Since I left the red-light district of cigar blogging, I've been busy with other projects, but quietly been enjoying some excellent cigars. Most recently, it has been the 262 Paradigm. These showed up in one of my local haunts, I bought a couple, then threw them in one of my coolers and forgot about them.Well, I found them again a couple weeks ago, and the first one was pretty tasty. I smoked one again a couple days ago, and with burnt finger, was sad to find the cigar was finished. I set myself to smoking the third to review not because someone gave me cigars expecting me to fluff for them, but because it's a cigar that was well worth what I paid.
Start to finish, this cigar is delicious. What, you want me to blather more about it? If you insist...
On first light, there's a solid, mildly earthy leather flavor with light floral and spice notes. The first inch really echos the beginning, with added mild cocoa and coffee flavors combined with the predominant leather. The mild spice eases out during that first inch, but don't worry, it'll be back for the big finish.The midsection of the cigar features a sweet leather flavor, with alternating harmonies of cocoa and coffee.
The prime spot on this cigar is the last 2 inches, where the leather flavor gets sweeter, the coffee tone gets bolder, and the spice comes back in for the grand finale. It is really hard to let this cigar go at the end, the flavors are that good.
