Partagas Lusitania EBO JUN 20 12DCRC

[saltbox]

It was a nice sunny Sunday so pulled out one of the longer smokes from the sampler. I actually swapped this one out; I snagged one of the PSP cabs of 50 earlier in the year with the same exact box code, EBO JUN 20, so I switched out the one that arrived in the sampler for one from the PSP cab that had a bit more rest but had also been dinged up a bit. I used a bit of cigar glue to repair it the previous night. The cigar had close to 3 months of rest at 62RH.

First third: Opens surprisingly light in body and flavor. It's a nice creamy twang and a touch of paprika. An inch in the flavor picks up with some earthy coffee and a touch of cedar. After another inch, some nice nutty coffee appears on the finish. This is where the main wrapper split I had glued together was. I had thought it was because of some bumpy shipping, but it turns out it was likely some overpacking of the cigar, and as the cherry passed over this area the wrapper split a bit more as the cherry expanded quite a bit (see the picture). Fortunately the draw was fine throughout, the cigar smoked as if nothing as wrong, and once I passed this spot the rest of the cigar was great.

Middle third: Sweet spiced cream and twang, accompanied by earth and coffee on the finish. Halfway through, the paprika takes on a bit of a smoked nature and the spices seem to become a bit more savory. The earth and peppery spice pick up on the finish towards the end of this third.

Last third: Intermittent notes of cedar and leather appear on the retrohale, and the spices continue to pick up in intensity. Towards the end, the smoke starts leaving a bit of a waxy feeling, which I assume is something that will pass with some age.

Overall: A great smoke that has me salivating thinking back on it. It's a good thing the length of the smoking time makes this cigar impractical to smoke on a regular basis for me, because it'd be hard to not keep coming back to this box. Very eager to see how my 50 cab evolves over the many years I expect it will take to smoke through it. 93/100