Arturo Fuente Hemingway Between the Lines Review

Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf and Connecticut Shade
Filler: Dominican
Price: $14.00 - $15.00

Over the past fourteen months I have become quite a fan of the Fuente cigars. I have had to opportunity to smoke, enjoy, and review a good amount of them. I have seen this particular cigar a couple times, but never dished out the money to grab one. Well about a month ago, a friend of mine traded me for one. Now I finally had the chance to review a cigar that I have heard nothing but raves about.

The one thing that visually drew me to this cigar was the barber pole wrap. Some times with the barber pole, one leaf is thicker than the other, and you can physically feel the difference. This cigar was perfectly smooth, almost seamless.

The broadleaf wrapper was chocolate brown while the Connecticut shade was more of a caramel color. The cap was made up of two layers, one of each wrapper leaf. This cigar itself was very solid. There was no play when pinching the cigar. There were also no veins throughout the entire wrapper. The last thing I noticed what the smell of the cigar. The broadleaf gave off a sweet smell while the Connecticut gave off an earthy smell.

Once I lit this cigar up I was hit with a nice amount of pepper. There was also a very strong earthy background. As this cigar slowly progressed, a nice woody flavor started to build up. The flavors really started to open up once I smoked passed the nipple at the foot.

There were noticeable notes of coffee that started to come out. Once the coffee had formed, the woodiness became more defined and tasted more like oak. The entire first third was very creamy and delicious.

Once I moved into the second third, the coffee and pepper notes both started to pick up and slightly overpower the oak and earth tones. The pepper started to sit on my tongue more while the coffee coated my palate.

Right around the halfway point, the woodiness started to pick back up . The creaminess of the smoked seemed to slowly fade away with each puff because the spice picked up enough to throw the balance off.

The last third was unlike the rest of the cigar. There was a very light chocolate flavor that came out. It wasn't quite strong enough to dull the pepper, but with every few puff it would come out. The pepper flavor isn't as strong as earlier because the oak picked up a little bit more on the finish. The creaminess even came back with about an inch and a half left.

The ash was very cool to look at. It was two-tone and you could follow the barber pole all the way back to the foot. Half the ash was dark while the other half was light gray. The burn was a little uneven because the Connecticut shade burned slightly faster. The draw was very tight as first, but it slowly opened up. Once it opened, a very thick white smoke was produced. The smoke also gave off a nice aroma full of spice and earth tones.

This cigar had just the right amount of spice to it. The spice was strong, but not too strong where you wouldn't be able to taste the other flavors. The only downside with this cigar was the burn and the draw, other than that it was great. If I could get a few more of these for a good price, I would be grabbing some more. I give this cigar a 9 out of 10.

Thanks for reading,

Zack the Stogie Man