Quick explanation in case you didn't read the first post: I bought this box a bit after my daughter was born, with a plan to smoke a cigar each year on or around her birthday. It's a fun little tradition that I look forward to, and I thought it'd be interesting to see what happens to the cigars over the years. Here's the 3-year update for the 3rd cigar smoked from the box.

My daughter's birthday was a few weeks ago but I was a little under the weather and it's taken me a couple weeks to get back to 100%. I finally had a chance to sit down this morning and enjoy this cigar as it was meant to be enjoyed. I made some espresso and got down to business. Once again, I deliberately didn't read my notes from last year and although I have a pretty good memory of the last couple, I tried to experience this at least without bias from my notes.



First impression was that a few years have not caused the cigar to lose much aroma. I got a big, strong whiff of barnyard from the unlit foot. The wrapper still looks good, fairly flat and well-rolled.

In the first third I got some mild pepper, but mostly light coffee and a stronger chocolate flavor. Retrohale was smoother than I remembered from years past, with pepper and a lot of sweetness through the nose. Draw was perfectly firm, and the cigar produced a good amount of grey-white smoke to go along with a flaky ash.

The second third gave a darker and richer earthy flavor, but still plenty of sweetness. I got a bigger coffee-with-sugar flavor in this section as well. The pepper picked up too, especially on the retrohale. It was fairly strong through the nose, much more what I was expecting. The strength ticked up a little to medium-full, and the burnline stayed perfect.

The last third was where the cigar shined the most, with a rich fudge or brownie flavor being the most dominant. Pepper and earth were fairly strong as well, and the finish lengthened even more towards the end. I only bothered retrohaling once after I got punished with a pepper blast in this section. I gave the cigar one minor touchup, but that was more just keeping it tidy rather than really needing it. It finished up towards the upper end of med-full and held up just fine to my strong coffee.

Overall, I nubbed it wishing I had another box or two in the humidor. As it is, I'll have to wait another year to try the next one. I'm now a few years in, and it doesn't seem like the flavors are diminished or muddled at all.