Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo de Rio Seco SOR ENE 20 (MRDRW)

[saltbox]

This was actually the first of the vitola for me, but I was excited about it given how much praise it's gotten recently and it has been cited as a dependable smoke by others, including in the 2020 thread so I thought I'd give one a shot. This was a box of 10 I picked up from another vendor early on, before discovering FOH, and immediately found that two cigars in the box had bulbous heads with big splits in the wrapper and labels that were holding on for dear life. I tried applying a bit of cigar glue to see if I could salvage it and see how the smoke went.

First third: Puffing on this thing is like sucking on rebar. Can barely get any wisps of smoke, but what smoke I get out of this carries some great sweet cream and ginger spice.

Middle third: Obscenely plugged. I'm getting light headed. The ginger spice has picked up a bit, but it's hard to tell if it's because of the cigar's evolution or just my nonstop puffing trying to save this thing in between PerfecDraw stabs.

Last third: As I reach the band, the wrapper explodes and the cigar basically self destructs. The cigar was just ridiculously overstuffed near the head, and with the expansion from the heat and tobacco I would estimate the width of the lit end is close to that of a 70rg cigar. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the monstrosity because I was so fed up with it.

Overall: This was my first Hoyo, a marca I haven't purchased much of yet given fears that it would be too light for me. What flavor I was able to get was actually fantastic, incredibly decadent sweet cream and ginger spice. One of the reasons I chose to smoke this was to test it out in preparation for the HQ box scheduled to appear later this week on 24:24, and I've convinced myself to go for it, as I can only imagine how much better a properly inspected box will be. Not worth giving this one a score, and I ended up smoking the Monte 4 right after to salvage the night's smoking.

I went back and took a picture of the remaining cigar that has a similar split in the wrapper. I'd hate to toss it, but I also don't feel the masochistic urge to subject myself to it. This one doesn't look quite as egregious, so maybe one day I'll work up the courage.