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This was my first cuban but I did my best to temper my excitement and pretend like I was smoking an unknown cigar.
The pre-light nose was barnyard-ish and the foot smelled a little sweet. I tried a new-to-me lighting technique whereby the toast and light are done before the cigar is clipped. This put off a wonderfully sweet smell of sweetness (honey?) and tobacco. The smell was so great that my smoking buddy walked around the side of the house into the back yard and instantly stopped and said "that smells amazing!".
The first few draws were fantastic. It was sweet and light and from the word "go" the cigar put off a lot of smoke (which I really liked!). There was also what I can only assume is that fabled "cuban twang". It hit me in the back of the mouth (almost where citric acid does) and isn't anything I'd ever tasted in a cigar before. The cigar maintained flavors of honey and baked bread for the first third.
In the second third there was a a little bit of sweet, twangy tobacco, and a salty taste and the cigar became a tad bitter just before the final third ... but it wasn't too off-putting. It was noticeably less sweet at this point too.
The final third digressed into bitterness but I nubbed it anyway. It was bitter but strangely bitter in that I wasn't completely put off by it until the very death of it.
The construction was fine. It wasn't soft but wasn't terribly firm. No real blemishes to speak of either. I had a few burn issues, in that i had to touch up a few times, but otherwise the cigar burned well. The ash was a medium grey and flaky.
From everything I've read the gradual turn to bitterness indicates that it's a young cuban and so i'm looking forward to revisiting this stick after another six months or so in the humidor.
The pre-light nose was barnyard-ish and the foot smelled a little sweet. I tried a new-to-me lighting technique whereby the toast and light are done before the cigar is clipped. This put off a wonderfully sweet smell of sweetness (honey?) and tobacco. The smell was so great that my smoking buddy walked around the side of the house into the back yard and instantly stopped and said "that smells amazing!".
The first few draws were fantastic. It was sweet and light and from the word "go" the cigar put off a lot of smoke (which I really liked!). There was also what I can only assume is that fabled "cuban twang". It hit me in the back of the mouth (almost where citric acid does) and isn't anything I'd ever tasted in a cigar before. The cigar maintained flavors of honey and baked bread for the first third.
In the second third there was a a little bit of sweet, twangy tobacco, and a salty taste and the cigar became a tad bitter just before the final third ... but it wasn't too off-putting. It was noticeably less sweet at this point too.
The final third digressed into bitterness but I nubbed it anyway. It was bitter but strangely bitter in that I wasn't completely put off by it until the very death of it.
The construction was fine. It wasn't soft but wasn't terribly firm. No real blemishes to speak of either. I had a few burn issues, in that i had to touch up a few times, but otherwise the cigar burned well. The ash was a medium grey and flaky.
From everything I've read the gradual turn to bitterness indicates that it's a young cuban and so i'm looking forward to revisiting this stick after another six months or so in the humidor.
The aroma is worthy of mention. I have only had a few non-smokers comment, whilst I have smoked the wide range of Havanas & everytime someone commented to me 'that's a lovely smell' did so when I was smoking a Hoyo Epi No2. 
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