Category Archives: Review

by CigarCraig | December 7, 2016 · 8:38 pm

Lamborghini and Horacio Cigars

I’ve smoked Bugatti cigars in the past, and I’ve been using the great Xikar Xidris lighter, which has super car inspired styling, so I figured I’d have to try the Lamborghini cigar line, which has recently been introduced in the US. I got a couple from www.cigarluxury.com and they come cellophane wrapped in nice looking cardboard tubes. Circling back to the Xikar Xidris lighter, I’ve been using it exclusively for the past couple months and it works great. It has a large tank, lights every time, and while it’s pretty heavy, is comfortable in the pocket. I’ve discovered that while it’s symmetry leads me to often pick it up with the business end pointing down, it’s impossible to light the lighter if it’s tilted past 90 degrees. A wondrous design, it’s my favorite lighter now, and I have a drawer full of great lighters. Back to the cigars at hand. There are two varieties of Lamborghini cigars, both in a substantial 7″x 54 torpedo format. The black tube has the Lamborghini MCMXVIV Habano and the white tube contains the 1963 Lamborghini 350 GTV Maduro.

I started with the Lamborghini MCMXVIV Habano, I suppose the black tube reminded me of maduros and I grabbed that one first. MCMXVIV is 1994 in Roman numerals, and is significant because it’s the year that Lamborghini LatinoAmerica was formed. It has a dark Ecuador Habano wrapper that is beautiful and delicious. The fillers are from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. These are made at a factory in Esteli, which remains a mystery. I was quite impressed with this cigar, it burned perfectly, had great, rich flavors. It was medium bodied, had a nice spice and a savory flavor. I was quite enamored with this large cigar and enjoyed it town to a finger-burning nub.

I moved on to the 1963 Lamborghini 350 GTV Maduro in the white tube. While the 1963 part appeals to me because it’s the year I was born, but it relates to the Lamborghini 350 GTV, which debuted at the 1963 Turin Auto Show. I missed the show that year, as I was only two months old. Anyway, this maduro has a San Andrés wrapper from Mexico with over five years of age, and filers from the DR and Nicaragua. This cigar started out with a big spice and strength, which I love. It mellowed out a little after a while, but continued to be right up my alley. I’m not sure I could chose a favorite between the two varieties, the Habano was rich and sophisticated, and the maduro was bold and exciting. Both are excellent cigars, and while they carry a reasonably hefty price tag ($15), given the generous size and excellent performance and flavor, these are winners.

Along with the two Lamorghini cigars, I also got a Horacio Colossos Reserva Especial, a 5½” x 60 cigar with a closed foot. This brand is apparently available in Europe and does very well there, but it’s relatively new to the US market. The only information I could find was that it was made in Nicaragua, and was formerly made in Costa Rica. According to Yunior Lopez, the CEO of Lord of the Cigars Corporation, who has the distribution for the Horacio line in the US, this is a very rare cigar to find in the US. This cigar started out with the blast of flavor from the closed foot. I never toast cigars with a closed foot because it would be a waste of the blast of flavor, just torch these badboys up. The cigar was on the mild side, with a decent flavor, and a great burn. While I wasn’t as blown away with this cigar as I was with the Lambos, it was a good smoke with a lot going for it. It was smooth until the end, when I put it down with about ¾” left. I can see haw this would appeal to the European palate, and that’s not a dig at all.

I have a list of Secret Santa participants, I’ll match them up and e-mail people their recipient this week. I’m trying to think up an assumed name so I can join in too. That’s all for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, Cigar Luxury, cigars, Horacio, Lamorghini, Lord of the Cigars, xikar

by CigarCraig | December 4, 2016 · 10:34 am

Nat Sherman Timeless and Metropolitan Cigars and Secret Santa

The Nat Sherman company started out in 1930 with a tobacco store in the garment district of Manhattan, at the height of the Great Depression. Over time, the Nat Sherman store became a destination for tobacco lovers, hosting celebrity clientele such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr., as well as being considered “neutral ground” by members of organized crime f

