Padilla "Edition Especial"

We've all heard (and some have experienced) the "Sick Period" that ISOMs go through during againg. I think I experienced a N/C that was "sick" last night.

It was a Padilla "Edition Especial" It was a Toro shape, ~ 6" long X ~ 52 RG (yeah, I know, I could look up exact dimensions, but the smoke wasn't worth the trouble).

Dark wrapper that lookes awesome and was quite oily. Decent consrtuction, no obvious soft spots and no prominent veins or blemishes in the wrapper. Head snipped nicely and the predraw was smooth, not too tight but typical of a cigar this size. It did, however, have a "minty" flavour. WTF?? A menthol cigar???

It lit nicely and evenly, and the first inch or so, the "menthol" became more obvious to the taste. Very slow burning and it took about 20 minutes to get past an inch of ash, which was firm, straight and a nice shade of very light grey. Not a lot of smoke, and I would go so far to say it was lacking in this department for my tastes. At this point, the draw was offish and seemed as there was a hole in the cigar. I looked all over and found nothing indicating a breach in the wrapper leaf.

At the ~ 1-1/2" mark, the mint left and the flavour was basically quite bland generally, with a flash of something nice every 3rd or 4th puff. To make a long story short, I tossed it over the fence after about 30 minutes and less than 2 inches smoked, and chalked it up to experience.

For the record, this smoke had been stored since January in the desk-top where I keep many of my premium singles (as I seem to remember this one having a fairly high MSRP), so this unit gets special care. Always below 70 deg F and usually between 62 & 65% RH (with a hygrometer that's salt tested every 3 months and shows 2% low).

I know one man's trash is another's treasure, but if this cigar wasn't "sick", I can not imagine how anyone could like this.

I've run across a couple NC that seemed either sick. I a few of them have been Pepin sticks two. Though I have to say its been maybe 3 or 4 since I started smoking.