I bought the 5 pack Montecristo toro sampler just to try them out and I didn t expect much. The Montecristo Montecristo brown band white fleur de lis was the best I had up till this point including the Monte , but I saved the White and Platinum for last. After over two months in the humidor I finally fired up my White tonight and was blown away. From the first light it was awesome and stayed that way until the end. Like all Montecristo it has a perfect draw, smoke and ash - textbook in fact. However, this one has a great slightly sweet chocolatey flavor that is super smooth. The toro was a long smoke too - I dragged it out to nearly 1:45 mainly because I was savoring it and smoking it slow so it wouldn t overheat. I enjoyed the flavor so much I went extra slow. I had a Arturo Fuente Hemingway Classic after because I m a Hemingway fan, but I was so disappointed with the Hemingway after smoking this that I m going to look for a way to trade my Hemingway s for the Montecristo White! This beats the Monte, Epic, Classic aka Yellow Box nasty , and even the Montecristo Original. This is a full flavor cigar but a mild cigar from a nicotine kick standpoint too.
Upon removing the label I found the blue mold spots carefully hidden. It's certainly not fatal but it surprised me for such an iconic brand. The burn was very uneven and while it was indeed a savory smoke, the construction was sub-par. In all, a surprising amount of defects for a premium stick.