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amilies. The company remains family owned with the third generation of Shermans running the business, along with Michael Herklots,VP of retail and brand development. Nat Sherman is an iconic brand, and their flagship store is a Townhouse on 42nd street which is a must visit if you find yourself in New York City. I remember getting the catalog from Nat Sherman in the early 80s, not sure how I got on the mailing list, but I was a fan of their MCD cigarettes. Of course, at the time the cigars were quite the luxury item, not that the cigarettes weren’t, they were probably a very exorbitant $2.50 a pack. I was in a “smoke less, but smoke better” place, I guess, plus I

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had very few expenses while living with my parents and working three jobs.

Thursday evening I had the pleasure of attending an event at my local CigarCigars store with Michael Herklots where he led a tasting of the Nat Sherman Timeless Dominican by having everyone smoke puros of the four filler components. I arrived late, but was on hand to see the participants trying various combinations together, with two or three little cigars in their mouths at once. It was interesting to see some components smoked together appeared to taste really bad, but the combination of all four tasted really good. The Timeless Dominican, the first cigar that Michael blended when he joined the company, is made at the Quesada factory and comes in about nine sizes, and has Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers and a Honduran binder. I smoked the robusto size and was very happy with it. Aesthetically, it had a great burn and ash, there was a very thin black line at the perfectly straight boundary between ash and wrapper. The ash had to be almost forcibly removed. It had a load of great flavors, and was a medium to full-bodied cigar. I left satisfied, although I wished the cigar were larger! I solved that by purchasing a couple in the Churchill size, which I look forward to sampling.

Logically, I followed up the Timeless Dominican with a Timeless Nicaragua. I bought a few of these in the 660 size, with the box press that they use on the Nicaraguan line (as opposed to the round Dominican), it seemed less girthy. Obviously, this is a 6″ x 60 cigar, and its a Nicaraguan puro, with a dark Nicaraguan Habano wrapper that was very appealing to me. This cigar didn’t have the razor-sharp burn that its Dominican counterpart did, but it evened itself out after a while. The cigar had some of my favorite cocoa/coffee flavors along with a woody/meaty component. I liked it. Fortunately, when I go to an event I generally buy more than one of each cigar for a variety of reasons. Mostly so I have at least one to take home if I decide to smoke one at the event, where it’s hard to fairly judge a cigar, and because ya can’t buy just one, am I right? Anyway, another winner from the Iconic Nat Sherman.

I love watching hockey, but I hate Saturday and Sunday afternoon games as they seem to get in the way of getting thin

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gs done. I suppose I should embrace them as an excuse to relax on the weekend afternoons, which is why I grabbed a cigar and the tablet and watched the game on the back porch (which has been enclosed for the winter). Continuing the theme, I selected a Nat Sherman Metropolitan Habano toro. The Metropolitan series comes in Habano, Maduro and Connecticut, with the later two being made in the Dominican Republic, and this Habano from Nicaragua. I broke tradition and chose this over the Maduro, as it just looked so good and I really wanted to smoke it. I’d save the Maduro for later. The Metropolitan Habano was my favorite so far. It had a great sweet, medium bodied flavor and hit me just right. I think these are priced in the $6 range too and worth every penny. This is one of those cigars that I would buy two of for every one $12 cigar all day long. It burned perfectly and lasted through the second period and half way through the third. Good game, great cigar.

Finally I got around to that Metropolitan Maduro for my evening walk. This one has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, comes in about eight sizes consistent in shapes and names with the Connecticut shade counterpart. I selected the 6″ x 50 University. This cigar was on the milder side of medium, and it had more of a savory maduro flavor than the sweet. It was different enough to be interesting and pleasurable, but perhaps would be better suited to warmer weather. Again the construction was great and it burned with the nice flat burn that I appreciate as all the components are burning at the same rate. Perhaps I should have stuck to my maduro first tradition as this cigar might have been better earlier in the day, but that Habano was so good…

So it’s been brought to my attention that I am a little late to be trying to organize a Secret Santa, but, I’m an optimist, and if anyone is interested in participating, e-mail me (craig@cigarcraig.com) your mailing address before Sunday, December 11, 2016 and I’ll match people up and send out assignments ASAP. We’ll keep it simple, four cigars, with no expectation of having it delivered by Dec. 25, we’ll shoot for New Years. We can still have some fun with this, how’s that sound? I do have a couple of tricks up my sleeve for some giveaways, so don’t despair!

