Cohiba Talisman 17 or 18 (MPRW)

[NSXCIGAR]

Gift from a generous BOTL last year. Decided to go for it.

Not the best looking example. Draw fairly loose. Cigar a bit on the softer side.

Starts out decent. Sweetness and tobacco. Lots of flavor, just not sure exactly what it is yet...

2nd third: really no change in flavors. Rich, but in an odd, unidentifiable way. Construction and burn aren't great. Constant running and relights. 

Final third: Really no changes at all. In fact, things may have gotten more confusing. As odd as this sounds, it's like a generic "very good" CC. Like the best custom I've had. I think I would need to smoke about 3-5 more of these to really figure out what I'm tasting. It's like they just jammed a ton of high-quality seco in this with no mind to blend or brand. 

So, I would have to score this Talisman around 92-93. Construction wasn't good and burn probably made me smoke this faster than I would have otherwise possibly affecting flavor. With more experience with this cigar and better construction this could easily get to 95 points. Not sure if it could get higher without serious age but the raw richness could develop into something really great at some point.

[KavalanWhisky]

Totally agree, I was a little confused during the first third and the last 2/3rds were great but mainly just a good CC smoke.  Will have to try some more at a later date as they are far too expensive in my mind to smoke often but the next one i want to try it against is the 2019 blends.

 

[Kaptain Karl]

I love the way you explained the “flavors”. That happens to me pretty frequently as well! 

[NSXCIGAR]

18 minutes ago, Kaptain Karl said:

I love the way you explained the “flavors”. That happens to me pretty frequently as well! 

Or lack thereof, in this case! 

Again, assuming they're all like this, I honestly don't think this cigar was blended. I didn't taste much if any ligero. The strength was 2.5/5. It tasted like it was loaded with top tier seco from the same batch. One sided but super high quality. You can stuff an awful lot of seco in a 54 RG, and they did. And while it was good to be sure, it did get a bit boring by the last third.

Now, this was not a 19 and I have heard 19-20 are superior to prior runs.

[Meklown]

I find that "meld" of flavours happen quite often with several higher-end cigars. Usually a long time down will do those cigars good, the flavours seem to sort themselves out. I remember thinking that about the 1966 when I got it just after release, and after a number of years (last had one in 2018), it really blossomed into something excellent.