How a Montecristo #2 helped me pass an exam

[Joekendall04]

Montecristo #2

The setting: Front porch, ‘bout 67 degrees, I’ve got a glass of iced tea and a box of matches to go along with my monte #2 and 100 pages of reading for an exam tomorrow (now today).

Pre-light: Excellent looking cigar, these retail (I’m told) for $10+, but I picked one up online as part of a three pack for pretty cheap. Construction is tight and the cigar looks great. I’ve always been a fan of torpedos for some reason. The cut goes smooth and easy, and I take a couple of pre-light pulls and the draw is smooth and easy. The wrapper tastes great, can’t wait to fire this one up.

The light: I toast the cigar with a match to get it ready and then light it up. The whole process takes two matches and is quick and easy, the smoke starts coming through very smooth.

The burn: Right off the bat this is a very smooth very tasty cigar. The smoke is sweet and nutty, very mild but certainly not bland. The amount of smoke I got early in this cigar was immense, but the cigar was very cool and flavorful. Maybe I was smoking slow because I was reading, but one of my roommates came out to inform that forty minutes had already passed and I hadn’t even ashed it yet. The ash was huge before I dropped it, and when it landed it stayed in a solid white bundle, the sign of a very solid cigar.

After it was first ashed it I ran into some uneven burn problems which were somewhat of an annoyance to fix. I had to rotate and consciously try to even it out, but eventually I corrected the problem. The smoke retained its thick nature, and the flavor stayed consistent, mild and smooth with a sweet nutty flavor.

About 1:15 in I ashed it again and on again ran into burn problems. The cigar still tasted great, but it was kind of a pain to deal with constantly rotating to fix the burn problems. Towards the end it lost the smokiness that had made it a great cigar to start, but the flavor was still tremendous. The cigar never got hot (which can probably be attributed to the relatively slow pace I smoked it at), but all in all the last third wasn’t nearly as good as the first two.

All said and done this was a terrific cigar in terms of flavor and smokiness, but the burn problems were exactly that – problems.

Overall, a great cigar, but it could have been better, plus the long burn ended up allowing me to finish my reading and pass my exam with flying colors.

B+/A-, 89

I’ll definitely revisit it, but only when I can find one for less than retail again.

[zemekone]

thats a great story and review, ive gotten engulfed in reading and smoking many many times!