In my profession, I'm often faced with the question of whether past trends and tendencies are likely to apply to the future or whether there has been a "regime change". Recently, I got to thinking about this same question regarding cigars.

I'd safely say that of all the myriad cigars I've smoked over the last 6 years or so, they've all been Cuban, save for just a handful. I've now found myself wandering through the Davidoff shop across the street from my office and wondering if maybe I've been missing something over all of this time. I keep hearing about how so many cigar manufacturers from all over the world have been improving their products so I finally gave in to temptation to see what has happened since last I branched out of my limited universe.

I grabbed a handful of cigars based on either a specific recommendation, hype, and what I remember likiing back in the day. The first of what will be a series of reviews comes from the third category.

I truly used to love these little cigars. I thought that they were some of the best that I had tried. That said...

This little naturally wrapped masterpiece was quite attractive. The cigar was severely box pressed and the wrapper was nicely smooth with little veining and very even graham cracker shading. I clipped the cap and found a draw that was just a bit on the loose side of perfect... certainly well within the realm of acceptability.

The prelight draw yielded a mildly burnt wood flavor with some sweetness. After firing the cigar up, the flavors that initially hit me were a strong dose of pepper, charcoal, and a light touch of nuts. After the initial lighting puffs, I attempted to release the smoke through my nose. This proved to be a surprising and incredibly painful experience. The smoke was harsh and sharp through the nose and left my throat sore. At this point, I knew I was not going to be in for a good experience.

I tried to just "mouth smoke" the cigar from there on out and I found it to be a bit more agreeable. There was some muddled herbs and strong peppery spice mixed in with a sublte nuttiness, but all the while the background was a mildly sour charred flavor. I'm not sure if it was just this cigar or if any cigar that is not "nose smoked" would do this, but I had an incredible, persistent urge to spit while smoking the cigar. I fought through it until about the half way mark. Considering the size of this diminuitive cigar, I suppose that means I didn't get too far.

What an incredibly disappointing experience. I really wanted to like this cigar, but I couldn't get past the harshness and burning sensations in my throat. To be fair, I don't smoke any other cigars this young, so I suppose there's a chance that after considerable age, the harshness through the nose would soften. I don't honestly know though since these tobaccos are already supposed to be quite old.

So, now I have left... the following...

Padron 1926 #35 (M)
Illusione MK
AF Rosado Magnum 52
AF 858 Rosado
La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especiale #1
La Aroma de Cuba New Blend Robusto (what happened to the little Corona Minor? :-))
My Father Le Bijou Petit Robusto

Over the coming months/year, I'll be sure to get some comments up on the rest of them. I have an open mind... we'll see just how open it is after all :-)
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I can see where you could be let down, not the biggest N fan of the padrons but also with some of these strong NC's it's a totally different experience when trying to "nose smoke" compared to a CC.

My Father Le Bijou Petit is my fav cigar of the year by far.
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