Trinidad Esmeralda SOR MAY 20 (SNOWRW)

[Meklown]

Since the announcement of the (recent) new Trinidad releases, I've been wanting to get my paws on all of them. However, due to availability, and prioritisation of cigar funds, I only managed to snag a box of the essies this year - on the very first 24:24 of 2021! Finally I would get the last of the Trinidads that I was missing. 

Right, I know you must be thinking that this hasn't gotten the 30 day rest it deserves, but my personal experience buying from FOH is that it isn't too bad smoking ROTT as the transit time from aussie to here (Hong Kong) takes less than a week on 90+% of shipments that I've received.

Though I didn't intend to smoke it so soon, this review theme coupled with the fact that I actually don't have much inventory that "have a few years on them" sort of pushed me to smoke this. I'm still building up my aging stock and sticking to young boxes for now. 

The box looked beautiful. It smelt great. I picked one out - pre draw was butter and cookie dough. 

Upon lighting, first third was very much cookie-like. Flour, butter, sugar, eggs, in a nice batter. Reminded me of the La Trova at this point. 

Towards the second third, the cookie batter had some chocolate chips added to them. The texture was velvety. I much prefer this over the dry baking chocolate that some other cigars present. The cookies were then placed in the oven and baked to a light char. Brilliant evolution. 

Unfortunately, in the last third, the cigar petered out. All the aforementioned flavors were still present but it got muddled. Could be youth, could be a lack of rest, could be a build up of moisture. Probably a bit of each. 

A very good cigar overall. Burn was good throughout, no touchups required and slight unevenness always corrected itself. Score based on the smoke: 86/100. If the final third sorts itself out, I can see this being a 90 pointer or more. Smoke now or wait score: a resounding wait, obviously.

Now having sampled all the new releases, I do agree that all of them are great quality releases. It's difficult to rank them as they are quite different propositions but I've certainly enjoyed all of them so far.

[Chucko8]

Nice review mate. They will definitely get better with a bit of time down from my experience with this one

[Shrimpchips]

Nice review - can’t wait to get my hands on some myself.

[Bosco42]

Nice review.  I just got my box last week.  I think I'll let it sleep

[MMarbs]

On 1/25/2021 at 6:45 AM, Meklown said:

Upon lighting, first third was very much cookie-like. 

Yep, I get that cookie dough quality in almost all of the Triniad vitolas. It's one of the reasons why Trinidad is one of my 3 favorite Cuban marcas.

[Meklown]

3 hours ago, MMarbs said:

Yep, I get that cookie dough quality in almost all of the Triniad vitolas. It's one of the reasons why Trinidad is one of my 3 favorite Cuban marcas.

Yes and I notice it more in the new releases compared to the Colo or Reyes. They are all really good, though with the lighter body / more nuanced taste, may not be able to follow a heavy meal