Tag Archives: lancero

by Craig Vanderslice | December 15, 2019 · 10:08 am

New Undercrown Shade and Flor de Cesar Cigars and an Editorial

I have been looking forward to smoking the Drew Estate Undercrown Shade Suprema since it’s announcement last summer, and finally had my chance this week. This large perfecto is 6″ x 50-54 and uses the same molds that the old Chateau Real Gran Cru Perfecto used. I smoked a bunch of the Chateau Reals in Maduro before they were discontinued in 2010 or thereabouts. I love the format, an I actually have a couple of the Chateau Real Maduros left from the box I bought in 2010, and a Connecticut as well. So I was looking forward to smoking the Shade in this size, and I really like the Undercrown Shade anyway. I’ll start out saying I think this is the best representation of the Undercrown Shade blend to date, in my opinion! It was slightly underfilled, which was which was OK, I just needed to slow my draw so as not to overheat it, after having a few overfilled cigars this week, I appreciated the effortless draw and the abundance of smoke! The smoke was rich and creamy and loaded with the flavors I expected from the cigar. It had me wondering if we might expect a limited edition of this shape in the Maduro and Sungrown versions of the Undercrown? What the heck, how cool would a Liga Privada be in this shape? Willy? Joe has my address, I’m between jobs, I have time to sample 😁. The Undercrown Shade Suprema is a wonderful smoke!

Editorial

It was a funny week with lots of news! One interesting controversy that arose was the Avo Unexpected line being revealed to actually be the Avo core lines repackaged on Cigar Dojo’s Smoke Night Live. I’ll admit that the Smoke Night Live show hasn’t been on my podcast playlist until now, I have too many to possibly listen to as it is. But I had to listen to this one, and I was rather surprised to hear four prominent members of the Davidoff team reveal this news. Important to the story is that these four cigars were positioned as limited releases with a higher price point, and then were revealed to be the exact same cigars as four of the regular production Avo line. This prompted a rather visceral response from some very prominent retailers, one with especially close ties to Avo Uvasian himself, prompting him to sell off said stock as cost. I have smoked a few Avo cigars, they are OK, not a huge fan but I don’t dislike them, and I don’t have any ties to Davidoff at all, other than the fact that they make some great cigars and have been nice to me a few times in the past. I don’t think that the marketing plan behind this was a good idea at all, and it ended up tarnishing a prestigious brand. In all honesty, the repercussions probably don’t reach the rank and file Avo consumer so much as the few retailers that bought in to the Limited Editions and felt like they got burned, and maybe lost sales on something else because they had basically eight boxes taking up the shelf space where it normally would be four. Someone thought it would be clever, someone went about it the wrong way, and someone should apologize to the retailers who feel betrayed. That’s my unsolicited two cents.

Last week when I was at BnB Cigars in Chestnut Hill, PA (which is actually within the Philadelphia city limits), Vince there implored me to sample a few of their exclusive Flor de Cesar cigars, which I’ve enjoyed in the past. I managed to smoke the “lancero” last night, and I put “lancero” in quotes because it’s actually 7″ x 42, so it’s not really a lancero technically. It’s actually a whole four ring gauges larger than a lancero, maybe it’s a super corona, or something. Call it what you will, if you put it next to a Gordo, it’s a lancero. The Flor de Cesar line is made by James Brown at Fabrica Oveja Negra, but, in my experience, it’s very different from other cigars I’ve smoked from that factory. First, I’ll say that this format, whatever you want to call it, was very comfortable to smoke. It didn’t need quite the babying that a 38 ring lancero needs, yet it still had that elegant feel. You know I think that small ring, wrapper to filler ration bullshit is poppycock, it all has to do with combustion, so the 42 ring strikes a nice balance for me, slow draws to not over heat and it’s a nice cool smoke. I loved the flavor. This had that rare flavor of spiced hard candy that I like, I gotta get a bag of grandma candy and figure out what exactly that is, but I love it and when I find it in a cigar I really dig it. I believe this was the 2019 Flor de Cesar Silver The Novin Lancero to be technically accurate, and it was delicious. I kinda want to try the Corona Gorda now!

