Montecristo Grand Edmundo [EL10] MOA FEB 10 (XNYRC)

[Meklown]

This was had on Christmas day but only posted today as I was in such a relaxed mood. Jotted down a few tasting notes on the notepad on my phone but only waited till today to put it properly in words.

The last time I had a Montecristo GE was possibly more than 4-5 years ago (I don't remember). When I first started this hobby around 2012, I was attracted to the allure of the ELs as I wanted some collectibles. The first two boxes of ELs I bought (together) was the Monte GE and the Cohiba 1966. Both turned out to be absolutely spectacular smokes (and still feature in my top 5 until today). I went through 3-4 sticks from each box very quickly, but fortunately I decided that I was committing infanticide so I stopped and duly put the others into deep stash.

The stick for this Christmas however, was a second box of the GE that I picked up on FOHauctions back in May. This is the first stick I've had from this box.

The wrapper on this stick looks a little out of the ordinary. It seems like there had been some plume on the stick a while ago, but in fact the cigar seems rather dry. 
Cold draw: Cocoa and Nutmeg
First third: Starts off with dark cocoa powder. That's a Monte done right! The draw is right about perfect, cigar is indeed a little dry, but does not affect the smoke in any way. Not far in there are notes of malted cereal and Horlicks (the drink). There are also hints of espresso and orange peel.
Second third: More of the same in terms of cocoa powder. The cereal started to take a back seat and there are some notes of cinnamon popping up occasionally. There are also some flavours of peat which is possibly my favourite flavour from a Scotch. The mouthfeel of the cigar seems to be a little dry on the palate.
Third third: The espresso flavours come back with a bang and goes straight up alongside the cocoa now. The cigar also becomes quite a bit sweeter, similar to burnt caramel. The malted cereal now starts to taste a little burnt. There is also taste of browned butter. Towards the very end the caramel starts to taste less burnt but rather sweeter.
Smoke time was marginally over 90 minutes. The burn of the cigar was fine throughout, except for the wrapper which did burn evenly, and did not want to burn on one side. However, I did not touch it up once and it always corrected itself. This tells me that everything inside was actually burning evenly.

Overall a fantastic smoke, delivered everything that could be expected of a Monte. When I had it young, from memory I felt like the cigar was a thick, luscious bar of dark chocolate. Comparatively, both the 80 Anniversario and the EL16 still has some ways to catch up. They also don't have the same density of chocolate the GE had when it was young. Here's hoping they mature well, may not have to be in the exact same direction but hopefully something equally good!

Score: A more than perfect 91/100. I had it on 92 but had to dock a point for the slightly less than perfect wrapper, even if it continually corrected itself.

[teamrandr]

Great review also a great view!