Tag Archives: aj fernandez

News: Diesel Sunday Gravy Grappa Announced

I’ll admit, I’m behind on sampling the Sunday Gravy series. The first one was pretty good, and I’ve been meaning to revisit it. I don’t think I’ve seen any of the others. I’m not a big fan of tomatoes, so that gets into my head a little, and, subconsciously, I don’t tend to look for them. A sampler would be nice, now that there are five versions!

 

It’s a widely held belief that Italians wrote the book on eating and drinking. Food, libations and socializing are part of the culture and meals can stretch on for hours.  Not for the faint of heart is grappa, an Italian-made digestivo made from the distillate of grape seeds, stalks and stems. The distilled spirit is enjoyed as a palate-cleansing firewater. And when the grappa comes out, things get interesting.

Or so says Justin Andrews who explained that the fifth Diesel Sunday Gravy expression was named “Grappa” in a nod to the blend’s bold flavor profile and the brand’s ability to spark conversation. “Diesel Sunday Gravy Grappa, like our previous Sunday Gravy expressions definitely packs a punch. It’s a great, medium-plus blend, handmade with premium tobaccos. And given its affordable price, Diesel Sunday Gravy Grappa is a cigar that’s meant to be smoked with good friends during spirited discussions.

 

Blended by AJ Fernandez and Justin Andrews and crafted at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez in Esteli, Nicaragua, Diesel Sunday Gravy Grappa is rolled with an Ecuadoran Habano wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Honduran filler. It is a layered smoke that delivers notes of leather, earth and spice.

 

Grappa is being released in a robusto gordo size only.

Grappa (5” x 56); SRP per cigar $4.99

 

Diesel Sunday Gravy Grappa will be available nationally from July-September 2022, or until the blend is sold out. The sixth and final Sunday Gravy blend will be released in October, 2022.

 

Diesel cigars are produced by Scandinavian Tobacco Group and distributed by Forged Cigar Company.

 

About Diesel Sunday Gravy

Diesel Sunday Gravy launched in August 2021 as a full-time line of seasonally-released, Nicaraguan-forward smokes, blended and handcrafted through Diesel’s winning partnership of AJ Fernandez and Justin Andrews. Blends will be released quarterly, sold until their limited supply is deleted and offered at an unbelievable SRP of less than $5.00 per cigar.

 

About Diesel

Handcrafted by artisans in Esteli, Nicaragua, Diesel cigars are “bold by design.” The brand challenges the current conventions of the handmade cigar category through the bold, unapologetic style of its Cigar Master, AJ Fernandez. Diesel cigars are unified by their deeply complex flavor which is achieved through AJ’s steadfast adherence to time honored cigar making techniques and his insistence on using the highest quality tobacco. The Diesel portfolio includes Hair of the Dog which was released in 2019; Whiskey Row which launched two expressions, one in 2019 and one in 2018, and Diesel Grind which debuted in 2017. For more information, visit www.dieselcigars.com.

Share

1 Comment

Filed under News

News: El Rey del Mundo by AJ Fernandez Announced

Last one today, I promise. This one is from the folks at Forged Cigars. Certainly everything AJ touches is pretty good for companies like General and Altadis, and the El Reys were pretty darned good already. This will probably be good. 

 

PRESENTING EL REY DEL MUNDO BY AJ

El Rey del Mundo, the legendary Honduran brand, welcomes its first limited edition cigar with El Rey del Mundo by AJ.

 

The new expression is available in one box-pressed vitola and features a blend from AJ Fernandez.

 

El Rey del Mundo by AJ began shipping to all channels of retail this month.

 

Steve Abbot, director of marketing for STG said, “’El Rey del Mundo by AJ’ takes the foundation we’ve established with El Rey del Mundo and El Rey del Mundo Naturals and brings it to another level. Powered by a Nicaraguan-forward blend, AJ’s take on ‘El Rey’ delivers a fuller-bodied smoking experience. We believe this blend will capture the attention of smokers who might not have tried the brand before.”

