Trinidad Fundadores AEM MAR 15 : TVR Weekend Review Comp

[Wailbait]

Long time lurker, first time writer.  Wonderful review idea because I was planning on smoking this Fundadores anyway.  I recently purchased a 24 box of the ARS Fundis, but a friend gave me a lovely one with a couple years age.

Sat down with the cigar and a nice Manhattan.  Pre light had wonderful peach/nectarine aromatics.  My hunch is some benzaldehyde because I also smelled it from the smoke over the course of time.  

First quarter was light and orchard like.  A lot of fruit. Interestingly wasn’t grassy at all which is a flavor I have come to expect from excellent medium bodied Cuban Cigars.  Extremely refined though.  Perfect draw.  

Second quarter, many of the flavors faded.  I call it the “indostinct earthy funk.”  Lasted about an inch worth.  

Given that the flavor was pretty light and fruity, we decided to make a martini (4:1 Beefeater to Noilly Prat) to see if the flavors would match up better than the oaky and berry forward Manhattan.  It was a good match.  

The third quarter saw the start of chocolate and brown rice flavors, which were both subtle.  Again, I believe the martini may have coaxed this better than the Manhattan. 

The last quarter was an incredible finale.  Like a symphony resolving, many of the first fruity notes reappeared with an added greenness that reminded me of fig leaves and olives.  An incredible end.  Also, I don’t put olives in a martini (just a twist) so it was doubly fun to have that flavor appear.  A wonderful cigar.  (Sad my pictures appear to be rotated 90 degrees...)  thanks for the chance to do my first review!

[Sean3]

Well done, thanks for the review.

[TheMonk]

Nice review!

[alloy]

Nice review! I have 8 Funds left from 2015. Both I have smoked were just like this. An incredible adventure!

[Wailbait]

This cigar was a lot of fun in that it really took a ride and disclosed a lot of flavors.  Perfectly typified why we do this.  There are always surprises ahead.  The fact that construction and draw were spot on only added to the adventure.

[JohnS]

Thanks for the review. I love the drinks you paired with it!

[Bagman]

For future reference, right click your image on your computer and you can select rotate image.  It will automatically save when you do that.   

Thanks for the review