Last Tuesday, like a proper gentleman, I woke up at 8:30am and watched Sportscenter 'til 10:00, and drove to the Spec's liquor store for some supplies. I had worked 3 days in a row and was very tired and just felt like having a "me" day again. I came away from Spec's with a bottle of Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava and a Don Pepin Garcia Serie JJ Sublime Maduro cigar (54x6.0). I have smoked the original Serie JJ's years ago and loved them, but at that time I was in college and couldn't afford to be smoking $10 sticks regularly. I remember the original Serie JJ's offering loads of peppery spice and full bodied tobacco flavor, so I thought the new maduro would bring a little sweetness to that flavor profile. The cigar has that perfect construction that Pepin Garcia is renowned for, the triple cap end, and hand-rolled to perfection that creates an easy draw and better smoking experience. The cigar is made of criollo and corojo long fillers and covered in a corojo maduro wrapper; all together creating a complete Nicaraguan puro.
So I pop out my butane lighter and fire the baby up, and immediately I am surprised. The initial flavor profile was not exactly what I remember the original Serie JJ tasting like. It was still full bodied but the cigar brought HUGE amounts of leather to my tastebuds. It was sooo much leather I thought I had just licked Ralph Lauren's saddle seat! Some slight sweetness accompanied the leatheriness, and the cigar produced a good thick smoke. Unfortunately I had some problems with the cigar burning unevenly, and occasionally losing it's light. I kind of was disappointed by the cigar, probably because I had high expectations for it because of my memories from years ago. Probably won't be going back to this one,......
Rating: Don Pepin Garcia Serie JJ Sublime Maduro (54x6.0)= 88
[Reply]
I love these cigars. I think that you may have them over humidified. I have found that these burn the best and taste the best under 65% humidity. At 65% they are still good, but at 70% they get hard to keep lit and sometimes they will have wrapper issues. So if I were you, try another after it has sat out of the humidor a few days and see what you think.
GARRY-
[Reply]
