Monte Media Corona OBM NOV 15 : 46 South Review Weekend

[slowsmoke]

I’ve had a 24:24 sampler sitting in my humidor for a little over a week, calling to me.  toledo1969's recent post about his steakhouse experience had me thinking about putting some meat on the smoker this weekend.  Then I saw Presidente’s post about 46 South, and the light bulb went on.  Start the smoker early Sunday morning, and sit down with a coffee and a cigar before the kids get up

So I fired up the smoker at 06:30 this morning, made a small cappuccino to go with my small cigar, and had some very enjoyable “me time.”

I consider myself a novice with cigars, let alone cubans, but here are my thoughts:

I’ll be honest, the wrapper, and overall appearance of the cigar, are not that impressive compared to most of the NC I smoke.  The wrapper had a faint cedar smell (probably from my humidor), and not much else.  The foot smelled a bit like a brownie, or gingerbread, but again very mild.  Construction was hard, with a couple distinct soft spots near the band.

The cold draw was extremely tight, way too tight for my preference.  I used my perfecdraw to ream it just a little.  Before lighting, it tasted a bit like tea biscuits, and maybe a little sweet straw/hay.

First puffs were very bitter espresso and burnt toast.  That quickly disappeared, so I probably just torched it on light up.  The thing is tiny.

First was a sort of sour, maybe citrus, but creamy flavor, which is very new to me.  Similar to the Trinidad Reyes I had last week.  I don’t recall ever getting that with any NC.

About an inch in, definite cocoa/chocolate.  Got excited, maybe this is the Monte cocoa cream bomb I read so much about.  The finish got slightly sweet, and also a bit musty/earthy.  Super nice combo.

Around halfway, a good mocha coffee flavor, not quite bitter or espresso.  A little cream.  Then a dry chocolate cake or brownie, very nice with the now room-temp last sips of cappuccino.

The last inch kicked up in strength a bit.  I am pretty sensitive to nicotine, and I got a little buzz, which surprised me for this little cigar.  The finish seemed to combine all the things I had tasted along the way, coffee, milk or light cream, a slight bitter cocoa, and just plain good tobacco.

Altogether it was just over 40 minutes.  It burned a little wonky at the end where the soft spots were, but never went out or needed a touch up.

Overall thoughts:

I’ve smoked occasional cigars for years, but only recently started enjoying it as a hobby/passion, so I consider myself a novice.  And I am entirely new to the world of Cubans.  This is only my third or fourth CC.  It is my first Monte.  And it is for sure the smallest cigar I have ever smoked!

The draw was way too tight for my preference, but it didn’t bother me as much as it usually would.  I think because it was such a small cigar, I just wasn’t worried about it.  Still, I would have liked it lighter.

What I consider the “finish”, or the lingering flavor in my mouth and sinus after fully expelling the smoke, is the most important part of a cigar to me.  And I immediately noticed that despite the some unfamiliar flavors, I loved the finish on this one.  I had a hard time describing it, it was a bit dry, but it was very good.  I usually only retrohale a tiny bit, too much feels like snorting a line of crushed red pepper to me.  But I probably retrohaled this one more than any I can remember.

Overall, it was very good, really looking forward to the rest of the sampler!

Now the question is, what do I smoke when these are done:  ?

 

[Optic101]

Nice review and smoker