Cigar Weekly

Zippy The Pinhead · 12-09-2006, 03:50 PM

A couple of years ago, in search of a good medium-to-full bodied value cigar, I ordered a box of JR Ultimate Principales. I had never tried these before.

I got a box with a date code of 7HK, which translates to January 2001. In late 2002, when I ordered these, they were $57 for 20 cigars (now $64.95, which works out to an annualized rate of increase of 3.3%, very reasonable IMO), or $2.85 per stick.

Anyway, these were cellophaned when I got them, so I was wondering what their effective age was (since cellophaned cigars tend to show the effects of aging more slowly than naked cigars). I smoked a couple when I got the box, and they had a good tobacco flavor, but I was not exactly blown away. So I removed the cellophane and reboxed them and left them to age.

I have not had one of these for a long time, probably two years at least. As far as I can recall, the last one I smoked was also not all I was hoping for, and I was also finding that the 54 ring size was just a little too fat for my liking. So they have pretty much stayed in the humidor, resting in their box.

Fast forward to earlier this afternoon. I was going to walk over to the park with the wife and kids. So I reached into one of my less-accessed desktop humidors and saw one of these Ultimate Principales. I grabbed it and went out the door.

The cigar burned extremely well... it was well-constructed. I never touched it up or had to relight. The flavor profile was what I would describe as a medium-bodied Honduran cigar. It had a good tobacco flavor and produced volumes of smoke very easily. The draw was just right, and the aftertaste, which I am enjoying now, is/was pleasant.

I smoked in the park while the kids played. It was a beautiful December afternoon here in SoCal. A nice breeze was coming in from the direction of the ocean.

I noted that the ash, when viewed end-on, contained a clearly defined black ring, just under the binder region. The rest of the ash was grey. I don't know what that means, but I don't think I've seen such a color pattern in the ash of any other cigar.

Anyway, the ash broke in a cone shape, which, according to Rudy Rawman, is another indication that the cigar is well-constructed.

Overall, a very pleasant, enjoyable smoke. I'm glad I still have 15 or so remaining in the box.

BTW I finally got the hang of the poll function. When you submit a poll with a certain number of choices, the server automatically deletes the last choice for some reason. So if you want to have your poll appear with 10 choices, you have to submit it with an 11th "sacrificial" choice for the server to delete.

View Poll Results: Rate the JR Ultimate Pricipales (Toro) 6x54 natural overall on a scale of 1-10.
1 Awful	3	10.34%
2 A little better than awful	0	0%
3 below average	2	6.90%
4 A little below average	1	3.45%
5 Average	3	10.34%
6 A little above average	3	10.34%
7 Above average	4	13.79%
8 Good	4	13.79%
9 Very good	8	27.59%
10 Excellent	1	3.45%
Voters: 29. You may not vote on this poll

12-09-2006, 03:50 PM	#1
Zippy The Pinhead Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Out to lunch Posts: 266	JR Ultimate Principales (Toro) 6x54 Natural/EMS A couple of years ago, in search of a good medium-to-full bodied value cigar, I ordered a box of JR Ultimate Principales. I had never tried these before. I got a box with a date code of 7HK, which translates to January 2001. In late 2002, when I ordered these, they were $57 for 20 cigars (now $64.95, which works out to an annualized rate of increase of 3.3%, very reasonable IMO), or $2.85 per stick. Anyway, these were cellophaned when I got them, so I was wondering what their effective age was (since cellophaned cigars tend to show the effects of aging more slowly than naked cigars). I smoked a couple when I got the box, and they had a good tobacco flavor, but I was not exactly blown away. So I removed the cellophane and reboxed them and left them to age. I have not had one of these for a long time, probably two years at least. As far as I can recall, the last one I smoked was also not all I was hoping for, and I was also finding that the 54 ring size was just a little too fat for my liking. So they have pretty much stayed in the humidor, resting in their box. Fast forward to earlier this afternoon. I was going to walk over to the park with the wife and kids. So I reached into one of my less-accessed desktop humidors and saw one of these Ultimate Principales. I grabbed it and went out the door. The cigar burned extremely well... it was well-constructed. I never touched it up or had to relight. The flavor profile was what I would describe as a medium-bodied Honduran cigar. It had a good tobacco flavor and produced volumes of smoke very easily. The draw was just right, and the aftertaste, which I am enjoying now, is/was pleasant. I smoked in the park while the kids played. It was a beautiful December afternoon here in SoCal. A nice breeze was coming in from the direction of the ocean. I noted that the ash, when viewed end-on, contained a clearly defined black ring, just under the binder region. The rest of the ash was grey. I don't know what that means, but I don't think I've seen such a color pattern in the ash of any other cigar. Anyway, the ash broke in a cone shape, which, according to Rudy Rawman, is another indication that the cigar is well-constructed. Overall, a very pleasant, enjoyable smoke. I'm glad I still have 15 or so remaining in the box. BTW I finally got the hang of the poll function. When you submit a poll with a certain number of choices, the server automatically deletes the last choice for some reason. So if you want to have your poll appear with 10 choices, you have to submit it with an 11th "sacrificial" choice for the server to delete. __________________ Disco oil bussing will create a throbbing naugahide pipeline running straight to the tropics from the rug producing regions and devalue the dollar! http://www.omnicron.com/cgi-bin/yow?