HU Magnum 54 (BOP Nov 2017) (HURW)

[Glass Half Full]

Bought this box at a Caricol in Trinidad in 2018.  

Cold draws are almost all cedar.  Hard to place another flavor.  Perhaps my fault for storing it with so much Spanish cedar all around, but I don’t recall that happening with others in the same humi.

1st/3rd  -- Opening draws add a bit of mushroom and earth and, eventually, cedar subsides.  (Not that cedar’s a bad thing; I’d just been worried this would be an entirely one-dimensional experience.)  Retros are “soft leather” with hints of lemon and spice.  I’m hoping that’s where we go with this.

My concern is that I remember loving this cigar in 2019, and I thought age would bring even more love.  Alas, no.  …at least not so far.

I’ve since moved more towards skinny’s in my preferences, though do enjoy variety.  Thinking that maybe age isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

Pairing -- Enjoying a “Bee’s Knees” but made with Hibiki whisky (a favorite that I usually enjoy neat.  It seems almost wrong to mix such a beautiful thing, but I didn’t want too much too early).  A great pallet cleanser, in any event: citrus and honey shine, in a good way.

2nd/3rd -- Now I’m getting to what (to me) is what a large rg cigar is supposed to bring:  Soft, subtle power.  There’s enough tobacco going that it's almost destined to create a uniform (if a bit muddled) delicious flavor.  Retros are almost too “clean” if you will.  It’s like a high note being sustained for as long as you softly exhale, but then there is this nice, deep bass note in the same key.  …And it keeps on, like you can almost feel it in your body (in a good way), …like the end of an organ recital in church (not Bach; this is just simple power in two keys).

In the first 3rd, I felt a need for repeated corrections.  (Could have been user error   …But now all’s well:  while not exactly a “march of dimes,” it’s in a good stride.  It’s very pleasant, not linear but not nuanced.

3rd/3rd -- A bit of a let down for me.  Flavors were fine, but the same as before, almost regressing to the 1st/3rd.  ...It’s kind of like listening to Booker T and the MG's “Green Onions,” except there’s more twang in that song.  Wonderful basis, builds to better, but then, in the end, there's just not a lot of progression.  It pretty much finishes as it started, then just kind of peters out, unremarkably.

IMO, tonight’s cigar is an 85.  Very solid flavors at points but just not “wow” in the way a CC truly can be.   (…And I wish I’d had more of them earlier.

No doubt I’ve offended both some organ aficionados as well as “Booker T and the MG’s” fans.  (Who does that??)  Please keep in mind, these are all just random thoughts as I’m enjoying a cigar.

I think I’m going to light a PC later

All the best,