JL2, OSG SEP ‘23 (FFSDec24)

[Capn_Jackson]

Lighting up a beautiful stick today, from our excellent host. I’ve been rotating through some more recent production occasionally to check how things are going, and also trying to see what I have liked best out of the ‘23/‘24 crop of smokes.

Nothing like a good foot pic, and this one’s a beauty, if you go in for that sort of thing.

The wrapper is a delicious dark brown, mostly smooth with a few veins. Cold draw gives me lots of coffee and hay, with a finish of salted cocoa. On light up, I get loads of sweet tobacco, and some bittersweet orange.

Going on, the first third rotates through coffee and nutty flavors, hard to discern what nut it is, but all is dominated by orange peel. Eventually, that orange peel becomes syrupy, going into Cointreau territory. The finish has the slightest bit of cocoa, and there is quite a bit of spice, strangely tasting like cumin. It’s obvious that this stick has legs for years and years, as there is some “mongrel” (which I never mind), but it is absolutely delicious right now at just over a year. Shortly after lighting, I had to note that it’s been awhile since I’ve had a JL2, that being from an ‘18 box, and it absolutely competes with BBF for my top stick. As I’m noting that, a little creamed corn sneaks its way in. Friggin’ delightful. 

Marzipan. Amaretto. All the almond goodness on top of the orange liqueur. And the mouthfeel…. So syrupy. I alternate between crowning the two every six months or so, but this stick has taken JL2 to the top spot, once again, over BBF. Mother of Moses!! Burn line, too, has been straight as a grizzly’s …. well you know the expression.

Going into the second act, the “sharpness” of cumin has faded, and I’m left with a spice more like coriander.

The second third bring more distinct notes of bright coffee, coupled with cocoa powder and baking spices. Orange is hanging out on the fringes, too, as well as almond paste. Hints of dark caramel on toast. 

At the midpoint I’m taking note that this cigar is simply cycling through all the flavors I’ve noted. More age will certainly bring out complexity in a horizontal way, but this stick seems content not so much to evolve, but rather show me complexity in a vertical sense. Flitting back and forth between all the aforementioned flavors, rather than taking different shapes throughout the smoke. And I am absolutely on board for it. Not so much transitional, as it is rotating.

Last third starts to show its youth, but this smoke is still giving me great pops of flavor. There are lots of edges, elbows starting to show between flavor notes, but that’s to be expected. The corn flavor is becoming more prevalent, but it’s more roasted now, less creamed corn.

The last little bit is dominated by delicious coffee and leather, with some cocoa on the finish and a bit of clove. Beautiful smoking experience, from start to finish. Random Friday, just finished grading papers for my Winter term students, and decided to brave the upper-40’s weather to review a fairly fresh favorite. Turned into one of the better smoking experiences I’ve had recently.

The ongoing battle for my top smoke continues, with JL2 once again edging out my friend the BBF. They are like Chopin and Liszt. Pacino and De Niro.  Manning and Brady. Jordan and James. Hendrix and Page. Bandit Heeler and Hank Hill. Great rivalry going on in my personal cigar world.

Cheers!

[loose_axle]

Great review, thank you!

 

[david9985]

Superb. A lot of what you are getting is familiar to me with both the #1 and the #2. Consistently delicious sticks.