Quai d'Orsay No. 50 OER MAR 20 (QQNWRW)

[Low]

This was actually my first purchase from 24:24 in July, along with a couple tenners of PSD4. I've been holding off on smoking one of these since they already had a couple years and wanted to get to the magical 3rd before sampling. But I'm just getting over Covid, so it calls for celebration!

Straight cut, soft flame, and paired with ice water.

Cold draw and wrapper aroma are nothing to write home about, but hot damn its darker than most I've ever seen. My lighting doesn't do it justice, as it's closer to a Colorado maduro than the regular Colorado claro or even Colorado . Truly excited to see what lies underneath. Doing it in halves since she's a small one.

First Half -  Pure vanilla, toasted tobacco, hints of citrus peel, and cinnamon. Simply has all the flavors of things I love, nothing is overpowered or taking the lead. Might be my favorite texture of smoke I've ever experienced, pure creaminess on the palate with a flavor that doesn't overstay its welcome. I'd say body is light to medium at this point. 

 

Second Half - Vanilla is now riding shotgun with honey, citrus and cinnamon have lightened, a nice amount of cedar has been added as well as a small amount of chocolate. There's a trick that the flavors are playing on me though, this particular combination has reminded me of slightly burnt buttered popcorn. Somehow, the creaminess has also increased, with the body settling in medium, flirting with light medium.

 

8.75/10 - Potential for up to 9.25 with a real outside chance of a couple making it to 9.5. Construction was superb, requiring zero touchups, but I did have a bit of a runner (2nd picture) that corrected itself. Flavors were on point with nothing that was unpleasant. I would love for this thing to be about one inch longer as the 50 minute smoke time could've used another 15 minutes, and one more transition into a medium full smoke. The true star of the show was the texture. I would love to have that in every cigar I smoke for the rest of my life