Cohiba Robusto Supremo EL 2014 ARG NOV 14 (XNYRC)

[Bucky McSwensen]

Had this one at sunrise while on vacation.  GF was sick and coughing all night.  I wasn’t sleeping.  So I decided to go for a walk.  This was my first one and it was 25 degrees F outside so probably not the best time for venturing into this unicorn but I wanted a treat and am trying live in the moment.  Real light veiny wrapper for an EL but it is still a thing of beauty.

Lit it up and it was rich.  Such a good smoke.  A little bit of that EL chocolate but not as much as others I am used to.  Sweet mellow vanilla and honey with a smooth coffee cream flavor.  This lasts for the ten minutes before the sweet cream drops off and I get a slightly peppery spicy hay.  Dark chocolate comes and goes.  This is a girthy cigar and remains lit as I go for my walk along the water.  Seeing lots of early morning joggers so I feel bad but I am enjoying it too much to care.

Second third gets much more punchy and robust.  Getting deep rich tobacco flavors with a vanilla cocoa after taste.  The retro is all pepper and coffee.  Some slight tunneling and burn issues require a few touch ups and relights.  This messes up the expected flavor transitions but by the midpoint it settles to give me some floral notes and a bit of that sour hay.

Final third is black pepper, burnt coffee, a hint of chocolate and a lot of cedar.  This thing gets tannic towards the nub before exploding on me.  I blame the weather.

I will definitely revisit this stick in more ideal conditions.  It has a ton of potential and is great right now just not worth what I paid yet.  Hoping that some more time down does it wonders as it appears to have a lot of potential.

I value this stick at 40 bucks

Cuba value – 1.44

Cost value – 0.57

[PigFish]

Thanks for sharing. As someone who refers to 'cigar value' a lot, I am curious about how you have derived your numbers. Not to rationalize the valuations mind you, that is personal taste. Rather how you came up with these numbers and what they would mean to another person? Would love to hear about it if not too much to recite.

 -Piggy

[Bucky McSwensen]

38 minutes ago, PigFish said:

Would love to hear about it if not too much to recite.

Not at all a burden!  I used to explain each time then got bored of copy pasting when no one seemed to care.  When a stick is rated 99 that means nothing to me if it cost 140.  If a stick is rated 80 but cost 3 that's a winner in my book.  So I value the sticks at what I would pay at a b&m to get this same experience again without feeling robbed.  I in no way want to pay this much but it is just a fair value to me if I had to put a cost to it.

Then the ratios...

Cuba ratio is my value over the cost on the island (based on that yulblog list).

Cost ratio is what I value it at over what I paid. You can easily determine what I paid here so I'm not hiding it but also not trying to flex a good deal I got or out what a chump I was for over paying.  Sometimes I score sticks for below shelf price whether it's here, or elsewhere.  But as we know a lot of brands le re and discontinued have steep mark ups.  Never gonna find Trini or bhk at shelf price in the wild in my experience.

This lets me and others know if it's worth pursuing.

 

As I said in the other post a recent Hdm pr was amazing hands down magic and also way cheaper.  Not even close to how good this was but for the the value ratio id smoke those all day everyday before I ever reach for this again.  But then again men crave variety so I'll be back in time.

Some of my best value ratios are plmc, party shorts, bbf and Hdm pr.  But I would say the best are still low 90s at best of conventional ratings.  Sir Winston's are a treasure and I love regionals and reservas but they don't live up to the hype as often

Let me know if that makes sense