Tag Archives: Sumatra

by Craig Vanderslice | July 31, 2022 · 9:21 am

West Tampa Tobacco Cigars, a Street Taco Carnitas and a Patina Sumatra

I’ve started smoking some PCA show samples now that I feel fully recovered from the post-Vegas Covid situation. I started out revisiting the West Tampa Tobacco Co. Black and White. Rick went out of his way to give me a 6×60 from a bundle, that had never been in a box! This is significant because I told him about an experience I had initially with the cigars I had sourced locally. This was the first cigar I smoked, and it was very good. If you refer back to the video interview with Rick (HERE), he explains how the Black and White have the same wrapper, it’s just fermented differently. The Black has nice espresso notes and is up my alley. The construction was perfect and everything tasted the way it should.

I had another West Tampa Tobacco Co.White Toro that Ricky also gave me, which was also very good, but I find the Black suits my palate more. The White has more of a woody character, with some citrus tang to me. Rick explained that the White was blended more for the European palate, with the wrapper being highlighted, and the darker wrapper Black highlighting the filler blend. I like them both, but the Black is better for me. I still have to try the robusto. GOod stuff from a very small factory in Esteli.

Thursday evening I had the pleasure of being a guest on the All About Wine Podcast, of all things. We had a panel of folks talking about cigars. I pre-gamed with a Rojas Cigars Street Taco Carnitas, the Connecticut shade version of the Street Taco. This has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I had the 5″ x 50 robusto. Oddly, this comes in a Robusto and Toro, with the 5½” x 46 Short Corona being the closest thing to a small ring gauge in the line. I think of a corona being 5″ x 42, so I’m not sure I understand the name. Regardless, the robusto was very good. It was creamy, with some oomph to it. There was some spice and it wasn’t a mild Connecticut. Considering that shade wrappers are fairly low on my preference list, this one was very good.

Finally, when I met with Mo Maali at the show, he gave me a Patina Sumatra. This is his new release, which excited me for a few reasons. First, I’ve enjoyed the Patina line in general, Maduro and Habano, I don’t think I ever had the Connecticut (see above). They are made in the NACSA factory where Mi Querida cigars are made, as well as several others! I want to say that factory mad the majority of JR’s Alternatives bundle brand, which is millions of cigars. NACSA is one of the largest factories in Nicaragua. The other reason I was looking forward to this is because I really love Sumatra wrapped cigars! This one didn’t disappoint. It had the sugar cane sweetness that I really like. It burned perfectly and gave me a great experience. Check out my video with Mo here. Good stuff!

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Black, Carnitas, cigar, cigars, Patina, Rojas, Street Taco, Sumatra, West Tampa Tobacco Co., White

by Craig Vanderslice | September 2, 2020 · 9:48 pm

Byron 19th Century, Undercrown ShadyXX and Micallef Grande Bold Sumatra Cigars

I smoked a bunch of great cigars on my birthday weekend. After the Padron and the Unicorn on Saturday, I had to step down gradually! Sunday afternoon I selected a Byron 19th Century Grand Poemas that had spent a few years in the humidor. This cigar was a gift from David Garofalo at an IPCPR show a few years back, it had to have been 2017, as that was the last show I attended. This cigar was 6″ x 56 and I don’t believe it’s even available any more. It’s listed as a 2013 limited edition, and the blend is undisclosed. I know that it’s made in Costa Rica under the supervision of Nelson Alphonso. This was a spectacular tasting cigar, it had that hard candy sweetness that I haven’t been able to identify yet, but I love. I really need to buy a bag of old school hard candies and find that flavor, it’s one that grandma would have in her candy dish. It was perfect in burn and draw, as a cigar with a $33 price tag should be. You know me, I’m not dropping that kind of coin on a cigar, but I certainly appreciate when I have the opportunity to sit back and enjoy such a great smoke. it was truly wonderful. Later I had another wonderful cigar, as I finished the weekend, a Joya de Nicaragua Cinco Decadas El General, a large, delicious cigar.

Back to reality, I decided to sample the Drew Estate Undercrown Shady XX, a line extension to the Undercrown Maduro line that came out a few years ago and I never got around to smoking. This returns this year as a limited release in the DE Summer Takeover. It’s a 5″ x 50 box pressed belicoso, for some reason it feels a little bigger than that. Usually box pressed cigars feel smaller. Much like the Dogma, this is based on the Corona Viva blend, which has some more ligero than the run of the mill Undercrown Maduro. This was a strong cigar. I felt like the strength overpowered the blend, and it was just too spicy. Maybe it was the wrong cigar for me for how I felt that day, or whatever the case, I generally like the Corona Viva and Dogma, although it’s been a few years since I’ve smoked either, oddly enough. It’s not that it kicked my ass, it was just more spice than the usual espresso/cocoa that I enjoy in the Undercrown Maduro. I’ll smoke one again under different circumstances, but I found this to be a spicy powerful smoke.

