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 Exclusivo, 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
Day 17: Caldwell LLTK Jalapeño
Day 18: Edgar Hoill
Day 19: Illusione Holy Lance Candela
Day 20: Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Lancero
Day 21: No lancero!
Day 22: La Aurora 100 Años
Day 23: Padilla Series '68 Corojo
Day 24: No lancero!
Day 25: No lancero!
Day 26: La Palina Goldie Laguito Especial
Day 27: Casa Fuente Lancero
Day 28: La Gloria Cubana Medaille D'Or (2000)
This lady has been in waiting for a while. She was rolled at the turn of the millennium. 14 years later, after being acquired by our own
@erjaq, who smoked and bombed many of her sisters, she found her way into the BOTL lancero box pass. Having heard her virtues extolled (the words "best cigar I've ever had" echo in my ears), I snapped her up when the box was handed off to me many months ago. Into the lancero drawer she went, and I promised her she'd burn in February.
Here we are at the last day of the month, in the year of our lord 2015. Let's toast.
A faint whiff of barnyard from her medium brown wrapper. Some hay. Nothing more. Her cap is beautiful and perfect, her label thin and petite-- just like her. She's unexpectedly veiny! Almost rustic. But not quite; a firm perfectly even pack.
She deserves a special send off. I toast her gently with several wooden matches before cutting her cap, as I've seen done and practiced myself only once before. Why not.
Well. For one thing, this is maybe the *smoothest* cigar I've ever smoked. The retrohale is totally without spice, heat, or bite of any kind. In contrast, the wrapper and cap tobacco taste especially bitter on the tongue, which surprises me. The draw is just a bit snug, which is expected given the firm pack, but hardly impedes the flow of smoke. The stick is no oily sparkler; when not being puffed, she sits patiently, throwing off just the occasional wisp to let you know she's still burning; but take a puff and she dispatches a mouthful of smoke easy as you please.
Complexity begins with two distinct sets of flavors. One is the leather/hay at the bottom of the spectrum. Almost musty but not at all unpleasant. The other end is the real gift. Melon. But this is not what you'd call a sweet cigar. It's right in the middle of sweet and savory. Unlike, say, the Allones Extra Limitada 2011-- which tastes like a roasted porkchop; or those top-end Fuente lances that pump out vaporized sugar for the first 2/3 before transitioning, this LGC is reminiscent of a caramelized vegetable. Earthier, mellow. A big wine grape fat with too much water, just before it ripens.
You cannot overstate how pleasing it is to smoke a cigar this smooth. There is no mistaking it. I'm actually re-evaluating the way I feel about cigar draw in general. Usually I like just a hint of resistance. This is another notch more than that, and I can't imagine better.
She's getting full in the final third. Baked brown bread enters the profile. There was a subtle transition just short of halfway too. The snug-ish draw makes me work a tad harder than I'd like at this point, and neglecting the stick for a minute or two caused a moment of tunneling; I'm impatient, so I touched it with the match and it's back where it ought to be.
Also Dolph Lundgren is back.
Ranked top to bottom thus far:
La Gloria Cubana Medaille D'Or (2000)
Lost City/Casa Fuente (tie)
Opus X PL
BOTL 2012
Don Carlos
Fonseca Cubano Limitado
La Palina Goldie Laguito Especial
La Riqueza
7-20-4
La Aurora 107
Tat brown
MF #4
La Palina Black PL
Viaje Exclusivo
Tat Black PL
La Aurora 100 Años
Pepin Blue
La Casita Criolla
Nat Sherman 1930 8x38 "super lancero"
Snare Drum
Padilla Series '68 Corojo
Valeroso
Cabaiguan Guapos
Tat red
Fausto
Illusione Holy Lance Candela
Edgar Hoill
Caldwell LLTK Jalapeño
