egross

Just sampled my 2nd one of those. Initially you have to acknowledge these are really nice crafted. Perfect look, nice and tidy roll, great draw - simply a real good looking cigar. So the anticipation build up, how do they taste? In Europe it is still somewhat cooler. Despite some sunny days, not perfect cigar climate. A little to dry even when the sun comes out for a decent tasting. On the other hand, that didn´t bother some of my other favorites. I prefer the thicker sizes with my cigars. The Montechristo Edmundo is a staple in this household. With this in mind I use the opportunity of a nice spring day for a J&R Wide Churchill. As with many first editions of a new Cuban brand, they are look neat, nearly perfect craftsmanship and burn nearly perfectly. Once you lightened one up, it builds up a great expectation of the first taste. The first taste is very mild. Surprisingly mild for a Cuban puro longfiller. The taste has a light sweet aroma, followed by a thick cloud of smoke. Normally the good way to start. Although here I am missing some sort of character I would remember. I didn´t get the marzipan, which is mentioned before, maybe a hint of sugarish caramel. The first third just burns down with nothing to complain.. but the lack of taste. That is disappointing. Since the cigar is not that long I expected a distinctive taste in the beginning... but still have a hard time to recognize. And it is only downhill from there. An appealing taste doesn´t build up. The first I had with a fruity, very balanced red whine. that didn´t work. The second I tried with a rich white wine, a great German Riesling - still not working. The switch to a fine cognac made it somewhat better, but I still search for "the" taste to describe... So in the end, I am unsure what good to say about his cigar. Although it made a great impression it lacks in taste - significantly. I cannot come up with an occasion I would like to have one again. Maybe accompanied by a great cognac on the porch it get´s more justice. But then, in this setting I would prefer a somewhat stronger Edmundo or Saint Luis Ray Double Corona. Maybe I should try this in comparison to an equally mild Hoyo Epicure No.2. I am not sure about that. But right now it is not clear to me, what the intentions of their maker where. I should have another one or two in SE Asia next week, to complete the picture. But right now, I am not impressed at all. If the quality of the craft is decreasing, like most of the Cuban brands do with the second and third batches, the truth will be told. Until then I cannot really recommend this cigar. So far, my first and second impression it is a cigar with a great body, nearly perfectly made, really good looking... but with a distinctive lack in taste. Not really worth the money in comparison to other comparable formats of Cuban brands. Sorry for that.

The review was quite interesting for me, since I got my last batch of epicures No2 a few months ago from you and was disappointed about their taste. This result came to me as a little shock since the Epicure No2 was my favorite light smoke to begin a day with or in the evenening between meals. The great memory of those days in Havanna where i regulary started with a nice drink and one of those babies was strongly anchored into my system.... and with these memories the esteem for this cigar. Back to this spcial delivery... since it might possible we tried the same or a simular batch of cigars, I got suspicious if maybe there is something wrong with them. In the beginning I was thinking maybe the cigars froze during the transportaion to germany via plane and lost their taste with that. After a while in my big humidor there got somwhat of flavour back.... but nothing from wich I recall and loved. I am going to get me some of those at my local retailer here im munich and have to compare. I´m curious to know if it was just a bad batch or the quality of HdM has gotten that bad in generell. btw: Much worse where the deviant quality of the Romeo y Julieta Exhibition No 4 of the same order... initially I thought of the same reason (froze during air-transportation) and just discovered your recent horrible review of this. Now I am undecicive and are thinking that I have to do a comparison for these two.... otherwise I´m condemned to find alternatives. For a matter of fact, those cigars stayed barely touched in my humidor, while other brands came and went to fulfill their destiny making my happy