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Excellent stuff chaps, take it on the chin Butters, I think you walked into all that, especially the 116yrs in the future +1's all around. And let's leave the probing to the men eh, you already had your chance with Kate Perry.
Simon Bolivar: Liberator of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru & Venezuela.
Come in here, dear boy. Allow me to weave a tale of epic proportions. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But sometimes it's much more. And not in the sexual way!
Preamble:
This time, it's the 1 and a half year old LFdC Selectos. Bought for a tenner CAD (fiver GBP for you gents across the pond) at a local B n' M. Why did i buy this? Because it looked like a large enough cigar for the cheap price of a tenner. Sure, i could get Siglo IIs for that price, but i did enjoy looking around at their Cuban Selection (that mind you, was smaller than my personal one). Honestly, i've never had a La Flor de Cano before and was hoping to extend my palate a bit more into the rounds of cheapsies. Unlike the Rafael Gonzalez, i started with the Petit Piramides RE Alemania (Germany. For all you Anglophones out there).
I have the Gran Cano (graciously gifted to me by the humble Sheepherder) and a few Grandiosos. Both of which i've heard magical things about. The German regional RG was exactly what i imagined it to be: the Non-Cubans of Cubans. First draw: chocolate and very Oliva and Macanudo flavours which developed, mind you. You can guess what i expect this LFdC to taste like: cheap Cuban filler that gives Guantanamera a run for its money. Fine. Not THAT bad. But worse than Quintero but better than the JlPs. They're short and long filler, chronologically but i'm not too sure about this LFdC (Rascal, wanna help me out here?). It's only appropriate to try this before dipping into the magical realms of the Gran Cano and the Grandioso.
Background: Fuck Jeremy. I just read all that bullshit and it wasn't even the background!?
Quiet you. I don't do many reviews a year. Let me have my moment.
Schizo aside, I had around 45 minutes to smoke this. I had just finished working in the laboratory early and saw this in my caddy. It's been there for 4 days dry boxing now. I had to wait for a bloke who would finish his at exactly 2130 and it was 2045. This cheap little shitty stick seemed like the best option for today. So i grabbed it out of my Cigar Caddy and prepared for the ritualistic burning.
Pre lights:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17097[/ATTACH]
Wrapper looks akin to those old maschine rolled belvederes and other cello wrapped cigars. This one had thin but vibrant veins popping up everywhere and it had an odd aged look to it. Very strange as not even Quintero or JlP has such rough wrappers. Band looked nice. Reminds me of those old Cifuentes bands that comes in those glass tubes with shitty rubber stoppers. Very nice touch.
After writing this, i just realised: the wrapper is NEARLY IDENTICAL to the Cifuentes wrappers! Very odd.
Punch cut and predrew to an aged tobacco taste, actually. Very weird. It wasn't so much aged stick as it was if one were to age Cuban tobacco for 15 years and put it into a pipe blend. That's what it tasted like. My earlier expectations are being smashed by these lights. But much like the RG Alemania i had before, i knew not to trust pre-lights on how good a cigar is. With that said, along came the torch.
First Lights and First Third:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17098[/ATTACH]
First draw tasted like those old JlP Petit Cetros '06 that i have in my humidor. So there suits my expectations: Better than JlP, worse than Quintero. I have to mention that this bloody git was impossible to light. Torching it on the sides of the foot took 30 seconds and then the centre refused to light. Had to hold my lighter for a good 20 seconds on the centre of the foot to get a good white ash at the end. Bloody cockwillows. That was difficult. I had dry boxed it too! Why!?
Anyways, along the first sixth, i was really enjoy this stick. But it got to the point in the picture and i tasted tomatoes. Sundried tomatoes with hints of basil and a rosemary rub. Very nice with small bits of not-pepper : a kind of Coriander taste. I texted the mate of mine and told him of the news of my tomato cigar. Was quite the unique experience for that. But it changed really quickly!
As the cigar developped down to the halfway point of the first third (second sixth), it developed to a tomato complexity that i couldn't comprehend. How could a cigar so cheap, easily available, looks so shite, and light so terribly be so bloody complex!? On top of that, i could change the tomato profile by how quickly i smoked it. A puff would yield little smoke and a refreshing tomato sensation. A double puff would sprinkle peppers and corianders over the tomatoes for that Fried Green Tomato tang. Very intriguing and i HAD to focus on this stick.
Styx's Grand Illusion was turned off and i moved away from a few gents on the other side to smoke in peace. I even tossed out the sugary cappuccino i was suckling just to enjoy this taste.
