Upmann Connie 1 cigar and drink review

[RDB]

This was pretty much ROTT, and is from a BRE OCT 17 box. I was impatient, having never tried a Connie 1 before, and having just received this HQ box.

Beautiful looking cigar, fully colorado wrapper with excellent construction. I like the Hermoso no.4 vitola very much: just slightly slimmer and longer than a robusto.

Pre-light draw is spot on, and straight off the lit cigar is exactly the trademark dark coffee and sweet biscuit. It’s much spicier than I’d expected though, even after a year. Burn is good despite windy and cool outdoor conditions. Unfortunately the wind makes me smoke this a bit too quick in order to keep it going, and I get quite a nicotine buzz. The more slowly I sip the cigar, the smoother and sweeter the smoke. Too hard and the coffee flavour gets very dark. As it progresses, the flavour becomes deeper and richer, but there’s no dramatic transition.

The drink was unsweetned peppermint tea, which highlighted the flavours but didn’t do much to smooth things out. It would go better with a milder smoke.

Overall conclusion: a very nice cigar, but needing more rest and more age. Plus a quiet indoor space so I can baby it properly. Happy to have a box, and I’ll try another in a few months in better smoking conditions.

(Cross posted to shop reviews)

[BinBin]

Thanks for the review. Gotta dig into mine

[leafdream54]

I'm looking forward to trying one of these from the holiday sampler!

[Raskol]

Nice review... Had one a week back I think. Couldn't agree more with flavors. Thank you.

 

[Markspring1978]

“Unsweetened peppermint tea”, never heard of that, I’ll give it a go.

[unitedfly]

Had one of these last week that was gifted to me, aged 3 yrs. I'll definitely be picking up some boxes of these to sit on!