Jeez! Dilettantes! Can't event tell the difference between a proper maduro and a natural...*lookin down, shakin my head in wonderment*
OK, what we have in this picture are 2 maduros, a natural, and 3 maduros.
BULLSHIT! WRONG! When was the last time I smoked a Natural wrapper? Ancient history! Don't do it, gave them all away to GI's and friends.
The first cigar, the BLUE 601 is a Maduro
The second cigar, a Green 601 is an Oscuro
The third through sixth cigars are all MADURO
Now lets discuss a maduro wrapper for a second or two. Maduro is a fermenting technique that makes tobacco darker, and sweeter. Some maduros are twice fermented, some are single fermented, and some are thrice fermented. An Oscuro is fermented as much as, or more than a maduro to get an extremely dark color and a very nice sweetness.
Now the strength of these cigars, well, the only one labeled as medium strength is the Liga Privada No 9. The rest are all full bodied with lots of flavor and will make a newb turn green and puke in short order.
The essence of what I said here is that the maduro wrapper will have many shades, some lighter, some darker than other cigars, but it is still a maduro regardless of the shade and as such will offer a basic profile of slight sweetness, a little cocoa, a light espresso, and a bit of toast.
School's out, go find a good maduro, a pour of something tasty, adn sit down and relax and enjoy it, IT's FREAKIN FIRDAY!
Thanks for the pic, and the lesson. I have all the above but the 601's in my humidor. The only confusion is that I have two Padron 1926 40 Year Naturals in my humidor, and the recent five 1926 40 Year Maduro's I bought are almost the same color, where the 1964 Maduro's, the Family Reserve No. 45 Maduro's, and the 1926 80 Year Maduro's are all much darker than my newly acquired 1926 40th Maduro's.
THAT is what made me doubt the maduro aspect, combined with the fact that the 40th Maduro also tasted quite different from the 1964 Maduro and the No. 45 Maduro.
But if I follow you, I believe the lesson is as follows- maduro is a fermentation process that produces a dark color, but the dark color is certainly not uniform by any stretch, there may be a wide variety of colors in different cigars all of which are maduro. And according to your pic, the 1926 40th Maduro is on the lighter end of the maduro spectrum where the 1964 and No.45 maduro's are both at the darker end of the spectrum.
I'll muddy up the waters a bit and post my six remaining 40th's when I get home and see if you can pick out which are the naturals!
ETA: the Liga Privada #9 is also an Oscuro, by the way! Only happened to know that because I smoked one a few weeks back.
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There hasn't been a decently high rated cigar we haven't tried from 2012, what we refer to as the 'Year of Mediocre Cigars'. There were really no noteworthy cigars to come out last year. This year, well, so far, nothing noteworthy. The La Gloria Cubana Sere R, and Serie N, were probably understated, as well as under rated from last year. Good smokes, a cut above mediocre so far, but they still need to condition a bit to really sample so the flavors really come out...do not smoke this one with high octane barrel proof. It will not stand up to barrel proof. It WILL, however, stand nicely with barreled in bond, and lower.
