It’s no secret the Cuban Montecristo No. 2 is one of, if not the world’s most popular Cuban cigar. Personally I’d never found it to be much of a joy. Sure, I’ve had some decent ones, but all in all I have never been enamored to the point where I worshiped the tables they were rolled on.

Interestingly enough though, I’ll always find myself going back and trying them again and again. Maybe I just can’t convince myself that I just don’t taste whatever everybody else does. Perhaps it’s just cigar smoking in securities, brought on by those that love of the cigars to no end.

This is a little story, about my recent experience than with three different boxes, from three different years of production. The interesting thing is if you set the cigars next to each other, and took up the bands, you would swear they were not the same cigar. The difference in color of the wrappers is phenomenal, ranging from a dark chocolate black, to a very light tan color. All of the boxes were purchased in the same La Casa De Habanos store, that lucky for me had a few different vintages available.

The darkest of the samples, was from the year 1999, and iffy year for the production of Cuban cigars. Obviously this guy had some age on him, being 10 years old and being so full of plume, you’d think he was Santa Claus. The cigar may be the closest I’ve come to the orgasmic experience many have come to experience with the Montecristo No. 2. Perhaps it all starts with the old Montecristo band, no gloss, no perfect placement, almost an afterthought to the quality of the cigar. I probably wouldn’t go so far as saying I had a note of body experience, but this was one heck of a small. It was extremely consistent, with that medium to light taste you find an older Montecristo, and of course that dirty gray ash indicative of a well a Cuban cigar. You can’t ask for much more out of the Cuban Monte No. 2.

My next sampling was from a box with an October of 2003 manufacture date. This is usually considered to be after the bad years of Cuban cigar production, but she couldn’t tell from these puppies. These are the lightest wrapper of the three boxes, and painfully sour in flavor. I even punished myself by smoking a second just to make sure my palate had not had a seizure. Remind the never to do that again. The construction was very similar to the box from 1999, and still had quite a bit of plume on it. I could tell they had been sitting in the same spot for a long time, and made sure to rotate them a bit as they rested in my home humidor. Nothing worked, these Montecristo No. 2 cigars were the definition of the reason I had never seen much hope for me liking a Montecristo No. 2. Smoking that the cigar as the middle of the triplets, made me scared to death of what was next.