Well, that’s all for now, it’s coming up on Christmas all of the sudden. It’s occurring to me that I don’t have much in the vault for giveaways this year! There were a few years there were giveaways were going crazy this time of year, sadly no longer. I’ll see what I can do to put something together! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Avo, BNB Cigars, cigar, CigarDojo, cigars, davidoff, drew estate, Editorial, Flor de Cesar, lancero, Oveja Negra, Suprema, undercrown

by CigarCraig | July 12, 2015 · 8:33 am

A Visit to SMoKE Manayunk and Various Lanceros and another Fratello Cigar

Last Sunday my wife and I went into Philly for Afternoon Tea at a downtown hotel. While not a particularly manly pursuit, it was very nice, with good little sandwiches, scones and pastries to nibble on and a nice tea selection. Afterwards we stopped at SMoKE Manayunk, one of the newer lounges in the area which I’ve been hearing a lot about. It’s the place everyone goes after the other cigar stores close since they are open late. The building is located right next to the fire station, which is always a good idea, and has a rustic, industrial decor. The ceiling is open to the rafters with the galvanized spiral pipe ventilation system. There’s seating in the front of the store, a large bar (it’s BYO, but they have soft drinks) and the walk in humidor in the middle, and more lounge area in the back. It’s a spacious place, and we found it very comfortable. Kosta is the owner, and is a very gracious host, who is a lancero fan, and has a nice selection. Of course, I had to pick up a couple of his store exclusive cigars, the Zeus, named after the mascot of the place, a large, simian/yeti sort of painting in the front of the space. Of course, I got the lancero, and was impressed with the way it smoked, and I would go so far as to say that if you find yourself in the Philadelphia area, put SMoKE on your list of destinations and try this cigar. It was my favorite kind of cigar, dark flavors, rich espresso and cocao, and it burned smooth and perfectly. The cigar is 7″ x 38 with a nice pigtail cap, and I seem to remember Kosta saying it was made at Placencia, but he mentioned a Perdomo tour in the same conversation. I’m afraid I didn’t take very good notes on the blend either, I’ll try to update when I get the details, unless they show up in the comments. It was the outcome of a blending seminar on a factory tour. Great smoke!

Besides lanceros, I managed to fit another Fratello Bianco in early in the week, this time the 5″ x 56 Bianco III. I can’t wait to have easy access to this cigar, it’s got a little of everything I like in a cigar, the San Andrés maduro wrapper and fillers from Peru and Pennsylvania. Still an early favorite for one of my favorite new cigars this year. Omar is one of many people I’m really looking forward to seeing at the IPCPR show next week, he’s got a personality that goes along with his physical stature. For what it’s worth, I would smoke the crap out of the Bianco blend in the lancero format…just a little food for thought for Omar!

Back to the lanceros! I had enjoyed the Fratello Lancero that is one of Stogies World Class Cigars H-Town series, and decided to explore some other or the lanceros in the line. I love the Alec Bradley Nica Puro line in general, so I was excited about the lancero. Obviously, it’s a Nicaraguan puro, and the sweet and savory flavors I get have always satisfied my palate. It’s one of those go-to cigars you always keep around and default to when you can’t decide what to smoke. You can always count on them to deliver good flavor and a great over-all experience. The H-Town is no different, although the flavor is a little more sharply focused due to the small ring gauge. Smooth, full of flavor, and certainly a compliment to the already great line. I’ve been wanting to try the Diamond Rough-Cut in this line, but haven’t picked any up, is it much different from the regular line? I’ll have to keep an eye out for one. The H-Town lancero is recommended if you enjoy this line.

Thursday I went with another from the H-Town series, the Quesada España Lancero. This is the first I’ve smoked of the España line, and it was a very tasty smoke. It used to be that lanceros were prone to having a plugged draw, or other construction problems, but I can’t recall when I’ve had a poorly made lancero in the past few years. It takes a pretty specific hand shape to bunch these, long, thin fingers seem to be key. Anyway, this España was pretty terrific, loads of tasty smoke and perfect performance, I smoked this to a very small nub. It may be the only member of the H-town family with three bands. So far the H-Town series of lanceros are all winners for me. I smoked the Room 101 Namakubi Ecuador in the lancero format a few weeks ago and it was equally as enjoyable as it’s larger brethren, but with the little extra punch from the smaller ring. I’ll have to get to Houston one of these days to visit the store, it seems like quite the place!

