A Short Story

It’s been a long time since I have posted about cigars, so here goes.

I had a Fuente Hemingway Short Story today. It was fantastic! Long ago I came to the conclusion that the Short Story was the perfect cigar. It’s a small perfecto cigar. This unique shape allows for a near perfect burn no matter what. The small foot of the cigar immediately swells to the thickest part of the cigar then begins to taper to the head of the cigar. The overall length is so short that any inconsistent burns don’t’ have enough time to become problematic. Then there’s the flavor, even at it’s widest ring gauge, the Cameroon flavor is still predominate yet with enough complexity to make it a great cigar. It’s small size also make it versatile. If you are in a hurry, you can smoke it in about 20 minutes, or you can really savor it for nearly an hour. I tend to make it last about 30-40 minutes. This versatility, combined with the fact that it is the most consistent cigar I’ve ever experienced and the fact that its flavor is superb, make it the perfect cigar. It doesn’t hurt that it’s less than $5.

While I can still honestly say that the best cigar I’ve ever had was an ISOM Montecristo No. 2 (pre-97, although the post 97s are great), it’s size prevents it from being Perfect.

The Opus Super Beli is also superb, but also it’s size. For small cigars, there’s always the ISOMs such as the Bolivar Petit Corona or the Partagas Short, while they are great cigars, they don’t have the shape of the Short Story. The Short Story’s perfecto shape adds to it’s complexity, the flavor profile changes through as you smoke, while the Boli (my favorite petit corona) is great, it maintains it’s flavor profile, same with the Short.

These cigars are semi-hard to find, but always worth the money. I still wonder why I’ve always bought singles rather than a box.

The only thing that might make this better would be if they came in maduro. I have a Maduro Short Story, but don’t know if I will ever be able to smoke it. They were made in extremely limited quantities, and someone was extremely generous gifted me one.