Tag Archives: Matilde

TPE2022: The Brands of Sutliff Tobacco Distributing, Patina, Emperors Cut, Etc.

No video this time, I should have done some videos in the Suliff booth, but it was the first day when I visited, and it was very busy. On Wednesday, the first day if the show, my plane landed around 11:30 and I got an Uber right to the show, I think I was on the floor by 12:45. I actually wasn’t really planning to get to the show at all on Wednesday, but things worked out better than I expected. I decided it made more sense to go right to the Convention Center than to try to check in the hotel early and goof around with that sort of stuff. It also helped that I ran into Mark Weisenberger, of Box Press Sales and Marketing, on the plane and shared the Uber with him to the show. So I used Wednesday to get my bearings and come up with a plan for the next couple days. Back to the Sutliff booth. I’ve known Anne Dinkins at Sutliff for years, she used to be my contact at Villiger Cigars years ago. I make a point to stop and say hello to her if nothing else. She, in turn, introduces me to the brands that Sutliff distributes. This year there were a few new ones that I didn’t know much about, and a few I had known for a while. 

 

One brand that was there that I really like was Patina Cigars. I was happy to meet Mo Maali, I hear him all the time on his Sultans of Smoke podcast so I feel like I know him. I may have met him before…I feel like he knew who I was. Social media can blur the lines between what’s real and not sometimes. I feel bad that I didn’t spend more time with him, and regret not circling back and doing a video with him. Patina is a great line of cigars. They are made in the same factory that Saka’s Mi Querida cigars are made in, NACSA, so the quality is top notch. I smoked a Patina Habano that I had in my humidor when I got home and it was spectacular. It had that cane sugar sweetness that I love. I know it’s one that I’ll be grabbing at Son’s the next time I get over there (which needs to be soon). Mo handed me a Maduro, which I definitely need to sample. I’m a big fan, I hope he gets out this way for a visit one of these days, I know he works with several stores in the Philadelphia area. 

 

There were several brands in the Sutliff booth that I’ve featured on these pages before that I was able to put faces with names finally, Desiree from Drunk Chicken Cigars and Steve Zengel of Los Caidos Cigars. There were also a few people I’ve known for a long time, like Enrique Seijas of Matilde cigars and Eddie Tarazona of…what was the name of his company? Oh, right, Tarazona Cigars 😁.  I finally met Marcel and Henderson of Adventura Cigars, who might have had the busiest corner of the booth. Henderson gave me a Queens Pearls, which has been getting a lot of buzz, and I smoked it this week and it was OK, I may have to pick up another one to give it a second shot. A friend gifted me a Kings Gold which looks more to my liking. Honestly, it takes a heck of a Connecticut cigar to get my attention. 

 

Anne seemed most anxious to introduce me to Greg Willis of Emperors Cut Cigars. It turns out that Greg had e-mailed me several years ago about advertising and I was, let’s say, diplomatically dismissive. We had a good laugh. I smoked the Natural Pleasure Gan Robusto yesterday.  This was a 5½” x 56 cigar made in Nicaragua, with a Colorado Maduro wrapper, Ecuadoran binder, and fillers from Estelí, Nicaragua. It was an earthy Nicaraguan blend with very little sweetness. It was very different than what I expected. I think it was more on the umami side of the flavor spectrum that what I typically am drawn to. That being said, it certainly performed well and it wasn’t off-putting in any way. I enjoyed it as a change from what I typically enjoy. Make sense? Maybe not, but I look forward to trying the Jazz series cigar Greg gave me. 

 

Sutliff’s booth was very busy when I was there, of course they are also, probably primarily, a pipe tobacco company, so there was a lot of pipe tobacco displayed in the booth as well. As I don’t care about that, I don’t cover it. I always enjoy seeing old friends and meeting new people though! I hope I didn’t miss anyone. Thanks again to Anne for taking time to show me around.

