My first CC review: Juan Lopez Seleccion no.2

[Disburden]

I am fairly new to the Cuban Cigar world since I only received my first Czar purchase only four weeks ago so this is only my second CC in general. The first, which I should have reviewed but didn't, was a Bolivar Corona which I thoroughly enjoyed although young. Lisa was kind enough to send me a fairly large Robusto sampler as my first purchase and two of these JL no2s were included in the sampler. I apologize for the bad pictures as they were taken with my Droid cell phone.

Lets give it a go, shall we?

Construction:

Very nice smooth wrapper, no real veins popping out to shock me, nice oil on the wrapper.

Cold the cigar smelt like a bunch of grass and maybe a hint of earth with it, but still very grassy. After cutting the cigar tasted of peanut or cashews with grass. Smelling through the foot had a cocoa hint to it although not that much.

Opening:

Tastes of tobacco, pepper on the tongue, some cream which I was very excited about, and of course grass (Which is a new thing I have found cubans have and I love this flavor note). Lit up nicely too, is near medium in body, seems like a pleasant start!

The First Third:

A nice even burn through the first third with no issues whatsoever, maybe a little tilt at the end, no big deal. This would change in the second third though. A lot of grass and cream on the tongue with pepper punches through the nose, the way I like it. Straight into medium and maybe a touch of full when through the nose, which is something I do a lot of when enjoying a cigar. Towards the end of the first third I was hoping for some flavor surprises but everything stayed with the grass and cream flavors and tobacco.

Second Third:

In the second third is when I had some issues with the cigar. One thing that was odd was the smoke output had decreased a lot, there was just less smoke coming out even though the draw wasn't tight. Since the smoke output had gone weaker on me so did the pepper on the tongue and through the nose. The body of the smoke changing also lead to less cream on the palette and a shorter finish that what I was getting earlier. Towards the middle of this third the cigar went completely out on me and I had to tap ash off, let it cool a little, and then do a relight. Flavors went to more of a earth note and less of everything else I had before. Ash did hold nicely without falling off though.

*At this point I am somewhat disappointed in this Cuban cigar. I was expecting something more when I had the first third and enjoyed the creaminess of the smoke. The fact that it died on me wasn't pleasing to me neither.

Final Third:

Flavors at this point in the game were pretty much stuck on the Earthy tobacco side and far away from the grass, hay, and cream I had before. Those flavors were pretty much memories for me now. I actually think this cigar just gave up in showing me something special about twenty minutes into the thing. It's sad really, I wanted this to be great, I know a lot of guys like these. The body of smoke was so light that I thought maybe the cigar went out on me again for the last leg but it didn't. There was just no body left to the smoke and the texture was gone with it. Pepper is gone through the nose. Just dead flavors that seemed actually NON Cuban.

My final thoughts on this cigar would be that I am not a fan of them. I admit now these came in a sampler and that I don't know a year or box code for them and they are probably horribly young. What the shame of it is is that this cigar showed me so much about Cuban cigars in the opening and teased me into being excited. It then took all of those things away from me shortly after like empty promises from a dead beat dad on Christmas Eve. When all the flavors died I felt like I was smoking a non-Cuban cigar I would buy online last year and think nothing of even though it was a NC cigar. If those cream notes had blossomed and showed me something more extreme into the second and third thirds I would've thought about getting more of these, I liked that part of it very much.

Overall Rating....

86!

[dochowl]

Great review... and much like my personal experiences with that cigar. Not one of my favorite robustos. That said, I am a big fan of the JL #1, which is a corona gorda. Night and day difference to me.

Keep up the good work.

[Disburden]

Great review... and much like my personal experiences with that cigar. Not one of my favorite robustos. That said, I am a big fan of the JL #1, which is a corona gorda. Night and day difference to me.

Keep up the good work.

Just overall disappointing but at least I know now that I can smoke the other one in my humidor and not feel bad about wasting it! The Bolivar Corona I had though....those I would get a box of.

[mbrody]

Just overall disappointing but at least I know now that I can smoke the other one in my humidor and not feel bad about wasting it! The Bolivar Corona I had though....those I would get a box of.

Disburden, Thanks for leading me to the straight razor hobby which I will take up soon enough. Welcome to the wonderful world of habanos. Do not smoke the other JL2. Instead, bury it deep inside your humidor and take it out about 8 months to a year from now. The longer the better. As you build a collection, you will find that the aclimation of one Marque may need more time than another. All samples will drastically improve in 6 month time for stabilization. You will also note that sometimes you just get a bad box. My experience and advice is to NEVER judge one Marque on one sample, and especially so with only one month of rest. I learned that lesson over time. Always be open minded and be patient. The rewards can be fantastic and your opinion can change very quickly. It just stinks not having that instant satisfaction, but it is worth the wait. Good luck on your adventure!

[Habanakane21]

Very nice review. Keep up the great work!

[Disburden]

Thanks for your words of wisdom. I understand that it was a young sample but waiting seems like torture! I will take your advice and bury the other one, thanks! When you need help with the straight razors let me know, I am a pm away.

