avantgrade purchased this cigar on 2010-05-15.
It has none of additional aging.
This is a chunky stick, and lighting it properly took a good 2 or 3 minutes. Once the burn established it remained true and reasonably sharp until the end.
The cigar opens up with a mild tobacco flavor, slight peppery notes, and a touch of leather. Each puff draws effortlessly, almost too loose for my preferences. Plenty of white smoke fills the space around me in the lounge, and the woodsy aroma is quite enjoyable.
The cigar soon turn a bit harsh, and there is a certain bitterness coming in the woodsy notes. The slight peppery bite becomes very hard to discern from the bitterness.
Nonetheless, the burn remain nearly perfect, producing thick white clouds of smoke and a very light, white ash. Given the thick gauge of the cigar, I would expect the ash to hold longer than it actually does. Considering that the draw is so loose, the smoke might not be as densely packed.
There really is not much in terms of complexity going on here. Hints of wood and leather go well with a few peppery jolts, but nothing too spectacular. The harshness has worn down a little, but the smoke is not as smooth as I would like it to be, and with the loose draw it is easy to get the smoke to heat up.
The body has not picked up much since the initial lighting, sitting right in the medium realm.
Closing in on the finish, the body is still medium, and the flavor profile of the cigar has not changed much, either. Still looking at the woodsy notes, which are more easily distinguishable as cedar. Pepper is there, but the initial harshness comes back, masking to many of the faint nuances that might have made this cigar more complex.
I cannot complain having smoke this cigar. It was an interesting experience to compare a Te-Amo offering against the NUB line of cigars. There is certainly work to be done to bring them up to par to what Oliva has worked hard to perfect.