 

Handcrafted by artisans at Tabacelera AJ Fernandez in Esteli, Nicaragua, El Rey Del Mundo by AJ  is made with a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper and filler, with a Connecticut Broadleaf binder.  The cigar delivers both body and balance and imparts hints of dark chocolate, cedar and white pepper on the palate. 

 

El Rey Del Mundo by AJ is presented in 10-count boxes and available until the limited supply of 3,800 boxes is depleted.

 

El Rey del Mundo by AJ Toro  (6 x 52); SRP per cigar $11.99 (box pressed)

Share

Comments Off on News: El Rey del Mundo by AJ Fernandez Announced

Filed under News

Divinus and Born To Be Wild Cigars from DAHOT, a Dias de Gloria and a Hawk

When I was at the TPE show and visited with Susana at Danli Honduras Tobacco (DAHOT), she gave me samples of two of their new offerings, the Divinus and the Born To Be Wild. I finally got around to smoking them this week. Unfortunately, I have no blend details on either cigar yet, when I get them I’ll edit them in, but until such a time I’ll fake my way through.  I’ll start with the Divinus. This is a perfecto shaped cigar, 6″ long, like all of DAHOTs cigars, and maybe hitting 54 ging in the middle. I probably should have taken a measurement. I’m going to guess that the wrapper was some sort of Connecticut varietal grown in Honduras under shade, or a darker Ecuador Connecticut. It had that look and flavor. It was a nice smoke, medium bodied, quite well behaved for a large perfecto, but I rarely have issues with Danli Honduras Tobacco products. This cigar has “Tabacalera San Jeronimo” on the band, which answers a question I’ve had for a long time about the factory making this brands cigars. This is a factory which was associated with Kafie cigars, with which he’s no longer associated. I’ve never had any of Kafie’s cigars. He once blocked me on social media because I called him out for having his kids at a cigar rally. He justified it, but I pointed out, like I did in a recent rant, that it doesn’t matter what rational justification he might have, people against tobacco will use it against us. Remember, when it comes to the government and tobacco, rational thought goes out the window, tobacco is bad, nothing else matters. Anyway, This Divinus was a good cigar, maybe the first cigar from them that I didn’t really fall in love with.

 

I did, however, really like the Born To Be Wild cigar from DAHOT. I wish I had taken pictures of the box for this, it looks like a motorcycle piston. You can kind of see it in the video I did at the TPE show (HERE) where Susana talks about the cigar a little. Again, I don’t have blend info, but it’s a dark maduro, maybe San Andrés, maybe another Honduran varietal fermented to a maduro. It had a dark, meaty flavor, very savory, as opposed to sweet. It was really interesting and unusual, and I liked it very much. I’d love to have to make room for a box of these in my humidor! The company has several maduros in the portfolio, the Don Juan Calavera, the Marchetti, the Flor Maya, Caterina, even the Clown has a Maduro barber pole, all oare on the sweet side, but this one is so different. I desire more. I admit that I prefer more traditional branding, but the cigar is really good. 

 

I walked in to Son’s Friday evening and encountered John Ciabocchi, our area’s A.J. Fernandez rep, who stopped in to do an impromptu Cut and Light event. This threw off what I had planned on smoking for the evening, but I’m adaptable, so I started off with a Dias de Gloria in the box pressed toro vitola. This is a Nicaraguan puro made with tobaccos from four of the company’s Esteli farms. I don’t believe I had smoked this cigar before, a mistake I don’t intend to repeat. This is a damned good smoke. The marketing on this says something about this representing the pre-castro days of cuban tobacco. Maybe? I don’t have a frame of reference, and I have a hard time with Abdel Fernandez, who might be 40?, having any notion what that tasted like then. It’s nice to dream about, but hardly verifiable. Can we agree that it’s a great tasting cigar? If you like a cigar with a good balance of rich tobacco and some sugarcane sweetness, give this a shot. It was a nice way to spend two hours, and it’s always nice seeing John again. 

