San Cristobal de la Habana El Principe LGR JUN 19 (BPCRW)

[saltbox]

Stored at 62RH, just under 4 months of rest, 1 year 5 months box age. This was one of the first boxes of Cuban short smokes I purchased, so I've gone through quite a few of these and have been very happy with them. I'm a bit surprised at how little attention these get compared to Montecristo, given how comparable the flavor profiles have been (at least to me).

First third: Opens with coffee, cedar, and a light sweetness on finish. The creaminess I expected is notably missing, but over the course of the third it slowly becomes present though nowhere near where I expected. Instead, there's a tannic cedar aspect that remains persistent.

Middle third: Coffee, cedar, molasses, and cream, in descending order of prominence. Caramel appears on the finish towards the end.

Last third: Basically no change, more of the same. Still not as creamy as I expected or hoped.

Overall: This one was a bit more woody and tannic than the others I've smoked from the box. Overall, I've been very pleased by the box but this smoke in particular turned out to be a bit of a disappointment given the prominent cedar and lack of creaminess. 86/100

[NSXCIGAR]

LGR El Principe was a big disappointment for me. RAT is back on track.

[saltbox]

8 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

LGR El Principe was a big disappointment for me. RAT is back on track.

Both are La Corona codes right? So the issue would be more around variation between tobacco harvests? I just had two boxes of LGR DIC 17 land, it'll be interesting to see how they fare.

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, philipl said:

Both are La Corona codes right? So the issue would be  more around variation between tobacco harvests? I just had two boxes of LGR DIC 17 land, it'll be interesting to see how they fare.

Yes, La Corona. Very rare to see San Cristobal rolled elsewhere. And early 17 LGR seemed to be ok. Something happened around mid-17 and the rest of the run til late 19 was off. 

[Odessa]

22 hours ago, philipl said:

Stored at 62RH,

What was the temperature? Thanks.

[saltbox]

Closer to 65F/18.3C when I first received them, pretty consistently 62F/16.7C for the last month.

For what it's worth, I have not noticed any difference in burn or flavor based on temperature variations despite keeping a consistent 62RH using Boveda bags. I've seen PigFish's posts and video and fully recognize the theoretical truth in it, but in practice I at least haven't seen much of a difference. Either the difference is minimal or my palate is too dull to notice but I'm happy with not having to worry about it at all. San Francisco does have reasonably moderate temperatures, though.