San Cristobal de la Habana La Fuerza - RAT MAY 20 (JBWP4RW)

[saltbox]

Another vitola I haven't tried yet but figured I should to prepare for the blind tasting challenge. Have had quite a few El Principe but none of the La Fuerza yet (or any of the other vitolas). Rested for ~8.5 months at 62RH, 1 year 4 months box age.

First third: opens with cedar and dry chocolate cake. The flavor of the cake note varies between chocolate and not, but it's definitively a dry-ish cake like flavor, and as the first third progresses the chocolate fades and the main flavor of the cigar becomes plain pancake.

Middle third: more of the plain dry pancake note, but some black coffee and brown sugar sweetness appears on the finish.

Last third: more of the same, not much evolution in this cigar.

Overall: the comparison to Padron is really on point. It's got that same dry cake base to the flavor profile, and where Padron (at least the maduros I typically smoke) leans heavily into the chocolate, this one seemed to pick up some brown sugar and coffee. Not bad, but I'll probably smoke this box slowly and see how it evolves before going deeper. 86/100

[Vortigan]

Nicely done! Great photos too. You nailed it with that brown sugar note, lovely isn't it! Two standout flavours for me in recent times have been salted caramel and a velvety creamy peanut butter...bloody marvelous smoke!