Of course, this is all helped along by the style of art the cigar is packaged with. The band, as you'll see in the accompanying photo, is very simple. It's a gold colored band with black lettering that plainly says "Emilio AF2". No fancy fonts or logos. If the band didn't have any kind of color to it, I would assume this was a sample provided by the company. So, with no real preconceived notions, I took the cigar from my humidor.
As I removed the cigar from the cellophane, I took a mental note of how great it looked. Some oily sheen on the wrapper with minimal veins. The aroma on the wrapper and foot was a very ordinary aged tobacco aroma. It wasn't unpleasant but it didn't grab my attention. The pre-light draw was similarly plain.
As I lit up I was greeted with some very nice flavors. There were flavors of woodiness and smokiness. I'm not sure how to further describe what I was tasting. I would compare it to some of the flavors I've tasted in smoked meat (kind of like beef jerky but without the saltiness).
And that was pretty much all I detected in this cigar in terms of flavor. The cigar is very well-constructed. The burn was great. It occasionally went crooked but very quickly corrected itself. The flavors lasted throughout the entire cigar. I would describe this stick as rich and full of flavor but not overly complex. This is a solid medium strength stogie. I would recommend it to any who are out there that don't demand flavor changes repeatedly or those who don't feel the need to be punched in the face by a cigar. Thanks to Doc Diaz of StogieRate.com for providing this opportunity to try the AF2.