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as cigar, cigar store, CigarCigars, cigars, Metropolitan, Nat Sherman, Timeless

by CigarCraig | November 30, 2016 · 9:25 pm

Cigars From El Artista: Exactus, Big Papi, Pro Ambar and Pulita

This just happened to work out great, because as I was smoking some cigars from El Artista this week, I got a new ad from them (top right on the side) with a Cigarmas con

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test for you all to enter. Since I’ll be taking a break from CigarCraig’s 12 Spectacular Days of Cigar Giveaways this year, here’s a chance to win some great stuff anyway. The contest will run from tomorrow, 12/1/2016 to 12/12/16. Click the graphic and upload a picture of yourself in your holiday finery!

Tabacalera El Artista has been around since 1956 in the Dominican Republic, and has been flying under my radar unt

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il recently. When they approached me about advertising on my site I was intrigued, and I picked up a handful of their cigars from Best Cigar Prices (yeah, another advertiser) on my own dime. Among them was the Puro Ambar and the Exactus, and I also managed to acquire a couple of their Pulita and Big Papi, newly released by Boston Red Sox baseball player David Ortiz. The release of the Big Papi was delayed by a brief play-off run, as they weren’t going to release it until Mr. Ortiz officially retired from the sport. I started off with the Exactus Clasico in the 5″ x 54 Robusto size. This cigar has an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper leaf over Dominican Criollo 98 fillers and a s

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pecial wine-fermented binder leaf. Look for a better take on this cigar in the future as the conditions I smoked it in were not conducive to getting the best experience. It was windy and cold the day I took this cigar with me for my walk home from the store, and while it was a nice enough cigar, it was on the mil

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d side and lost given the weather, which was better suited for a strong, broadleaf cigar. These are also available in a “Super Coloso” size in the Connecticut and Maduro, running around $45 each for an 11″ x 90 cigar. I seriously doubt you will see a review of that size here.

The Pig Papi by David Ortiz is a 6″ x 54 toro with a Ecuador Habano wrapper, Criollo 98 binder and fillers from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. I grew up watching National League baseball, so the whole designated hitter thing was always a little foreign to me, and I understand that Big Papi was a DH (designated hitter, I’m sure he’s a really nice guy, he smokes cigars!). Pitchers were never really great hitters anyway, so not having them bat seems like a good enough idea. This cigar was really quite good, creamy with some spice and nuts, with a good burn. While I was impressed, I can see where this will benefit from some humidor time and can’t wait for baseball season to try another one (not a big fan, but baseball=warmer months, which I am a fan of).

The Puro Ambar Gran Robusto was next up. This cigar was a 5¼” x 54 size, and has all kinds of hybrid tobaccos from El Artista’s farms in the Dominican Republic. The Wrapper is “T13”, a three tobacco hybrid, the fillers are Dominican Criollo 98 and another exclusive hybrid, and the wine fermented Criollo 98 like the Exactus. As a non-drinker, and never a wine fan when I was, this is lost on me, although that may have been the unique and interesting flavor I found in the cigar. Like the other cigars from this manufacturer, the construction was top-notch. This is an earthy cigar, pleasant, but lacking the sweetness I like in a cigar. This might be my least favorite of the three, but certainly not without merit.

