Juan Lopez Maximos RE Swirzerland

[gersonmorelli]

Yesterday I decided to try my first JL Maximo from a couple of singles I picked up. Not a pleasant looking stick. It's been a long time since I smoked such a harsh cigar from the get go... There were some cedar and floral characters here and there, but the grubbiness and unpleasent harshness made me give up right after the beginning of the last third... I want to believe that this was a bad one and will try the other singles that I have to see if they're better. If this is really what they're all about, I'm not even sure if time sitting in the humidor will fix it.

Has anyone tried these before? Thoughts?

[cigcars]

I'd gotten a 5 pack sampler of these and they weren't bitter at all, yet a tad flavorless, nonetheless

[ewipper]

I have had good experiences with these. In fact, I like their flavor. However, many were underfilled or rolled too tightly.

[gersonmorelli]

Mine was relatively well constructed. It wasn't under or overfilled. The wrapper wasn't the best looking one I've seen, but these were not the problems... The stick was so bitter that I couldn't tell much how were the flavours.

The thing is I am not sure if I left this cigar age for years it would be any good.

[Len]

IMO avoid the RE and EL's, save for the RA Extras and RA CF's.

For JL, i'll take multiple boxes of the 1's, 2's and PC's instead.

[gersonmorelli]

IMO avoid the RE and EL's, save for the RA Extras and RA CF's.

For JL, i'll take multiple boxes of the 1's, 2's and PC's instead.

I completely respect your opinion, but to do such a generalization is unfair to many good RE and EL cigars that were out (including the RA Extras and the RACFs that I'm also a huge fan). But I can think of many other great cigars that were RE or EL and were great (i.e. Cohiba DC EL 2003, Cohiba Piramides EL 2006, HdM Piramides EL 2003, PL Robusto RE Asia Pacifico 2007, Bolivar Legendarios RE Suiza 2008, ... the list goes on and on for me). As it is the case with many regular production cigars, there are good ones and bad ones. And to each their own! But by generalizing that EL and RE should be avoided may restrain yourself from having some very good cigars that may never be available again. Now I do agree that sometimes they're outrageously priced...

[mk05]

Haven't yet had a JL that made think it was a Habano.

[khomeinist]

Then you need to try some aged JL 1s. One of the best regular production cigars.

[gersonmorelli]

The first JL I've had was about 6 years ago a non-aged JL 2, back when they weren't banded. I was really impressed, thoroughly enjoyed it. Since then haven't had many more but decided to try this RE and didn't have a good experience based on this single.