Its time to organise my humidors again, so over the next few nights I am going to start to move cigars around and group them in some kind of order. First up is my small humidor that now has all my Arturo Fuente cigars in it.
My Arturo Fuente collections/addiction continues with some new arrivals. 
I am quite a big Arturo Fuente fan, I love the Anjeo 77 and others in the Anjeo range, very partial to the Opus X, and love the short story for a quick winter smoke. In my experience no matter what the range Arturo Fuente cigars are extremely well constructed, and seem to do all the correct things on my palete.
Appearance 8.5/10
I know it sounds like an odd, and obvious thing to say, but this is a very dark Maduro wrapper (what maduro wrappers are not dark lol?), but this wrapper is almost black. The shape of the cigar with its elongated tip is very pleasing. The band just avoids being to flashy, and is well printed, it was also very easy to remove without taking some of the wrapper with it.
Construction & Draw 9.0/10
This cigar is extremely well constructed, the wrapper only has small veins, and almost invisible seams. The cap is very well constructed, and it was simple to get a really clean cut with my Xikar cutter, the long foot also made it easy to light the cigar. I was worried that the draw would be a little tight due to the foot, but the draw was perfect on this cigar from start to finish, as was the burn.
Flavour 8.0/10
Dont let my score of only 8.0 give you the wrong impression I really like this cigars flavour profile. Initially there was a small amount of pepper coupled with a nutty sweetness, as I got further into the cigar the pepper backed off a little, the sweetness remained, the nuttiness took a back seat, and I could detect some chocolate notes and a slight woodiness.
About half way through the chocolate flavour become the strongest note, and the cigar had a nice creamy taste, towards the end the pepper cam back again and the cigar lost some of its creaminess. This cigar had quite a long finish, so there was always a nice taste on the palete. All in all very good, but just not quite epic.
Value 8.5/10
I believe that these retail at around $9 USD, I think this is a pretty fair price for a cigar as well constructed and tasty as this one, however at this price there are a lot of other good cigars so I cannot say its excellent value.
Summary 8.5/10
This is a really nice cigar, its well constructed, has good flavours that evolves as you smoke it, pretty much all you can ask for a cigar. I did not give it a higher score as somehow it does not reach the heights of some other Arturo Fuente cigars, but I am not sure if that just means I am setting higher expectations for this brand than others.
I guess the question is would I buy more for my Humidor, well the answer is yes, and I already have 5 more on the way. If I had more humidor space and lived in the USA I would get a box.
Just like my last post these arrived a while ago, I wrote this post and then left in in my drafts folder for some reason. Cant wait to try one of these they are such a lovely dark colour, think I am getting rather partial to Arturo Fuente sticks!
I actually got these a little while ago, and forgot to post that I received them. I wanted a small cigar for the cold winter UK evenings, so you can expect me to give one a whirl very soon
Just arrived 9 Arturo Fuente Anejo 77 – Sharks, one of may favorite sticks.
This is another cigar that I dont think you can find in the UK, it comes from the same line as the 77 (Shark) which is a cigar that I really liked, indeed I gave it a 9.5 despite the high UK price tag.
As you can imagine I was really looking forward to trying this cigar, its quite a bit cheaper, and if it shares the majority of the 77’s flavour then it should be a treat.
Appearance 7.0/10
I took two pictures of this cigar so that you could see how they come wrapped in a cedar sheath, this is a really nice touch and coupled with the red fabric at the end gives the cigar an air of quality.
Unfortunately as you can see underneath all the packaging this cigar does not look anywhere as good as the 77. The wrapper looks quite scraggy (a new technical term lol!), and the overall look suggests a slight lack of care when assembling the cigar.
Construction & Draw 7.5/10
As you can tell from the pictures, the construction of the wrapper is not as good as I was expecting. Whilst its a lovely dark chocolate colour, its does have quite large veins, there were also a couple of little glue patches around the seams, and the cap construction was quite scrappy (using that technical term again!). On the plus size the cigar had no soft or hard spots, cutting the cap was really easy, and the cigar had a great draw, just the correct amount of resistance.
Flavour 8.5/10
The pre-light draw had a little bit of spice, and a nice cocoa and musty note. The cigar lit easily and produced a lot of sweet musty smelling smoke (not a cigar to smoke in a confined area).
