Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story

Today we have another vitola from the Hemingway line by Arturo Fuente. I actually reviewed the big brother of this vitola not long ago, the Arturo Fuente Hemingway “Best Seller”. Today’s vitola is called the “Short Story” and is the smallest vitola in the Hemingway line. The Short Story maintains the same wrapper, binder and filler as the rest of the Hemingway line with the only real difference being the vitola.

The Arturo Fuente was also sent to us by our good friends over at CigarsDirect.com, make sure to pay them a visit and check out their great selection of cigars. Also, you can click this link to be brought straight to their selection of Arturo Fuente Hemingway cigars. As I mentioned in my previous review, you can read a great description of the story behind the Hemingway line and learn more about them. To read more about the Arturo Fuente company, please visit their company over at www.cigarfamily.com

I always find that I’m seeking a good smaller vitola and they seem to be hard to come by. They can come in very handy in the cold winters, short drives home, or when you simply don’t have enough time to light up a Toro or Churchhill sized cigar. I have yet to find myself a real winner in the smaller vitolas, will this be the one? You’ll have to keep reading to find out…

Cigar: Arturo Fuente Hemingway “Short Story”
Drink: Unibroque Brewery – La Fin du Monde
Vitola: Perfecto (4.00 x 48)
Wrapper: Natural Cameroon
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Price: $149.95 for a box of 25 from CigarsDirect.com
Burn Time: Just over one hour if smoked slowly

Construction:
• A fine medium-brown wrapper that seems quite fragile to the touch
• Very clearly defined veins, one seems a bit large but the others are small but very visible
• The cigar seemed a little lopsided, possibly crushed a little bit somewhere in transit
• Very clean double cap, quite hard to see the lines of where it is
• A little firm near the head but the foot has a nice spring to it
• The tapered foot makes it impossible to tell if this is well packed or not
• Seems to be some glue from the band on a couple spots of the wrapper, you can see the slight shimmer in the right light
• Despite the tapered foot I’m still getting a great draw off of this cigar
• A little too much glue on the band caused a small tear in my wrapper

Burn:
• Easy toasting on the small tapered foot
• Needs a few extra draws to stay lit as the taper opens
• After the taper the burn has been razor sharp and doesn’t require any extra attention to stay lit
• This cigar burned for quite a while given it’s small vitola
• No touch-ups needed throughout the burn time

Smoke & Ash:
• Nice full mouth of smoke right off the first draw
• Lots of resting smoke giving off a woodsy aroma
• Nice looking ash with minimal flaking
• So far it’s held past the 1 inch mark
• Ash fell gracefully into the ashtray at about 1.5 inches

Tasting Notes:
• Wrapper aroma is very light, just a faint scent of a woodsy tobacco
• The tapered end makes it difficult to get the aroma of the filler, foot seems to have the same scent as the wrapper
• Pre-light draw offers an inviting flavor of cinnamon and nutmeg spice followed by some cedar notes
• Initial draws offer a mic of cedar, earthiness and a touch of toasted bread type of flavor
• Just past the taper I’m picking up light vanilla notes
• Retrohale is mostly cedar with a nice smooth finish
• Body has been mild at the beginning of this cigar
• A nice smooth finish on this cigar with very minimal dryness
• Around the halfway point the retrohale started picking up a small kick but still maintained it’s smooth cedar finish
• The body started to slowly creep up approaching the medium range around the halfway mark and the cinnamon and nutmeg flavors started making a more prominent appearance
• As I approach the last inch the body has just about arrived at medium but the flavors I’m left with are mostly just cedar
• Just a tiny bit of bitterness near the end but still worthy of burning my fingers to nub it

Final Thoughts:
As expected, this was another good cigar that followed a very similar profile to it’s bigger brother, the “Best Seller” which I reviewed not long ago. The price comes in a little lower for this vitola, selling at about $6 each making it a fairly affordable everyday cigar. There is a lot of competition in the budget market lately and some great cigars at larger vitolas can be found for the same price. This cigar has the advantage of great construction (minus the glue issues…) and great flavors. It’s going to be a personal opinion here, does it beat those similar priced cigars, even though it’s a much smaller vitola? Does the smaller vitola make it more attractable to you? Whichever way you lean, there’s no doubt it’s a good cigar and definitely worth trying.

Pairings:
I have yet another winner from the Unibroque Brewery in Quebec, Canada. This is a fantastic, triple fermented beer. It comes in a larger 2 pint bottle or your standard bottle size and clocks in at 9% alc./vol. The name “La Fin du Monde” means “The End of the World” in French. It seems to be the most widely available brew from Unibroque although their other offerings are fantastic as well. It has a smoky amber color to it and fills the palate with flavors oak, a bit of fruityness, a very mild bitterness and pure smoothness. You can’t even tell this is strong beer so be careful! It paired well with this cigar as well as any other mild or medium offering. Other great pairings for the Short Story could include coffee, diet soda, other amber beers or a nice glass of port. Tony, I know it’s the wrong glass but I’m just following your lead!