My Weekend Cigar: Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Robusto

There are some cigars that I classify as "a perfect cigar," and the Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Robusto I smoked this past Sunday is one of them. I had bought a Don Carlos Robusto 5-pack from Famous Smoke Shop about a year and a half ago, and found the last two remaining cigars at the bottom of my humidor in which I keep my rarest cigars. I figured by now they had to be mighty fine, and as expected, did not disappoint.

I often refer to Fuente Don Carlos cigars as "the original OpusX," because they were created by Don Carlos Fuente Sr. The cigars are made with rare, vintage tobaccos aged up to 10 years, and sport flawless African Cameroon wrappers. Although they don't posses the full-body and complexity of Carlito's Fuente Fuente OpusX cigars, I've found them to be more consistent in construction and flavor, much more available, and a lot more realistic in price. The Don Carlos Robusto sells for about $8.50 a cigar, and it's worth every cent.

Coincidentally, I smoked it in the Famous Retail Store with a mug of organically-grown Nicaraguan coffee while watching what could also be considered "a perfect movie" - The Godfather Part I - so I got to enjoy two "classics" simultaneously.

The cap clipped off in a perfect little disk, while the foot lit perfectly evenly across, and quickly, too, which prevented any unnecessary tars from collecting up-front. With all that extra aging time, the smoke was marvelously mellow and creamy, dominated by a sweet, woody, cedar-aged flavor and aroma. The ashes rolled off in firm little 1-inch nuggets exposing a perfectly-formed cone. The smoke never increased in strength or turned bitter, even down to the last three-quarters-of-an-inch.

This was a real finger burner that I will not soon forget.