Macanudo 1968 Gigante

Let my B&M store guy talk me into one of these, and decided if I was goig to try one, I'd try the big one! This stick of dynamite looked absolutely great out of the cello. Passed the 'sniff' test with no perceived problems. Felt good and solid in the hand, good firm construction, and a near flawless wrapper. Had a bit of a problem lighting up, but hey, it was a 6X60. For the first third I found myself asking if this was just a regular Mac on steroids. Pretty good amount of smoke, fair burn, absolutely great aroma but seemed like the taste had gone AWOL. Nice, even whitish ash. Then about a 1/4 of the way in, the afterburners kicked in and it was like someone flipped a switch. Within no more than three 'hits' I had gone from Macanudo Gold mild to Macanudo Bold wild. A mix of earthy, coffee flavors flodded my palate, with just a touch of chocolate. This fantastic mix continued to about 2/3 of the way in, and then, as suddenly as the flavors had appeared, they morphed into 'plain jane', mostly tobacco tastes, the burn went bad, and I found myself having to relight twice, and then nurse the stick along to keep it from going out again, while I searched in vain for that great flavor I'd had earlier. Alas, it just wasn't to be. I finally gave up and let it die a natural death. Now, I'm not complaining, really, because when this thing was on, it was ON! I'll certainly be willing to try more of these, probably in a smaller ring size though. Sounds from the other reviews, there were no such problems with the other sizes of the 1968. All in all a pretty darn good experience.