I continued this week’s cigar version of comfort food, smoking cigars I know I love and won’t disappoint. I just haven’t felt adventurous lately. I have some cigars I need to get around to smoking, I just felt like going with great cigars. I sat down and started writing this forgetting I had written about the Mi Querida from Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust on Wednesday. Since I didn’t want to abandon what I wrote, here it is: Mi Querida is named after Gomez Addam’s often used pet name for his wife, Morticia in the ’60s sitcom The Addams Family…no, that’s not right, it’s actually an idiom for “my mistress”, side-chick or as they say in South Philly, “Goomad” (Saka couldn’t use “Goomad” because Antony Renzulli of Twin Smoke Shoppe named the Churchill in his La Zona made Renzulli line that). By now you’ve read everywhere that the Mi Querida is Saka’s broadleaf cigar, and it’s made at the NACSA factory in Esteli. This factory is better known for making inexpensive bundle cigars like Manteqilla, La Primadora, Villar y Villar, and part of them making Mi Querida, a true premium cigar, was Steve offering his manufacturing expertise to help that factory up their game, so to speak. Anyway, it’s a terrific smoke, and after smoking several sizes in the line, I think this robusto up there among my favorites, although I wouldn’t say no to any of the sizes. Sobremesa was the sophisticated, nuanced offering, Mi Querida is the straight-forward, sweet broadleaf maduro, full bodied flavor bomb. Yummy, well made and a staple in my humidor. I really need to get my hands on some Umbagogs!
Anyway, on with the current smokes of the week. Another all time favorite of mine is the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo. I had a couple in the 5½” x 54 El Martillo size that Willie Herrera stuffed in my hand at the 2014 Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival. I distinctly remember the occasion, because he was smoking a Villiger Trill, which was relatively new at the time, commented that it was good, and I was able to educate him on the origin of the cigar. Anyway, I dig the Antaño Dark Corojo a little more than I dig the regular Antaño 1970 line, which I dig a lot. It overwhelms the palate with strong, sweet, spicy and savory flavors and never fails to satisfy my palate. I’ve visited the factory twice and I love the place, along with most of the cigars they produce! There are very few Joya’s I don’t enjoy (the newer Red may be my least favorite), Rosalones, Sobremesa, Fratello…all great smokes from the oldest factory in Nicaragua.
Friday evening I went big. The Salamon is traditionally a 7¼” x 54 figurado, in the Diadamas family, a sizable cigar. The La Sirena Dubloon is exactly this size, is a Nicaraguan puro that was made at the My Father Factory. It has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper over dual binders of Nicaraguan Habano and Corojo, and Nicaraguan Criollo and Corojo fillers. These were very limited and came in a box of eight, which I am half way through. This box came into my possession four years ago or so, and has been resting comfortably. This is a glorious size for a cigar, given you have the time to smoke one, and given that it’s properly made. With most cigars that are perfecto shaped, where they taper to a nipple at the foot, they are often a bit tight on the draw for the first puff or two. This particular one had a great draw out of the gate, and just kept getting better! It was meaty, savory and exactly what I was yearning for at the end of the week. Beautiful cigar, both in appearance and performance. I doubt there are many of these left in the wild, but if you can find some, grab them. I’ve smoked plenty of both the My Father and La Zona production La Sirenas and love them, I think the blend ages very well.
Yesterday it rained all day. It was cold, wet and nasty. After a trip to a local mall, where I stopped in to check out International Tobacco and see how their transition to new owners has come along (very well stocked, including the new 60 ring Davidoff’s which I passed on due to the $20+ prices. Not that the price was out of line, I just wasn’t feeling it). It’s great to have an oasis in the mall to get away from the hustle and bustle and and relax with a cigar occasionally. I came home and retired to the porch with a cigar that came from the “Oh F*ck I’m Lost” Tatuaje event pack that I had picked up last month. I’m a big fan of the Tatuaje brand, although I’m not a geek about chasing the rare cigars, or memorizing all the details, I wish I was, but there’s too much going on there for my grey matter to process. I asked Pete Johnson what was in the pack, and there were some Pudgy Monsters, something 
called a Cheesesteak, and this Black Label CRA toro. I’m guessing this was from the batch that the CRA gives out with a membership or sells in the ten pack. I have a handful of CRA cigars that I’ve amassed over the 8 years I’ve been a member, but never got a Tatuaje. This cigar was incredible. Rarely am I this impressed with a cigar, it was perfection. The flavor was smooth as silk, but there was plenty of it. It had a unique spice flavor that grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go. Holy crap this was a good smoke. I’ll have to check out some of the larger vitolas in the Black line as I don’t remember this flavor, perhaps it’s unique to this special edition. It was worthy of the Poke and Smoke tool.
Contest!
To recap, the Philly Cigar Festival is only a couple weeks away, and since I can’t go, John, one of the organizers, graciously offered to allow me to give away my ticket. There are no strings attached to this, but I would be happy to post any pictures and /or feedback from the winners here on my site after the event. In this case, I want to live vicariously! So I sorted through the entries, and consulted the random number generator, and came up with the number 6, which corresponds to Andrew Tomkovich. Please send me your contact info so I can get you your ticket. Thanks again to the folks at the Philly Cigar Festival, I’m truly sorry I can’t make it.
That’s it for now, don’t forget it’s Mother’s Day! Until the next time,
CigarCraig
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Happy Wednesday everyone! Over the weekend I picked up a couple of the Oscar Habano cigars with the candela outer wrapping. I selected the Sixty for my Monday evening walk. It looks pretty ugly at first glance, the dry, green outer wrapping, a candela leaf taking the place of cellophane, but under that is a beautiful Ecuador Habano wrapper over a Honduran binder and fillers from Honduras and Nicaragua. This Sixty is 6″ x 60 as you would suspect. I got a toro as well, but had the time for the Sixty, so why not? I’m one of the oddballs in the blogging game that doesn’t mind a 60 ring cigar. This was a terrific cigar, almost worth the $13 price tag, although I expect a lot from cigars in that price range. It was smooth, rich and chocolaty with some woody notes. This is from the same factory that makes the Leaf by Oscar, which is fairly obvious given the presentation, but it’s a totally different smoke. I’m a fan of the Leaf line, most of the wrapper varieties, at least most of them, and this compliments that range quite well. It may be a little more suave than that line. I wasn’t disappointed.
Last night I went with another cigar from the Tatuaje tour pack that I mentioned last time. Included were three of the Pudgy Monsters selections, of which I selected the Pudgy Mummy. This cigar is presented in a 5¾”x 47 size, an eighth of an inch longer and one ring gauge larger than a traditional corona gorda. I rather expected the Pudgy series to all be robustos, so this one was a nice surprise. My experience with the Tatuaje Monster series is limited, I can only really remember smoking a Mummy a couple years ago, a Wolfman, and I have a Hyde floating around somewhere, I think. The Pudgy Mummy is a Nicaraguan Puro, with a Nicaraguan Criollo wrapper, and I love a closed foot. I decided to try a V-cut on this one, once in a while I remember I have the Xikar XV and whip it out. I figure if the draw isn’t right I can always cut it again. In this case, it gave the perfect draw, and the cigar burned well, needing very few corrections. I thought it was a bit mellower than I’m accustomed to with the Tatuaje line, very smooth and dignified. This would be e nice cigar for someone who finds many of the Tatuaje offerings to be stronger than they like. It had some nice, cedary notes with a bit of spice. Nice cigar, I suppose it was reminiscent of the full size version. I can hardly wait to delve into the other two Pudgy Monsters examples, I believe they are the Drac and Wolf, although the Wolf band looks different from pictures I’ve seen.
