TX Duo Review - Viaje S&B Red Little Boy 2019

[Çnote]

@Capn_Jackson a short one as the elements are inclement. I know we have better on deck, but needs must on the patio.

Gallons of espresso and burnt toast. A delicious saline quality that keeps it refreshing on the back. It somehow continues to ratchet up in strength, these older Viaje still kick hard.

A calm in the eye of the storm, a viscious sweet caramel and cocoa patch, but back to espresso with a touch of burnt cane sugar. Finally mellows into pain grille, charred herbs de Provence, pork skins? Steak tartare? Maybe I'm just hungry. Saline and sezchuan peppercorns on the lips at the nub.

Extremely satisfying but perhaps not entirely enjoyable, some wrapper cracking and wavy burn due to the high heat, humidity, and wind today. Call it an 87+

I'm very curious to see if you like this or not, Viaje from this era has been very polarizing.

[Capn_Jackson]

A slightly mottled dark brown wrapper on this 2019 Skull and Bones Red Little Boy, just shy of maduro territory. Nice barnyard aroma off the stick before I cut it. Cold draw made me think chocolate chip cookie all the way. Nestlé Tollhouse...with the French pronunciation.

Light-up immediately goes toward chocolate cereal, with some crispy crème brûlée edges. Early on there’s also some earthy black pepper, though not enough to call spicy, and some mineral quality ghosting me. Maybe a bit of salted sourdough, but without the dough. The sweetness is somewhere east of baked goods and south of caramel. As things settle in, texture turns syrupy and some dark fruits show up, eventually something close to plum brandy.

The ash was camera shy, and just singing my knee as it fell below the line of my shorts. Feel the burn!

Midpoint brought a lot of coffee and cashew crème. Slight umami flavors as well.. fatty duck or burnt pork ends. Good stuff! Smoking this one on a sweltering afternoon on the back porch, occasionally looking at a lawn that's starting to make some demands of my birthday week schedule. 

Late in the final stages, I drop the cigar like a dunce, and it rolls about two feet away from my propane tank that I forgot to put back on the fire pit, after it was used for a friend’s shrimp boil last night. This cigar almost because explosive. Luckily no fireworks, we’ll save those for the 4th of July, and no damage to the smoke.

The last third picks up some raisin bread, with a little molasses that fit very nicely.

Another great stick from @Çnote. Not subtle in the least, and enough strength to make my eyes a little blurry. Giving it a 90 today.

[Çnote]

👌We are both hungry.