Friday I sat down with a Rocky Patel Super Ligero in the Lancero size. I had picked this up when I visited SMoKE as I had been eager to try the lancero size in this blend. I’ve been enjoying the toro shape, and really like the lancero. Once again, it’s got a little more punch in the flavor department, sharper, more direct. As with the others I smoked this week, the burn and draw were spot on, and I nubbed the sucker. Great dark roast coffee flavors which are right in my wheelhouse. SO far I’ve smoked this blend in both the Toro and Lancero formats and really enjoyed the experience. I’ll pick up a some more in the Robusto and Sixty sizes when I see them. This isn’t a ridiculously strong cigar, the “Super” in Super Ligero is actually the name of the leaf, not a characterization of the power or even the priming, as I understand it. It’s generally a bit odd to have Ligero in a lancero as it doesn’t burn great and lanceros need to burn right. There’s a lot of Rocky Patel cigars (I could end the sentence right here) that I can take or leave, but this one is a winner for me.

Yesterday we rented a truck one last time and finished moving all the big stuff out of my wife’s parents house and into our garage. I was exhausted last night, so after a shower I sat down with a nice Inca Imperio and caught up on some podcast listening. Great smoke to unwind after a long day of sweating and swearing (I don’t think I swore as much as other times…). Now to start preparing for our trip to New Orleans this week for the IPCPR show, I’ve made some appointments, I have a list of folks I want to see and have been plotting my course on the floor plan. I’m sure once I get on the floor that will go out the window due to the overwhelming nature of the event! So, the next time you hear from me should be from the show, whether it’s short video updates or something else, we’ll see what happens. Have a great week, until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Review, Stores

Tagged as Alec Bradley, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Fratello, lancero, Quesada, rocky patel, SMoKE Manayunk

by CigarCraig | May 18, 2014 · 5:27 pm

Lancero Weekend! Herrera Esteli and 1502 Cigars

I decided this weekend would be Lancero weekend, as I recently accumulated several samples in that format. This is a size that everyone seems to want, but retailers say it doesn’t sell, so manufacturers don’t want to make a bunch. I guess that’s why they are usually released as special or limited editions. I like the size, and I have a bunch of them in the humidors. It’s an elegant size, and I really haven’t had the burn problems that they used to have years ago.

Friday evening I picked the new lancero from Drew Estate, the Herrera Esteli. This one was a little shorter than the traditional 7½” x 38 size, I want to say it was around 6¾” which is fine. I really like this line, and Willy Herrera was just promoted to head blender at Drew Estate, which is well deserved. Some of the best Herrera Estelis I’ve had were first thing in the morning at the Drew Estate factory, and the lonsdale was my favorite of the bunch. The line has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Will spent a year working on this and really did a great job. I think the lancero just replaced the lonsdale as my favorite. It was really nicely balanced, loaded with flavor and just really good. Thank you to John Brooke for sending this. It’s a dynamite smoke.

Saturday I decided to try tackling the new box pressed lanceros in the 1502 Cigars line. These were included in with a bunch of goodies the Gary Griffith of The House Of Emilio sent me recently. I really love the 1502 line, the Black Gold being my favorite, but all three are exceptional. I started with the Ruby, which has an Ecuador Habano wrapper. The Ruby falls in the middle of the strength range of the line, and I decided to start with that as opposed to the Emerald since it was after lunch and I wasn’t ready for a milder cigar. This is a flavorful smoke that burned very well. When you light your first 1502 you find that the foot has the wrapper leaf folded over the end. It’s not fully enclosing the foot, but just framing the filler tobacco. This gives you a little extra blast of wrapper flavor upon lighting. This is a really great cigar that’s loaded with rich flavor.

