Alex Gonzalez Siglo II 2021 (FRCSW2)

[saltbox]

Like many I was curious about these sticks, having never had a farm roll and not foreseeing any opportunities to procure any from a source I felt 100% confident about. I ended up freezing these for a week and letting them rest for 3 months before finally trying one. The "Siglo II" name is obviously just a reference to the vitola, but I've found that most of the sticks, especially with the bigger vitolas, run a bit fatter and sometimes a bit longer than they're supposed to be. Decided to try out this one first, as the narrow ring gauge probably lends itself to acclimating faster than some of the other much fatter ring gauges.

First third: opens with a nice cream, hay, and a touch of grassiness. There's an interesting tartness on the finish, not quite RASS-like but similar. Maybe more inline with a SLR Regio. The flavor slowly becomes richer, taking on a rich tobacco note with a touch of cocoa and creamy coffee.

Middle third: twangy sweet cream and a blend of tobacco, cocoa, coffee, and hay. The notes are hard to pull apart. It could probably be described both as balanced or muddled. The cigar is extremely smooth though, no harsh notes or pepper, just a smooth medium body.

Last third: flavor profile doesn't change much. It actually reminds me of the notes I get off of Habanos cigars that are a bit underfilled with the hay notes, but lacking the harshness that accompanies underfilling. It's definitely well rolled, no fill or burn issues throughout the smoke.

Overall: I feel pretty certain that this is Cuban tobacco (but I also only got 2/5 in the blind tasting so 🤐). As for how good it was... meh. It was pleasant and smooth for sure, but it also seemed to lack any particularly distinct flavors. The Habanos marcas all seem to have their unique characteristics but if their was a generic Habanos flavor profile that they all built off of, I imagine this would be it. I would describe it as Montecristo cream with a touch of coffee meets Romeo y Julieta rich tobacco notes. It has been only 3 months of rest, though, so I'm intrigued to see how these age and how the other vitolas vary. 3 months is only half of the rest time I usually put in before trying something for the first time. 88/100