Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure 2 ESL FEB 18 (HDMCRW)

[MountainMilG]

I picked up a sixer of these back in June, so they're young, only been acclimating for a little over a month.  PSP stick from our lovely Aussie hosts.  (speaking of, Tokyo is soon, should there be some sort of wager on aquatics?).  I've been trying to avoid Robusto and big thick cigars recently, but this I don't have much else Hoyo and didn't want to go digging around to find something else.

V cut, construction good, I dinged up the foot a tad.  As is usually the case with PSP sticks from here, the heaviness is there.  Maybe not as much sheen now, but heaviness is my term for it.  Not dry at any rate.  Toasted, and then lit, which started out decent.  A tad uneven, and I did have to relight once.  Overall good ash, and didn't let it get super long. 

For flavors, in my experience Epicure 2's tend to be mellow.  I got some toasted tobacco (ha ha), some woodiness, little bit of cedar.  I paired with a nice cuba libre, so perhaps the sweetness of that washed some flavors out, but there were no stand out in your face flavors for me.  Some light cream, but nothing like my monte 4's, light cedar, perhaps some nuts to it, but mostly just a nice smooth, mellow smoke.  Total smoke time was just over an hour twenty, longer than usual for me, but had wife out on the porch and we were talking as well.   Send half of cigar was paired with an american Amber Ale, Copperhead from local place.

Ratings are harder for me.  Certainly a nice smoke, will smoke more of them, but not earth shattering.  high 80's, perhaps 87 or 88.  I'm hoping more time down will let them just get better, but if I had to smoke the other five like this I wouldn't complain.