Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Especial Review

[CoffeeGeek]

My first review posted, so be gentle  Also posted to /r/cigars (hope that's okay)

Preamble

So fellow FoH'er Photo_Rob knows why I smoked this, my last EpiEsp in my collection. Inside story. It'll be interesting to see how he reviews the one I just traded his way. Will I buy another box of EpiEsps down the road? Read on.

Pairing

Paired this cigar up with an absolutely fantastic, complex Scotch; if you love the browns but don't like peat, I highly recommend you pick up a bottle of Craigellachie 13 Year while it's available (it's a limited release). Super complex, nice underripe (in a good way) wide range of fruits from apple to pear to citrus to red fruits, waves and waves of pleasing smoke (not peat smoke!) awesome oaky dry finish that lasts forever.

Light up and First Third

I used a large diameter punch on this cigar, cutting about a 9mm hole. Draw was good, slight spice and fresh soil. Toasted the foot with my 3-burner butane jet thingie, one quick draw with a flame, and off we go.

Didn't get much spice from the first puffs, but instead got what I'd call spicy vanilla mixed with super rich tobacco. Draw was loose (surprising after the pre-fire draw!) and not much smoke production first 3, 4 draws, then it caught up. Vanilla, vanilla vanilla, tobacco sweet baby tobacco. Taste wise, off to a good start.

Burn was uneven and needed one correction (here it is corrected). That kinda sucked. But I made myself feel better with a few sips on the Craigellachie, which in its massive complexity, fruity notes and smokey texture was a match made in heaven with the EpiEsp.

Second Third

You know, everyone goes "graham crackers" when talking about the HdM Epi sticks, esp. the EpiEsp. Do you guys ever eat honey crackers? Is a graham cracker a honey cracker? Because I tasted distinct honey crackers in the second third. Vanilla kind of floated away. Tobacco rich stayed around to say hi to my initial palate, but it too faded a bit. As I enjoyed the Craigellachie, I thought maybe I tasted a bit of red / stone fruit too from the cigar, but that could have been the "sum is greater than the parts" from the whiskey and cigar. Also got a bit of cocoa at this point, the first time I tasted anything resembling chocolate in this particular cigar.

Burn was still a bit uneven. One more correction. Draw was okay at this point, not great, not bad, though at one point I thought I had a bit of a plug, but by next puff, it had corrected itself.

Final Third (and Final Half of Final Third)

Well hello tobacco! You decided to come back for some more taste giving, huh? And dude! (yes, I called the HdM a dude), you're giving me coffee!!?!! Weak as tea coffee, but it's still there and still tastes great. The honey cracker's there. Tobacco sweet made a comeback, and you're giving me weak tea coffee? Merci mon ami!

Seriously, the final third -- or at least the first half of the final third -- was the best part of this cigar, taste wise. Complex, pleasing, good times. The complexity of the paired scotch made it super good. But then it kind of all ended too quick, and probably my fault. Because I was digging the tastes in the final third so much, I was drawing a lot on the stick and cooked it. Overheated, nicotine build up, quickly turned from heaven mana to meh this is fucking up my taste buds. One day I'll learn. Here it is just before I removed the 2nd band.

Conclusion and Score

A really good (not great, not earth shattering, not pillar of what a cigar could be) cigar. Middle and last third were best parts. I did take super brief tasting notes when I had this cigar (24 hours ago), and am relying part on memory, so if I missed any notable flavours, oops.

Considering what I paid for them (local YVR B&M prices) I would not buy them again. However, at usual Intl' pricing, heck even First Nations reserve pricing, yes, I will buy these again.

I only give numerical scores to coffee - I'm a fucking snob - but I will score the Hoyo de Monterrey on my "what kind of car is it" scoring scale.

If a cheapo Don Tomas is a Yugo, and a Cohiba Behike 56 is a, erm, huh... Bentley? I'd score the HdM Epicure Especial I had last night as a... 2005 (when new) BMW 3 series, middle of the road edition. Nice, fast, well appointed, good styling (pre tiny side windows edition), decent value for the price.

[JohnS]

I had one of these recently and came to a similar conclusion to yours in regards to flavour. Thank you for taking the time to write this review.

[TheMonk]

Nice review, thanks!

[golfgar]

Thank you for the well done review.

[Dimmers]

Great review, what was the year and code? I'm a fan of this stick and the Epicure line generally.

[CoffeeGeek]

5 hours ago, Dimmers said:

Great review, what was the year and code? I'm a fan of this stick and the Epicure line generally.

I can't tell you, as I bought 10 sticks of it from a B&M, from a few boxes; and it was a couple of years ago now when I wasn't recording any dates or numbers

 

- M

[Phinz]

Great review! Couldn't agree more about the  Craigellachie 13 Year, it's a great dram! As for the EE, I've smoked several recent boxes, and can't say I've ever had a taste of anything like chocolate in any of mine, but I also note yours looks to have a bit more red to the wrapper than mine have had, so perhaps that contributes. 

[jpnyc]

Great review. Can't wait for my stick to arrive.

[CoffeeGeek]

12 hours ago, Phinz said:

Great review! Couldn't agree more about the  Craigellachie 13 Year, it's a great dram! As for the EE, I've smoked several recent boxes, and can't say I've ever had a taste of anything like chocolate in any of mine, but I also note yours looks to have a bit more red to the wrapper than mine have had, so perhaps that contributes. 

The cocoa was very minimal, and only really there at the end of the 2nd third, IIRC; debated even mentioning it. In the little notepad notes I was keeping informally I wrote: "is that cocoa? Is that nut?" and went with cocoa.

Cheers on the Craigellachie! The booze expert at the local BCLDB branch told me it was rather limited, as they don't release it every year. I think I might go stock up on another bottle or two, if that's the case!