This is an odd time of year. Â I’m kind of running out of different cigars to smoke and report on and the ones I do have are too big for the time and conditions available to me. Â Many times it’s a robusto or smaller on my evening walk. Â Sometimes a cigar doesn’t fit in at all, I don’t like it, but it’s OK. Â I can’t tell you how much I look forward to warmer weather! Â More daylight and not having to wear gloves and bundling up greatly enhance the cigar experience for me. Â It’s not far off, so you’ll only have to put up with my whining for a little longer!
Thursday evening I took a look into the cigars that Gary Griffith had sent me a while ago to see what I hadn’t smoked yet. I picked out a Herederos de Robaina robusto that had somehow escaped my notice up until now.  I can’t find a lot of information about this cigar, and I was too lazy to ask Gary.  I may have skipped it because it kind of looked generic.  The band isn’t fancy, the cigar has a fairly nondescript colored Habano looking wrapper.  Fortunately, the cigar smoked very well. It was quite well made, and the flavor was smooth and very nice.  I came across an MSRP of $7.90 someplace, which is too rich for my blood, I would be dissapointed with this smoke at this price.  If it were a $5 cigar I would consider it a good value, at closer to $8, I need to be wow’d, and I was satisfied, but now blown away.  Most of the cigars that Gary Griffith and Emilio Cigars has taken on to distribute have wow’d me, but, like everything, there’s something for everyone, and this is a fine smoke that certainly may blow someone else away.
Friday evening I decided to smoke a larger cigar since it wasn’t that freezing cold out.  I had received a couple of samples of prototypes a while ago from Legacy Brands by Victor Vitale.  This cigar was 6½” x 54 or maybe 56, with a jet black and oily wrapper.  This cigar had the most amazing and unique tobacco aroma off the foot.  I actually haven’t done this in about 30 years, but the smell reminded me of sticking your nose in a pouch of RedMan chewing tobacco.  There’s a really sweet smell like that that this cigar had.  It continued as I lit it up, syrupy sweet with a little bit of the black licorice finish along the way.  I don’t think I could smoke this every day, but it sure was a very different and delicious cigar that I I would enjoy from time to time as a change of pace.  I can’t wait to find out more about this.  My first thought was that it contained a large portion of the “jungle” tobacco that Victor used in his Tortuga 1950 Natural Aged Maduro that I enjoyed so much last year. Maybe that’s the unique flavor?  I certainly can’t speculate on where this might fit into Victor’s portfolio, only Victor can tell me that (maybe he’ll read this and leave a comment, hint hint!)! Thanks to Victor for letting me experience that cigar, it really made my day.
Saturday turned out to a bit if a father/daughter day in my family.  My wife has been busy driving with her father down to Florida so he can spend a few weeks at the Phillies spring training camp, my son-in-law got to spend the afternoon with my grand-daughter and I got to take my daughter to the Flyers game.  There’s nothing quite like taking in an afternoon of gratuitous violence and ice hockey with ones little girl (she’s 29 and expecting her 2nd child and I don’t think she likes it when I refer to her as my little girl!).  It was a great game, lots of action and the Flyers came out on top.  I would normally stop at the Cigar Bar in the Wells Fargo Center for a smoke while traffic cleared out, but that wasn’t appropriate in this instance, 
so instead I stopped in at the Wooden Indian in Havertown, PA, for a smoke on the way home.  I picked up a couple of favorites along with a pair of Tatuaje Petite Cazadores, I guess this is the Reserva line (or “Reserver” for my New England friends <snicker>).  I am way behind on sampling the Tatuaje line. I think I’ve smoked the La Casita Criolla, one of the mixed filler cigars a long time ago, and maybe an El Triunfador.  I’ll admit that the price point puts me off of the majority of the line, so I figured this little 4″ x 40 at $4 was a place to start.  I sat in the shop talking to George, the sales associate and Dave, the local Xikar rep and really enjoyed this little smoke.  It was spicy, rich, dark and full of flavor.  I can’t imagine how much I’d enjoy this if I hadn’t been working on a pretty nasty migraine.  I’m glad I picked up a couple, because I really look forward to enjoying this cigar again and it compels me to experiment a little more in the line in the future.  It was the end to a pretty great day.
That pretty much wraps up things for today. Â Please remember to support Cigar Rights of America and to write to your elected officials!
Until the next time,
CigarCraig
As always, made some notes the next time I get to Lake Country. Thanks.