 

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

 

CigarCraig 

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Foundry, Montecristo, Civil Disobedience and Matilde Cigars from IPCPR

Foundry_Time Flies_550Earlier this week the news came out that Michael Giannini, the creative director and General Cigar, and the mastermind behind the Foundry cigar line, had left the company after 17 years. I met Michael back in 2010 at the IPCPR show, when got to spend a few days with him at the factory in the Dominican Republic which was really educational.  He’s one of my favorite people in the business, and it’s hard to imagine General Cigar without him.  So to honor him on Thursday I broke out the IPCPR samples and lit up the new offering from Foundry Tobacco Co., and a cigar Michael worked on with AJ Fernandez, the new Foundry Time Flies. The samples provided are robustos, 5″ x 50, and has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, and binder and fillers from Nicaragua’s Quilali region, cultivated by AJ Fernandez and his  farmers collective. Quilali is about halfway between Esteli and Jalapa, I looked it up as I hadn’t heard of it before (still haven’t TimeFlies Boxesfound the famed Jalapeño Valley yet). I dare say, this cigar was the best cigar of the week. It was just what I have been enjoying in cigars recently, smooth, a little sweet, not too strong with some interesting spice flavors. The branding on this is interesting, it features a stylized skull on a prism kind of band, and the boxes are another example of something I noticed at the trade show, bright colors. Each size s in a different colored box, and the are not subtle colors. It’s a very well made, great tasting cigar.

 

Montecristo_PiloticoPepeMendez_toroAnother IPCPR sample was a new one from Montecristo, the Montecristo Pilotico Pepe Mendez in the Toro size. This toro is a 6¼” x 52, and has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Dominican binder, and both Nicaraguan and Dominican Pilotico fillers. The Pilotico varietal is an old seed that Pepe Mendez brought from Cuba in the ’60s and revitalized in the Cibao Valley in the DR. There was some of  this tobacco in the Montecristo 80th anniversary cigar that was out last year. It was hard to find anything bad to say about this cigar, it burned right, it had nice flavors along the leathery lines, with a hint of sweetness. It’s one of those cigars that is, no doubt, I very good cigar, but not in line with my preferred flavors. There are a few Montecristos I really like, most on the mild end of the spectrum. The box is cool with an old-timey suitcase motif, paying homage to Pepe Mendez’ traverls in the 60s to find the right area to plant his prized seeds.

 

MoyaRuiz_Civil DisobedienceSaturday afternoon I sat down with a Moya Ruiz Civil Disobedience. While they had this cigar at the IPCPR show, and have moved it from “event only” to regular production, this sample came to me through the generosity of a gentleman named Dave Payne. I met Dave at the show in July, he has a PR firm, but I first started corresponding with him when he had a cigar blog called The Cigar Sage. We had started around the same time, and compared notes from time to time. Dave was kind enough to send me some goodies that I didn’t have access to, and I am overdue in returning his generosity. Anyway, this is another well made cigar from the La Zona factory, with an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan filler and binder. It’s only available in a 5″ x 50 robusto, and proceeds from the sales goes to Cigar Rights of America. Once again, it’s a great smoke from La Zona, with that leathery profile that isn’t particularly my favorite, but it certainly wasn’t offensive. I was more in awe of the perfect burn and draw than that flavor. This is another cigar that did “wow” me, but was still very good, and I appreciate Dave sharing it with me. There are a couple more he sent that will be featured here in the very near future. I need to get to work on that reciprocal package!

 

Matilde_RenacerQuadrata_TorpedoSaturday evening i sat down with one more IPCPR sample, the Matilde Renacer Quadrata, a box pressed  6″ x 52 torpedo.  I first sampled the Matilde Renacer after it was released, and had some issues with the burn on the samples I had, they had a core of tobacco that refused to burn, making smoking it a very messy affair (especially in the car!). I didn’t get a very good feel for the cigar which I really wanted to like. However, when I finally got around to smoking the Matilde Oscura, I thought it was fantastic, right in my wheelhouse. All that being said, I was looking forward to smoking this new box pressed iteration of the original Renacer blend. I’m happy to report that this box pressed torpedo had none of the burn problems I initially experienced and was a really god cigar. I still lean toward the Osucura in this brand (heavily), but the Quadrata is a really good smoke. Jose Seijas and his son Enrique are outstanding people, and they make some darned good cigars.

 

That’s enough for now, my wife is pressuring me to get out the door to go up to Cigars International’s Downtown Bethlehem store for the afternoon, so I better get moving! Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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A Don Pepin Garcia, Alan Price, Eiroa Maduro and a Matilde Cigar

As we’ve been working on the new house, we figured since we have a great enclosed cigar porch, we should have an annual cigar party.  We just need to figure out when to have this party, so we’ll take suggestions. Whoever comes up with the best date to have this event will get free admission (airfare, lodging not included).  We kind of thought Columbus Day would be a good time. It gives us plenty of time to prepare, and the only really important thing Columbus did was to introduce tobacco to the west.  Getting lost and stumbling upon some islands isn’t really a great accomplishment.  Give us your thoughts!

