Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona

[jazznut]

Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona

Country of fabrication: Cuba
Date of issue: Pre 2000

Date of review: Saturday August 22, 2009
Setting: A warm and sunny afternoon on the back porch

Accompanying beverages: Islay Mist 17 Year Old and a glass of cool water. The blended Scotch proved an ideal match.

Appearance of outer leaf: Richly toned Colorado with diffuse, subtle oscuro markings as well as a few crystallized oil deposits. Very fine tooth.

Ash: Bone grey-white to charcoal.
Combustion: Apart from a burn edge that tended to scallop unevenly, no problems were encountered.

Total time of session: Approximately 1½ hours.

Opening portion: Dry cocoa. Cinnamon. Cedar. Mild tobacco with a distinctively sweet, clay-like, earthy quality. Faint musk, which the Scotch whisky tended to accentuate.

Early stages: Chocolate mint wafers. Roasted sesame seeds. The cocoa beginning to shed its granularity in favour of a more toffee-imbued creaminess. Some soft baking spices flitting about the perimeter of the palate.

The heart of the smoke: Flavours tightly intertwined, the boundaries between core tobacco, cocoa and cedar blurring in a more cohesively conveyed thrust. Leaning decidedly to the milder end of the intensity spectrum. Very smooth.

Latter stages: Cocoa butter. Honey-laced carrot cake. Aniseed. The cedar component taking on a slightly briny tone akin to Alaea sea salt. Delicate and quite sublime.

Closing moments: Gaining marginally in strength. A taste of fruit skins emerging, evidencing the still present underlying tannins. Hints of Yemen coffee percolating through into the cocoa element. Balanced and satiating despite the overall mildness.

Assessment: Four years have passed since I last lit up one of these. At that time, I thought I had caught the Hoyo at its peak. Now, I’m not so sure.

Summary: A hard one to put to rest.

Have a fine weekend, everyone.