Tag Archives: Buena Vista

Working Through the Gurkha Crest Metal Sampler Cigars and a Buena Vista Piramide

Buena Vista_PiramideBefore I get into the Gurkha tin, Sunday evening I felt compelled to smoke the Piramide from the Buena Vista Reserva 2008 sampler I recently received. At the risk of repeating myself, the presentation of this sampler was pretty outstanding, and I was quite impressed with the Prominente, or double corona, size I smoked.  The Piramide size was just as impressive. I really enjoyed the clean, refreshing and almost minty sensation I got while smoking this cigar.  I’m told that these should be shipping to shops soon, but I’ve seen these online for under $25, and even more reasonable in boxes of ten.  I’d like to keep these around because I really enjoy them from time to time and they are a nice cigar to share.  I remain impressed, especially over the Buena Vistas I sampled three years ago.  This is a really nice smoke, and I now have a really nice three cigar travel humidor too!

 

Gurkha_Crest Metal Gurkha_Crest Metal SamplerMonday I was digging through one of the coolerdors and came across a Gurkha Crest Metal Sampler that my wife had gotten me through a Groupon or Living Social deal, I seem to remember it being around $50, which puts the cigars at $10 each. I must have had this for two or three years, I see that Famous has this same or similar sampler on their website.  I decided now was as good a time as any to dig in, and I may as well smoke all five cigars in succession over the course of this week. Maybe I should have waited and put them all in one post, Gurkha_Shaggy_Torobut I don’t have that kind of patience.  I started with the Gurkha Shaggy toro. I felt like these were all 6″ x 50, but the description at Famous says they are 6″ x 53, who am I to argue (and I was too lazy to measure them!).  The Shaggy is characterize by about ¾” of the foot of the cigar left without wrapper and binder.  It smoked really well and was enjoyable, with lots of smoke. I didn’t really sense a huge change when the wrapper started burning, but it was smooth and rich.  I don’t even know if these are still produced, but I know they’ve been around a while, and this is the first one I’ve smoked.  I’ll admit that I was attracted to the copper colored band, not sure why that appealed to me so much. Nice cigar.

 

Gurkha_Beast_ToroTuesday I chose the Gurkha Beast, which was a dark chocolate brown wrapped cigar. This is the counterpoint to the Gurkha Beauty, with a Connecticut shade wrapped cigar which I’ll get to later in the week.  Since I love maduros, I was excited about this one.  The flavor was nice, it was chocolaty and smooth, with a hint of spice.  About half way through there must have been a void in the filler because it got a bit stingy with the smoke, much unlike the Shaggy which almost smoked itself.  then the wrapper started to split and at about the two-thirds mark the wrapper started coming off. At that point it started smoking better, and the flavor was fine, but I was a little miffed that a $10 cigar would behave this way.  All in all, a less than satisfying experience.

 

Gurkha_Titan_ToroTonight I went with the last maduro in the collection, the Gurkha Titan.  This has a similar Costa Rican maduro wrapper to the Beast, and, honestly, I didn’t really taste a lot of difference, except that the Titan didn’t explode on me.  Perhaps it was a bit smoother, it didn’t seem to have the spice that the Beast had.  It burned very well, and had a smooth chocolaty flavor.  Of the first three I smoked, I think the Shaggy was my favorite, but none of them were really up to the price point, and while the tin case is nice, and potentially usable as a five finger carry case, I don’t count packaging into the price. They were all good cigars for a couple bucks each, and I apologize to my friends at Gurkha for saying that. Despite the reputation they’ve had in the past for making tons of cigars for the catalogs with a lot of hype, lately they’ve really been making some great smokes, the Cellar Reserves, the Seduction, the 125th anniversary are all very high quality smokes, and their lower priced East India trading Company lines are also pretty enjoyable.

