In addition to the Herf, I've had a handful of other smokes over the past month.
Man o' War Virtue was a good, mild to medium cigar that made for a nice change of pace from the heavier smokes I've had lately. Very creamy with a hint of sweetness to it. While the first quarter of an inch was pretty harsh, it smoothed our and burned slow and smooth all the way to the nub. It's a bit on the expensive side but was worth the averaged, per-stick price of the sampler it came in.
Graycliffe 1666 made its way into my humidor by accident. I had intended to order the outstanding Graycliffe Double Espresso; however, the special I saw was for the Double Espresso size of the 1666. A bit confusing, but what are you gonna do? Anyway, this one a bit disappointing to start with since it wasn't the cigar I was expecting. I really can't remember much about the flavor as I was mooning over the fact that it wasn't the real Double Espresso. On the positive side, a sales manager at cigar.com (where I bought these) said he'd throw in the real ones for me on my next order since the naming of these is a bit confusing. A nice gesture considering the mistake was mine.
I had high expectations for the CAO MX2. I usually love maduros and the other double maduro I've smoked is one of my favorites (Gurkha's). This one was a big disappointing, though. I'm not sure if I built it up too much or what. It had the type of earthy, coffee, slightly sweet flavor you'd expect from a double maduro, but it just didn't come out with all that much strength. I wasn't impressed.
A couple of months ago, I split an order of Don Pepin's Blue label with Jape. I wasn't too impressed with the first one. It felt a tad on the dry side and wasn't too pleasant. I let the rest age a bit longer and the results have been impressive. Having a strong desire for a more woody and peppery cigar, I grabbed one of these and it fit the bill perfectly. In addition to the wood and pepper, it had a slightly leathery taste with a subtle sweetness when cycled through the nose. Definitely glad I picked these up.
I also recently had a Gurkha Special Ops. Yes, another crazy name from Gurkha. It started out fairly bland. It wasn't until the second third that the flavor picked up and I could pick out the earthy, slightly sweet chocolatey flavors. Even then, it wasn't too impressive. However, oddly enough, about an hour after I finished it, I found myself really enjoying the memory of the flavor. It was a strange but pleasant experience.
I've also revisited a couple smokes I tried many months ago but have since let age. The Partagas Black Label is making a strong case for itself as my favorite cigar. In fact, I think I'm about to go update the list. The Alec Bradley Black Market seems to get better each time I smoke one (5 months in the humidor with plenty of bloom helped, I reckon).