 

Last cigar: The Hawk from Blackbird Cigars. I hadn’t smoked this one before and figured I’d give it a try, even though I’m not a big fan of hawks. We’ve lost a couple of really nice chickens to hawks, right in front of our eyes, and it wasn’t pretty. We do our best to keep them out of our yard. They are neat and all, just not around our place! Hawk isn’t a regular production Blackbird line, but a special release with Adrian Acosta’s Cigar Culture.  This cigar was a Gran Toro, 6″ x 56, box pressed, with a Brazilian Cubra wrapper, a San Andrés binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. This cigar falls into the woody/nutty spectrum for me, with some hints of sweetness and cocoa here and there. The two I smoked had some mendering burns, nothing that caused problems and couldn’t be easily corrected. Overall, enjoyable cigars, and I believe Son’s has some of these limide release cigars left. I like what Jonas does at Blackbird, and I do enjoy a lot of the cigars he makes.

 

That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

Share

Comments Off on Divinus and Born To Be Wild Cigars from DAHOT, a Dias de Gloria and a Hawk

Filed under Review

A Romeo y Julieta Crafted by AJ Fernandez Nicaragua Robusto and Some List Thoughts

Tonight I smoked a cigar I picked up at a new shop I had stopped in to a few weeks ago that I hadn’t seen before. It was the Romeo and Julieta Crafted by AJ Fernandez Robusto. This cigar had a cedar wrap, was nicely presented, and I want to say it was on the higher side price wise. Historically, most of the majority of Altadis cigar I find myself enjoying are  those made in conjunction with AJ Fernandez, Montecristo, Upmann, Trinidad, you get the picture. This cigar was really good. It has a maduro Habano 2000 wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. It’s got cocoa and some woody spice flavors. Like I said, I recall it being a little pricey, and doing some research, I think I overpaid, but it gave me some insight into this particular shops buying habits. I won’t name names, but it’s my theory that this shop bought these cigars by mail order and keystoned them, because I feel like I paid about twice as much as I see them on JRs or CI. After smoking it, I’m not mad, I feel like it was a great smoke, thoroughly enjoyable. It was probably the best Romeo I’ve smoked. I won’t buy a lot of cigars at this particular shop. 

 

It’s list time, and everyone is posting their best of lists. As I mentioned, I toyed with the idea of posting a list, but it would be for selfish reasons. I could easily say that my favorite cigars of the past year, in no particular order, were the Stolen Throne three Kingdoms Toro, the All Saints Saint Francis Churchill,  the Casa Cuevas Patrimonio, the Undercrown 10 Toro, the La Sirena Mexican Mermaid Toro, the Perla Del Mar Corojo Toro and the Partagas Decadas 2021. I suppose if I put them in a numbered list it would get some attention, and, perhaps, qualify for the Halfwheel Consensus, but I don’t I don’t need the validation. It could be said that I just listed my top seven favorite cigars of the year here, I guess I did, and for the purposes of letting my readers know, now you know! No fanfare, no trolling for shares or recognition, just sharing with my readers.  I applaud everyone who puts the time into making their lists, and making the rules that go along with them, I don’t have time for that. I’m just a guy who loves cigars, and I write stuff about them.  There’s no spreadsheets or process or stuff, that’s too much work. Cigars are good, when it becomes work, it’s not as much fun. 

 

That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

Share

Comments Off on A Romeo y Julieta Crafted by AJ Fernandez Nicaragua Robusto and Some List Thoughts

Filed under Editorial, Review

A Few A.J. Fernandez Cigars, a Pancetta and STFU!!! Thoughts

I smoked a few more of the A.J. Fernandez cigars that I had picked up last week at CigarCigars in Downingtown. I’ve managed to smoke a great many more cigars that are made by AJF for other people than under his own name, but I imagine that’s just a function of scale. The San Lotano was a cigar that I really enjoyed several years ago. The first one was the New World Puro Especiale Robusto. This is a 5½ x 52 “robusto”, not a bad size, right in between a robusto and a toro really. I thought it was a pretty decent cigar, on the leathery side, which generally doesn’t excite me a whole lot. It has Nicaraguan Habano wrapper and binder, with Nicaraguan fillers. One wonders if they go to the trouble of identifying the wrapper and binder varietals, why skimp on naming the fillers? Anyway, it was a very good cigar if that’s your flavor preference, mine tends toward something sweeter.

