Category Archives: Review

April 10, 2022 · 9:37 am

EP Carrillo Short Run, Nica Rustica and La Libertad Cigars

I’d like to have a week go by without incident. This week it was a leaking pipe, which required calling a plumber to come and cut holes in some walls to fix. It took time away from my day job that I made up, which meant I skipped my regular Friday evening working at the cigar shop. If it isn’t one set of pipes, it’s another, so it seems! I had just passed the kidney stone, finally, last week. That only took a month. But I’

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m able to take some solace in a cigar here and there. Earlier in the week I smoked an E.P Carrillo Short Run Retro 2022. I smoked this in the Short Play size, which is 5″ x 50. This has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuador binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Mexico and Honduras. Boy, this was a great cigar! I did a little reading about this blend, and Ernesto says that he used Honduran tobacco in the blend for the first time in 14 years, the last time was as a binder in the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Miami. As one might imagine, the Short Run was right up my alley, rich cocoa and espresso, with some earthiness. It was really exceptional. I can’t recall if I smoked any of the previous Short Runs! I may not have come across them or had the opportunity. Give this a try, they aren’t even that expensive!

Yesterday I tried out my first of the new Nica Rusticas from Drew Estate. I’ve smoked many Nica Rusticas. I’ve often said that I’d buy two or three of them to one Liga Privada any day of the week. It’s been one of my favorite Broadleaf cigars for a long time. However, I haven’t had one since they repackaged them, and I’ve been worried that they changed. I’ll admit that I haven’t smoked a great many of the Short Robusto vitola, but I think this one started out making me a bit concerned. It didn’t seem to have the depth of flavor that I was used to, but eventually it came around and developed into what expected. It burned for an unusually long time for a 4½” x 50 cigar. I took a walk, which ended just before it poured rain, and spent a total of about 90 minutes smoking the cigar. Also, these don’t seem to have the same ridiculous amount of smoke pouring from them as they used to. I believe this is a process change, but I’d have to visit the factory again to confirm this. I can’t believe it’s been eight years since I was there. I want to go back. Anyway, now I have to smoke an El Brujito, maybe an old one against a new one to see how they compare.

Last night I dug into a package I received from Villiger Cigars in January and smoked a La Libertad Gran Toro. This is almost a Nicaraguan Puro, the binder is from the DR. The wrapper is Criollo grown in Jalapa, with fillers from Jalapa and Esteli. They have moved production to their own factory in Esteli, which is new. The old version had an Ecuadoran wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, so this is a completely new blend. Oddly, there is a familiar flavor to the wrapper on the lips. I can’t explain it better than that of Red Man chewing tobacco, and I think of that every time I put a La Libertad to my lips, regardless of the vintage. Weird. Obviously, there’s no hint of this flavor once lit, I don’t think, I’ve never smoked Red Man chewing tobacco. I can’t imagine th

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at gooey stuff would burn well. A few years ago I wrote a post comparing to iterations of this cigar (here) , do I have to root through the humidor and see if I can compare the three? I doubt I still have one of the originals, but it’s hard to say, I’m a bit of a packrat. It was a good smoke, although I found the flavors to be a little muted. There were some hints of wood, spice and a little sweetness. René Casteñeda gave me a corona at the TPE which I’ll have to give a try, oddly, the 6″ x 54 Gran Toro may not have been the best expression of this blend. For another take on this, check out my friend, Kap’s, review.

