Monte A, a review:

I’ve had this cigar for about a year and finally decided to light it. I smoked this Saturday night, so I am going from memory right now:

Appearance and construction: 10/10

To describe this cigar, the wrapper was a dark caramel color, and silky smooth. The feel was firm, no soft spots, no huge veins. Used a guillotine cutter, and a little trim with scissors for a nice clean opening. Pre-light draw was nice, very smooth. The aroma was enticing.

Flavor: 10/10

This cigar started out a little sweet, almost like a hot chocolate, but slowly developed into a rich coffee, or maybe café au lait. As I smoked this, I was reminded how good a cigar could be. As I smoked this, I could notice the change in flavor profile, but am sadly too inexperienced to pin point each taste as it developed and changed. I can tell you, there were a lot of coffee flavors through out this smoke, towards the end of the cigar, maybe last ¼; I started to detect bittersweet chocolate notes, just an accent.


Smoking characteristics: 9/10

This was a 2.5 hr smoke, volumes of creamy smoke the entire time. I did run into a couple minor burn issues, which were caused by the fact that I store smokes at 67/68RH, and this would have been better a few % lower.

Price point 5/5

This one was a gift, but I would purchase this cigar at its current price.


Best thing that I can say is that at no time in the 2.5 hrs that I spent smoking this cigar, did I ever want to put it down. If you have the chance to smoke one, do it!

Alan

Nice review. So, where in Boston does one sit for 2.5 hours to smoke a cigar that big? Surely not outside..

Thank you for the review. I'd love to smoke one of these once the weather warms up enough here in Ohio.

I bought a box of 'A's' from the Varadero airport back in 96, and they were so green and unsmokable, that I had to leave them for 2 years in my humidor. And then they turned into amazing smokes, pretty much the way you described, not as heavy as a EL series, but a very pleasent 1.5 hour smoke. Although my box has some tight cigars, most draw reasonably well, but not like yours.

Still have 8 left, and they are very nice fall smoke.

Regards,

Steve

From what I've read about these cigars, they definitely have a significant aging potential.

Interesting smoke. I've had some that were incredible, but many others that were disappointing. Nice review.

Good review, I'll have to pick one up