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Fuente Fuente Opus X No. 5 Mid 90's

Kingantz

Growing too fast.
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
7,648
What a day. House filled with the smells of good food cooking on a beautiful Thanksgiving day. We all ate heartily, even Jessica enjoyed some turkey and stuffing with a little gravy. After cleaning up, the wife adjourned to the lazy boy in the living room to put the baby girl down for her nap, and it being Thanksgiving I decided I would smoke something special.

I was fortunate to be granted this smoke from Bryan (Jonesy) in the MAWPIF and owe him a huge thanks for departing with such a cigar. I believe he said it was from around ’95, but we’ll just say mid 90’s. I tried to get the best picture I could of how dark the cello was on this thing. Yes, I do believe it had a little age on it. :D It took a little effort as the end of the cello was pretty much stuck together, however I finally got the smoke to slide out easily once opened. There was actually an imprint of the band still in the plastic.

The smoke had a wonderful sweet smell of tobacco and still full of oils. Very dark and rich looking of a piece of old, worn leather. I punched the cap with the smallest ring in case the draw was a bit loose, and found it to be just right so left it at that. Taste was slightly sweet tobacco with a bit of a mustiness to it. I was very much looking forward to putting fire to this cigar.

I grabbed my trusty Zippo (Z-Plus) and had the foot burning in no time. The first couple of draws was extremely powerful and full of black pepper spice. I wasn’t really expecting so much power in such an aged Opus, however it was there. But behind the power was a taste of exquisite smoke, incredibly smooth and cool. Flavors of a rich, bitter sweet cocoa and roasted nuts. After a few draws and a good ash forming, the black pepper spiciness died down to a perfect amount and the smoke really settled in to simply incredible.

The moment was perfect with a peaceful evening and the sun going down behind the trees. A third in and the ash was a medium gray and holding strong with the burn perfect. I have to say this little ‘ol cigar was really putting it to me with the power it had. I knew I should take it fairly easy when taking a draw, but it was so incredibly good I couldn’t help myself. The flavors were quite complex and the finish was long and so very smooth, almost silky.

The ash finally fell when almost reaching the band. I had been sitting up until that moment and decided to get up and stretch my legs. Whew! I hadn’t realized just how strong this thing was until that moment. Oh yeah, I was liking it! :D Unfortunately, as I went to go down the back steps, I put the cigar between my teeth and touched the tip of my tongue to it. ACK!!! An absolute awful bitterness immediately filled my mouth, and I knew what it was. Sure enough, a huge amount of tar had built up and I got a really good taste of it.

I peeled the band off and continued on after the “incident” and made a huge mistake of taking too much of a draw towards the end. I actually didn’t think I had taken that much in until it was too late. There wasn’t much I could do at that point but hold on to the door frame. :laugh: :blush: I went and sat back down and took a couple more draws and finally had to put it down.

What an incredible experience. Thank you Bryan for the opportunity to try such a smoke. I hope everyone else’s day has been as wonderful as mine!

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Awesome review and pics as usual. It was amazing that you could actually see the band on the cello. You know I have yet to have a tar problem on any I have smoked so far, and I hope I don't that just looks plain gross. Thanks again!
 
Oh no! You let the Opus win! hehe. Just kidding, great review and pics. That tar looks crazy.
 
I just love to see pictures of cello that looks like that. What a perfect day to enjoy a smoke like that.

Art
 
That is one yello cello, congratulations on smoking such a great cigar. I've had one OR Opus in my day and it was wonderful.
 
Great review and interesting about the tar. Is tar a characteristic of older cigars? 10+ years on this one and over 30 years on the MC tubo you recently reviewed.
 
The first couple of draws was extremely powerful and full of black pepper spice. I wasn’t really expecting so much power in such an aged Opus, however it was there. But behind the power was a taste of exquisite smoke, incredibly smooth and cool. Flavors of a rich, bitter sweet cocoa and roasted nuts. After a few draws and a good ash forming, the black pepper spiciness died down to a perfect amount and the smoke really settled in to simply incredible.

That's exactly what I thought when I smoked an OR Opus. I thought it was going to be mute or bland... WRONG!

Also, that sucks about the tar problem... I've had a similar experience myself...
 
I smoked a Opus X xXx today while frying a turkey. It was a recent purchase, no age other than Fuente's aging. I hadn't ever even heard of tar on a cigar before until I read a few reviews here. I had encountered it before, but didn't know it was "tar". Anyway, I paid attention to the one I smoked today. Sure enough, I got about halfway through and wiped the end with my finger and it looked exactly like the picture here! I did it once more when I almost had it nubbed and it did the same thing. I guess I'm lucky I've touched the end of a tarry cigar with my tongue.
 
Great review as usual, Greg. Tar happens from time to time. In fact, it happened to me this summer with a '97 Punch Ninfa. Did you smoke this cigar at your normal pace, or faster than usual?

Best,

Rob
 
Great review as usual, Greg. Tar happens from time to time. In fact, it happened to me this summer with a '97 Punch Ninfa. Did you smoke this cigar at your normal pace, or faster than usual?

Best,

Rob

I actually smoked it slower than usual, trying to savor the moment you know. :)
 
I know this tar issue has been brought up before, but it seems like the smaller ring gauge Opus (AF in general) seem to have this happening with greater frequency. After having tar build up on a couple of #5's (no where near the age as the one above :( ) I stopped punching them. By and large that seems to have "limited" my tar build-up probelm. I did have some build up with a #2 (torpedo), but with the benefit of the things I have learned here at CP I made another cut and that solved the problem.

Another fine review and I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving

Brandon
 
I was wondering when you were gonna burn that sucker! :laugh: Great review and I'm glad you enjoyed the cigar Greg.


BTW, it's Brian :)
 
I was wondering when you were gonna burn that sucker! :laugh: Great review and I'm glad you enjoyed the cigar Greg.


BTW, it's Brian :)


And here all this time I was calling you fugger.
 
Nice review Greg and I was wondering if Bryan Brian was going to pick up on the spelling! :sign: A bit nasty on the excrement but what are you going do?
 
Based on the writing on the cello, that cigar is from 1997 or later (but not much later, based on the cello yellowing)... and thus not an OR... not that it matters, just FYI. Glad you enjoyed it, and that's a fantastic gift!

Great review, thanks!
 
Very nice review. Too bad you are getting a lot of tar lately on some damn fine cigars. Glad you still enjoyed it.
 
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