Tonight I went with the Pulita 60 Anversario robusto, a classic 5″ x 50. This cigar honors the founder of El Artista, Ramón “Pulita” Rodriguez, with his original six tobacco blend. The wrapper is a Negrito from the DR, and the last time I heard of Negrito tobacco was from Robert Caldwell’s The King is Dead. It’s a chocolaty wrapper, very nice looking. The binder is the Criollo 98, and fillers are an interesting mix of Dominican, Nicaraguan, Colombian and Pennsylvanian tobaccos. This was easily my favorite of the bunch, even though it was raining like crazy, thankfully my enclosed back porch was nice and dry. This was a slow burning cigar, with a lot going on in the flavor department. It tasted of well-aged tobaccos, with some coffee and cocoa, some damp earth and sweetness. It was interesting and held my attention. It’s funny, I hadn’t heard of this cigar until my amigo Mike mentioned it to me a couple of weeks ago, apparently it was featured on The Cigar Authority and included in their care package (a cigar of the month club of sorts which supplies cigars to smoke along with the show). I guess I zoned out during that part of the show that week, I usually pay attention better. Tasty cigar.

OK, so we know that I’m not going to spend 14 days having rapid fire contests this year, which isn’t any fun for anyone, and I’m sorry about that. Don’t be surprised if there aren’t some contests popping up here and there though. I had mentioned doing a secret Santa kind of thing, and if there’s still interest among the readership, I’ll put it together. It’s a little tricky, I have to trust everyone to behave themselves appropriately, and I haven’t really ever administered such a thing, but I have some idea how to do it. Let me know in the comments. That’s all I got for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Big Papi, cigar, cigars, David Ortiz, El Artista, Exactus, Pulita, Puro Ambar

by CigarCraig | November 27, 2016 · 10:33 am

Smoking Cigars from Tabacalara Incorporada in the Philippines

Many years ago I wrote off cigars from the Philippines, as well as cigars with Indonesian wrappers. When I heard that the folks at Daughters & Ryan, famed for distributing pipe tobacco, RYO, shisha and e-liquids, were the exclusive US distributor for Philippine company Tabacalera Incorporada, I was skeptical. I looked over the portfolio and saw mostly blends of Indonesian and Philippine tobaccos. Still, keeping an open mind, and trusting that things have changed since the ’90s when I decided I didn’t like these tobaccos, I figured I’d try some of the offerings of this 130+ year old company. I was quite curious about the 1881 Perique Maduro, the Tabacalera Gran Reserva and the Don Juan Urquijo, so I smoked a few of them over the last couple days.

You know well enough by now what I went for first, I strive to be consistent. The 1881 Perique Maduro in the toro size was the blend that piqued my interest in giving this companies cigars a try. The cigar has a Dominican maduro wrapper, binder form the Philippines (from a 1997 crop), and the filler is 18% Perique from a farm in Louisiana owned by Daughters & Ryan and Philippine leaf. Perique is typically a pipe tobacco, it’s usually blended because it’s very strong, and has a distinctive flavor. This type of tobacco was being cultivated in Louisiana by the local Native American tribes when Europeans wandered into the area in the 1700s. The cigar was outstanding, I really enjoyed the heck out of it. That interesting Perique spice was a welcomed difference and made for a very interesting hour and a half or so. I’m not sure how to describe it except that there is a bit of a fruityness along with the rich sweetness of the maduro wrapper. Loved it in to toro, looking forward to trying it in other sizes ( it comes in the toro, torpedo and torpedito, robusto and short robusto). After enjoying this so much, my skepticism is fading.

Later in the evening I took a walk in the company of the dog and a Don Juan Urquijo Pyramid. Short tangent: I’m finding that my go-to sizes recently are the toro and torpedo or pyramid sizes, somewhere in the 6″-6½” x 50-54 range. I don’t know if these sizes best fit my attention span, or if I like to have that amount of time to relax with a cigar or what. I’m sure it’s time related, sometimes a robusto (of which I have a great many), just isn’t long enough…anyway, back to the cigar. The Don Juan Urquijo is a four country blend, it has what I consider to be an ugly colored Java wrapper, the Isabela binder from the Philippines, and fillers from the Philippines, Dominican Republic and Brazil. Going back to the wrapper color. When I see this wrapper color it’s a turn-off, it’s a babycrap kind of olive/brown that just doesn’t appeal to me. A few years ago Villiger made their 125th Anniversary with a similar colored wrapper and had the good sense to put it in a tube. However, this was one tasty cigar. It’s on the mild side, but loaded with complex flavors that were both creamy and spicy with a nice sweetness. Never judge a book by its cover. It was perfectly balanced, well made, and a delight to smoke. This would be a great cigar to have with coffee in the morning, but it was perfect after a nice dinner of leftovers from the previous day’s feast. I kinda regret being so hard on the wrapper color, it was so good. It would have been a shame to have passed this by on a tobacconist’s shelf. My preconceived notions continue to be dashed.