It was such a nice afternoon and I was not quite through sitting outside when I finished the Ruby, so I decided to light up the 1502 Black Gold Box Pressed Lancero. Like the others, this is a 7″ x 38 box pressed cigar with the partially wrapped foot. It lit easily and smoked well. It’s a little bolder than the Ruby, and has the signature flavor of the Mexican San Andrés wrapper. It followed the Ruby nicely, making a natural strength progression from medium to strong. I liken this cigar to semisweet chocolate with a little jalapeño pepper in it, which I don;t get to enjoy frequently enough! I was left with a feeling of satisfaction after finishing this, it was my last cigar of the day. One complaint I had was that the ash fell on it’s own, twice falling into my lap. It’s quite fortunate I was wearing pants at the time.

Today, after spending the early part of the day doing yard work, which partially consisted of disassembling a large brick patio, I decided to finish the trifecta of 1502 cigars with the Emerald. This is considered the mildest of the three, but it’s not that mild a cigar. Enrique, the creator of the 1502 line, calls this Fina Fuerte , or Fine Strong. This is listed as a 7″ x 40, but I can’t say I noticed a difference, nor did I look for one. I may have enjoyed this the most out of the three in this vitola, where as in the toro size I like the Black Gold the best, and the Emerald a close third. There was a nice hint of sweetness, and it held an ash a bit better than it’s siblings (it got a little chilly, so, again, I was wearing pants). Again, Enrique killed it with the lancero format! These are brilliant cigars, if you like lanceros, and you like cigars, you should like these. Thanks to Gary for sharing these with me and helping make my Lancero Weekend a success. While I enjoy lanceros, I wouldn’t want to smoke them all the time. I enjoy the smoother, rounder flavors that I get from a larger ring cigar.

I am still working on that contest, I’ll try to have something together this week. I’ve been lazy about scouring the humidors for cigars to include. I probably have enough set aside, but sometimes enough isn’t enough, know what I mean? Don’t forget about the FDA nonsense, if you haven’t left your comment, click on the blinky CRA graphic in the top right of the sidebar and make your feelings known in an educated and reasoned manner. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as 1502, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Emilio, Herrera Esteli, lancero

by CigarCraig | April 22, 2012 · 10:36 am

An Emilio Draig K, a Diamondback, and a San Lotano

Thursday had turned into a stressful day, and when my wife suggested a walk into town, I knew I wanted a terrific cigar to take along. So many choices, so I came across a pre-release sample of the new cigar from Emilio Cigars and Gary Griffith, the Draig K. This dark, oily toro just looked like it was the cigar I was looking for. I had actually just about settled on a Liga Privada T52 when I was distracted by the Draig. Made in the Placencia factory, the only details I recall are that it features some Colombian tobacco in the filler. I love a maduro, and I loved this cigar. It was exactly the rich, satisfying smoking experience I had hoped for. There were a couple points where it stopped wanting to burn and needed a relight, and there was a small tunnel about 4 inches in, but the flavor and texture of the smoke kept me relighting it down to a ¾” nub. Yummy cigar. Yet another cigar I’m going to have to get my hands on when they hit the streets! Thank you, Gary, for the opportunity to sample this fine cigar.

Friday night finally rolled around and I was in an experimental mood, so I reached for the IPCPR show sample of the Diamondback robusto from Altadis. First, from the department of cynicism, one can’t help but draw a comparison between this cigar and another 5″ x 54 shade wrapped cigar with “diamond” in it’s name. Pre-conceived notions aside, this was a very nice cigar. It was solidly constructed, burned even and cut cleanly. If you like shade wrapped cigars, you may want to try these out, considering you can get them by the box for under $50. Not a bad cigar at all. My only complaint was that the draw was a little tighter than I’d prefer, making me have to work a little harder than I’d like.

