For some reason these are sometime hard to come by, but I've sampled at least 4 different boxes, and I must say they are wonderfully consistent.
The
Arturo Fuente Reserva Short Story maduro is a small perfecto - about 40 mins of smoking. It is perfectly made, there are no blemishes and a dark, toothy wrapper.
The draw is excellent, and can be modified by cutting the opening progressively bigger with ease. As the smoke progresses, you have to "no more than kiss it" to get plumes of deep blue smoke. They rarely need a touch up to burn dead straight and true. It is by no means "sloppy" - sometimes an easy draw is just tons of air - this is tons of smoke.
There is no astringency, no off notes and the stick is (to my mind) of moderate strength. (The bigger vitola - "Signature" will give a bit of a nicotine kick). The flavours are sweet maple-toffee and coffee, even mocha. There is a certain rainy day earthiness to this that will put you in a trance. There is hardly any pepper or spice, making for a pleasurable, luxurious smoke.
These are super little cigars, and you need a good handful in your humidor.