Yesterday I selected the final cigar of the three I had. There are seven lines now from this factory, with eleven new lines expected soon. (that’s my understanding, maybe there are four new lines coming to expand the selection to eleven?). Anyway, the last one was a robusto in the Gran Reserve line. This is the only size in this line, and it boasts a 16-year-old Brazilian wrapper, and twenty-two year old Isabela binder and filler from the Philippines. It’s amazing that they have tobacco this old, twenty years ago everyone was buying whatever tobacco they could and rolling cigars because there was a huge cigar boom. Tobacco was scarce, good cigars were scarce, it’s a wonder I stuck with the cigar hobby! Anyway, the Tabacalera Gran Reserva Robusto definitely tastes like well aged tobacco, with a core of sweet cedar flavors. It’s pretty obvious that a lot of care goes into the production of this cigar, as well as the others I smoked. There were occasions that I sat one down for ten minutes and it didn’t need a relight, and none of the three I smoked required any corrections. These are very nice cigars with a little something for everyone. As far as where to get them goes, They do have some available for sale on their website, and I suspect they will be available in brick and mortar retailers. As I said in the intro, Daughters & Ryan based in North Carolina are the US distributors. The aren’t a cheap date, but well worth the price.

Thanks to Mike Rubish, the National Sales Director at Daughters & Ryan for facilitating the sampling of Tabacalera Cigars from the Philippines! On another note, after Thanksgiving dinner was cleaned up and all the guests were gone, I walked off dinner with a Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico L40 that was five years old (original release). It was a fantastic smoke! With that I think I’ve smoked all of the regular production Unicos and this might have been my favorite right behind the Feral Flying Pig. That’s all I have for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 1881 Perique Maduro, cigar, cigars, Daughters & Ryan, Don Juan Urquijo, Tabacalera Gran Reserva, Tabacalera Incorporada

by CigarCraig | November 20, 2016 · 10:51 am

A Cain F Lancero, an Aging Room Event and a La Boheme Cigar

Thursday evening I had a craving for a favorite, so I picked out a Cain F Tubed Lancero form a box I picked up a few years ago, and have been rationing out sparingly. Ten count boxes are great, but they don’t last long, ya know? I have been a little concerned about these cigars. A few weeks ago I smoked a tubed Cain Habano that had been buried in the humidor for several years. I was deeply disappointed in the flavor of the Habano, it was heavily cedar flavored, obviously from sitting for so ling in the cedar lined tubo. Cedar is one of those flavors that I recognize in a cigar, but isn’t particularly a favorite of mine, you know by now that I’m a pushover for bittersweet chocolate and coffee. Anyway, I wanted to check on the Cain F Lanceros to see if I needed to un-tube them for further storage, as it would be a shame if these spectacular cigars changed flavor. I determined that I can leave these along for the foreseeable future. the Cain F Lancero is probably my hands down favorite lancero. The specifics on this cigar: 32% Esteli Ligero, 25% Condega Ligero and 25% Jalapa Ligero in a 7″ x 38 non-pigtailed format. Simple math tells us that there’s another 18% of something in there, I have to assume it’s a neutral seco leaf to keep all that ligero burning. It’s got a refined combination of sweetness, spice and some earthiness that really works for me. Sadly, these went out of production in 2014, but I think there are still some out there, at least in the non-tubo variety. They were very fairly priced in the $6 range.

