What should I smoke? You choose!

[ayepatz]

Saint Luis Rey Double Corona - OTS DIC 09

Ably modelled by my smoking companion @JoeyGunz, the SLRDC, like any other double corona requires a serious investment of time, and, as you can see, we started in daylight, but finished in darkness, the cigar taking a good couple of hours.

I set a slightly faster pace than Joe, but that's probably because I haven't had a cigar in so long, the excitement getting the better of me!

Construction was good, as was the burn throughout, both cigars requiring only minor touch-ups.

Joe paired his with Guinness, while I went for Stowford Press cider.

The first third for me was a bit of stone fruit, butter, and apple, while Joe was getting noticeable frangipane (sweet baked almond), butter, and fruit peel.

The second third started with a gamey meat flavour, then reverting to stone fruit before developing into something that I can only describe as oaky vanilla, the same sort of quality you often find in good white burgundy. Joe reported variously leather, tobacco, dried dark apricot, meat, sweet dried apricot, and a sort of stewed fruits flavour, reminiscent of cherry compote.

The final third stepped up noticeably in power for both of, with Joe noticing much more of the meaty game flavour, in addition to the earlier frangipane. For me, I got that apple flavour back again, followed a sweet nuttiness, then a final onslaught of game.

We both agreed that this is a real "journey of discovery" cigar, well worth the time invested.

Rating -  Joe 92%, Iain 94%

Thanks again to all who voted. It was a great first cigar back. And a big thank you to Joe for traveling down to my manor after a long day at work, and being such good company. Cheers mate!

[nick2021]

SLR DC for sure