Saturday was another beautiful spring day. Showers were in the forecast for later, so I hit the back deck with a San Lotano Maduro lancero. I’ve very much enjoyed past San Lotano maduros, so expectations were high, as I love lancero format as well. This was a terrific cigar, although comparing it with its fatter brethren is a little unfair. Certainly, smoking the lancero is a little different experience, one cannot expect the same flavors as a toro or robusto due to the difference in the filler proportions. Where I find the larger ring gauges in this line to be rich and creamy like smoking a chocolate bar, the lancero was more like bittersweet chocolate. In no way do I mean to imply that this is a bad thing, as the lancero was a fantastic smoke. I spent nearly 2 hours nursing every last bit of tasty smoke from it, awfully sad to put it down when it decided it’s time had come. I had picked this up several months ago when I visited Gary Griffith at his People’s Plaza Cigar-ette City store.

News

I’m sure most of you have already done this, but if you haven’t, please head over the the White House website and sign the petition that’s there. Here’s a terrific video from Bill Spann outlining the importance of this fight to keep the FDA out of our humidors.

httpv://youtu.be/7bfqIFGu9WM

It looks like there should be no problem getting to 25,000 signatures, but I think we often over-estimate the number of internet cigar nuts out there. If cigar smokers are a small subset of the general population, and PREMIUM cigar smokers represent a very small subset of those, then those of us who carry our passion for cigars onto the internet are a VERY small part. It’s important to spread the word and get others on board with this. It will not be a happy day if the FDA is allowed to regulate premium cigars!

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

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Editorial, News, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as altadis, cigar, cigar rights, cigar store, cigars, CRA, Diamondback, Draig, Emilio, IPCPR, lancero, maduro, san lotano, Take A Cigar For A Walk

by CigarCraig | February 1, 2012 · 8:53 pm

A Toraño, a La Palina and a Vegas de Santiago Cigar

We have been having unseasonably nice weather here in south-eastern PA, so I’ve taken to smoking some larger cigars than I normally would this time of year. Last winter we’d had probably four feet of snow, not conducive to enjoying a fine cigar. Daytime highs near 60 have left the evenings prime for long walks with excellent cigars.

Sunday afternoon I selected a Toraño Loyal BFC, and I think, like the Emilio BMF, I know what the letters stand for. This 6″ x 60 cigar could be considered a Big Fricken Cigar. I had picked this up sometime over the last few months at a local shop, and it wasn’t awfully expensive, because, let’s face it, I don’t buy too many cigars that are awfully expensive. This was a nice, medium bodied cigar that smoked very well. At the price point around $5, this is a really tasty, well made cigar.

For Tuesday’s evening walk I was joined by a La Palina El Diaro Torpedo, which I receive a month or so ago from the folks at La Palina, who is also an advertiser on this site. The cigar is a classic torpedo size, 6 1/8″ x 52, which is always a favorite of mine. I have to say that I think I like the robusto better in this cigar. The torpedo was good, don’t misunderstand, but is lacked something that the robusto had. I think i found the smaller size slightly more refined than the torpedo. As I was smoking it, I couldn’t help but wonder what this blend would be like with a maduro wrapper. Again, a very nice cigar, but something was missing for me.

Tonight’s cigar was a Vegas de Santiago Secretos de Maestro Don Luis Laguito No.1 maduro. This cigar came into my possession over a year ago after a conversation with Rudi and Lani, the manufacturers in Costa Rico. I have had an association with this folks going back to a couple of events my wife and I hosted which they generously donated their cigars for the attendees. Vegas de Santiago makes some really nice cigars at a very reasonable price. They send me some of these cigars in what they refer to as a maduro wrapper. This is maduro in the sense that the Cuban maduro cigars are, darker than their “natural”, but not the dark, heavy wrapper that we see in a broadleaf or Mexican maduro. The cigar is a beautiful chocolate brown, and it well made with a nice pigtail cap. I enjoyed the heck out of this cigar, except that there were a couple hints of ammonia near the end, which confused me since these have been buried in the humidor for over a year. An enjoyable smoke on a relatively balmy evening (for February 1st, light jacket and no gloves is a treat!).

My wife has been doing some research and in so doing came across the Philadelphia news papers archives. Here’s a comic from the Philadelphia Inquirer dated June 6, 1922 that is as relevant now as it was then. You may need to click on the image to open it in a new window to read it.

On a final note, I’d like to welcome my newest advertiser, 1st Class Cigar Humidors. They have some really nice stuff on their site if you are in the market for a humidor or accessories!