Friday I went to the CigarCigars store two miles from my house for an Aging Room event with Mr. Rafael Nodal in attendance. This store is know for having events on Thursdays from noon to three, and I’m quite pleased that they’ve started having some evening events that I can actually make it to, which they have been doing recently. I went in hoping that they would have the new Oliveros All Stars which I really liked, but, sadly, they only had Aging Room and La Boheme offered. I picked up some Havaos, some La Bohemes and a couple of the Bin No. 1 G-Major, which I smoked while there. The Aging Room Bin No. 1 G-Major is a giant cigar, 6¼” x 63, I know, 63? I wanted to ask Rafael why 63 ring gauge, but he was busy talking politics with the regulars. The cigar features an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Dominican Habano fillers from 1999 and 2001. It has a huge band, but fortunately it has a smaller band underneath so I could remember what it was I was smoking. It was a nice, rich smoke with great refined flavor. It had lot going on with some spice a creaminess. It did require some touch ups as the burn wasn’t as perfect as I’d like in a cigar at this price-point, but we are talking about a natural product here, it didn’t retract too much from the experience. Rafael is one of the nicest guys in the industry, and very patriotic. I was happy to spend a few minutes with him in my neighborhood. Thanks to Steve and the CigarCigars folks for having events at times I can attend! It’s a little bit of a catch 22, you know. I need to go to work to have money to spend at the events, if I bag work to go to daytime events, I don’t have money to spend at them! Overly dramatic, of course, but you get the jist.

Yesterday afternoon was beautiful for late November in PA. How often can you be outside in a t-shirt this time of year? That changed dramatically in the evening, but the afternoon was perfect for sitting on the porch with a cigar and the Flyers hockey game. I chose one of the La Boheme Musico cigars I just picked up, it’s another big cigar, 6¼” x 60, and smoked well beyond the disappointing hockey game. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Dominican fillers much like the Bin No. 1, obviously with less age on the fillers. I thought it was a fine smoke, like the Bin No. 1 without the refinement that the aged fillers bring. I’d smoke this again in a heartbeat, preferably while watching a winning effort by the home team! For the most part, I’ve had good luck with the Boutique Blends stable of cigars, and most of what comes out of Jochi Blanco’s Tabacalera La Palma. Sure I’ve had a clunker here and there, and for some reason many of the Aging Room cigars I’ve had have been way stronger than I was prepared for. Good smokes though, I’m happy to have some in the humidor.

Here’s a little plug for my friends at Custom Tobacco, who I met with at the IPCPR show three years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long, but I wrote about their Briarmont cigar in November of 2013, and liked it a lot, even if it hadn’t had a CigarCraig.com logo on the band! They do some really nice work if you are interested in custom banded quality cigars. Adam and Rachel are top-notch and will certainly take care of you. This is an unsolicited plug. There are other companies I’ve run across that do similar things, Bobalu and CigarCountry come to mind, all of them offer a little different twist. I can personally vouch for the quality of Custom Tobacco, and the people behind it.

At CustomTobacco.com, you can create and purchase the unique, memorable and fun gift we all struggle to find: fully customized premium cigars, including a private label cigar band that can include any messaging, logos, color scheme, etc. We also offer a free concierge service in which customers can call or email us and we can both design the cigar band and help select the cigars free of charge. 2016 has been a great year for Custom Tobacco, with media outlets including Sports Illustrated, The Daily Beast, American Way (American Airlines’ Magazine) and the Los Angeles Business Journal highlighting our unique offering. With your continued support, we hope to make this our best holiday season yet.

That’s about it for now. I have a bunch of new cigars that I’ll be getting to in the next couple weeks, and I’m working on a new idea for this years contests. The FDA has made things difficult as far as getting boxes of cigars to give away, but I’ve got some other ideas up my sleeve. It’s just a matter of getting it all worked out. Of course, if you guys don’t want the chance to win goodies…

Until the next time,

CigarCraig