O.K. I am going to take off the gloves here. I just had my first one of two last night. My best freind and I are outside, its 55 degrees, almost a full moon, a perfect night to sit out with some vintage and tawny port and smoke some cigars.
He chooses a Plasencia Organica Reserva Corona, and I choose the FF Opus X "Tribute to Arturo Sandoval". The Fuente smells great when it comes out of the tube, and looks impressive enough. I do notice the binder and wrapper are extremely thin, but it looks like a quality product.
I light it, take the first draw, and it tastes like a Dominican Fuente. Mild, slightly nutty, not intense or extraordinary. Then it went out while I was taking my second draw, something that has never happened before.
So, I put the torch to it again, and within an inch, I have an inch long canoe forming, and all of the flavor is gone because the wrapper isn't burning with the filler. I retorch the canoe to get the wrapper to even out.
Then the next inch becomes really strange and bitter like an oil slick in my mouth. I start to get a strange look on my face, and my freind, Chris, asks if I am allright?
I answer that I am having trouble with my cigar, that it is tough to draw and is really tasting like an oil slick. Then I have a terrible draw, a really acrid, sour flavor hits my palate, and I look at the cigar. Black juice had begun coming out of the tail where I made my cut, and was blocking the draw almost completely. This juice had a flavor like the worst chewing tobacco, "Red Man", just like my Grandpa used to chew.
I showed Chris the drops of juice coming out of the end of my cigar, and we both immediatly thought "Maduromatic?" This cigar was in its' tube, at the same humidity that Fuente shipped it at. I couldn't help but think of Carlito in the DVD saying "You show this tobacco to a Cubano, and they'll tell you it won't burn!" This was going through my mind as I was massaging the end of the cigar, blotting off the juice from the end, dealing with a new canoe on the other side of the wrapper.
This cigar was turning in to a nightmare, not at all like "smoking a dream" to quote Cynthia Fuente. The flavor was getting worse. I had to keep remassaging the end, which was plugging with juice after every draw.
I normally reserve judgement on a cigar till the last third. The first two thirds of a cigar can taste wonderful, but sometimes the last third can accumulate some pretty strong and unpleasant flavors. All of my favorite cigars taste best in the last third. The flavor doesn't get bitter, it gets better!
So I was half way through this cigar, really wanting to get to the last third, but I couldn't do it. It was just too nasty, syrupy, and gross. I put the cigar down, and Chris and I started disscussing the Fuente.
He puts down his Plasencia with an inch to go, a total nubb. I decide to smoke what is left of the Plasencia, because it is still lit, and WOW, this is a great cigar! It was pure, and flavorfull. Each draw was smooth clean and no bitterness, or cloying flavors.
I put the nubb down when it began to burn my fingers. It was a half an inch long, with a perfect 1/2 inch long ash clinging to it. This Plasencia was wonderful.
I remarked that the Fuente had smelled so much of cocoa, coffee, and cinnamon before it was lit that it seemed artificial. Then after all of the liquid comes out when it is smoked, plus the oil slick sensation on the palate, I thought that this was a flavored cigar. Artificial and phoney,and not as well done as a flavored cigar from Drew Estate.
It is the second worst cigar I have had in the last six months, topped only by an Ashton Monarch that was completely awful tasting, like a stale ashtray.
For five dollars a cigar, this cigar would be overpriced, at twenty five dolllars a cigar, it is a rip off. I didn't even get the slightest buzz from it either.
No good flavors, no effect, "No Cigar!"
The only other cigar I have spent this much for was a Vegas Robaina #2 Torpedo in Windsor, Canada. It burned perfectly, lasted two hours, had a wonderful finish, and I was high for the next eight hours off of it. It was worth the money, The fuente decidedly is not.
I believe these cigars are a sham. They are all image, and no substance. The band of the cigar really is appropriate, it looks like something from the movie "Moulin Rouge", another substanceless product that the media tries to sell to the public.
I feel ripped off, and I would love to have an address for the Fuentes', to return the remaining cigar, with my complaints. I would never give a cigar like this to a freind. I want to keep my freinds!
