Tweet
afternoon all,
as a few of you know already, i picked up a couple of small boxes of cigars this week, the cohiba maduro secretos (10 box, use ene 08) and trinidad reyes (12 box, mso sep 09)! due to the cold weather and already having a decent amount of my favoured robustos, i opted for what ken from friends of habanos would describe as 'kiddy cigars' lol!
my usual practice when i get a box is to inspect them and single out the ugly duckling, the aesthetically less pleasing of the bunch (veiny, split foot, green spotted etc etc) and consume it first!!! i've done this already with both boxes, and this morning, i opted for the trini reyes, a favourite of mine!!!!
on appearance, this particular cigar had very little wrong with it, apart from a couple of green spots! construction was typical of the trinidad, perfect, well rolled with a lovely pigtailed cap! the aroma was very nice, leather, cedar, rich tobacco with a subtle herbal undertone, again typical of trinidad!! after cutting the cap, i took a dry inhale, perfect resistance! right away i got a lovely taste of what was to come.......
after toasting the foot gently with a match (a break from my normal practice of torching it), some wonderful aromas were released! i knew i was on to a winner with this one! the first third was very pleasant, nice clean, rich tasting tobacco, with a subtle herbal/ green tea undertone! wow, this cigar is only around 6 months old and it reminded me of an aged (well, approx 4 year old) monte no. 4 i had last summer on my holidays!!! the transition into the 2nd third was smooth, and the flavours started to pick up! the familiar mild aniseed/ licorice started to surface and make itself known to the rich tobacco/ herbal/ green tea mix already present! through this stage, none of the flavours dominated, they complimented each well, ebbing and flowing against each other!!! the final third all these flavours amplified, again, none in particular dominating!!! what a thoroughly pleasant smoke this was, a perfect burn throughout and never getting too hot, things not normally expected from so young a cigar!!! a reminder, if ever i needed one, that trinidad are one of the best brands habanos sa have and why i regularly have a couple of trinidads in my humidor!!! a perfect smoke!!!
i was half expecting this cigar to show signs of its youth, a bitterness perhaps, signs of ammonia maybe, a poor burn! but no, it burned perfectly, tasted beautiful and smelled magnificant!!! these should be pretty much perfect with another year or two on them, but with them being this good now, i can't imagine them lasting!!! better get another box asap!!!
one last point, it's a pity that habanos sa don't realize that with trinidad they have a brand that could easy outshine cohiba (imo), if they introduced another couple of sizes (a dalia perhaps?)!!!
appearance, out of 15: 13
smoking characteristics, out of 25: 24
flavour, out of 25: 24
overall impression, out of 35: 32
total, out of 100: 93
all the best,
alex
as a few of you know already, i picked up a couple of small boxes of cigars this week, the cohiba maduro secretos (10 box, use ene 08) and trinidad reyes (12 box, mso sep 09)! due to the cold weather and already having a decent amount of my favoured robustos, i opted for what ken from friends of habanos would describe as 'kiddy cigars' lol!
my usual practice when i get a box is to inspect them and single out the ugly duckling, the aesthetically less pleasing of the bunch (veiny, split foot, green spotted etc etc) and consume it first!!! i've done this already with both boxes, and this morning, i opted for the trini reyes, a favourite of mine!!!!
on appearance, this particular cigar had very little wrong with it, apart from a couple of green spots! construction was typical of the trinidad, perfect, well rolled with a lovely pigtailed cap! the aroma was very nice, leather, cedar, rich tobacco with a subtle herbal undertone, again typical of trinidad!! after cutting the cap, i took a dry inhale, perfect resistance! right away i got a lovely taste of what was to come.......
after toasting the foot gently with a match (a break from my normal practice of torching it), some wonderful aromas were released! i knew i was on to a winner with this one! the first third was very pleasant, nice clean, rich tasting tobacco, with a subtle herbal/ green tea undertone! wow, this cigar is only around 6 months old and it reminded me of an aged (well, approx 4 year old) monte no. 4 i had last summer on my holidays!!! the transition into the 2nd third was smooth, and the flavours started to pick up! the familiar mild aniseed/ licorice started to surface and make itself known to the rich tobacco/ herbal/ green tea mix already present! through this stage, none of the flavours dominated, they complimented each well, ebbing and flowing against each other!!! the final third all these flavours amplified, again, none in particular dominating!!! what a thoroughly pleasant smoke this was, a perfect burn throughout and never getting too hot, things not normally expected from so young a cigar!!! a reminder, if ever i needed one, that trinidad are one of the best brands habanos sa have and why i regularly have a couple of trinidads in my humidor!!! a perfect smoke!!!
i was half expecting this cigar to show signs of its youth, a bitterness perhaps, signs of ammonia maybe, a poor burn! but no, it burned perfectly, tasted beautiful and smelled magnificant!!! these should be pretty much perfect with another year or two on them, but with them being this good now, i can't imagine them lasting!!! better get another box asap!!!
one last point, it's a pity that habanos sa don't realize that with trinidad they have a brand that could easy outshine cohiba (imo), if they introduced another couple of sizes (a dalia perhaps?)!!!
appearance, out of 15: 13
smoking characteristics, out of 25: 24
flavour, out of 25: 24
overall impression, out of 35: 32
total, out of 100: 93
all the best,
alex
Comment