The Exclusivo size is a 5.5 x 50 box-press.
Pre-light thoughts: I've had this one in the humi for a while. I've heard mixed things - everything from CI's incredibly hyperbolic "it's as good as a Padron!" (which I wouldn't know anyways, having never smoked one) to very negative things.
However, it seems there is more good than bad word of mouth about it, and after seeing a few mentions of it on the forum here today, I decided to spark it up tonight.
It's a very box-pressed shape. Completely rectangular, with sharp corners. The stick is very light and quite spongey under any kind of pressure, though it seems to just be the construction of the cigar - there are no soft or hard spots of any kind.
The wrapper has no oil or sheen at all, and also no tooth.
It has a nice smell of milk chocolate to it.
A pre-light draw gives a fairly typical maduro profile of sweet tobacco and coffee bean.
First third: A very strong rush of pepper at the start, but it calmed down after about 3 draws, turning into a nice, rich flavour of cocoa and coffee. Again, typical of a maduro, it has that nice sweetness on the finish.
The ash is salt-and-pepper in colour and holding strong for the first inch and a bit.
Second third: The ash fell almost immediately after that! No problem at all, just not a stick to use in a "longest ash" contest.
The flavours have remained quite consistent, with coffee and cocoa taking the forefront, surrounding a subtle core of toasty earth that is more prominent in some puffs than others.
A retrohale enhances the "dark" flavours, turning what was closer to a milk-chocolate profile, into more dark chocolate.
All in all, it's a really nice smoke.
The burn line is absolutely RAZOR sharp. Like, I could use this burn line as a mini-ruler.
The draw brings tons of rich smoke into the mouth.
If I have one complaint it's that it's burning quite quickly. Even with a slow, controlled draw, I can actually see the burn making its way down the cigar.
Final third: The flavours have remained consistently pleasant down to the last two inches, but then a weird thing happened.
The flavours have suddenly been completely overcome by an intense bitterness. I don't want to say "grass" or "dirt" (two words often used to describe the bitterness of a cigar).
In fact, I know it will sound disgusting, but the best way I can describe the flavour of it now is Windex.
It tastes the way Windex smells, and I can't say it's particularly pleasant.
I was just about the throw it away when that taste just disappeared. For the rest of the cigar I got back to the flavours there had been up to that strange section, plus a little bit of nuttiness which I find pretty common when cigars are nearing the nub.
Final thoughts: This was a great cigar except for that very strange, very unpleasant section towards the end. I have never tasted anything like that before.
Other than that, it was a very well constructed, nice smoke. It wasn't particularly complex - aside from the initial transition from pepper to chocolate/coffee, there were no flavour changes or anything.
But what was there was good. I'm anxious to try another one, and see if this bitterness is something inherent to the brand, or if this was just a fluke.
