H. Uppman Coronas Major tubos, late 1990's

The first full box of cigars I ever bought was a box of H. Uppman Coronas Major. I acquired them in early 2000, from the tax free shop of some or other European airport that has escaped my memory in the way airports do. The cigars therefore must have been late 1990's make.

The cigars came in nice tubos with crisp green text on them. I suppose I selected tubos cigars because I did not plan, green newbie as I was, to buy a humidor. The memory of the first tries has it that the cigars were quite tight. Therefore, I bought some others and put these aside. And soon a humidor followed.

Today I decided to smoke the last survivor of the set. It had escaped the aluminium container already years ago. The sample looked pretty wild: wrinkled and multicoloured, with the oils having partly vanished from its thickish wrapper. The cigar felt light and firm in hand.

I was unsure of what to expect from the cigar. The next to last - that I had more than a year ago - had been quite disappointing. Very light flavour, very light draw. The little what remained of the flavour nearly vanished around 2/3 of the cigar and the rest was almost like sucking air with a straw. The cigar must have been much too dry.

So I cut the cigar and tried the draw. This time it felt nicely resistive, and the cold aroma was good: bit of burnt sugar over tobacco. So I lit the cigar with heightened expectations.

The change from the previous encounter turned out to be significant indeed. The aroma was rich, deep, and satisfying. Molasses and cacao, even chocolate. It blended perfectly with the coffee I was drinking. I couldn't help thinking that the cigar tasted "warm" and "brown": for some reason these adjectives seemed a perfect fit. It was in perfect harmony that smoked the cigar to the nub.

So it turned out that the cigar's last year of rest had been spent in attractive conditions that made the old-timer bloom again.

It is satisfying that the last cigar from a box leaves a good memory. Perhaps I should buy a few more. Or perhaps not; one can have the first kiss just once.