Wrapper: Cuban
Binder: Cuban
Filler: Cuban
Size: 4.9 x 50 Robusto
Strength: Medium
Price: $20.00
Box Date: April 23
THE WHOLE ENCHILADA:
I’ve always wondered what our “sniffing the cigar” ritual is. Whether it smells like barnyard and muskrat or springtime at Kew Gardens on a sunny day, you know you’re going to smoke it. Hell yeah. If it smells like durian fruit or grandpa’s olde worlde sauerkraut … you’ll smoke it.
This Juan Lopez Selection Number 2 is reddish brown and has a solid feel. The appearance is “rustic charm”, rough with veins and scratchy as a cat’s tongue. I hit it with my Perfec Punch. The cold draw is perfect. I fire it up.
The first third is rough, raspy, unrefined and full of flavor: cappuccino, orange zest and spice with creamy sweet notes. It’s singing to me right off the bat. This cigar is Janis Joplin: rough around the edges with a clean, powerful delivery. What a pleasure.
Take another little piece of my heart. The first inch is rockin’ it.
The first third continues with chocolate mocha and a hint of peanut shell, the coffee with orange zest sweetness sticks around for a while then fades to cocoa nibs. Cedar joins the party then fades back to cocoa nibs.
Jimi Hendrix jamming with Janice now. Unpredictable, untamed yet somehow melodious. Flavors in the first third bounce around and play with my palette. I give up trying to follow. I sit back and enjoy the ride.
In the early 70’s at pharmacy school we used to have poker night up on the third floor. We’d drink cheap beer, smoke nasty dried-out cigars, philosophize and solve world problems. Of course, the biggest world problem in a man’s late teens is how to attract girls. One night while pretending to be suave, I took another puff of my fifty-cent cigar and came up with an idea. “We need to throw a pajama party”. “I know! We’ll procure refrigerator boxes and made a tunnel from the entrance up the stairs to the third floor where we’ll have a band playing and some special “pharmaceutical grade” punch to drink. We’ll pull the mattresses from the rooms to line the tunnel floor all the way up the stairs.”
Well, that didn’t fly. It seems that the pharmacy students were as boring as the cigars. One-eyed Jacks are wild… and apparently don’t go to pharmacy school.
The final third: transitions still flit back and forth like a hummingbird at grandma’s feeder. The burn stays razor sharp.
Flavors take a turn. I’m getting a sour fruit note; that musty Cuban twang that is pleasurable and hard to describe. The je ne sais quoi of flavor that can only be found in tobacco grown on that peculiar little island take over. Yes, please… I’ll have more of that….
Mushrooms and forest floor to finish. Nicotine never makes an appearance.
Half an inch left. Fade to black. The party’s over. It’s time to step over the bodies and go home.
It’s available for $20 – $26 depending on where you look. Yes, it’s worth every penny. Get some now and let them age because the price will only go up.
RATING: 96
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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
You must be Katman’s pharmacist friend he was referring to. I made the same mistake “trying to have fun at pharmacy school”, those efforts were futile. The only good thing about pharmacy schools is that up till the early 90s, they produced the most millionaires. Too bad now we have PBMs to take our money. Anyway, I was just in Senegal and I smoked every Cuban I could put my hands on. Most of them I put out halfway including Montecristos and Cohibas. The ones I enjoyed the most were Ramon Allones Specially selected and the Juan Lopez #2.
Great review Thanks.
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Ha!! The secret of trying to have fun at pharmacy school is to not hang out with pharmacy students. :). I had tons of fun. As for the profession: I hated it. Have you ever met a pharmacist who leaps out of bed in the morning looking forward to a great day at work? Neither have I. As far as smoking Cuban cigars fresh off the shelf, like the Monte’s and Cohibas? Forget it. Aging is always needed. I have found a few that deliver right off the shelf: JL, Party D series, HU 54 Mag, RASS, BBF… and that’s about it and even those are much better after at least a year. As far as pharmacy goes, I am only working a few days month now and will fully retire this summer.
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I’ve been told there’s no reason a pharmacist shouldn’t feel like he wants to.
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Thanks for the advice on aging the big name Cubans, I don’t know much about Cuban cigars. I was trying to get a crash course while overseas. As far as pharmacy, I hated it until I started owning them. Now I go to work at 7am leave at 11am go to my Yacht and light up. The little joys in life…I tell you nothing better than smoking a cigar on a deck of a boat.
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Sounds nice! I’m glad you made that decision!!! Message me on FB if you want. I have tons of info on Cuban cigars and the scene that goes with them. I’d be happy to share that info, and of course there’s those pharmacy stories we all have. 🙂
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