 

I’ll finish out the week with the Crest and the Beauty, then see what I can scrounge up for the weekend. I’ll be in Chicago next weekend, so if anyone is available to meet for a smoke, please let me know. Also, Friday is the last day to comment on the FDA deeming document, so get to it!  Go HERE to link to the regulations.gov site to let them know you don’t want premium cigars regulated out of existence!  Also, go to Gran Habano’s website and help them fight the US Trademark Office, who have decided that using “Habano” in the name (which they’ve had for how many years?) is confusing to the public.  Another case of a government office sticking their noses in where it doesn’t belong.  Morons.

 

That’s it for now, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Gran Habano Baracuda, La Hermandad and Buena Vista Reserva and a Book

I guess I’m just in the habit of smoking new cigars this time of year because of going to the IPCPR for the last few years, although I did revisit an old favorite too.  I also read a book over the course of the week that I wanted to share. The book is called “From Seeds to Cigars” and is written by William Miller.  Mr. Miller is a photographer and graphic designer who had the good fortune to visit several factories and farms in Honduras and Nicaragua while working for Famous Smoke Shop.  This is a quick read, but there’s a lot of good information, and beautiful photos. The photos and layout of this are really where the book shines. I came across a couple pieces of information which I thought were either out of order or just plain wrong, but overall, it’s a nice introduction to the magic behind how are favorite cigars are made.  I’m happy to add it to my library of cigar books. This one was a gift from the author, but this is available at Famous Smoke Shop and Amazon.com.

 

George Rico_BaracudaThursday I got off to a late start so I grabbed a robusto out of the humidor for my evening walk.  I had a Gran Habano STK Baracuda Robusto that the folks at Gran Habano sent along with a few other cigars.  This 5″ x 50 classic robusto has a flattened pigtail cap which snipped off easily with the Xikar scissors. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers.  I got a woody taste throughout the cigar along with some spice. It was very enjoyable to smoke as the burn was perfect and when ashed it left a nice flat coal. These are a very limited release and quite well done. Priced right, this would be a nice addition to the humidor.

 

ElPrimerMundo_EmbajadorFriday I went to the revisit. Many time I find myself reaching for a “sure thing” at the end of a rought week.  I saw Sean Williams at the PDR booth at Famous Smoke Shop’s Cigarnival and he laid a El Primer Mundo La Hermandad Embajador toro on me. The La Hermandad line is right up my alley, the sweet Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper and the spicy Nicaraguan fillers make it just about my ideal cigar. Sean maintains his own El Primer Mundo line, while also heading up sales at Pinar Del Rio, and he one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. This was a great way to wrap up the work week.

 

Buena Vista_ProminenteSaturday after a long day of yard work, and loafing in the pool with a Liga Unico UF-13, I decided to dig into samples from MGM Cigars, a beautiful three pack of Buena Vista Seleccion Reserva. When I received this package I couldn’t believe the weight of the box. When I opened the shipping box, there was a nice, red fiber board gift box, containing this three count humidor, complete with felt on the bottom and a high gloss red piano finish.  This is some presentation! Contained within were three cigars, the Prominente 7 x 49, the Piramide 6.3 x 52 and the Corona Larga 4.8 x 50.  I can remember back at the 2011 IPCPR show I ran into the then US importer of this line who gave me a sample that I enjoyed, but really didn’t find it distinctive (read here). I think the story was something along the lines of bringing in Cuban rollers to Ecuador for several months at a time. I’m not sure Buena Vista-3packwhere these are manufactured now, I read Mexico someplace also using Cuban rollers. The Prominente I smoked last night was very enjoyable. I found it to be very bright and refreshing. I swear I got some mint notes, which would be ironic since I spent my morning pulling up mint plants around the yard. Those things grow like crazy.  I really look forward to smoking the torpedo and robusto to see if I get that same sensation. This iteration of this brand seems to be priced much better than the previous version, which I remember to be over $10 for the robusto, and if these are the same cigars that have been in storage for the last 3 years, the time has been good to them. This is a well made, wonderfully presented cigar that I found very enjoyable and interesting. There’s some great information at CigarFederation.com on this cigar, and my thanks to Gabriel Piñeres for sending these along.

