Ramon Allones (Cuba) Estupendos (regional)

Maybe I had a dud, or maybe I built this cigar up too much in my head before trying it, but this Asian pacific regional release was in my opinion a huge let down. On the outside it fooled me with its nice smooth natural wrapper and its appealing band presentation. The ash was a dark grey color that took a dysmorphic pattern that upon being ashed showed to be coning on the inside. It was however decently sturdy and created a hill-like landscaping burn pattern, and it had to be relit a few times throughout the smoke. The draw was laboring for the first third of the cigar and thus the smoke was scant, but it opened up after I passed the hard spot and the smoke it produced improved a little. This cigar was a light/medium bodied smoke that never got real complex. It had a an earthy core with no apparent underlying hints of anything at all. It was extremely one dimensional and I can only conclude that this is due to its still relatively young age. It was really quite a boring smoke that definitely needs to age some more before being a smokable stick. It finished bitterly and I had to put it down with about a third left to smoke, because it was really unsatisfying. For the price, there are much better smokes out there, and for a special release I definitely expected more. Hopefully these will improve over time and come to represent Ramon Allones better. Or… maybe I just got the runt in the box. Only time will tell.

This rare cigar impressed me through it very young performance. the box code was SEP06, so with little time to age or rest this smoked like it was 2 years old, easy. The Asain Punch and German Por Larranaga were very green and young.

Flavors were similar to the RASS more then the Gigante (which i had today for comparison). It was like a intensified RASS, a 7 incher that was nubb-able. Dont miss the oppertunity on these if you have it.