Second Third:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17099[/ATTACH]
Intensifying but smoothing out. The tomatoes have now completely been dried with small sensations of bacon and with more pepper. It had small influses of Gin and juniper oil as i took my drags. But i did prefer the double puffs so i could get some serious bacon flavours out of this cigar. Tomato is still the overwhelming sensation that i'm getting from this cigar and it's absolutely overwhelming. As it progressed, i realised this cigar will have to end one minute. And i couldn't have that happen so i reduced my double puffs to single puffs.
At this point, two gentlemen sat to the closest bench beside me and proceeded to smoke some very heavy marijuana. Each exhale they took would create a cloud 1m in diameter and float my way. Very annoying and joisted me out of my euphoria for the 5 minutes they stayed there bombarding my senses.
Intermission:
I'm a burn puritan. In other words: i hate when my cigars burn terribly like a Siglo VI in the jungle. This cigar would fail at lighting its own binder or wrapper:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17100[/ATTACH]
This is a small canoe compared to the titanics that i've had to deal with. but it would actually correct itself with no purging needed or any sort of aid on that front.The wrapper and binder would just fall into line like it was programmed to!
Final Third
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17101[/ATTACH]
In the beginning of the final third, i realised i had lost track of time. It was already 2130 and my mate subsequently called me. I told him to get his ass over here because i sure as hell am not moving. Naturally, i wasn't that rude. I just emphasised my euphoria that i'm feeling over voice so it isn't so up to interpretation to rudeness as plain text is. I gave him a Cohiba Club and he happily stayed.
There now is a return to the first third. However, single puffs tastes like what double puffs did before. If i puffed twice this time around, i would get a fresh sensation of olives and butter. Mind you, i don't like olives unless they're in my martini (medium half and half - two olives) but these oils suited the tomato tastes perfectly. My god was this advancing greatly.
It felt like someone created an immaculate tomato bagel and vaporised it to infuse into this cigar. Even the seasoning with the perfect amount of pepper, basil, and rosemary remained.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]17102[/ATTACH]
It's 2200 now and we should really get going. Good thing (i think) this cigar refused to stay lit past this point. A sudden and quick death that i'm pondering about, now...
Conclusion:
These sensations remind me of why i started smoking in the first place. Unexpected little gems like these that pop up like you wouldn't expect.
This cigar had the refreshing nature of my standard Siglo IIIs, the complexity of an aged ERdM, and the choice of the Montecristo Gran Reserva. By choice i mean smoking quickly or slowly would yield you different flavours where as in many other cigars, smoking quickly will just give you an eggy sulphur taste that kicks your ass.
Naturally, this is one of the best cigars i've ever had. But i probably would still choose my standard Siglo IIIs or a good aged ERdM over this cigar. It's quite the shame because as complex and STUPENDOUS this LFdC was, it's not something i would want to binge smoke. A psychologist could just say i'm being pretentious or wanting to preserve these cigars for special moments. But i would just say that i do enjoy the Cohiba, ERdM, etc profiles more. This cigar was absolutely outstanding but the fact that it gave me so much turned me off to it. This was really a wow moment that something like my standard Cohiba Siggy IIIs or H. Upmann Connie As won't give me which is maybe why i smoked them so much. It's really strange to have this cigar being placed here. I'm confused to my opinion on when i would want to smoke these again, actually. Will revisit when i'm more level headed!
The last time i had such a love for this cigar was with the Montecristo Reserva No. 4 and the Partagas 20th Anniversario Sublimes.
Now comes the hardest part: scoring out of 100. I don't count looks or construction into this unless it kept exploding on me. I rank only on flavour. And for flavour, i'd give it a solid 98. 1 point lower than the Montecristo Reserva No. 4 and the Anniversario 20th Sublimes. But for 10 dollars, why the hell not?
Ok firstly sorry for having to be led by the hand to this review Butternutcase. I give you this name because while I really enjoyed the review chap, it did have a dash of the cerebrally touched to it! I expect that's why I enjoyed it so much, I never did like my friends to be toooooo sane. It's like my father used to say, there's a thin line between insane and unsane... Anyway thanks muchly for the great review, I now HAVE to get my hand on one to try.
Ok firstly sorry for having to be led by the hand to this review Butternutcase. I give you this name because while I really enjoyed the review chap, it did have a dash of the cerebrally touched to it! I expect that's why I enjoyed it so much, I never did like my friends to be toooooo sane. It's like my father used to say, there's a thin line between insane and unsane... Anyway thanks muchly for the great review, I now HAVE to get my hand on one to try.
Thats a very polite way to say that Jizzbag is batshit crazy!
Licky Licky before Sticky Sticky. - Puff Scotty 22/03/14
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