The cigar itself was pretty firm, I was afraid that maybe I had not given it enough time. But I cut the head and the prelight draw was VERY sweet tasting, almost minty. I lit the cigar and immediately was hit with sweet hints of honey and that mint I was just talking about. I was very surprised by this considering the age of the cigar but then again I've never smoked anything with more than a few years of age on it so maybe that's just my ignorance speaking there. I switched between exhaling the smoke through my mouth and nosing it. Nosing the smoke was very smooth, no harshness about it.
This continued for about the first 1/3 of the cigar and then the sweetness of the cigar began to disappear and I started to pick up a lot of "earthy" tones.
The burn on the cigar was incredible. I never had to touch it up and there were no issues with it burning unevenly throughout the entire time.
Getting down to the last 1/3 of the cigar, it turned really hot and a bit bitter quite quickly. I tried to purge it but no luck. I slowed down on how often I was smoking it, which helped a bit but not much so I put it out with a little less than 1 inch left on the cigar. The cigar never tasted "old" like I was kind of expecting it, but you could definitely tell it had a lot of years on it.
Overall, a fantastic cigar and I'm grateful that Keith gave me the opportunity to bring it back to life and try a cigar that I probably would have never had the chance to smoke. Glad I have one more left.
I hope you enjoyed the review.