Wednesday, March 11, 2020

JC Newman | Arturo Fuente Cigars "La Unica" in Review

“Have you Kaplowitz’d to-day?”

JC Newman | Arturo Fuente
La Unica #400

WRAPPER: Connecticut
BINDER: Dominican
FILLER: Dominican

FORMAT: #400 Robusto (4.5x50)
ORIGIN: Tabacalera A. Fuente, Dominican Republic
STRENGTH: Mild-Medium

NOTES:
Honey | Suede | Lemon

Sandy profile. Some maltiness attaches to the pale honey note. Suede gets all but lost along the way on a hazy sunrise dirt trail. Lemon attracts a white peppercorn. Table sugar sweetens the undertones. A bit of week diner coffee, half&half. Underbelly is where the suede lingers, overtop cardboard & dust. Butterscotch & nougat flit in & out but neither gets in all the way.

Meh. As shallow & pedantic as Lois Griffin's meatloaf. No real complexities minus descriptors/accompaniments of malt, sandy, hazy. Dirty. No nuances. Not much structure, delineation. Mellow & EZ, I suppose can be seen as smokeable comfort food -- but it ends a bit less-than smoothly 'nuff for that. Mashed potatoes w/ a gruffly peppered gravy, say? Biscuits & gravy, same say?

Burns on an even line at a nice rate of speed. Grows excellent stack-of-dimes ash. Draws well. In fact, construction & combustion have zero faults. A cigar to stick in your smoke-hole and vaguely enjoy as you see to some puttering-else. Would pair well w/ tinkering, a deck of cards, or light-medium conversing. 

FINAL GRADE: B-
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59

::: very :::