It’s been a long week for me, we had a holiday weekend, then four days of trying to wrap up a thirteen year career at my day job, and prepare people to take care of all the stuff I did. Now I’m between jobs, I start the new one next week, don’t you know I manage to break a couple molars Thursday?! Who knows what the dentist will say when I get there Tuesday, there might be a smoking hiatus in my future…but I’m hopeful that they can be saved. Anyway, I have a bunch of cigars worth talking about today, so let’s get on with it. Monday I managed an early cigar, so I chose a Nomad Therapy Connecticut. The Therapy line comes in three blends, two sizes each (Toro and Robusto) and goes to retailers in refillable trays. This isn’t a bundle cigar though, it’s a really nice, high quality smoke. This one had an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan filers. I enjoyed this for a milder, very smooth, yet quite flavorful shade cigar. It burned well, drew well, and tasted good. Another very nice cigar from Fred Rewey, and I’m looking forward to trying his new SA-17.
Tuesday I smoked a cigar bought on a visit to a shop in Ridley Park, PA a few months ago. We were in the area for another event and ran across Jacoub’s Cigars, a nice little cigar and hookah shop with a lounge and a well appointed walk-in humidor. I picked a few cigars up that I hadn’t tried yet, including some of Jacoub’s own brand, Capo de Mundo. I bought robustos in the maduro and Corojo, but they also have a Connecticut version. As one would expect, I smoked the maduro first. The Capo de Mundo was a good smoke, it had what one would expect from a maduro cigar, cocoa/coffee and a little bit of sweetness, all things I like. I don’t know that $9 is an appropriate price point though, I get that it’s a small production, that certainly plays in to the price, but I didn’t find that it had enough going for it to warrant the price. This would be a great $5 cigar for me, but there are many other cigars from $5 up to the $9 range that excite me more. I’m afraid this was unremarkable, not a bad cigar at all, just not different from a hundred other maduros. I look forward to seeing what the Corojo brings to the table. This, my friends, is about as close to a negative review you will get from me.
Friday evening my wife wanted to get out, so we went to the King of Prussia Mall, which is probably the largest shopping mall on the east coast. One of the very nice things about this mall is that it has a cigar shop which my wife refers to as “Husband Day Care”, something she borrowed from Dave Garofalo at Two Guys in New Hampshire. Anyway, it’s certainly nice to stop in for a cigar instead of wondering through racks of ladies clothes in various stores. International Tobacco has a nicely stocked walk in humidor (is a Davidoff retailer) and a bar with coffee and soda available. I bought a handful of My Father El Centurian H-2K-CT in the Corona size, which is closer to a robusto at 5½” x 48, not that I’m complaining, that’s a near perfect size as far as I’m concerned. This cigar has a hybrid Habano 2000 wrapper grown in Connecticut, wrapped around components grown and processed by the Garcias in Nicaragua. This was a terrific smoke, with that typical My Father spice in the beginning then some nice sweet, savory flavor throughout. It turns out that this size was perfect for the time it took my wife get tired of shopping, after 30 years I have a good idea how long it takes. I’m glad I bought a few, I love the size and it’s a tasty and interesting cigar. It was nice to be able to relax with a nice cigar, baseball on the TV and pleasant conversation with other patrons and Tom, the owner. If I could afford it, I’d send my wife shopping more often :-).
Yesterday was a two cigar day, after getting some things done around the yard and house, I sat down with a Duran Premium Cigars Neya F8 Big Jack. I really like the flavor of the F8 line, I’ve only smoked this size and the 6 x 60 Yankee, and they come in a bunch of sizes, some of which are quite close to one another (5 x 52 Patriot, 5 x 58 Gringo, 6 x 56 Toro, 6 x 60 Yankee,6½ x 54 Loyalist and 7 x 70 Big Jack). One can assume that this range might be trimmed in the coming years if the FDA requires mega-bucks approvals for each size. Anyway, the line features an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and smoked really well. It’s sweet and smooth and quite good to my palate. the “Big Jack” is a 7″ x 70, named after the very recently former marketing and sales manager Jack Toraño, who has just left the company to join General Cigars as the face of the Toraño brand, a wonderful move in my opinion. Having an actual Toraño on board for the centennial of the brand is certainly key, and Jack is well known and loved in the industry. Anyway, the Big Jack was a tasty cigar and took me well over two hours to smoke. My only gripe with the cigar (and I’m sure Jack never tires of hearing this), is it’s just too damn big! I’ll happily smoke any size in this line, but 70 ring gauge is ridiculous. Great cigar though, even down to the last inch and a half, and after sitting id down and running an errand. I’m sure Jack’s talents will be missed at Duran Premium Cigars, but I’m glad to see him “home” with his family brand.
