My wife and I don’t do the late-night thing on New Years Eve any longer, so I spent my New Years Eve at West Coast Cigars after dropping off our youngest son at a get-together nearby. I figured I could spend a few hours there and kill time until I had to pick him up at the party.
I started out the evening smoking the Olmec I purchased the day before, then smoked an AJ New World Oscuro that I brought with me. While I was smoking the AJ, I got into a conversation with Kyle, one of the owners of the shop on some dusters he’d found at his distributors.
One of the dusters he’d found was from 2016 that he kept and the other was the Regius Sun Grown from 2018. He said that when he opened the box, he couldn’t believe how brown the cellophane had become when he put them on the shelves. I knew then that I had to try one. So I got up, went into the humidor, then picked one out.
I should’ve picked up a couple more. Holy shit! The wrapper was completely bronzed! I’ve only seen that with some of my own cigars that have sat for a long time. When I see that, I know I’m gonna have a treat!
And a treat was what I had. Before lighting it up, I smelled the cigar. It had a funky, sour smell from all the oils oozing out of it. The dry draw was a little sour as well. But at light-up, it was like smoking a mini LFD La Nox. Full of cream, cocoa, espresso, over a hint of cedar. Damn! BUT unlike the La Nox, it wasn’t accompanied by a shitload of nicotine. It was pure flavor!
Unfortunately, I had to cut off the cherry midway through the first third because my son texted me that he was ready to be picked up. Ugh! But I stoked it up this morning, and after a little purge, OMFG! It was like smoking a coffee with cream!
By the second half, cacao beans showed up along with a hint of tart stone fruit. Throughout the smoke, black pepper spice would surface, but go away. It made me think that as a new stick, it would be a spicy smoke, but with age, that spiciness is practically eliminated.
I’m going back to the shop today to get some more of these wonderful sticks! I already put in an order for two 5-packs, plus a 5-pack of their Red Labels. I love discovering new brands that are completely off the radar!
Update: I went back to the store today and bought the rest of the box as there were only seven left. And what I found was that Kyle was actually wrong about the date code. It wasn’t 2018. It was 2017! So, I’ve got cigars with six years of age on them!
When the guy working there today rang them up, he laughed out loud. I looked at him and asked him what was up. He said to me, “I can’t believe you bought the rest of the box. We keep quiet about these because they’re so good.” I told him I couldn’t pass it up.
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