I had the pleasure to smoke a generously gifted PP ISOM today after lunch.
First of all the smell was what I would characterize as Earthy. Kind of dirty smelling but in a good way. Lots or times I describe things with words that would normally be seen as negative (I smoked a DE LVH that tasted like cardboard, but in a good way). But rarely in a cigar are these things negative.
I punched it and it was drawing fine so I lit it up.
It lit up quite easily. The first thing I noticed was the smoke was quite harsh. IT kind of tasted like the VSG I tried to smoke last night. Like it was too dry. The smoke was very hot. But I am pretty sure the person who gave it to me has good storage so nto sure what happened there. As I smoked it different flavors started to coem out. I remember about 1" in I tasted a couple of new flavors that I noted to myself but I can't for the life of me link them to other flavors in my life. I want to say citrus and/or cinnamon but I know that is not right. Anyways there were some interesting flavors in there. And overall the taste was very robust and strong and smoky.
After about 1 1/2 inches I went to ash it. I touched the corner to the bottom of the ashtray and it just went "crunch." Seriously. I just crushed the corner of the ash but it stayed on. It was the weirdest thing. This ash had no inclination to separate from the cigar.
I kept smoking and the smoke started getting too harsh for me. Around this time the ash just fell right on the table! Ooops! Soon thereafter I let the cigar go out also because I was so engrossed in conversation. I re-lit it a few minutes later (it had never left my hand) and it was still harsh so I ended up letting it go out again after a few puffs. After that I was done.
Now the harshness thing, I feel kidn of bad about because I really wanted to enjoy this cigar. I mean it is a Punch Punch for Chrissakes. And I did find somenuances of the flavor enjoyable. But I think the cigar had undergone some sort of change at some point in its life that made it harsh. Not to as great a degree as the VSG I smoked, which was like a twig even though I had it at 70%, but I'm starting to trust my palate enough to be 99% sure something was wrong with this cigar.
First of all the smell was what I would characterize as Earthy. Kind of dirty smelling but in a good way. Lots or times I describe things with words that would normally be seen as negative (I smoked a DE LVH that tasted like cardboard, but in a good way). But rarely in a cigar are these things negative.
I punched it and it was drawing fine so I lit it up.
It lit up quite easily. The first thing I noticed was the smoke was quite harsh. IT kind of tasted like the VSG I tried to smoke last night. Like it was too dry. The smoke was very hot. But I am pretty sure the person who gave it to me has good storage so nto sure what happened there. As I smoked it different flavors started to coem out. I remember about 1" in I tasted a couple of new flavors that I noted to myself but I can't for the life of me link them to other flavors in my life. I want to say citrus and/or cinnamon but I know that is not right. Anyways there were some interesting flavors in there. And overall the taste was very robust and strong and smoky.
After about 1 1/2 inches I went to ash it. I touched the corner to the bottom of the ashtray and it just went "crunch." Seriously. I just crushed the corner of the ash but it stayed on. It was the weirdest thing. This ash had no inclination to separate from the cigar.
I kept smoking and the smoke started getting too harsh for me. Around this time the ash just fell right on the table! Ooops! Soon thereafter I let the cigar go out also because I was so engrossed in conversation. I re-lit it a few minutes later (it had never left my hand) and it was still harsh so I ended up letting it go out again after a few puffs. After that I was done.
Now the harshness thing, I feel kidn of bad about because I really wanted to enjoy this cigar. I mean it is a Punch Punch for Chrissakes. And I did find somenuances of the flavor enjoyable. But I think the cigar had undergone some sort of change at some point in its life that made it harsh. Not to as great a degree as the VSG I smoked, which was like a twig even though I had it at 70%, but I'm starting to trust my palate enough to be 99% sure something was wrong with this cigar.
Nice Review Lum, Just goes to show, evryone has there own taste. :thumbs: