Fuente Fuente Opus X - Double Robusto

[Sooner]

Christmas Eve day 2015 was a special one. My family and Jim exchanged our Christmas gifts to each other and then Jim and I headed out to the "Smoke Shack." Jim had purchased a couple different vitolas of Fuente Fuente Opus X's while on vacation awhile back. He saved them for us to smoke on special occasions. Christmas seemed like one of those occasions!

This was Jim's first Opus X and only my second. I was given a "***** Cat" back in my early days of smoking, but this was well before my palate was where it is now. I remember nothing specific about it, except that it was smooth, and in my opinion over hyped by all the die hard Opus fans. Well that was then, let's see what I get this time!

Arturo Fuente uses tobacco, grown in fertile, volcanic soil of the Dominican Republic, in these highly praised Dominican Puros. The flavors we get from these cigars definitely give off a rich, hearty flavor, that makes it very apparent that the soil in which these leaves are grown is perfect for birthing deep, delicious flavors.

The beautiful Double Robusto (5 3/4" x 52) cigars boast an insanely sturdy pack which is super solid. The wrapper feels like velvet between your fingers. The cap is perfectly placed and very pretty. The wrapper on Jim's cigar surprisingly had a hole in the wrapper leaf. We could witness where they had tried to patch it. For a higher end cigar, and one with this price point, we were shocked that this got past quality control. Spoiler alert...this patched hole had no negative effect to the burn or smoke ability of the cigar. We're just surprised that they let a wrapper like this pass.

These particular cigars are decorated with a thin, cedar sleeve and a red ribbon around the foot. We both removed the sleeve and inhale deeply from the Cigar. Jim was feeling a slight cold come on, so he said we would have lean heavier on what I got off my nose. Surprisingly, there was little to no aroma coming off the wrapper so, onto the foot I went. No smell there either. Very Interesting! I have never experienced a cigar without a smell from the tobacco leaves.

Jim brought his V-cutter and I chose a punch cutter for this cigar. We eagerly cut the heads and took some dry draws. Cocoa and smooth tobacco permeated my taste buds! We then slowly and carefully toasted the foot. Once it was lit, we both took a deep draw from the cigars and promptly retrohaled. Judge us all you want, but we love to retrohale the first light and see how smooth each cigar is right off bat. Let me tell you, the retrohale was super smooth! I easily picked up a mix of cocoa, tobacco and pepper (flavor only, no bite.) The flavors in this cigar already showed how well blended they are. Each taste of the smoke gives an equal balance of each of the flavors. I liked that and not one flavor overpowered the other.

After about a 1/8" in we both looked at each other and realized that we just started smoking an amazing, full body, full strength cigar! At this point in the cigar, I began picking up a rich, strong coffee flavor. This gets right in line with the other flavors and continues to mesh with the smooth profile. There are no real flavor transitions throughout this cigar until the last bit of the final third. The only changes we noticed were the pepper backing way down to a phantom-like presence and the cocoa moved more into the retrohale and on your lips than anywhere else. The flavors and smoke stayed smooth the whole way though and the smoke output was generous.

After the first third, I got a little creative and tried to stand the cigar on its ash end to see if I could score a picture. Unfortunately, I could not get it to balance. The ash didn't crumble, but I did knock it off just to be safe. Jim was feeling a bit cocky at the halfway point when his ash fell right into his lap! Even after the fall, the ash stayed in a solid chunk. Which is even more of a testament to the supreme construction of this cigar.

A way into the final third a hearty oak flavors comes in and adds very nicely to the flavor profile. We paired this cigar with a 12 year Glenlivet. The scotch lent very nicely to these cigars and enhanced the already full, deep flavors pouring out.

We nubbed the cigars on our fancy cocktail forks until there was about 1/2" left. The flavors stayed cool and smooth all the way to this point. We finished the smoke in about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Some might only get it to last for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Now, to be fair, there were times where we let the cigar rest for a few minutes to see if it needed babysitting to stay lit. However, this is a grown up cigar, and can stay lit all by itself. Which is awesome, as there is little to no smoke off the foot and we HATE babysitting cigars!

Don't you just hate it, when you go to remove a cigar band and the overflow of glue rips off a chunk of the wrapper leaf? Yeah, me too! Fortunately, these gorgeous bands slide right off with ease and left the wrapper leaf in tact!

Overall we very much enjoyed our Merry Opus X-mas! I am grateful to Jim for bringing them for us to smoke and definitely had a more special Christmas Eve day because of this cigar. We personally don't really hunt for rare or high priced cigars very hard, and neither of us keeps our humidors full of them. That being said, I do suggest you all try at least one of these, so you can go through the Opus X experience! I enjoyed mine much more this time, as my palate is more refined and trust worthy. Scotch pairs nicely with these cigars as I said earlier, so I would recommend that to drink (if you indulge in alcohol that is.)

Jim and I at JJ Cigar Review wish all of you a very merry and blessed Christmas!

https://youtu.be/Tzq2BH3_bGY

[shark]

If you like them fresh, then try them with a few years of age on them...You'll love it!

[icehog3]

Thanks for the excellent review, Jordan.

[Sooner]

Originally Posted by shark

If you like them fresh, then try them with a few years of age on them...You'll love it!

I wish I had the patience to let things sit. I have some padrons sitting and would like to get some more Opus X and Sharks to lay down also.

Originally Posted by icehog3

Thanks for the excellent review, Jordan.

I appreciate it brother.

[Padron42]

Terrific review. I have had maybe a dozen opus cigars of varying sizes and a few with age. I find it to be one of the very few mega-hyped things (cigars, beers, wines, bourbons) to be legitimately worth the hype. Your review was one of the best I've read and I hope you inspire others to try one or two.

[Sooner]

Originally Posted by Padron42

Terrific review. I have had maybe a dozen opus cigars of varying sizes and a few with age. I find it to be one of the very few mega-hyped things (cigars, beers, wines, bourbons) to be legitimately worth the hype. Your review was one of the best I've read and I hope you inspire others to try one or two.

Thank you very much! I sure enjoyed it. We have a couple others aging and I really look forward to smoking one with a bit more age on it.