FistLoad Blog

Smoked 20 April 2012. Age unknown; turned up in the post from C. Gars Ltd that morning.

I tried this cigar as numerous people rave about them over on the UK Cigar Forums and I’d not gotten round to trying one yet. My previous experiences with H. Upmann have been less than satisfactory. Over the years I’ve tried the No. 2, the Magnum 46, the Magnum 48 LE and the PC, with only the 46 even feeling worthwhile another go. I was hoping this smoke would be better as the brand seems so popular but I am unable to understand why. No luck this time unfortunately.

While not an unpleasant smoke, it could have done with at least a year or two extra on it as the harsh peppery youth was too much for a cigar with a reputation for such a mild taste. I’d certainly give it another try if I knew the age, but for me this experience was not a signal to buy a box.

The coffee and cream flavours I read/hear about were present but were not as prominent as I’d hoped. A bit of a disappointment in all honesty. I don’t know why I persevere with H. Upmann…

Smoked 1 March 2012. In humidor since 5 March 2010; box code unknown but obviously 2009 vintage.

Every single one of these I’ve smoked so far has been disappointing and irritatingly, this was no exception. Whilst there were some flavours noticeable, it wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience.

Considering I’ve had this in my humidor for nigh on two years now, I was expecting them to have settled slightly. When something heavyweight like a Bolivar Royal Corona becomes tolerable (some may say beautiful!) to smoke pretty quickly, I kind of wonder why these are so impenetrable to my tastebuds.

Perhaps they need some serious aging as the flavours are so light? Dunno…

Anyway, there were what I would describe as pretty typical H. Upmann cream and coffee flavours present, but soon after lighting it became incredibly peppery. I got about halfway through and decided to give up. As I thought it might be rude to chuck it into my host’s back garden right in front of his face, I left it in the ashtray to dispose of later. As it was, when I left I picked it up and took it with me and decided to relight it in the car on the way home. Despite common advice never to relight a cigar that has been out for over an hour, I did. It was still just as unpleasant…

Now you may be able to gather that I don’t get as much chance to smoke cigars as I used to, solely from the frequency of my posting on here. So it really annoys me when my opportunities are wasted with crap like this. It will be at least a year before I try one of these again!

Unfortunately, I’ve not had much chance to smoke cigars recently due to simply not having the opportunity. I’ve also been massively lazy about updating this blog…

Here’s what I’ve smoked since I last posted.

25 October 2011: Ramon Allones Specially Selected (TEB ENE 08; in humidor since 16 March 2009) and a Bolivar Royal Corona (TEB MAY 08; in humidor since 29 May 2009)

18 December 2011: Bolivar Royal Corona (TEB MAY 08; in humidor since 29 May 2009)

29 Dec 2011: Romeo y Julieta Cazadores (JUL 06; in humidor since 27 February 2010)

I enjoyed them all!

Por Larranaga Petit Corona smoked 17 September 2011. Box code EMA OCT 07; in humidor since 28 November 2009. I’d previously taken this out and punched it, given it a test draw and decided it was too tight to smoke so put it back in the humidor. Not really sure when I’d done that but by now it had softened enough so the draw was spot on. PLPC are a reasonably cheap cigar so they are never going to win any contests for looks, but the construction was pretty good on this one. This was a strange mix of flavours; normally these go one of two ways. Milky bar, or bitter almond. This actually appeared to be right in the middle, which either means the bitter almond ones (which I’m not so keen on) are just in the sick period and I’ve been wasting them (!), or there are two distinct kinds of PLPC. I’ve read it suggested that nobody thought there was any caramel aspect until Min Ron Nee did. I don’t know, but I’ve certainly experienced two flavour profiles.

Cuaba Divino smoked 18 September 2011. Box code unknown as it was bought as a single; in humidor since 28 November 2009. I’ve not had much luck with these in the past, always finding them to be a bit rough and not to my taste. The figurado construction has been mentioned as occasionally causing draw problems but there was no issue here. The wrapper on one side needed a little touch-up; I had let it burn for quite some time in the hope it would correct itself but no such luck. Didn’t really enjoy this so ended up tossing it early as it didn’t improve. I don’t think it was too young seeing how long I’d had it for. I should try some other Cuabas though as these are the only ones I’ve tried.

Smoked 26th August 2011. Box code GAS JUN 08; in humidor since 6 October 2009.

Smoked this on a rather surreal last-minute late night trip to Wantage. Pretty enjoyable smoke but nothing outstanding, perhaps due to the KFC I ate beforehand…

Gwdihw, one of the nicest live music venues I’ve been to, hosted what I believe to be Cardiff’s first Cuban cigar tasting event on the 23 August 2011. For those who don’t know, gwdihw (pronounced goody-hoo) is the somewhat onomatopoeic Welsh word for owl. I’m led to believe this is specifically South Wales dialect.

Arranged in conjunction with Cardiff’s Bear Shop tobacconist (in Wyndham Arcade in the city centre) and Reserve Brands (a division of the booze giant Diageo), this ticket-only event gave you the option to purchase a cigar at a slightly discounted price. Given this was something that I was pleased to have happening in Cardiff, I thought I’d go all out and try Read the rest of this entry »