El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme 1998

Measures: 124 mm x 18,5 mm

Age: I received this cigar in a trade from a cigar-smoking acquaintance. According to him it's from 1998.

Setting: Weather still permits (sort of) outdoor smoking in Helsinki, but for how long? Any time may be the last by this time of the year. Not wanting to waste the opportunity offered by the a bit chilly but otherwise bearable Sunday afternoon, I decided that this would be a good time to smoke the 1998 ERdM Choix Supreme I had received in a trade already several months ago. I have been contemplating the purchase of aged ERdM, and I hoped this experience would help me to make up my mind.

This cigar is considerably darker than the younger samples of the vitola that I have encountered before. The wrapper still feels oily; close inspection shows the tiniest bits of plume spread on it. The cigar is moderately box pressed. It feels firm with some resilience. I cut the cigar with my Sunday cutter, and found the draw to be a bit constricted, probably offering just right resistance. The cold aroma reminded of sweet fruits over roasted tobacco - very nice!

ERdM is generally considered to exhibit the lighter end of the range of Habanos profiles. Consistent with this, the aged Choix Supreme is surely not a powerhorse, not a spice bomb. Instead of those qualities, it started by offering a very nicely rounded and balanced melange of sweetish aromas. I found myself thinking of roasted almonds and butter. This soon transformed to a more woody tone where also some citrus-like whiffs were just perceptible. At half-way point, the burn of the cigar became a bit lopsided, forcing me to correct it a couple of times. The woody flavour had at this stage turned into a somewhat grassier tone; I found that I had to smoke the cigar with very slow pulls to enjoy it. The later stages did not change too much this. I found myself missing the initial nuttiness of the taste that unfortunately never came back. I finished the cigar after some 80 minutes of smoking.

The cigar left me with somewhat mixed feelings. The initial stages were very good and expressed the ERdM profile that I have learned to like very well. In comparison, the later stages left me a bit cold. I felt that I probably did not catch this cigar at its most opportune moment. Will I buy more of these? Perhaps not a full box: as a Partagás addict, my preferences seem to favour fuller bodied cigars. Yet I have liked my ERdM Demi-Tasses a lot, so I will not forsake this marca.