The cigar started medium strength, and by the end had evolved to a medium-strength with a strong rich flavour. The cigar had a strong earthy taste with obvious notes of chocolate, as the burn moved into the second third of the cigar a vanilla note was added, and there was a hint of spice. As I got further into the cigar the flavours kept evolving, the strength increased as did the overall richness, this really hit the spot for me, I love a cigar that keeps building and keeps you wanting more.
Despite the less than perfect wrapper construction the burn line on this cigar was razor sharp from beginning to end, and at no point did the cigar heat up, even when I got close to burning my fingers.
Value 8.5/10
I cannot find a UK price for this cigar, so I cant compare the price of this in GBP to the shark, but the US price seems to be around 11 USD, with the Shark coming in around 16-17 USD. On balance I think I would pay the extra for the shark (especially as 17 USD is still cheap compared to cigar prices in the UK), as I think the construction and the flavours are better, however this is still a really good cigar, and is much easier to find than the Shark, and at the 11 USD price point I think this is a very good cigar..
Summary 8.0/10
I could not decide if I should give this cigar a 7.5 or an 8.0, in the end I decided that the flavour counted more than the construction, so I went for the 8.0. This is a really rich and creamy cigar, with a lovely earthy taste, its not quite a Shark, but its still an excellent stick.
If you can get hold of some sharks then I would grab them, but if you cant (and they are hard to find) then this cigar is very close, and should be easier to find. If you like your cigars rich with an interesting flavour profile I would pick some up.
Just a quick blog today, look what is now resting in my humidor! I will have to resist and let them rest for a while before I try them.
This cigar was a gift from a very generous friend in the United States. Until he sent it to me I had not heard of the 77 “Shark”, so I had no idea about its odd shape, and that it is only released a couple of times a year so can be hard to find. I knew even less about the very positive reviews this cigar seems to get.
Appearance 9/10
This is a quite an odd looking cigar, the shape around the cap is that of a torpedo, but by the time you get to the foot its heavily box pressed (basically square). Its called the “Shark” because this shape is similar to a sharks tooth. I am not sure the shape really appeals to me, but that’s purely personal so I will not let the shape influence the review.
The wrapper is a deep chocolate brown, this was a new cigar so there was not a lot of oil’s present on the wrapper, and it did feel a little dry, but that was probably due to me not leaving it to rest long enough in my humidor (I have very poor willpower!).
Construction & Draw 9/10
The construction was excellent, it was tightly packed but still had some give when squeezed, there were some veins in the wrapper but these were relatively small. The cap construction was very good, and my cutter sliced off the end cleanly and easily.
The pre-light draw was perfect, easy but with some resistance, even before it was lit I could smell a sweetness and a strong smell of cocoa/chocolate. The burn was pretty even throughout the life of the cigar and did not require any touch ups.
Flavour 10/10
This cigar is velvety smooth and creamy, it really took me by surprise. The cigar starts off with a very strong and smooth flavour of cocoa with no spice at all, about an inch in this changes to hints of vanilla with a nutty tone, but still stays smooth and creamy.
As you get further into the cigar the vanilla is joined by spicy and peppery flavours and the strength begins to pick up, however the cigar never gets overpowering.
The thing that stands out for me is that I could clearly pick out each flavour, and they transitioned throughout the cigar, as one backed off the other came to the front, so at no time was any flavour clashing. For me that makes this a special stick.
Value 8.5/10
As this was a gift its a little hard to give an accurate value rating, for me as it was free its superb value! I believe that in the UK if you can get your hands on a 77 it will set you back around 22 GBP. Whilst this is not cheap I think that it stands up well against the price of Cohiba’s etc, and it is such a good cigar you have to say the price to enjoyment ratio is good.
Summary 9.5/10
I really enjoyed this cigar, I knew very little about it so smoking it was an unexpected and surprising pleasure. Not only does it have a number of different flavours, the balance, and segregation of the flavours is exceptional.
This is not a cheap cigar, but I would absolutely add more to my humidor, and I would imagine if you could leave some in the humidor for a while (you will need excellent willpower) these will get even smoother.
If you can find one, get one, you wont regret it.
UK Cigarnewbie 