Vegas Robaina Unicos ??? DEC 18 (BGRW)

[Deeg]

Maybe I'll get this one in under the gun.  I can't smoke in my apartment and almost everywhere around me where I can is closed, so I've been living vicariously through the wonderful reviews for this week's competition.  But today after work (yes, I still have to go in every day during the state of emergency despite having literally no work to do once I arrive because, Japan) I trekked to the one cigar lounge that's still open.

In thinking about what to smoke for this theme, I decided to go with a Vegas Robaina because that was the first box of Cubans I ever bought, going on 20 years ago.  Those were Famosos and these Unicos, but the DNA is the same and the brand has always been dear to me.  This is one of a six-pack from 24:24, the second I've fired up.  I feel like I'm getting together with an old friend with Vegas Robaina - that gorgeous chocolate-colored wrapper, which matches the taste profile so well.

Draw is just a hair tight, but loosens up as I smoke down (as is usual with torpedos in my experience).  Chocolate is for certain the dominant theme here - dark chocolate covered espresso beans in fact.  Some earth, that classic VR pure tobacco flavor, and a hint of something like lavender or possibly floral citrus.  There isn't a tremendous evolution to the cigar (Vegas Robaina is not the most complex Habano I know, but the profile is so delicious that I honestly don't want it to evolve that much), which I find is common with VRs - the strength amps up, and a little more dark fruit comes into the equation.  Something like raspberry or even pomegranate, and that note stays with me long after the 75-minute smoking time.  The lingering taste in my mouth from this cigar is among the nicest I've ever known - bittersweet chocolate and coffee, that dark fruit, a bit of almond perhaps.  A wonderful cigar I'd rate around 92/100 and one I really treasure, as my opportunities to smoke are likely to be sporadic for a while.  I feel like the joy of this one might stay with me til the next one even if that's not for a week.