Aging Room Small Batch M356ii (Robusto)

[chain_gang]

Not gonna lie, my bums; my confidence has taken a hit both personally and with the brand...and I'm kinda pissed. I'm pretty sure I "nuked" (Naval term for overthinking something) damn near my entire approach to the356ii. So there's a contrubuting factor on my side - with the M356ii. Went slow, too slow sometimes, tried the purge after noticing a hint of bitterness...and I'm pretty sure the bitterness started around the same time as the Habano, which leads me to consider the brand as a contributer.

I've been smoking cigars for a solid two-years, and while this isn't an attempt to boast; I'm pretty aware of what I'm doing; how to go about doing it well; all at the expected knowledge level for a two year cigar smoker. I've never had issues like this. Is it my tupperdore? - Well, everything else has seemed to smoke fine. Is it me? - Again, 3/3 from the same brand, but nothing comes to mind outside that...so I don't believ it's me. Not sure which I should attribute the blame to more, at this time - the brand or me.

Pre-Bitterness (1/3 - 1/2):

Lightly caramel-ishly sweet. A SOFT concentration of spice. A delicate kind of flavor. Kinda hard to explain, and I can kinda see why the M356ii was top 25 in 2011 (CI). The signature Aging Room pungency is tightly concentrated, and isn't bold or robust...it just melds well with the caramel-ish sweetness. It was damn fine. I was also nuking the pace.

2/3 - 1/2:

Bitterness started to hint. I became worried. Tried a purge, and I believe @Old Smokey would have verified a correct execution of a flame purge, because the bitterness was extinguished when the flameless purge failed...and yes, time was given to allow cool-down. However, every couple of puffs or more, the bitter hint resurfaced, and from there...total nuke overload on my part. Bitterness stayed more than went away after the purging techniques.

Tossed around the 3/3.

I bought a fiver, had one prior to this, but can't remember any issues, as I was drunk when smoking it. All other M356ii smokes will be posted here...in the somewhat near future. As of now, it's time to go to a known good...or believed-to-be-good from the tupperdore.

[Emperor Zurg]

I always ended up with a bitter, nasty smoke when I kept my rh at ~70. Also had constant issues with cigars going out. You draw harder than I do, I'm sure of that since my cadence is primarily tailored to pipes so I wouldn't expect you to have the same burn issues. However, my cigars (and pipe tobacco too for that matter) all taste much better to me when smoked more toward the drier side. Long winded way of saying 'try dropping your rh to ~ 62 to 65 and see if that helps'.

[chain_gang]

[QUOTE=Emperor Zurg;205671]I always ended up with a bitter, nasty smoke when I kept my rh at ~70. Also had constant issues with cigars going out. You draw harder than I do, I'm sure of that since my cadence is primarily tailored to pipes so I wouldn't expect you to have the same burn issues. However, my cigars (and pipe tobacco too for that matter) all taste much better to me when smoked more toward the drier side. Long winded way of saying 'try dropping your rh to ~ 62 to 65 and see if that helps'.[/QUOTE @Emperor Zurg

70 is right where the tupperdore is sitting, as has set for...probably as long as I had it. The Xikar travel case I was using as my humidor prior to trying the tupperdore was also at 70. Both sat solidly at 70 with a Xikar puck . I'll take the puck out, and throw in a Boveda that matches your RH, let them sit for a couple weeks, then see how they fare. In the mean time, I'm sticking to B&M daily buys, because I just smoked a Tatuaje Havana IV from the tupperdore, and ran into the same thing...bitterness around the 1/2 mark, and was dumbfounded. I was writing a review during, but had to scrap it due to another confidence hit. Thanks for your info, help, reading the review, and letting me know of your similar problems and your fix.

[Emperor Zurg]

Hope it works out for you. I'm not telling you the right way vs the wrong way to store, just what worked for me. Happy smoking

[AlanS]

I use 65% bovedas in my humi’s and tupperdores

[Old Smokey]

I keep my cigars at 63-65 and can't remember the last time my cigar became bitter. I think Zurg likely nailed it.

[jhedrick83]

I always ended up with a bitter, nasty smoke when I kept my rh at ~70. Also had constant issues with cigars going out. You draw harder than I do, I'm sure of that since my cadence is primarily tailored to pipes so I wouldn't expect you to have the same burn issues. However, my cigars (and pipe tobacco too for that matter) all taste much better to me when smoked more toward the drier side. Long winded way of saying 'try dropping your rh to ~ 62 to 65 and see if that helps'.

Everyone at my house lives at 63%. Never a bitter smoke either. Never mold problems either! I tried a ton of RHs when I got back into it years ago and I feel I get more flavor out of my cigars at 62-64 than anywhere else. Learned that from Tobias Lutz. I hope that cat is doing well. Also, give it about a week per percent drop to acclimate.