H. Upmann PC (a Foot-in-Mouth™ Review)

[Kingantz]

Great review with nice pics! I especially like that nice punch!

[winelover]

Great pics and I like the bullet point style.

A year or two back I went through a box of Upmann PC's from 98. Very flavourful smokes but just too mild for my liking. I tend to prefer medium to full bodied cigars. Only Upmann's I have really enjoyed and get top marks are a box of Connie no.1's I had from 2000.

[MaltPointer]

H. Upmann Petit Corona (a gift from a friend)

This was a petit corona I had had in the humidor for a few months, and I decided to give it a try, mostly because it was the right size for the occasion (it would be the first cigar I’d smoked since I recovered for a monstrous cold, and I didn’t want to push it), and I wanted to compare it to the H. Upmann Magnum 46 I smoked a few weeks back.

I won’t bury the lede—this smoke didn’t compare favorably at all to that earlier Mag 46. I’ll get into the details as we go.

The aroma at cold was very encouraging . . . sweet and raisin-y. I punched the end, using the Swiss Army cigar punch I’ve seen Greg use so often (I picked it up at Amazon.com, at Greg’s suggestion).

Pre-light draw was more raisin, still sweet . . . quite mild. Draw did seem a bit loose for me. Toasted the foot, fired it up, and away we went.

First third

• The initial (and lasting) taste impression is coffee and cream, with even a bit of sweetness on the lips.

• These are good flavors, but the draw continues to be loose, and the body of the cigar in general is very very mild. I write this in my notes, “not a lot of oomph or mouth-feel.”

• I really feel like I’m doing a lot of work for not much at all . . . smoke is very wispy and even wimpy.

• I keep checking to see if it’s still lit . . . and it is . . . it just isn’t showing me much in the way of presence.

Second third

• Still very bland.

• I write in my journal—“Hitting the same note over and over again . . . and nothing else.”

• Very little complexity . . . still tasting of café con leche, raisins, and sweetness lingering on the lips.

Final third

• Yawn

• More of the same . . . with the feel of a little more body developing.

Net net on this smoke is that it disappointed me greatly. I’ve been wondering ever since if maybe I pushed ahead too soon after the cold . . . maybe it was presenting me with tons of flavor, and I just couldn’t get them? But the overall body/mouth-feel/oomph issues were still bothersome, independent of flavor. Frankly, I might have enjoyed the stick more if the overall flavor levels had been the same, but the body and presence had been improved.

I dunno . . . I’m thinking out loud on this one, since I’m still relatively new to the craft. I’d have to give this particular cigar, on this particular day, a relatively low score . . . 86/100.