San Cristobal de Habana La Punta (Box Code KMM SEP 03)

[Meadmaker]

San Cristobal de Habana La Punta (Box Code KMM SEP 03)
Date Reviewed Sunday Sept. 7th 2008

Paired with ice water
A beautiful torpedo, with a flawless wrapper and perfect roll. Very Dark wrapper, with minimal veins. Fairly solid roll with no lumps or soft spots I clip about 1/3 of the pointed cap, and took a test draw. A slightly firm draw. The prelight taste is of rich tobacco, and a slight spice. I toast the foot, with my cheap torch, and the cigar readily accepts the flame, coming to life with an even light producing volumes of smoke.
My initial impression is of cream and leather, with notes of cedar. The cigar starts out medium bodied, but full of flavor.
The first third of this cigar is very creamy with notes of leather, and cedar. After the first inch, the flavor of tea and citrus is added to the mix. Quite pleasant. My lips and tongue have started to tingle with spice. Toward the end of the first third the flavors of citrus, and white pepper get quite intense, but the body continues to be medium.

The second third of this cigar seems to settle a bit, with the tingling of my lips and tongue reducing in intensity. The tea flavor has been replaced with coffee, and a light caramel taste. The burn of this cigar is razor sharp, and the black and grey ash stayed firm, not dropping until just before the band, and then with a little help.

The final third of this cigar, the spice becomes more intense, and I begin to notice a bit of charcoal taste. When I purge, the charcoal disappears, and a creamy caramel regains its hold as the core flavor, and the white pepper has become quite intense. The finish on this cigar is rich and spicy, and continues long after I laid this stick to rest, with about 1’ remaining. A very nice 1 ¼ hour smoke.

This has turned into a very complex cigar. The flavors seem to change from one puff to the next. I would give this cigar a 4.8 on a five point scale, for its’ complexity and quality of construction. I don’t see how this cigar could get any better than it is smoking right now. The remainder of this box, has just moved into my regular rotation.
Dave (A.K.A. Meadmaker)