Ever since this fine cigar was sent to me I have been drooling in anticipation. My understanding of this cigar has been that it is simply one of the best in the world. It has also come to my attention that the ’98 Trini was a “vintage” year that many before me have toted as one of the best smokes they have had or enjoyed immensely.
Well, I won’t disappoint, this was a delight to smoke and one of the best smokes – especially ISOM that I have had. I haven’t had any ISOM Cohiba’s and I have a couple Siglo VI’s waiting for me now in the humi (review coming later this week I am sure LOL). Aside from those and what I have read and heard about them, at this point in time, if money was no object, I would gladly live out the rest of my ISOM smoking life with Alejandro Robania Robusto’s and these Trini’s ’98. Throw in an occasional Partagas Luci and a Montecristo # 2 and I would live like a king! Course this might change when I try the Siglo VI LOL.
My first impression of the Trini as I held it, rotated it, smelled it, simply looked at it as I took it out of the humi was in a word: fragile. Long and thin, dry, long consistent veins in the wrapper and fragile. As in pack in bubble wrap and air bags, surround in soft cotton and metal container fragile. The pre-light odor was of fresh dry soil and added to the illusion of its fragility. Fresh, dry soil is easily blown away by the wind and so was my impression of this cigar. Even after lighting it and smoking it down some, the ash itself was fragile, needing to drop every couple of minutes, barely hanging on. The smoke was to dissipate quickly as if not even there. All of this combined made me think this cigar as “fragile”.
I used my punch cutter for this cigar and the lighting of this cigar went smoothly. It surprised me how mild tasting yet full body it was and it quickly went to my head within only a couple of draws. The smoke was silky smooth that as mentioned before dissipated quickly leaving a nice fragrance in the air that caught Melly’s attention quickly – at one point she even stole my cigar away for a few puffs – more so than usual. Mild, light flavors of supple leather and caramel filled my palette, filling my mouth at first and then melting away like cotton candy does in your mouth, leaving a cream and light cocoa aftertaste behind. Yet, despite this mild taste my lips grew numb within minutes, my head was swimming nicely and I grew addicted to not only the taste but the texture of this smoke.
A long time ago I had by agreement with a friend, a glass of Soy Milk. My impressions of this soy milk was room temperature canned milk with a slight sweetness – not a sugar sweetness or even a fruit sweetness, but a natural granular sweetness. I never drank the stuff again as it didn’t float my boat, but did use it in my latte’s and coffee’s through the early-mid 90’s. It was this taste, this sweetness that I detected in the Trini along with smooth cream as I smoked the cigar further down, combining with the leather and caramel.
As I smoked down the Trini, this dry cigar oozed oils, becoming an oily cigar. The full bodiness increased, the tastes became stronger (but remained mild). The cream, caramel, leather, natural sweetness combined with hints of cocoa and a touch of nutmeg. As all of this evolved and developed it became like smoking a completely different cigar. Especially since the fragile nature of this cigar that I made such a big deal out of earlier in my review faded and became stronger, more sturdy and tough. The fragileness wore off as if the cigar was finding itself and becoming the Big Cigar of the Humi, the dog to beat as it were. Lost was the dry nature of the cigar, with oils everywhere (after the cigar was over, Princess enjoyed licking my fingers LOL – the cigar slut (for those who don’t know who Princess is, she is my feline cigar companion); gone was the mild tastes as they became fuller and red peppers starting showing up to finish off with a hot red pepper finish. The supple leather tastes became hard leather with an earthy aftertaste and gone was the illusion that this was a fragile cigar.
Indeed, this cigar used illusion to captivate and to be handled with care, until it had me convinced it needed to be pampered – and pamper it I did, just to have it come along, grow in itself, throw off its disguise and kick me in the butt.
I would normally give this cigar a strong 98. Maybe even a 99. But, I have had the pleasure of a lot of fine, high shelf cigars lately thanks to my friend Jason and I have been warned that better are to come even. So I am thinking that I might want to leave room at the end of my scale… So I give this cigar a 94-95. Not because it is “less” of a cigar than would be rated a 98, but because I have to find the bell curve somewhere. And I have to be honest about the cigars I smoke. Taste wise, feeling wise, emotional wise, this cigar deserves a 98-99. The oils, the fragrances, the construction, ect. all deserve a high score as well. But some things about this cigar deserve less than these high rise scores – though score high never-the-less.
A couple points need to be deducted because of the ash. Throughout the cigar, the ash remained very fragile and would need to be flicked every inch and a half about. I normally prefer a longer ash to help keep the smoke cool and for aesthetic purposes. Though the cigar proved itself in the end, the construction from my initial first impression of being fragile does have to carry a mark against, especially when I see cigars as a hardy item. Though I was pleasantly surprised at it’s transformation during smoking. Still a couple more points away because of this. The dissipation of the smoke… though left a pleasant odor literally melted away almost immediately into the air, dissolving almost. Is this a good thing deserving of points? Maybe, but it is also something I have not noticed before in cigars and I did miss the clouds that would settle in the room and slowly dissipate, so I take another point away. For those keeping score, this is 5 points from my original 98-99, leaves 93-94. However, in my mind that is too low a score, so adjusted to 94-95.
A final note about this cigar, other than the obvious “I want more!” As friends of mine know, I have 4 cats. One of them, Princess is a cigar lover – but she is picky, she likes maduro’s and dark wrapper cigars – especially the VSG – her favorite. The other cats could care less. The oldest Julius doesn’t like them at all and will often give me a disdainful look when I smoke and leaves the vicinity if too much smoke gets near him. However, in a surprising move, he cuddled up on my stomach as I smoked this cigar and literally bathed in the smoke before it would dissipate. Especially considering that you would never, ever, describe Julius as a “lap kitty”. So, we finally found a cigar even this old grump likes LOL.
Thanks for reading!
Sam
Well, I won’t disappoint, this was a delight to smoke and one of the best smokes – especially ISOM that I have had. I haven’t had any ISOM Cohiba’s and I have a couple Siglo VI’s waiting for me now in the humi (review coming later this week I am sure LOL). Aside from those and what I have read and heard about them, at this point in time, if money was no object, I would gladly live out the rest of my ISOM smoking life with Alejandro Robania Robusto’s and these Trini’s ’98. Throw in an occasional Partagas Luci and a Montecristo # 2 and I would live like a king! Course this might change when I try the Siglo VI LOL.
My first impression of the Trini as I held it, rotated it, smelled it, simply looked at it as I took it out of the humi was in a word: fragile. Long and thin, dry, long consistent veins in the wrapper and fragile. As in pack in bubble wrap and air bags, surround in soft cotton and metal container fragile. The pre-light odor was of fresh dry soil and added to the illusion of its fragility. Fresh, dry soil is easily blown away by the wind and so was my impression of this cigar. Even after lighting it and smoking it down some, the ash itself was fragile, needing to drop every couple of minutes, barely hanging on. The smoke was to dissipate quickly as if not even there. All of this combined made me think this cigar as “fragile”.
I used my punch cutter for this cigar and the lighting of this cigar went smoothly. It surprised me how mild tasting yet full body it was and it quickly went to my head within only a couple of draws. The smoke was silky smooth that as mentioned before dissipated quickly leaving a nice fragrance in the air that caught Melly’s attention quickly – at one point she even stole my cigar away for a few puffs – more so than usual. Mild, light flavors of supple leather and caramel filled my palette, filling my mouth at first and then melting away like cotton candy does in your mouth, leaving a cream and light cocoa aftertaste behind. Yet, despite this mild taste my lips grew numb within minutes, my head was swimming nicely and I grew addicted to not only the taste but the texture of this smoke.
A long time ago I had by agreement with a friend, a glass of Soy Milk. My impressions of this soy milk was room temperature canned milk with a slight sweetness – not a sugar sweetness or even a fruit sweetness, but a natural granular sweetness. I never drank the stuff again as it didn’t float my boat, but did use it in my latte’s and coffee’s through the early-mid 90’s. It was this taste, this sweetness that I detected in the Trini along with smooth cream as I smoked the cigar further down, combining with the leather and caramel.
As I smoked down the Trini, this dry cigar oozed oils, becoming an oily cigar. The full bodiness increased, the tastes became stronger (but remained mild). The cream, caramel, leather, natural sweetness combined with hints of cocoa and a touch of nutmeg. As all of this evolved and developed it became like smoking a completely different cigar. Especially since the fragile nature of this cigar that I made such a big deal out of earlier in my review faded and became stronger, more sturdy and tough. The fragileness wore off as if the cigar was finding itself and becoming the Big Cigar of the Humi, the dog to beat as it were. Lost was the dry nature of the cigar, with oils everywhere (after the cigar was over, Princess enjoyed licking my fingers LOL – the cigar slut (for those who don’t know who Princess is, she is my feline cigar companion); gone was the mild tastes as they became fuller and red peppers starting showing up to finish off with a hot red pepper finish. The supple leather tastes became hard leather with an earthy aftertaste and gone was the illusion that this was a fragile cigar.
Indeed, this cigar used illusion to captivate and to be handled with care, until it had me convinced it needed to be pampered – and pamper it I did, just to have it come along, grow in itself, throw off its disguise and kick me in the butt.
I would normally give this cigar a strong 98. Maybe even a 99. But, I have had the pleasure of a lot of fine, high shelf cigars lately thanks to my friend Jason and I have been warned that better are to come even. So I am thinking that I might want to leave room at the end of my scale… So I give this cigar a 94-95. Not because it is “less” of a cigar than would be rated a 98, but because I have to find the bell curve somewhere. And I have to be honest about the cigars I smoke. Taste wise, feeling wise, emotional wise, this cigar deserves a 98-99. The oils, the fragrances, the construction, ect. all deserve a high score as well. But some things about this cigar deserve less than these high rise scores – though score high never-the-less.
A couple points need to be deducted because of the ash. Throughout the cigar, the ash remained very fragile and would need to be flicked every inch and a half about. I normally prefer a longer ash to help keep the smoke cool and for aesthetic purposes. Though the cigar proved itself in the end, the construction from my initial first impression of being fragile does have to carry a mark against, especially when I see cigars as a hardy item. Though I was pleasantly surprised at it’s transformation during smoking. Still a couple more points away because of this. The dissipation of the smoke… though left a pleasant odor literally melted away almost immediately into the air, dissolving almost. Is this a good thing deserving of points? Maybe, but it is also something I have not noticed before in cigars and I did miss the clouds that would settle in the room and slowly dissipate, so I take another point away. For those keeping score, this is 5 points from my original 98-99, leaves 93-94. However, in my mind that is too low a score, so adjusted to 94-95.
A final note about this cigar, other than the obvious “I want more!” As friends of mine know, I have 4 cats. One of them, Princess is a cigar lover – but she is picky, she likes maduro’s and dark wrapper cigars – especially the VSG – her favorite. The other cats could care less. The oldest Julius doesn’t like them at all and will often give me a disdainful look when I smoke and leaves the vicinity if too much smoke gets near him. However, in a surprising move, he cuddled up on my stomach as I smoked this cigar and literally bathed in the smoke before it would dissipate. Especially considering that you would never, ever, describe Julius as a “lap kitty”. So, we finally found a cigar even this old grump likes LOL.
Thanks for reading!
Sam