Last night I went with one of my favorite milder cigars, the barber pole cigar from Danli Honduras Cigars, or, as they are now known, DAHOT cigars, The Clown. I always enjoy this smooth, flavorful cigar! Tonight I found a cigar that I got at the TPE show last January, back when things were normal. By the way, next years TPE show has been moved to May, which is interesting because it put is pretty close to the PCA show. I may be able to go, as I will have vacation time by then, and I wouldn’t have if it had been in January, not that there’s any guarantee that travel would be possible then anyway. Tonight’s cigar was the Micallef Grande Bold Sumatra. I would have thought I had smoked this cigar before, but I searched my own site and didn’t find a reference to it, so if I’m repeating myself, my apologies. This cigar was the 5″ x 54 and was box pressed, has a Sumatra wrapper (it would be dumb to name it “Sumatra” if it didn’t, right?), a Broadleaf binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I love Sumatra wrappers, and I love Broadleaf, oddly the two play nicely together making for an interesting smoke. Both qualities come through with the sweetness and some nuttiness. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was really quite good, and I enjoyed it. I think these are priced reasonable and, if I recall, are readily available, at least in my local market. The sales rep in my area is someone I’ve known for a long time, going back to the Usenet days, I seem to recall him winning an inflatable sheep at a large herf in the 90s, but perhaps that’s another story. Micallef seems to be making good cigars and doing the right things for retailers and consumers from what I can see.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Byron, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Grand Poemas, Grande Bold, Micallef, Shady XX, ShadyXX, Sumatra, undercrown

by CigarCraig | December 4, 2011 · 10:00 am

A Saturday Afternoon of La Gloria Cubanas

I received an e-mail from Famous Smoke Shop last week about the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos Retro Especiale tour stop and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to finally visit their new location in Easton, PA. I don’t quite know why I haven’y yet visited the place, it’s a little over an hour and a half from home, although it ended up taking two hours or so to get there. The retail shop and Leaf Restaurant and Cigar Bar appears to be in the front of their huge warehouse and distribution center. It’s a little off the beaten path, as I’m driving through a new, under construction residential area and industrial park, I was really starting to doubt my GPS (which has failed me before). But there it was, in the middle of nowhere, this huge building, with a beautiful restaurant and retail store. The humidor is enormous, with an equally enormous selection of boxes, five-packs and singles. The staff was very friendly and attentive, and I picked up a fiver of La Gloria Serie R Maduros. In the lobby, Michael Giannini was set up with posters that he was autographing, Retro Especiale Club samples, and bundles of Atesano de Tabaqueros, which were free with various levels of purchase. My simple five-pack purchase got me three of the Artesanos de Tabaqueros, of which I chose two of the new Sumatra/Broad-leaf versions.

While I was hanging out talking with Michael, Gary and Seanna (Gary is the General Cigar Event Manager and Seanna is the General Cigar account manager for national accounts), I enjoyed another Retro Especiale Club, which I’ve been smoking quite a few of in the last couple months. If you haven’t tried these yet, find them and try them. Great cigars. After that I just had to try the Artesanos de Tabaqueros with the Sumatra and broad-leaf wrappers. I love broad-leaf, and once the burn line reached that broad-leaf it exploded with flavor. Not that it didn’t start off great, with the Sumatra wrapper portion being very nice, but the broad-leaf is so rich and full flavored that I was sad when it was finished. I’d love to try broad-leaf and Connecticut shade, hint hint. These cigars are only available on the Retro Tour.

It’s always a treat to hang out with Michael, he’s a real mensch, and I’m pleased to know him and call him “Bro”. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to visit Famous finally. We are fortunate to have quite a few very large retailers in Pennsylvania, due to the lack of a cigar tax.

For my evening “Take a Cigar for a Walk” cigar, I figured I’d keep the La Gloria theme going with a Serie R No. 5 Maduro that I picked up at the shop. I haven’t had one of these in years, and it was actually milder than I recall. The Tabaqueros was much stronger, and I suppose I expected the R to be stronger. Regardless, it was a very nice cigar, although the cold evening was, perhaps, not conducive to fully enjoying this cigar. It burned perfectly. I remember drooling over the stacks of these I saw at the factory.