After dinner, I dug deep and found a Toraño toro with a Cigar Rights of America band, which came either when I joined CRA in 2009, or renewed the year after. I have no idea what the blend on this toro was, it had the burgundy Toraño band like on the Casa Toraño line along with the CRA secondary band. I have a bunch of the CRA cigars in the humidor from renewing every year, I’ve yet to get a CRA Opus or Liga yet though. This cigar was just fine. Good, savory flavors, and a razor sharp burn with a flat ember. The ash fell off by itself a couple times, no big deal as I was out walking, had it done that on my new patio carpet I might have been annoyed. Certainly you can’t run out and buy these, so my opinion means nothing really, except to go join the CRA if you haven’t already and maybe you’ll get one of these, or some other good cigars. Which is a good segue to the final paragraph of this post!
Contest
Last week I offered a T-shirt (which I purchased from Smoke Inn) and a handful of cigars from my humidor, including a few that I threw in over the course of the week that weren’t pictured. I honestly thought the turnout would be better than it was. Maybe I didn’t include enough great cigars, or maybe it’s a commentary on the over-all apathy among the cigar smoking public, I don’t know. It’s good for the folks who entered, as it increases the odds. Trust me, when these FDA regulations take effect, it’s going to be much harder for me to have giveaways! Anyway, thanks to all that entered, and thanks for Abe dropping by and commenting and for his dedication to the cause. He certainly won’t be able to offer his Micro-Blend series with the regulations as they are. So, the winner of the T-shirt and cigars from CigarCraig’s humidors is…..KOPTim. Tim, please send your contact info so I can get this stuff to you, or, better yet, if I remember correctly, you’re in the area, lets meet up for a smoke and hand-off! Thanks for all who entered and shared, you can still go to https://www.smokeinn.com/FDA/ and buy a shirt or two to support the cause.
That’s more than enough for today! Look for a single cigar focused mid-week post or two as I have a bunch of interesting samples to get to and I’ve been rather selfishly smoking for myself this week! I also want to get a few posts in the bank, so to speak, in case there’s some dental interruption (fingers crossed). Until the next time,
CigarCraig
Last week while I was out and about, I picked up a couple of the new My Father Fonseca robustos. I’ve been looking forward to trying this cigar for a while. It was a bit of a surprise when Quesada sold the Fonseca brand to My Father, and it took a year of two before My Father came out with their version of this iconic brand. I’ve personally smoked a bunch of Fonseca cigars over the years. I had a box of Havana Fonseca Cadet KDT many years ago that were really very nice. A few years ago I really got into the 
Fonseca Nicaragua, more on that in a bit. This new My Father Fonseca Robusto is 5½” x 52 and has a shade grown Corojo 99 rosado wrapper, and Garcia grown Nicaraguan fillers. At $9.50, it’s not an inexpensive cigar, but after smoking it, I certainly wasn’t disappointed! This was a really terrific tasting cigar, I think it captured the spirit of Fonseca quite nicely. It’s medium bodied, and has a delicious sweetness. It’s a nice, sophisticated blend, really nice. It’s got that hard candy sweetness I like. The Garcias did a really nice job with the Fonseca brand. 
I found a few older Fonseca cigars in the humidor, so I figured I’d see how they compared. I smoked the Fonseca Nicaragua toro, which was new a few years ago and was fairly inexpensive. This was Quesada‘s last iteration of the Fonseca I believe. These were actually made by Placencia for Quesada, and had tobaccos from Jalapa, Esteli and Ometepe. I really liked these and smoked a bunch of them when they came out in 2016. I remember smoking one at the IPCPR show with Terrance Reilly in the Quesada booth and loving it, and seeking more out when they hit the stores. I smoked the 6″ x 50 toro and it had held up well over time. There were similarities to the new version, which is also Nicaraguan. It had that sweetness, it had some earthiness, and was as I remembered, a very good smoke. I enjoyed it and will miss these when I smoke the last of the few I have left! 
Finally, I found a Dominican Fonseca, and I don’t even know how old this one was, where it came from or much about it at all. If I had to guess, I’d say it had a Sumatra wrapper, based on looks and flavor. There was a hint of that same candy sweetness that is in the new version that I love so much. This is another cigar that had aged well. The burn was perfect, it just was a pleasure to smoke. I wish I knew how old this one was, or where it came from! I’m just glad I had the chance to smoke it. I still have one Cuban KDT Cadets from the box that I had maybe in the middle of the 2000s. They were pretty strong little cigars, but I imagine fifteen years might have mellowed it out a bit. 
