13. Stogies Old Havana

This was a 7” stick from the Po Boy II Sampler that had a much darker wrapper than I have become accustomed to with this selection. The cigar felt as if it were filled pretty well. The foot was full and there was only minimal damage to the wrapper on that end. There were plenty of small veins that were slightly darker than the wrapper leaf and worked to make it a fairly attractive cigar. It had a “darker” scent to it than most of the Po Boy sticks and really gave a nice taste in the cold draw after I punched it.

The cigar was pleasantly more pungent from the start. It was the first stick in the sampler that began with what I would call a medium profile. It had a moderate espresso flavor that was clean and bitter (but not in an unpleasant way). Halfway through this settled down and was replaced with a strong woody flavor. The smoke stayed rich and absent of sweetness all the way to the nub. Unfortunately it did turn a bit harsh close to the end. A couple purges were unable to clear this up but I was not going to use a nubber on it so it really didn’t matter.

The single best part of the cigar: The deeper flavors that avoided falling into the common mild Po Boy profile.
The single worst part of the cigar: The flavor was burnt and caustic at the very end.
Overall rating on a scale of 1-10: 7.9 (The flavors were decent, the burn was god except for a small section that self-corrected. This one might be a diamond in the rough for .99 if allowed to age a bit.)