HU No.2 GEM ENE 22 (FSCRC)

[gormag38]

Picked these up from our host in the summer. Was thrilled to see them offered as a 1/4 box offering as I wasn't quite ready to commit to a box at the time. These have been resting in the humidor for 4-6 months. Figured at exactly one year since manufacturing date, it was as good of time as any to give them a go. 

1/3

First few draws were pretty tame with minimal flavor; mostly just toasted tobacco. Soon after some toasted bread notes start to emerge, this quickly develops into a toasted graham cracker/roasted sugar tone. This is an amazing flavor that doesn't really remind me of any cigar I've recently had.  The draw is effortless, if anything it is tad underfilled in my opinion. But this does not appear to be impacting the cigar at the moment. 

2/3

The roasted sugar notes remain predominate in this third. Some nuttiness is noted, as well as the no longer evident graham cracker. There's some very slight milk coffee notes that I pick up near the end of this third but they aren't very noticeable. What is noticeable is that this cigar is indeed underfilled. The cigar starts to tunnel and eventually goes out and needs a relight. The smoke output is low for most of this third following the relight. 

3/3

After needing a second relight, the cigar unfortunately loses any sweetness from the roasted sugar/graham cracker notes. Very little nuttiness remains, and the cigar begins to have some leather undertones. It becomes spicy and I suspect there may be a bit of 'tar' rearing its ugly black head. Sure enough, I am correct. (possibly the cold weather? I was outdoors and it was about 30 F) I clip off some more of the cigar in an attempt to save what remains, but the damage has already been done. I give up with about an inch remaining. 

Overall this cigar had some great highs and some depressing lows. The sweetness in the first two thirds was amazing and there was absolutely no rough edges, which is great for a stick that is only a year old. However, the Cuban quality control problems that we have all had experiences with once again reared their ugly head. I firmly believe that if this was a NC stick I would've had an experience worthy of top cigar of 22. 

85/100 (construction issues and a bad last third bumped this down from a low/mid 90's score)