Arturo Fuente Hemingway Classic

There is a funny line in the movie "Bad Santa" where Billy Bob Thornton after having raided and then replenished the kids advent calendar where he says to the kid, "Hey kid, they all can't be winners." In a lot of ways that is how I feel about this cigar.

A little history here, I haven't smoked a lot of Arturo Fuente cigars, and one in particular a few years back really left me "queasy" in the stomach, but in the case of the Hemingway Classic a lot of good things were going for it.

First off, the shape is pure sex in my opinion. The perfecto and the many different versions are amongst the hardest cigars to roll, and both the head and foot on this cigar was beautiful. I went out of my way to find it at a local cigar shop, and spent the better part of 2 weeks just looking at it in the humidor waiting for the ideal time to light it up and see what it had to offer.

The second thing going for this cigar was a #7 ranking in the 2009 Cigar Aficionado top 25 rankings. A fact I'll come back to in a few minutes.

It was a cool, crisp afternoon that saw the opportunity to light this cigar up and a friend and myself headed outside to enjoy the warm sun contrasting against the crisp air. As you can see in the picture above, there is not much of a foot to roast, so after only a few seconds I was able to draw on the cigar to get a sense of what it was all about.

Initial flavor coming off the smoke suggested currant and coffee, however as the cigar burned I picked a slightly acidic flavor, my tasting notes suggest a cider like flavor that reminded me of golden raisins.

The burn was uneven, and several times during the smoke I was forced to relight however the ash structure was great in the way it held the shape of the cigar as it burned.

Here in lies the problem, this was a great cigar and I would recommend it to others to try, however being a #7 of 25 on someone else's list would suggest to me a SUPERB cigar and for that I can't honestly say it is. I mentioned earlier that they can't all be winners and perhaps that is the issue with this smoke. I expected more than I got even though what I got was great.

Make sense?

I think a lot of the fun and enjoyment of cigars is having your own personal Top 25 (or 20, or 10 et .) list of go to cigars that you feel you are the expert of no matter what other opinions state. There is so much competition in the cigar world right now, and so many good sticks being turned out to simply hang your hat on someone else's opinion without trying out some on your own leaves you missing out on what makes cigars so much fun.

So with that thought I will close, Arturo Fuente Hemingway Classic is a good cigar, should you try one absolutely, but try one on its merits, not that published by a magazine by people you'll never hang out with.

Keep checking back, I've got pages of tasting notes that I want to share with you and as always, I am open to suggestions as to what to try next.