L'Esprit de la Verite

Originally Posted by srduggins

Pete handed me one several weeks ago, which I smoked a couple days later. He stated that it was pre-production and the tobacco for it was pulled about 2 months before it finished fermenting and had a "green tobacco" flavor.

Near-perfect construction, draw and burn. It had a sweet flavor (maple syrup) to it that I don't normally associate with cigars. Reminded me of a wine they stop fermentation on to leave a little bit of residual sugar in it. I must say, I really enjoyed that unique flavor, but ultimately the cigar came across as simple. It kept trying to change flavors throughout the cigar gaining some wood here, a touch of earth there, a nice bit of leather, but quickly returned to that sweet flavor over everything else. I thought the final third was going to go into the full-bodied range, but that was short-lived too. It shows some nice potential, but I don't think the proto-type will improve with age. Worth trying if you can get one, but wait for the final version for any serious aging.

are you equating ammonia with residual sugar?