moki
el Presidente
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2003
- Messages
- 9,418
Though my experience with Cuban Dunhills is nonexistent, and my experience with 20 year old cigars in general is limited, I've been looking forward to sparking up this mid-1980's Cuban Dunhill Mojito. The Mojito is a corona sized cigar, and this one obviously has been well taken care of over the years, it's in perfect shape, with grayish brown wrapper that looks a bit like elephant hide. If there were brown elephants.
I decided to pair this delicate little beauty with a vintage 2004 Gatorade "Frost"; it's my little way of flipping pretension the bird. The foot has a very pleasant but mild smell to it, but I didn't dawdle long before sparking it up. This poor cigar has waited 20 years for someone to send it from purgatory to the big humidor in the sky. I was going to make this as quick and humane as possible.
A little v-cut and torching later, and I was puffing away. I've read a Cigar Aficionado review on this cigar, just to get an idea what I was in for, and it stated that it was "delicately mild" -- I beg to differ.
Despite being 20 years old, this cigar packs quite a bit of flavor; I'm actually rather surprised by how flavorful it is. It has that trademark Cuban flavor: the little twang of spice as you exhale, but it is more rounded and mellow.
There are quite a few flavors going on here: a bit of black pepper spice, nutmeg, with deeper leather undertones, and an oddly sweet aftertaste that leaves you licking your lips. I even tasted hints of Madagascar vanilla... just kidding. There were hints of cocoa and dark bitter-sweet chocolate, though, as the cigar burned down to the halfway point.
While this Mojito is certainly no powerhouse in terms of strong flavors, it certainly isn't mild either. I'd call it a solid medium bodied cigar that should be savored as it is smoked, not just because of its relative scarcity, but because of the many wonderful flavors it has hidden in its leaves.
Everyone it seems gets all worked up over older, rare Cuban Dunhills and Davidoffs. This wasn't a mind-altering, life-changing cigar, but rather an extremely pleasant, interesting, and complex medium-bodied cigar. I'd liken it to a relaxing fall afternoon in the hammock, with the temperature just right so you are neither hot nor cold, and everything in the world just sort of nicely ties itself together as you rock back and forth. A pleasant, harmonious experience, as rare as a quiet fall afternoon to yourself.
)