Face mini-review, aging discussion

[Patrick B]

I smoked the Face last night. I was (like most others) a little surprised at the lack of typical Pepin/Tat spice and fullness. I LOVED the flavors present nonetheless. I'm not big on wordy reviews, but I got some sweetness, some "aged Cuban" flavor, and a touch of the Cruzado "roasted" flavor at times. Delicious. It was very refined for a young Pepin stick in my opinion. I nubbed the crap out of it and I definitely knew I had smoked a big ass cigar when I was done. Glad I bought plenty!

Now the real question at hand - what will these taste like in a year? I love how the Boris are smoking right now. In fact, I think they are smoking better than the Franks at the moment. I'm just curious what everyone thinks this will taste like in a little while. I'd love to hear what Pete thinks, if he reads this...

 

[njstone]

Well, in my humble opinion nearly all Tats benefit a lot from age. In fact, there are few that I'll smoke right away (the new El Triunfador Lanceros I had were an exception ... and are exceptional!). I know you like the La Ricky's fresh though, Patrick.

To me, most cigars gain flavor when the age. They don't really get "new" flavors, but to me the flavors often seem to come out a lot stronger with some good rest. The Cubao, for example, has some awesome vanilla notes in it that I can't detect when they're less than a year old, but later on it's obvious to me. I also think the idea that cigars loose spice when they age is often false (the Cubao is still a mighty cigar with 2 years on it).

I've heard several say that the Face is boring in the first inch (or third, depending on who you ask), and then became really nice. In my limited experience, that is a PERFECT candidate for excellent aging. I personally didn't get that much out of the first third of the Boris when they were new ... good, but not awesome. The 2nd third was great, and the final third was orgasmic. 2 months ago, the Boris I had was awesome from start to finish (though it still gets better as you go down, imvho). I'm going to smoke another Boris this week

If you liked this non-powerhouse cigar (the Face), then I think you'll probably like it more as time goes on.

 

[Patrick B]

The last Boris I smoked went from a great aged, refined taste in the first half to a great spicy Tat flavor in the second half. Seriously one of the better smokes right now. As you know, Nate, I typically don't think many NC's are better older than a year or so....

 

[njstone]

I know, and the Boris is a perfect example of how a cigar can gain flavor--and even spice--with age. The Illusione MJ12 I'm smoking right now is almost a year old, and it's spicier to me than the new ones!

I think it really depends WHAT you like about a specific cigar. If you like raw power (I know you do, lol), many cigars loose some of that with age.

 

[e-man67]

I wonder if the MJ12 retains that sweet clean Illusione flavor because they are wrapped in the foil...I mean at a year they are still great but some of the other sizes like the cg4 (that are not wrapped) that I had with the same age were kinda bland. They had lost that signature Illusione flavor...same deal with the Cruzados...got some fresh out of the box and they were great but then letting some singles sit for a year they got bland.

 

[bigbwalls]

Thanks for the quick review, Patrick.

I'll agree, there's definitely a sweet tobacco flavor in there, especially in the first two-thirds. I didn't find the first third to be boring but just very, very mild. As it burnt I found that it picked up in strength just a bit, pushing it to a medium-bodied smoke. It was a good cigar, but not great in my opinion. Hopefully I'll have the patience to age some of them and smoke one in the future -- perhaps then it'll go from a good cigar to a great cigar.