Day 1: Lost City
Day 2: Fausto
Day 3: La Riqueza
Day 4: Cabaiguan Guapos
Day 5: La Casita Criolla
Day 6: Tat Red
Day 7: Tat Brown, 7-20-4
Day 8: Opus X PL, La Palina Black PL
Day 9: Valeroso
Day 10: Viaje, Tat black PL
Day 11: Snare Drum
Day 12: Pepin Blue
Day 13: La Aurora 107
Day 14: MF #4, BOTL 2012
Day 15: Nat Sherman 1930 8x38 "super lancero"
Day 16: Fonseca Cubano Limitado
Last night:
Bought at Nat Sherman 42nd St. NYC in November. $15.
Pretty, dark brown wrapper with quite a bit of oil sheen. Lumpy. Some veins. No seams.
Perfect easy draw. Medium pack.
Heavy, somewhat oily smoke. Tastes "fresh." Reminds me of a UF-13. Nicaraguan & Dominican, Dominican wrapper. Blended by Quesada which makes sense; it's heavily focused on the low, full end of the flavor spectrum: oil, bitter dark cocoa, a hint of molasses. Aside from smoke production, which is adequate, I'd say they were taking aim at Unicos here, and largely succeeding. I don't really need the extra inch, but I'm hoping it provides extra transition space.
Starts harsh.
Better and more complex after an inch; the ash is more than ready to drop away-- roll it off after 3/4" if you're smart. Let's see where this goes.
Finally into the 2nd 3rd (super lancero indeed) and the harshness is all but gone, and the cocoa comes into its own. No heat at all (no pepper) and retrohaling is silky smooth. I'm waiting for more flavor complexity, but my impression is that this is a high-end lancero that could be sublime with a few years on it.
Problem: for $150, you can get 12 HE lances or 9 Goldie Laguitos or 15 Drumsticks, which are all bona-fide right now... or 10 of these. "Potential" is not enough for $15.
Currently burning:
Fonseca Cubano Limitado lancero.
Dominican filler, Nica binder, Honduran Habano wrapper. Another Quesada lancero that doesn't say "Quesada" on it, but half the price of the Nat Sherman. Let's see how the taste and construction compare.
Wrapper gives off leather. Cutting the cap makes it exude some generic dark sweetness.
Immediately like the flavor. High sweet and citrus notes, straight off lighting up. Good smoke output. Tasty tasty! I'm pretty sure I picked this up at Nat Sherman in November as well, so it's been sitting as long as the other Quesada-rolled stick. But this one... delicious. There's no cream at present, but some baking spices and sweet sweet earthy citrus. The wrapper is by contrast savory on the lips. Retrohaling is a breeze.
Boy. This is a $7.50 smoke? It's as pleasant of a surprise as the 7-20-4, but maybe a shade better. Find one. I will be.
Ranked top to bottom thus far:
Lost City
Opus X PL
BOTL 2012
Fonseca Cubano Limitado lancero.
La Riqueza
7-20-4
La Aurora 107
Tat brown
MF #4
La Palina Black PL
Viaje
Tat Black PL
Pepin Blue
La Casita Criolla
Nat Sherman 1930 8x38 "super lancero"
Snare Drum
Valeroso
Cabaiguan Guapos
Tat red
Fausto
