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.

Saint Luis Rey Serie A

Measures: 141 mm x 17,5 mm

Age: The cigar is my first of a fiver bought in August, 2006. It is probably of a fairly recent make.

Setting: The uncharacteristically warm weather Finns have enjoyed this year is finally starting to cool down. Is is still possible to smoke outside, but one needs proper clothes for it, and something to keep warm. No problem: I went through these preparations, and picked one of the five SLR Serie A's that I received some time ago, judging that this would be a good time to finally try one.

The corona gorda looks awesome. Its strongly box pressed so that its cross section would have a racetrack shape. The wrapper is luxuriously dark and feels almost skin-like to my fingers. The cigar is quite supple to touch, making we wonder if it still is too humid. I clip it anyway and try the draw: it feels just right, so I decide to go on.

Bang! The cigar starts with an explosion of flavours, telling that this probably is a young cigar. Soon they settle down to somewhat more moderate level. The overriding impression is exotic sweetness, reminding me of honey and liquorice, on top of quite intensive salty tobacco taste. The wrapper adds to the sweetness, and I also sense a bit of nicotine tingle on my lips. The cigar is drawing well, but the burn is a bit lopsided, probably due to limited humidor time. A couple of corrections are necessary. Later on, cedary tones also started to appear in the quite decadent composite of flavours. The intensity increased again, and I had to purge the cigar to continue smoking. I nubbed the cigar after some 90 minutes of smoking.

This was my first encounter with the Serie A, so I should not draw hard conclusions on the basis of just this try. Nevertheless, the cigar delivered a quite unique experience, quite unlike the few SLR Regios and Lonsdales that constitute my past experience with this marca. Even though the cigar clearly was too young and restless, I enjoyed its decadence and richness. Time will tell how the cigar will appeal to me after it has settled down a bit: I think I will not touch the others until next summer.

New Cigars

Cigars are addictive - but the addiction presents itself as a compulsory need to buy more cigars rather than smoking them.

I have heard a lot of good things of recent Habanos cigars. The Cubans have supposedly improved their processing and storage methods of tobacco leaves during the last couple of years, with the result that all cigars are now rolled of tobacco aged at least two years. The results are said to be phenomenal: 2006 cigars smoke extremely well, and show great promise for further aging. More over, all cigars are deep frozen before final packing to reduce the risk of cigar beetles.

Hearing all this made it impossible for me to resist any longer, so I asked a friendly colleague working in Geneva to pick up a box of recent Montecristo #2's for me, knowing that he would be visiting Finland.



I mailed the shop and asked them to assist my colleague in selecting the box: I did not want too dark wrappers. They seem to have followed my preferences exactly: the cigars do look lovely, and the wrappers have just the kind of colorado tone that I prefer.

I am very tempted to try one right away, but no: experience tells me that they should spend a month at least in the humidor to adjust from the trip and lose some moisture. The box code tells that the cigars were rolled in February 2006, so they are still toddlers.

Just the box of MC2's? Well, I asked and received also a second box of 1990 El Rey del Mundo Demi-Tasses - the first box has turned out to be lovely. And I also received a couple of fivers: Cohíba Coronas Especiales 2001 and Cohíba Lancero 2000's ...