 

Next up was the Enclave Broadleaf, a cigar that I had been hoping to pick up, but was disappointed that they didn’t have for sale. How is it that I came to acquire this cigar, you ask? Well. Tom, the new manager at CigarCigars in Downingtown, PA, happened to mention that he was smoking one that the rep, John, had given him to try, and he was going to recommend bringing them in, which I replied that I had hoped to find them there. He then gifted me one, which was mighty nice of him, I think he’s going to do alright there! 😀 Like I said, I had been looking forward to trying this cigar, so I lit up the 5” x 52 Robusto and took a walk. This is a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapped cigar with Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and it’s on the strong side. I actually found it to have a biting sensation, to the flavor. It had the bitter espresso thing going on to a pretty high level, in my opinion. There was nothing subtle or smooth about this cigar. When I come across these in the shop I’ll pick a few up and leave them rest for a while (six months to a year) and see if the rough edges smooth out. For me, this is a cigar to follow a heavy meal, it’s a full frontal assault on the palate.

 

I posted the news release last week about Drew Estate’s re-release of the Liga Privada Lounge exclusive Liga Privada Serie Unico Pancetta. This is a shop exclusive that is exclusive to only two shops, the Wooden Indian, which is near me, and one of my favorites, and Barristers In New Jersey. Last year Dave, the proprietor of the Wooden Indian, gave me one out of his private stock, long after I had missed out on getting one. Now that they are available again, or maybe they sold out of the latest batch, I’m not sure, I figured I’d smoke it. It’s a smaller cigar, at least for my tastes, a 4 ¾” x 50 belicoso. I got a late start last night, and the size worked well for me.  This cigar has the T52 wrapper, around a variation on the Feral Flying Pig blend. The combination resulted in an excellent cigar, although I was hard pressed to make any connection to either the T52 or the FFP. To be fair, the last FFP seemed different from the previous FFP I smoked, so who knows, right? Anyway, it was an outstanding cigar that I savored until I couldn’t savor any more, it certainly is a cigar that Dave at the WI is proud to have representing his wonderful lounge, which I look forward to visiting once it reopens! I’ve actually only been there once since the remodeled, and it was at Christmas. Between lack of employment and pandemic, I haven’t had a chance to get there. Call them and see if they still have some available!

 

Saka had his big reveal show for his STFU!!! Brûlée Sampler, hosted by Kevin at CigarProp and the I’d Tap That Cigar show. I don’t normally watch live streams, but this one was a must see. Kevin did a great job moderating this one with Steve and Dave Lafferty, although someone should tell Steve that his signature black shirt against the dark background made him look like a disembodied head on my screen, which was a little disturbing. I lit up a Mi Querida Firecracker because it was supposed to be an hour,  I should have gone with a Sobremesa Short Churchill, because it went an hour and  20 minutes. It’s Saka, I should know better. Anyway, The announcement was that the S and !!! were regular Brûlée, T was double sweet and F and U were sweetened. My assessment was close, although I struggled with F and U, missing U altogether I think. The way Steve explained the sweetening process, they make all the cigars the same, then wipe the sugar solution on after the fact, and the sugar solution is concentrated differently to achieve the sweetness level. The F and U samples I received must have had the cloth with the sweetener on it waved over them, because they either were ever so slightly sweetened, or I don’t taste sweet very well. I have quite. A sweet tooth, so I don’t think that’s the case. Anyway, I rather enjoyed the T actually, it was an interesting change of pace, and I do enjoy a sweetened cigar once in a while, although the saccharine is a little much, but Steve explained why that is used instead of sugar in a lot of cases to. Go to the CigarProp YouTube channelCigarProp YouTube channel if you missed the show, there’s a lot of good information there.

 

That’s about all for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

Share

1 Comment

Filed under Review