanwhisky got any of that so I 100% thought he was making things up.😜

Could it be an H Upmann #2, I said out loud?

By now Buddy, who had picked the cigars was probably thinking we were a bunch of amateurs. He was saying things like, we were “distracted by our conversation”, a Japanese show on TV, it was “not the best representation” of this particular cigar, "young" etc to give us some face.

At least we managed to agree that it was not a Mon 2. Yes, that’s right, 100% not a Mon 2. Could it be a Romeo Y Julieta? We didn’t think so, none of that cherry flavor was there (if there ever is…😜) For sure it was not a Partagas P2 - no way. 

Things were about to get weirder.

Kavalanwhisky was 100% sure it was not a Dip 2 nor an Upmann #2. He said he had never had this cigar before and thought it could be a Vegas Robaina Unicos. Both me and Billybats rejected that since we both had Robainas before and had none of the deep, dark, earthy, plum, burn sugar, woody notes. Plus, since Kavalanwhisky never had one, how could he guess that…? Come on man.😂

About halfway in and a good 40 minutes later, it was time to make our final decisions on what we thought it was:

1. I went with HU#2 (100% sure with the unmistakable initial Mag 46 flavor, I lied to myself)
2. Kavalanwhisky said it VRU (despite never having had one before)
3. Billybats was 100% sure it was a Dip 2 (that sweet potato. Of course it was)

By now you have realized we were all wrong. And our so-called Buddy now revealed that he had picked a Montecristo #2.😭

How could we get it so wrong?😓 A quintessential and unmistakable cigar, probably one of the best cigars out there. Rich flavors of leather, sweet spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, wood note and chocolate. Oh dear.

Buddy continued to say we did a good job and that we were distracted by this and that, more kind words, but he was surprised the strong chocolate flavor in the second third didn’t lead us to figure it out.

Truth to be told, as mature, adult men do, some harsh words were said to defend ourselves. We started to look for excuses to explain our failures: “Fake cigar for sure”, “worst Mon 2 I have ever had in my life”, “give me the box code I will never buy this again”, “yeah and post it on FOH to warn others”, “it has none of the qualities I look for in a Mon 2 and I have had tons of them” etc etc. Sore losers united.

We finished the cigars and that was it.

The challenge was over, had to lick our wounds and come back next time more prepared. Still not fully satisfied, a bit confused and upset (don’t tell me it’s just cigars man!😤).

As tradition goes, we got the bands back in the bag from the staff and here is what we saw…

A Vegas Robaina band...

H Upmann...

Diplomatico...

Montecristo…

We looked to our “Buddy” thinking WHAT ON EARTH you said it was a MON 2….but he looked as surprised as us. Probably even more since he had picked four Montecristos to begin with. What was going on...

Final revelation: The staff went completely rogue on us.

They had not listened to Buddy’s instructions at all, so when he left the room, instead of taking the Mon 2s he had picked, they went ahead and pick four (4!) different cigars for us to blind taste and by pure karma, luck, chance, Buddy got the Mon 2 – the one he chosen from the beginning, so he was always in the know that it was a Mon 2 and had no clue we had other brands. 

I definitely got the HU#2 – it could not be anything else or it was the worst Mon 2 in the world ever!

Kavalanwhisky the Vegas Robaina (which he picked despite never had one – huge kudos💯)

Billybats the Dip 2 – Of course the sweet potato was spot on😎

After laughing so much some of us had to change pants💩, in the end we were all happy that Montecristo #2 was and still is one of the best cigars out there. Reputation restored. Not that it was ever in question..ehum.

Thanks to Buddy for making a blind tasting legendary. Always good banter with @KavalanWhisky and @Billybats so see you at the next one.

Disclaimer (just wanted to share this story anyhow but any prizes will be shared among us 4, please cut sticks in equal shares as necessary).

41 minutes ago, JohnS said:

Fantastic review, thanks for sharing this story! 👍

Great write up! The ultimate plot twist..Would be funny if actually got them all wrong!

[djrey]

Very interesting! The staff must have watched the latest blind tasting from Sautter. 

[Paso]

Very entertaining read ! Thanks, enjoyed it a lot. 

[smbauerllc]

Great review.

I'd be kinda pissed if I wanted Monte 2's and was given something else, personally.

Partly because the #2 is my favorite Montecristo

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Enduin]

Really enjoyed the story! Well written and loved the plot twist at the end.

[karp]

Thanks for the story - I liked the reveal at the end. Experienced palates all around.

[SpecialK]

enjoyed this very much.. very impressed with all of the palates involved.. 

[smbauerllc]

enjoyed this very much.. very impressed with all of the palates involved.. 

Yeah, really wish I had the palate that so many people seem to have.
I suspect it's from being a cigarette smoker for 30 years, and only quit a couple months ago.
Waiting for my palate to improve like I'm told it will in time since I quit

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[StogieSteve23]

Great review here! Cool way of doing it and great fun on the staffs part to screw with you guys that way.  

[mt1]

Why aren't you wearing any pants again?

[Chucko8]

Great review mate. Just sitting down with Galen now and he is explaining the story to me. Classic

[timis300]

Invite me next time, yeh?

[Edicion]

1 hour ago, Chucko8 said:

Great review mate. Just sitting down with Galen now and he is explaining the story to me. Classic

Thanks mate! Galen aka BUDDY aka @saltyfeet deserves an extra award for being so patient with us when he thought we'd lost the plot. 

 

1 hour ago, timis300 said:

Invite me next time, yeh?

For sure @timis300 Next time we plan to keep it simple and do a "Guess the Factory Code and Production Year" of an unlit cigar, while being blindfolded. 

[Billybats]

13 minutes ago, Edicion said:

Thanks mate! Galen aka BUDDY aka @saltyfeet deserves an extra award for being so patient with us when he thought we'd lost the plot. 

the look on BUDDY's face when the shop owner showed us the bands...priceless!

[Bri Fi]

That was a great review and story. But as mentioned above, I’d be a little upset the staff gave cigars I didn’t ask for. Thanks for the story 

[Mickey D]

On 6/10/2021 at 5:57 AM, Enduin said:

Really enjoyed the story! Well written and loved the plot twist at the end.

Agree, what more can be said? Excellent!

[Jackinkc]

What an awesome story. You are a very talented writer. Thank you for sharing! 

[saltyfeet]

Great write up of our blind tasting. All the details were captured and wrote it like a short story. Totally lucky i had the monte2 otherwise i would agree with @Edicion, utter worse monte2 lol. We definitely need to do more blind tasting, great times.