COHIBA ESPLENDIDO MRA JUL 11

[Jnaube]

After a couple of days pondering on what should be thesubject of my next review, I stopped my choice on a Cohiba Esplendido. SinceRob's dog was named Cohiba I think it's more than appropriate to honor hismemory with a cigar sharing the same name. Cohiba (and Rob), this one's foryou!

This particular cigar comes from a box I just received fromCuba, Box Code MRA JUL11. For the occasion, I also drank a Cuban rhum,Buccanero, sold for around 3 Cucs in Cuba. The mix was perfect.

As you can see in the pictures, the construction was impeccable, the foot of the cigar was really a thing of beauty. Wrapper wasalmost vein free with a medium pale brown color.

Needless to say smell of this stick was amazing. Not evenlit, it revealed aromas of brown sugar, caramel, toffee, classic Cohiba.

FIRST THIRD

The minute I lighted this gentle monster I was amazed by theamount of smoke generated by it. At first, I detected a slight bitterness inthe cigar but it was rapidly overpowered by layers and layers of flavours.

Aromas of sugar cane, brown sugar and molasses were thefirst things I tasted, flavours that blended perfectly with the rhum I wasdrinking.

Curiously, I also found some earthy notes and some leatherbut those disappeared rapidly and gave their place to toffee, burnt caramel,salt water and some kind of latté aroma. A great first third. Ash was almost white and really solidly attached to the cigar. The pull was also perfect.

SECOND THIRD

The second third picked up right where the first ended. Thecigar was rich in subtle taste if you see what I mean.

Hints of cream appeared in my palate followed by expressoand freshly grinded coffee beans. I alsofound some toffee notes, followed by caramel, salt, milk and even cookie doughand coconut accents.

Note: at this point, I was trying to break my record forlong lasting ash and it fell on me. Well, at least I tried. Still, mycigar was on cruise control, burn was even and I was in heaven.

LAST THIRD

I was expecting the last third of my cigar to be somewhatstronger than what it previously was but, for some reason, it stayed reallysmooth.

The bitterness I tasted in the first third came back but notenough to be dominant. At this point, I took a great picture of the ash of gthe cigar. For the beginners, you really can see the color of the ash depending on the type of leaves used. It's really nice. I think it's the first time I see something like that.

Flavors at this point were in the range of burnt caramel,Spanish cedar, oolong tea (!!!). The amount of smoke generated by my cigar wasstill enormous but the speed at which it burned was relatively slow.

Near the final puffs, I found some wet wood, autums leavesflavours but that didn't last really long.

Conclusion, a great cigar that will reach his full potentialin a couple of years. To all of you FOH'ers, I wish a great day. For all you Cohiba lovers, I took some ring pictures, you cas easily use them as wallpapers for your computers.

[cottierm]

Thanks for the review and the picks Jean-Nicholas. When the Esplendidos are on they are heavenly good indeed.

Best,

Michel

[bolivr]

Terrific review, thanks!!

[phoenix]

WOW!

[Jnaube]

1340677854[/url]' post='318249']

WOW!

Thanks Wes... It truly was a good cigar. Now, the most difficult part will be to forget them for a year or so.

[cckandb24]

what kind of lens are you using there. Those pics are incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cckandb24]

BTW, the Beaver's gonna get you for all those giant photos

[NMJoe]

Great macro work and DOF. The review was also good!

[Jnaube]

1340677854[/url]' post='318249']

WOW!

Thanks Wes... It truly was a good cigar. Now, the most difficult part will be to forget them for a year or so.

[Jnaube]

1340683205[/url]' post='318268']

BTW, the Beaver's gonna get you for all those giant photos

Using canon 24-70 2.8 plus some macro rings fort the close shots.

[CaptainQuintero]

Fantastic! Love the pics, making me crave one now!

[winelover]

Fantastic pics and thanks for the reivew.

I found it hard to download such large pictures, my Blackberry was having none of it, and my desk top PC at work (v. fast connection) shuddered as each picture found the screen - which by the way only showed half of them because of the software automatically shrinking them. Would you lose much if you shrunk the kb size of the pics next time?

Thanks

Graham

[Jnaube]

Would you believe me if i said that these pictures were all reduced to the max with photoshop. They were all saved for web. the problem I have is that even with the smallest quality possible, my kodak still takes very heavy pictures. The we originally 9mo each

[Jnaube]

Not that rare. But I agree with you that the more they age, the better they get.