 

That’s all I have for now. I took a break from trimming some hedges and spreading some mulch to finish this off. Hopefully when I’m done another great cigar in the pool is in my future. I have to make the most of the pool as I don’t think our next house is going to have one.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

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A Buena Vista Cigar, An Oliva at Old Havana Cigars, a Green Camacho and a Cain

Thursday evening I grabbed a Buena Vista Short Churchill that I was given by Gary Heathcott, the company’s director of global marketing  when I was waiting for a Coke at the Cigar Journal awards reception at last year’s IPCPR show.  This cigar is unique in that it’s an Ecuador Puro and it’s rolled by Cuban rollers that come to Ecuador on special visas to work in the factory.  The cigar had a stunning appearance, very smooth and even in shape and color. I grabbed this based on the size, it’s a 4¼”x 54, so it’s a short, fat cigar, and I only had an hour to smoke.   I have to say that I really enjoyed the smoke, it was good, but not as unique as I had hoped.  There was really nothing especially different about it.  It was a good tasting cigar.  I had to touch it up frequently as it wanted to burn faster on one side, but not a bad cigar.  If this is priced right, I’d say give it a try, if it’s too expensive, I’d personally choose something else based on this sample.

 

Friday evening my son and I attended and Oliva event at Old Havana Cigars in West Chester, PA.  I’ve been to several events there and it’s always pretty crazy.  Nice bunch of folks there and I always enjoy spending time with the local Oliva Rep, Mike Staiber.  I picked up some cigars and promptly fired up a Serie G Maduro box pressed belicoso. This is a cigar that I haven’t smoked many of, and I don’t know why.  It’s got a really tasty broadleaf wrapper and really hit the spot.   I also grabbed a few of the Cameroon in the same size.  For my troubles, I was rewarded with a couple free Nub Habanos (it was buy 5, get 2 free).  Lots of people buying cigars, quite a few picking up boxes and getting all kinds of freebies and swag to go along with it.  My son had a Cain Daytona in a corona size that he enjoyed as well (and is one of my favorites).  We had a good time talking with Mike (@olivastaiber on twitter.  Follow him!), who I’ve known for quite a while and is a great cigar rep and a very cool guy.

 

Of course, Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day, so that called for a candela cigar.  Several years ago I picked up a box of the Camacho Monarca Candela because I really liked them and they were a nice change of pace.  We had to go to a percussion competition at my son’s high school, in which he plays bass guitar in the ensemble, so I grabbed one of these for our walk to the school.  If you have never had a candela cigar, you should certainly try one.  It’s a different flavor, a little more vegetal or grassy, but refreshing in a way.  In this case, we have the Camacho Corojo with the candela wrapper, so it’s no slouch when it comes to strength, as many candela, or as the were once called, American Market Selection (AMS) can be on the mild side.  Astral is a cigar that comes to mind in the mild candela area, as does the Arturo Fuente 8-5-8. La Flor Dominicana and Illusione have recently put their spin on this once popular wrapper.  Anyway, this box of Camachos has been consistently loose in the draw department, so I’ve taken to punching these to make them a little better in the draw department.  Pretty strong for a noon-time smoke, but really tasty with a long finish, so long that I could still taste it several hours later after another cigar and dinner.

 

On the walk home from the event I had grabbed a Cain Habano Tubo on the way out the door, so I fired it up.  This was the 550 Cain in a spiffy aluminum tube, and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and had a mile or so to walk, so I was lamenting my decision to grab this one as I lit it up.  My fear turned out to be misplaced, because it was a damned tasty cigar!  I spent another 20 minutes with this on the porch when I got home, it was just too good to put down.  Perfect burn and draw.  Strong, but balanced and, dare I say, complex.  Every now and then an interesting flavor would dance across my palate, something I’ve missed in past Cain Habanos.  Perhaps this one was well aged, or aged better in the tube, I don’t know, but it was likely the best Cain Habano I’ve had.

I don’t usually have a two cigar day, but the weather was so great, despite it being a very busy day, I had two spectacular cigars walking to and from the high school.  The competition was excellent as well, lots of talented kids, and I’m a drum geek as well as a cigar geek, so I always enjoy stuff like that, cigars or not.

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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