Cohiba Siglo I TRU MAY 19 (CCRW)

[Shatner's Bassoon]

This is my first Siglo I; I’m not a big fan of this vitola, but Cohiba is a favourite marca of mine. Let’s see. Construction is excellent; the wrapper is dark colorado with a lovely sheen. Normally I find all cold draws are more or less the same, but here there’s a real note of lemon tea, and the draw is perfect.

The first inch isn’t great for me: there’s a quite overwhelming pepper and spice, particularly through the retrohale. After the first inch, the cigar calms down. Notes of grass/hay, citrus, and a sweetness appear, although at first they’re still masked somewhat by the pepper. These flavours gradually edge out the pepper as the cigar develops, and later on there’s a lovely, bracing citrus which I associate with a really good Monte 1 or 3. This is a really sharp note, almost sherbet like. As for the other flavours, they’re a bit muddled; I think this is what more experienced smokers mean when they say a cigar needs more time for flavours to develop. A slightly tannic lemon tea appears right at the end.

This was a 40 minute smoke, and exhibited some classic Cohiba flavours, but in my opinion probably needs time. I’ll come back to this box in a few months. It was good but not great at this stage; I suspect there’s considerable potential here. I’ve marked it down for the overwhelmingly peppery opening, but it still gets an 88 from me. I look forward to trying it again in due course.