An Exquisite Cuban Stock Exquisito

I’ve met a lot of cigar makers.  Many are humble farmers.  Many are mild mannered and soft spoken.  All share a passion for tobacco.  The owner of Cuban Stock has the passion for tobacco, but is in no way soft spoken or laid back.  His challenge to me when we met at the recent trade show, “Smoke my cigars and tell you don’t like them”.  But, I couldn’t meet that challenge.  Every cigar that I’ve smoked has been a worthwhile smoke.  He said to me when we met ” I have a big line of cigars, I’ll give you a couple to review and we’ll see how you do”.  I’ve done my share.  About a month ago I reviewed another of these cigars favorably.  This one makes the cut as well.  Yaniv, the ball is in your court.

Today’s smoke is a great cigar to look at.  And that is a virtue of its shape.  I can’t imagine a more regal looking cigar than a Salomone.  It looks robust and elegant.  It is really inviting.  This stick has a beautiful medium brown oily finish and seems sort of stubby.  Traditional Salomone are at least eight inches.  The band is elegant and nice looking giving a great presentation.  I flat cut the cigar and lit it without problem.

The cigar is well made.  To the touch it was well packed and a bit hard, but the draw was open and not restrictive.  It burned very well, evenly, holding a nice tight edge.  The cigar burned cool throughout.

Flavor wise this was a nice pleasant cigar.  It is medium bodied or a ‘lunch’ cigar.  For the first two thirds of the smoke it was earthy with hints of cedar.  As the cigar come to its final third it exhibited a little bit of spiciness.  While the flavors were nice there wasn’t much change or adventure.  Regardless my original tasting notes rated this as a ‘nice pleasant smoke’.

At around $7. this is a nice value.  You would expect to pay more for a cigar of its size and shape.  Any humidor would be better with this stick.