Well, as I stated above, I would buy these again if I could get a good deal. Well, thanks to a large overtime check, I decided to pull the trigger on a box. I have only purchased these as singles in the past because of the price gouging that goes on in local tobacco shops. I have always like them, but have not really been willing to pay the inflated $9.00 - $11.00 a stick that I have seen these for (retail is $7.00 each). So, when I found a box of these at Holts for $150.00 ($6.00 a stick), I just had to buy. Well, these came in last night and what follows is my report on the matter.
The first thing that hit me when opening my shipment was the absolute beauty of the cedar chest that these cigars were shipped within. I’ve seen these open for display in the cigar store before, but to be holding one in my hands in my own living room was a real treat. The quality of the chest is just simply excellent, but I have learned not to judge a book by its cover. I have had some real bad experiences with Fuente products in the past, and the Opus X in particular, so I was really hoping that this was not a case of “all hat and no cattle”. I need not have worried.
After finally getting the front latch open (everything was fitted very tight and furniture quality), my eyes were again delighted by the colors of the enclosed humidification pack and the beautiful velvet of the inner chest lid. As I removed the humidor pack and the “guarantee card”, my eyes were treated to the upper row of beautifull cigars. To this point, every part of this experience has been excellent for me.
I usually let my cigars sit in my humidor for a good week before I smoke them to let them recover from their journey, but this time I just could not wait. My excitement at this point would have made putting these cigars into the humidor like having intense foreplay and then waiting a week to have sex. I was overcome and thinking with my senses and not my mind as I removed a stick from under the band and carefully removed it from its cellophane cover. Everything about the aesthetics of this cigar was just freaking perfect. The Cameroon wrapper was simple perfection all the way around the cigar’s 47/64 inch diameter and fully down its 6 inch length. The aroma of the cigar was getting me so wound up that I was fumbling for my cutter and lighter like a kid trying to open his presents on Christmas day. The cigar was very firm like my usual Punches, and the cap clipped off with no shower of filler and no unraveling of the small remaining ring. Draw was very firm, and the pre-draw taste was incredible. The wrapper had a hint of sweetness that lasted throughout the entire burn.
I let the end of the cigar with only one match. The design of the Hemmingway really lends itself to this with its interestingly tapered front. Draw was very firm, but not uncomfortably so. Smoke volume, both in front of the stick and through the draw was just incredible. It had been months since I smoked a Hemmingway, and this cigar was turning out to be everything that I remembered. Flavor of this cigar is pure Fuente and has nothing in common with the Punch and Montecristo cigars that I normally smoke. I am not saying better, but decidedly different. There seemed to be no “warm-up” period during the first half inch as I have come to expect. The flavor of this cigar is right there, right now. There are several changes in texture and flavor of the smoke during the course of the approximately hour long burn. Boy is this a slow burner. I have a hard time understanding how a cigar can burn so slow and still put out such an incredible amount of smoke in such a narrow ring gauge. Burn was excellent and required only the most minimal of touching up (my anal retentiveness more than a fault in the cigar). The flavor became increasingly stronger as the cigar reached the band, but never really became harsh. The last third of the smoke had an effect on my lips and tongue that was almost like menthol. It did not have a cheap menthol flavor, but rather an icy cool effect on the mouth. Really odd, but good.
In concluding, I have no trouble seeing why this, the oldest of the Hemmingway line, was the cigar that Carlos Fuente rolled for himself. I have to say (and this is coming from a guy who’s handle is Punch and who’s humidor contains mostly Punch and Montecristo cigars) that the Arturo Fuente Hemmingway Signature is near the high point of the cigar maker’s art. At $6.00 a stick, this is one of the few cigars that I believe I have gotten far more than I paid for.
but really pick one up and tell me what you think
