An interesting surprise- or not

[jb]

A while back I picked up some Padilla '68 Lanceros. The first couple were fabulous and I quickly piled up a couple boxes. The next several were way off and I gave up on them. Sold a few boxes (at a loss) just to get rid of the damn things. It seemed like they had potential, but the construction and greenness just outweight any good parts.

A few days ago, while playing cigar Tetris, one of the lanceros I had left got shut in the top of the cooler. It wasn't destroyed, it basically clipped the cigar in a rudimentary kind of way. I decided it was a perfect opportunity to revisit these and see if 6 months time had settled them down any.

Prelight, the wrapper has a great hershey bar appearance. A nice oily sheen from one end to the other made me think this had potential. Smoothed out the cooler cut and noted the prelight draw was snug, not abnormal for a lancero. The first few puffs were amazing. Lots of creamy cocoa highlights. The first third way a great morning smoke. Medium in body, full in flavor. I'd found a pleasant surprise.

The middle third started full of problems. I smoke lanceros slowly as most folks do, to keep the cigar from burning too hot. I hit the cigar again and got a horrible, acrid taste. I looked at the cherry and it was obviously tunneling badly. It was like the wrapper had gone out but the filler had not. Strangely, after a relight, it was a good smoke again. The problem is this process had to be repeated three more times in the middle third of the smoke.

As I got into the last third, things evened out a bit. Right in the beginning of the end I had to relight it again after getting another acrid blast of wet dog smell and no smoke. It then stayed lit although it burned rather uneven until I gave up on it. Surprisingly, the cocoa returned each time, after I scraped the acrid ass flavor off my tongue.

Overall, if it weren't for the horrible construction issues and accompanying terrible flavor this wasn't a bad cigar. The good parts were very good. The bad parts were very bad. This blend seems to have real potential. If something could be done about the poor construction this could be an outstanding cigar.

82/100