A couple weeks ago I had a chance to fire up an old Betsy Ross I've been hanging on to. We had a weekend picnic/campout at Cook's Forest and I always get to smoke lots of cigars.
This year it was a rainy mess, so I didn't get in as many as usual, but I did get to smoke this old girl...
This cigar was made somewhere between 1910 and 1917, so she wasn't quite 100 years old. Despite that fact, it was still supple and aromatic. The aroma was distinctly cc.
Outside the yellow cello, you can really get a feel for the condition and quality of the construction...
The first inch was pretty uninspiring. She started getting some flavor shortly thereafter, and wasn't too awful bad. A lot better than I had expected, for sure.
Getting toward the end of the smokes, the wings were ready. I figured they'd help. I'd pretty much had my limit of tolerance of cuban weed, and she was getting that ashtray flavor like you get about halfway through a cc machine-made. The wings cleared my palette and allowed me to smoke on.
So far as cigar flavor goes, I'd give the old girl about a 4. Construction, an easy 10. It never split, unrolled, needeed relit, and the burn was razor sharp. If a guy really enjoyed aged cuban tobacco, it'd probably have been the cigar of a lifetime. The flavor experience was pretty much wasted on me, because I have the palette of a goat and the delicate nuance of a sledgehammer.
So far as cool factor goes, it was a 10/10. I can't begin to relay how fun it was to smoke a cigar this old, or how insanely cool it was. Not many people will ever get to experience something like this in an entire lifetime, and I truly appreciate the blessing.
I was riveted throughout the experience and shared with Scott (sofaman) along the way.
He enjoyed a 1940 LaProsa while I smoked the Betsy Ross, and his was definately the more flavorful and powerful of the two, although the two weren't really comparable. They were that different.
Here's a shot of Scott working on the old La Prosa...
All in all, the experience is definately one I'll remember for the rest of my life. You don't get too many of those along the way.
All this was made possible by Joe (lenguamor). I picked these smokes up a good long time ago and saved them for this particular weekend.
I'm really glad I gathered them up when I had the chance.
It was well worth the trouble.