Disburden, Thanks for leading me to the straight razor hobby which I will take up soon enough. Welcome to the wonderful world of habanos. Do not smoke the other JL2. Instead, bury it deep inside your humidor and take it out about 8 months to a year from now. The longer the better. As you build a collection, you will find that the aclimation of one Marque may need more time than another. All samples will drastically improve in 6 month time for stabilization. You will also note that sometimes you just get a bad box. My experience and advice is to NEVER judge one Marque on one sample, and especially so with only one month of rest. I learned that lesson over time. Always be open minded and be patient. The rewards can be fantastic and your opinion can change very quickly. It just stinks not having that instant satisfaction, but it is worth the wait. Good luck on your adventure!

[thechenman]

Disburden...mbrody gave you some good advice. It's exactly what I do. If I'm trying a new cigar, and don't like it, I will stash the rest away for 6 months to a year and revisit them to see if they have evolved into something I could appreciate. Does not always happen, but it does from time to time. That said...I have not been a big fan of the Juan Lopez marca, but like Dochowl...I prefer the JL1 to the JL2. Nice review by the way. Looks like you are off to a great start.

[laficion]

Disburden,

Great review and the pics were not THAT bad bravo !!!!

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Just one thing I would like to add to all the great advice that was given by mbrody & thechenman.

The Habano road is a long road indeed, of course, like a lot of roads, it will have some cracks and holes and

along the way, you may drive on a few small stones and get a flat but, If you follow the road with passion

you'll never want to turn back and I'm sure that later, you'll look back and say that it was the most fantastic

road you've ever been on in your life.

Enjoy the ride l'ami, Ciao.

[LeafLover]

Nice review. Try JL#1. Corona gorda, stronger in flavors than the #2 and the PC IMO.

[Wicky]

I get your non cuban take Dis. Halfway through my first box of these and I admit they are stand alone different, but definitly not NC.

More like NC x 2. If that makes sense?

[Habanakane21]

nicely done!!!!!

[Charltonc]

Any time I review a cigar, I smoke at least three of them, unless the first two are horrible. I cannot give an honest opinion of something until I smoke a few.

[Disburden]

Any time I review a cigar, I smoke at least three of them, unless the first two are horrible. I cannot give an honest opinion of something until I smoke a few.

This seems like a very good idea, the only thing is, with my finanical situation right now I only have a two of each sampler in my humidor from Lisa so I can't have more than two of them to post a review!

I am probably going to break down and get a box soon, I am trying to figure out what to pick...

Trinidad Coloniales?

Partagas d4?

Bolivar CE?

Ugh the choices!

[mbrody]

Dis,

Try not to break down until you find something that you really do enjoy. Then by all means, break down! Learned that trying through buying boxes just takes up humidor space! Then when I find stuff I love, I regret the boxes that are "meh."

[Disburden]

Dis,

Try not to break down until you find something that you really do enjoy. Then by all means, break down! Learned that trying through buying boxes just takes up humidor space! Then when I find stuff I love, I regret the boxes that are "meh."

Makes perfect sense to me. Right now the smokes I have liked the most are the Bolivar corona extras, I really liked the body and flavors in those. I just had an Upmann no.2 about a half hour ago and I loved the cream in it but it was very light bodied imo and construction was very soft/spongy.

[CanuckSARTech]

Yup, good call from Mbrody, as is charlton with the need to try multiples of a given vitola before knowing if it's a hit or miss.

If you need, just get sampler after sampler after sampler. I've done it before where I order a sampler, and there's a dozen different cigars, but only one of each (12 different sticks). So, just order multiples of said sampler, and just ask Lisa or your respective retailer to try their best (ask nicely, but it may not be able to be done) to then give you two of each from a same box if possible. That way, you get rid of a bit of variation. Also, usually samplers are pretty fresh/recent, and are not aged stock usually, so you have a generally great idea of the current stock that is then available for you to purchase in a full box.

Samplers are great.

[mbrody]

Then the Boli CE sounds like a good choice.

Do your best to keep trying some singles. Spongy is either construction issue or over humidified. Remember the acclimation period of30 days. It stinks, but I find that 6 months of rest really gives most new additions there best chance to shine...if you can wait!

[Disburden]

I am thinking construction because my humi is at 65 and I have had beads in for several months.

[mbrody]

I am thinking construction because my humi is at 65 and I have had beads in for several months.

If your other smokes are firm, and the #2 was spongy, it might have been underfilled. That can leed to some wonky flavors, burn. However, if the #2 was just added to your humidor, it may have sucked up too much moisture to start before it stabilizes. If you notice that next time, try dry boxing for 24-48 hours before smoking.

BTW, I'm over a week with the Str8. Still can't get a 100% shave (have to finish with the MachIII), but I am enjoying it!

[Disburden]

If your other smokes are firm, and the #2 was spongy, it might have been underfilled. That can leed to some wonky flavors, burn. However, if the #2 was just added to your humidor, it may have sucked up too much moisture to start before it stabilizes. If you notice that next time, try dry boxing for 24-48 hours before smoking.

BTW, I'm over a week with the Str8. Still can't get a 100% shave (have to finish with the MachIII), but I am enjoying it!

I read about dry boxing in the forums a week or two ago and forgot about it, thanks!

Remember to really stretch the skin for the shave, pull the jawline skin way up to your cheeks to help those areas and shave it across the grain, should help!