Vegas Robaina Unicos GEM JUL 20 (XNYRW3)

[saltbox]

Have always enjoyed the Famoso and my box of Unicos is almost at 5 months of rest, so good enough to try my first one out. I wanted to test one out before submitting my guess for cigar #5 in the blind tasting, in order to compare and see if it would be my guess.

First third: opens with a chocolate cream, much like a Montecristo No. 2, but with a rich earthiness in the background. I guess that note is what is often referred to as forest floor; it's a bit like the smell of walking through the dense redwood forests out here in California. It's quite interesting and differentiates this from the Montecristo, but if I were tasting this blind I would also likely just think this was the Monte. Towards the end, some baking spices appear as well.

Middle third: not much evolution, more of the chocolate cream and baking spices. The draw is a bit on the tight side unfortunately, so I feel like I may be missing some of the nuances of the profile.

Last third: some coffee joins the profile as well. This one is really smoking like a Montecristo to me. At this point I did some searching on the forum just to sanity check, and came across this thread so at least I'm not alone.

 Overall: nice and tasty, just a bit off for the tight draw. I'm a big fan of the Montecristo flavor profile and honestly I don't know if I'd be able to tell this one apart, but I enjoyed it. 89/100