Apr/May Reverse Blind Cigar

[Çnote]

I'm a lucky boy, I have a couple boxes of loose singles. This was on top after a quick but necessary reorg. Thanks @Rushman 99% sure it's from you.

A robusto, 50x124mm in CCW. Channeling my inner Halfwheel & breaking out the calipers, I get a diameter of 20mm and a length of 120mm. Hmmmm. Kindergarten graduate. Hmmmm.....

V-cut. Cold draw, raw meringue, toasty tobacco.

1st puff, savory sour orange laced treacle. I am reminded of dropping the pedal to the floor in a Maserati. This is all over the freeway, fast. I'm setting this down every puff and typing words. Velvet, volnay, cashew-cocoa nips-herb butter (no garlic)

It's smooth enough to demand retrohaling, but the nose is all toasted tobacco and the palate is heavy cream sauce with baking spice and peanuts? Snickerdoodle? I don't know, I'm an innocent bystander on this one. I'm a quarter inch in and I'm already exhausted. I could have just smoked a Viaje and enjoyed it quietly, but no, let's smoke a blind Cuban for review.

Duck Fat & Caramel. I started Ryze this morning and this tastes like the cocoa mushroom powder smells right when you add the heat, but before the water incorporates. Getting to about 1/2 inch, it drips Irish butter, flaked salt, cremini mushrooms and balsamic sweetness. One puff too many and this veers hard into pan grille and herbs de Provence in olive oil. Cooling down and approaching the end of 1st3rd, sweet milk tea becomes the vibe.

Construction is great, ash fall happens at a shade over an inch, naturally midpuff so I'm covered in hot powder and the bands go off the rail of the balcony. Bougiest litter possible.

Milk tea progesses into cinnamon roll latte with double cream. It's sickeningly intense. I want to curl into this and nap. The flavors lighten into Cointreau and light roast, losing the creme but ratcheting up in intensity (again). My mouth hurts, so good.

We're at halfway.

Light toast, tobacco, marshmellow, orange zest. Velvet satin texture. This is a wild ride. Lip numbing like hotpot. Really just incredible, and finally settling down to where 3 or 4 puffs in a row are in the same zone. Getting to end of 2nd3rd, hazelnut nougat, Cadbury honey crisp, lashes of noisette butter. There's a Vietnamese dish of grilled shrimp pate on sugar cane cores; the same interplay of sweet and savory, definitely that burnt toasty raw sugarcane here, maybe even the unami fish sauce, love to hate it.

The 3rd starts into marzipan and espresso. Digestive biscuits and crystal ginger. The Cuban twang is in full force now, all burnt orange peel; Grand Marnier Quintessence pre-Campari. Toasted marshmallow, iles flottant.

Getting to the nub, rich but slightly bitter mocha, still driving a windup orange down down a busy street, dodging pedestrians and market booths. I have to remember to back off and slow down. It's so rich it's nauseating. Creme caramel and orange oil squeezed into flames. I get the hiccups from constantly retrohaling. This flips one more time back to the opening, mushroom duxelle cooked low and slow into syrup, salty butter and savory-sweet, with a burst of nutmeg and baked apples at the fingerburning zone. I'm committed to take this all the way down to nothing. Golden treacle and baking spices, lashes of marshmallow, wisps of white peppercorn.

Maybe the best non-Cohiba I've had. Certainly the best cigar this year, maybe since 2022. I was going to do a Duo cigar after this, but I need a nap, or at least strong drink, my apologies to @Capn_Jackson

Good luck!

[Capn_Jackson]

10 minutes ago, Çnote said:

Bougiest litter possible.

😆

[Capn_Jackson]

It would be unfair of me to reveal it. Yes, it came from @Rushman and yes, it was stupendous.

[rcarlson]

BRC

[cigaraholic]

JL2

[Çnote]

I'm not a fan of chasing REs, but this blew me away.