 

DonPepinGarcia_SeriesJJ_RobustoSunday I pulled out a Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Robusto from a Five Pack I bought at JR Cigars in Whippany, NJ back in June of 2012.  These have been hit or miss with me, and I only have one left so I must have smoked a couple over the years, or gifted one her or there. This one, like the first one I smoked, was a little tighter on the draw than I’d like.  It had a nice flavor, medium to mild with a little sweetness and maybe a little earthy and woody.  I just wish that it had produced more of that tasty smoke, it’s production was a bit thin. Was this cigar really rolled in Miami? I was actually surprised to find this five pack in JRs, I wouldn’t be surprised now, but I was surprised then. Many who have followed others in the blogosphere will understand why I chose that particular cigar.

 

AlanPrice_ToroMonday I chose a cigar I bought last week at Cigar Mojo. A few months ago Alan Price, part time tobacconist at Mojo, Cigar Rights Ambassador and all around good guy, went to the Rocky Patel factory in Honduras.  He ended up taking delivery (earlier that day) of one hundred cigars that he had blended on that trip.  This cigar had a Sumatra Oscuro wrapper, Viso Honduras binder and fillers of Ligero Jamastran, Viso Jalapa & Ligero Jalapa. I admit that I rushed to smoke this, as it really needed some humidor time after it’s long journey.  The blend certainly has a lot of potential, and I’m glad I bought two so I will have one to smoke in a few weeks or so after it’s had time to acclimate.  It was a beautiful cigar with a rich and oily wrapper.  It’s always fun for me to smoke a cigar that a friend blended, one gets a glimpse into the other person’s tastes.  The cigar was very smooth and tasty, but it’ll really shine in a few weeks I hope.  Alan says there’s only about eight left, so this is a rare cigar, I guess.

 

Eiroa_Maduro_RobustoTuesday I smoked the Eiroa Maduro in the robusto size.  A few weeks ago I was in one of my local shops, JM Cigars, and Jeff, the proprietor had a CLE event earlier in the day (I had stopped in earlier too, before the event, and missed it). He gave me one of the leftover giveaway cigars.  I suppose, for want of a better comparison, this is Christian Eiroa’s incarnation of the Camacho Triple Maduro, as all of the tobacco used is cured maduro.  The cigar was rich and loaded with cocoa/espresso and burned reasonably well.  I  liked it well enough, but the $10 price tag will probably prevent me from smoking too many of these.  I appreciate Jeff giving me the opportunity to try this cigar though, it’s much appreciated.

 

Matilde_Renacer_RobustoTonight I decided to retry a cigar I bought a pair of back in July when I was at the Casa de Montecristo store in the Chicago area. I bought a few Matilde Renacer robustos and smoked one on the drive home from Chicago and it was a big problem, it burned poorly and was really not a great experience while driving. There was a leaf in the blend that wouldn’t burn, and it left a core in the middle. Like I said, not a good driving cigar.  This one burned much better after a few months in the humidor and was a nice, medium bodied smoke. I found it on the mild side, with a nice, yet rather unremarkable flavor.  Maybe I’m still a little off from the cold I had a couple weeks ago, or I’m just making choices that don’t align with my palate.  I’ll keep trying though!

 

News

I received an e-mail today from George Rodriguez of Rodrigo Cigars with a contest I thought I’d pass on. What stood out to me was that I met Eric Whitfield, the CIGARtist, a few weeks ago and his work is amazing. We actually talked about buying one of his pieces for our new house.  Anyway, check out George’s contest and take a shot at winning this unique and functional work of art (and some great cigars)

 

To celebrate the release of the long awaited Corona Project my buddy Eric Whitfield, aka the CIGARtist painted this beautiful one of kind travel humidor.

I’m giving it away to one lucky ”Amigo” and I’m gonna fill it with a selection of savory Rodrigo Cigars, including the new Corona Project! 

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE

And make sure you visit our buddy Eric aka the CIGARtist and check out his beautiful cigar themed art!

Your amigo…-George

PS Just think how cool you’re gonna feel when you roll up to your next herf with this bad boy 😉

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE

 

That reminds me, I need to start working on the 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways. It’s not as easy as it looks mooching all the great cigar and stuff for the giveaways!

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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