Montecristo Media Noche

Once again, it's been a while since my last review, and, once again, that's because I've been deployed.

It was long and unpleasant, but I'm back on island and back on my bullshit— smoking up to 5 cigars a day again. Obviously, it's time to get back to doing reviews.

I've long been a fan of Montecristo Cigars— both the Cuban and Dominican brands— and I've been itching to try a bolder blend for a while, so I'm pretty stoked about trying this Media Noche (Spanish for “midnight,” which is ironic, since I actually happen to be smoking and reviewing this one at almost midnight) tonight. I don't want to talk any more, I just want to get right to it.

Cigar: Montecristo Media Noche

Vitola: Edmundo (Robusto, 5” x 50)

Price: $12/stick

Origin: Dominican Republic

Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Dominican, Nicaraguan, Peruvian
Body: Medium to Full

Rating (out of 10): 9.6

Appearance:
This stick is dark. It's significantly darker than one would expect from Montecristo, and even the band on it is a dark shade of blue, almost to the point of being black, and set apart from the traditional Montecristo brown bands. The wrapper is a deep brown, like dark coffee beans. A soft sheen of oil is noticeable along the barrel.

Construction:
This is a well-balanced little cigar. It's a standard five by fifty robusto, but for some reason it feels more compact. Flawlessly capped, with invisible seams, inviting the cutter to it.

Aroma:
The barrel smells softly of cedar wood, but the foot is a bouquet of cocoa, floral, and musky notes. This is going to be interesting.

First Third:
Perfect airflow after a perfect cut, and the cold draw hints at notes of chocolate and salt.

Got a nice, mostly even light, and we're off. Initial flavor notes are soft and chocolatey, with a soft hint of coffee, and a mild undertone of leather on the finish.

It's smoking nice and smooth, with a rich, creamy smoke that progresses toward more of a coffee flavor profile, but retains subtle cocoa tones and just a dash of salt.

The burn seems a little bit fast, at least at the start, but remains cool. Maybe I'm just sucking down this flavor to quickly, though. It's delicious. The burn isn't perfect, but it is mostly even, so no hits against it so far.

The ash is a medium-to-dark grey, dark just like everything else about this cigar, and mostly firm. I'm ashing it out of caution, though... I smoke at work so frequently that I've gotten a little too used to the ash dropping onto my uniform, so now I just try to get to it first, before I make a damned mess.

Second Third:
Rolling into the second third, there's still a distinct coffee profile, but it's nicely balanced by the chocolate notes, so as not to be bitter, but rather sweeter in nature. I wouldn't quite describe the flavor as being like mocha, though. It's hard to describe. But it's lovely.

Still burning mostly evenly; if it was going to get out of control, I'd typically expect to have seen that happen by now, so we're probably good on the burn for the rest of this smoke.

I'm already regretting that I came back from Guam with only one of these. May need to drop an order on a box in the near future.

There's some bits of cedar that still weave through this smoke here and there. It's not a constant, just a “sometimes flavor.” Just in case you thought it was going to stay the same the whole way through.

Final Third:
Entering the last third, still burning evenly, still smooth and tasty, but with just a bit more chocolate and salt coming through.

Even down to the last inch and a half or so, we're still burning nice and cool. No burning fingertips, no sting on the lips, just that rich smoke.

Really smoking this one down to the very end now.

Closing Thoughts:
I mentioned at the start how much I enjoy Montecristos, but this one might just have topped the list of Monte blends for me. I wasn't sure any Montes would ever overtake the Espada line as my favorite, but here we are. I'll have to follow up with an Espada review to see if it still hold up!