Johnny-O XBMF

Cuban Custom Roll by Santos

This is the rarest stick in my humidor. I got it in a trade with a fellow by the name(s) of myfirstandlastname. It’s a stick rolled by the famous roller, Santos, who is regarded as the no. 2 cigar roller in the world, and distrubted by Johnny-O. I can’t find out much, but it seems it is made of Cuban farm tobacco. It’s done in the shape of the Opus X “BMF” vitola, which is a fancy Salomon vitola with a brush tail on the head. This particular stick has been aging since 2009, and is about to meet its demise by fire at my hands. The information online about this cigar is extremely limited, so some of the info below is a “best guess”.

Statistics

Shape: “BMF”-style brush-tail Salomon







Size: 8″3/4 x 50-ish?







Country of Origin: Cuba

Cuba





Wrapper: Cuban







Binder: Cuban







Filler: Cuban







Color: Colorado Maduro

Colorado Maduro





Strength: Medium? Medium-full?







Price Paid: Trade

Trade





Smoke Date: December 4, 2013

December 4, 2013





Age: 4+ years

Accessories Used

Palio Composite cigar cutter, Silver & Chrome Vector Stratos single-flame torch lighter, Handmade English walnut ashtray made by wedgewoodrings.

Pairing

Imperial Yunnan Golden Monkey loose leaf Chinese black tea. Since I expected this to be a long somke, I poured two pots into my “bigass Thermos” to keep it warm (it’s a cold overcast day–at least in southwest terms. 55 degrees is cold, right?). I chose Golden Monkey for a few reasons. For one, it’s my most common cigar pairing and I know what to expect. Two, it is a rich tea with a very clean finish that allows me t focus on the taste of the cigar. As it turned out, the dark fruity flavor of the tea meshed extremely well with the cigar.

Appearance/Nose

This was a great looking stick. The wrapper was thick and rustic looking, with great marbling of dark and medium brown. It looked like it was probably sun-grown. There are a couple of spots on it, but that only added to the rustic, handmade charm. There was no band. The nose was barnyard and cereal grains.

Construction

This vitola was probably pretty hard to construct. The brushtail on the head is magnificent. There were no soft or hard spots, and no major imperfections. The burn began a bit wavy at the very beginning, mostly due to a clumsy lighting by yours truly. It was wonderfully even and steady after the first half inch. The ash was thick and light gray/white, and held on for an impressive inch and a half at a time.

Cold Draw

Snipping off the brush tail revealed a very tight pack at the head. Predictably, the cold draw was also tight, but not impossible. The flavor was light hay and grains. I decided not to cut any more and hope the draw would open up past the bulb on the foot.

Smoking

First third

The initial puffs did not yield much smoke. The flavor was sweet. There were notes of caramel, honey, and flowers. The draw opened up considerably once the burn line got past the nipple tip.

The flavor became very full and rich. There was a dark, bittersweet flavor that was very enticing and mysterious. There was a little bit of spice on the retrohale. The primary retrohale notes were black cherry and honey. The smoke volume remained fairly low, requiring three strong puffs to get a mouthful of smoke. However, that mouthful was delicious with the taste of honey and dark fruits.

There was also a grassy, citrus zest twang on the finish.

A little past an inch in, the draw really tightened up, and I ashed early, hoping to loosen it up a bit. It didn’t help much, so after a gentle massage, I begrudgingly cut off a little more from the head.

The improvement was instantaneous. What was an incredibly tight draw was now bordering on “too loose”. The smoke production turned up to medium as well. There must have been a plug in that 2mm I cut off. The flavor remained the same. Honey, dark fruit, and citrus zest were the primary notes.

Second third

Coming into the second third, I began to pick up more pepper on the retrohale. The floral and honey notes seemed to increase in intensity as well. The smoke production did a complete 180 from the beginning.

Now it was smoking away, even resting in the ashtray. The flavor hadn’t really changed much since the beginning, so nothing new to report there. Ok, this is weird, but the draw got progressively tighter again.

Now, even after ashing another inch and a half, the draw was too tight, and I was forced to snip off a little more. Again, it opened up to very loose and high smoke volume. This might be a tar buildup problem, rather than a plug as I first suspected.

Either way, I hoped I wouldn’t have to cut again! because I was running out of cap, and didn’t want to risk unraveling.

Final third

Coming into the final third, the honey and floral notes took over completely, leaving the dark fruit behind. So far, the final third is better than what came before, barring another issue with tar/tightness. Lots of honey, herbs, and tanginess to be had here.

Creamy, earthy, and bready notes joined in with still about 3 inches to go. The draw was just about perfect at this point, and the flavors were very rich.

There was so much going on in the final third here. One puff was floral and fruity. The next was coffee and cream. Then honey and citrus, then coffee and cake. Truly wonderful! With about two inches to go, the flavors were still incredibly complex and shifting.

The draw was not getting tight again, and the smoke production was billowing and beautiful. Coming into the nub, the flavor settled into chocolate, coffee, and plum.

Notes

Draw: Tight, then loose, then tight, then loose, then perfect

Tight, then loose, then tight, then loose, then perfect





Body: Medium

Medium





Primary Flavors: Honey, dark fruit, floral, coffee

Honey, dark fruit, floral, coffee





Smoke Output: Varying with the draw from low to high

Varying with the draw from low to high





Smoke Time: 2 hours

Overall

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed…until the final third. The first two thirds were good, but the last third was fantastic, and made this one of the best smokes I’ve ever had. I would have liked a bit more spice,but that was probably lost with aging. The construction and vitola were great, despite the tarring issue which hindered the draw in the first half. I am always a tiny bit conflicted about a band less cigar, because I’m a sucker for a neat band as part of a good presentation. Would I smoke another one of these if they were readily available? Hell yes. Will I ever see another one? No, so it’s kind of moot. There’s not much to recommend, since this is a once-in-a-lifetime stick, but I sure as hell enjoyed the experience.

Rating