Two weeks ago, I had a Cuesta Rey Sun Grown #11, and loved it. The burn was perfect, the taste was good, and the setting was relaxing. It had been in the humidor for a few months, so the wrapper looked very nice. Two days later, after a couple of months of sleep deprivation, I woke up very suddenly and bit part of the tip of tongue off. :/ It was not a big deal (although it bled quite profusely), and I figured it would heal okay. I didn't smoke any until three days ago, and it was a Short Story. The short story tasted great, and was probably doubly enjoyable due to the week and a half without smoking or solid foods (thank the Campbells Gods for Chicken noodle soup).
The night before biting my tongue, I had taken a second #11 out of the humidor to enjoy. That was before I passed out, and said accident took place. During my days of misery, I had forgotten that I had taken it out, and it was sitting on my desk drying out. Not one to be wasteful, last night I saw it sitting there, and picked it for my evening smoke, despite its time out of the humidor in my very dry house.
I accept the fact that there can be big differences in taste, due to the hands on nature of cigar manufacturing, but I attribute my bad experience last night to just plain dryness. The first thing I noticed, was that when I lit it, it sparked up very, very fast. The taste was horrific.. It was extremely bitter, leaving my mouth tingly. Exhaling through the nose, I was still able to taste some of the goodness of the tobacco, but on my palate it was just plain awful. My first instinct was that it was because of my hiatus from smoking due to the mouth, but then I remembered the Short Story.
When I grabbed the cigar off of my desk before leaving (I smoke on the way to or from college), I didn't pay much attention to its appearance. So after lighting it and tasting it, I turned on the overhead light and inspected it, hoping I picked up a Dutch Master or something in place of it. The wrapper looked like a mummy. It was dry and unhealthy, and did not look at all like the previous #11.
I always read posts about people nursing sick cigars back to health through months in the humidor, but never understood how important it truly was until last night. Rather than save the time of picking a different smoke, I chose to take the most convenient. In doing so, I ruined my smoking experience for the night. I have learned a lot from this, and I hope others listen to the people of this board when it comes to cigar advice, as I could have saved myself the trouble.
The night before biting my tongue, I had taken a second #11 out of the humidor to enjoy. That was before I passed out, and said accident took place. During my days of misery, I had forgotten that I had taken it out, and it was sitting on my desk drying out. Not one to be wasteful, last night I saw it sitting there, and picked it for my evening smoke, despite its time out of the humidor in my very dry house.
I accept the fact that there can be big differences in taste, due to the hands on nature of cigar manufacturing, but I attribute my bad experience last night to just plain dryness. The first thing I noticed, was that when I lit it, it sparked up very, very fast. The taste was horrific.. It was extremely bitter, leaving my mouth tingly. Exhaling through the nose, I was still able to taste some of the goodness of the tobacco, but on my palate it was just plain awful. My first instinct was that it was because of my hiatus from smoking due to the mouth, but then I remembered the Short Story.
When I grabbed the cigar off of my desk before leaving (I smoke on the way to or from college), I didn't pay much attention to its appearance. So after lighting it and tasting it, I turned on the overhead light and inspected it, hoping I picked up a Dutch Master or something in place of it. The wrapper looked like a mummy. It was dry and unhealthy, and did not look at all like the previous #11.
I always read posts about people nursing sick cigars back to health through months in the humidor, but never understood how important it truly was until last night. Rather than save the time of picking a different smoke, I chose to take the most convenient. In doing so, I ruined my smoking experience for the night. I have learned a lot from this, and I hope others listen to the people of this board when it comes to cigar advice, as I could have saved myself the trouble.