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, drew estate, E.P. Carrillo, La Libertad, Nica Rustica, Short Run, Villiger

April 3, 2022 · 10:41 am

Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua, Aladino Vintage and Punch Rare Corojo Cigars

I had an interesting week, so I smoked some interesting cigars, at least to me. I had a situation which required fasting, so I smoked a Perla Del Mar Connecticut which was really quite good, and after breaking the fast, I had a Diamond Crown, keeping it in the family, and also fairly mild! But let’s start with the Aging Room Quattro Nicaragua in the Vibrato size. This is a 6″ x 54 box pressed toro with a dark Nicaraguan Sumatra wrapper. It’s a puro, all Nicaraguan. This cigar was in a sampler I received at the TPE show from the Altadis USA booth. There were some Upmann and Romeo cigars in there too. I think it’s weird that this size isn’t lists on the Altadis website, so maybe it’s new. As folks who have followed along may recall, my preferences don’t generally favor Altadis products, with some exceptions, notably the cigars made by A.J. Fernandez, and the occasional Montecristo here and there. I’m not entirely sure why this is, it just is. Different strokes, I guess. Anyway, this one was exceptional. It was CA’s cigar of the year in 2019, I guess, and I remember smoking it back then, but this one was much better, darker, more rich and dense. There was a sweetness, which I attribute to the Sumatra. I enjoyed this cigar so much more than I remember liking the cigar of the year when I smoking it in early 2020. The size was to my liking as well.

Friday evening one of the cigars I smoked while working at Son’s was an Aladino Vintage Selection Elegante, which is the 7″ x 38 lancero. For some reason I was in a Lancero mood. It seems that the interruptions, interactions, et cetera, involved in smoking while working retail lend themselves nicely to the pacing required to the enjoyment of a lancero. At least for me. This cigar has a Habano wrapper, and, unlike the next cigar I’m going to talk about, has Corojo binder and fillers. Of course, the Eiroa family is well known for Corojo tobacco. I can’t tell you how many Camacho Corojos I smoked back in the early 2000’s. This was a very good smoke, again with a hint of sweetness, but overall just good, clean tobacco goodness. Even after having smoked a very good Oliva Masterblend 3, not nearly as good as they used to be, by the way, the Aladino Lancero was excellent. I think it smoked for nearly 2 hours.

Yesterday I smoked the new Punch Rare Corojo Aristocrat. The funny thing about this cigar has always been, despite the name, it has never had any Corojo tobacco in the blend. It has an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Nicaraguan, Honduran and Dominican fillers. I never could figure out why they called it Rare Corojo, obviously the Corojo is so rare in this cigar that it’s non-existent! Let’s talk about the size of this cigar for a minute. It’s a 6 1/8” x 40/54 figurado. The press release says “This special size was originally made at the Villazon factory, commissioned by Frank Llaneza who founded Punch in Honduras. Frank made what he referred to as a baseball bat-size cigar for Red Auerbach and Art Rooney, two sports legends.” It reminds me of the Cuban Partagas Presidente, but I looked it up and that’s only a 47 ring gauge, and an eighth of an inch longer. I love the size and shape. I also love the flavor, and always have enjoyed the Rare Corojos, despite the name thing. That hint of sweetness from the Sumatra that I love, and it builds in strength. I dig it.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Aging Room, Aladino, cigar, cigars, Corojo, JRE, punch, Punch Rare Corojo, Quattro

March 27, 2022 · 10:31 am

Divinus and Born To Be Wild Cigars from DAHOT, a Dias de Gloria and a Hawk

When I was at the TPE show and visited with Susana at Danli Honduras Tobacco (DAHOT), she gave me samples of two of their new offerings, the Divinus and the Born To Be Wild. I finally got around to smoking them this week. Unfortunately, I have no blend details on either cigar yet, when I get them I’ll edit them in, but until such a time I’ll fake my way through. I’ll start with the Divinus. This is a perfecto shaped cigar, 6″ long, like all of DAHOTs cigars, and maybe hitting 54 ging in the middle. I probably should have taken a measurement. I’m going to guess that the wrapper was some sort of Connecticut varietal grown in Honduras under shade, or a darker Ecuador Connecticut. It had that look and flavor. It was a nice smoke, medium bodied, quite well behaved for a large perfecto, but I rarely have issues with Danli Honduras Tobacco products. This cigar has “Tabacalera San Jeronimo” on the band, which answers a question I’ve had for a long time about the factory making this brands cigars. This is a factory which was associated with Kafie cigars, with which he’s no longer associated. I’ve never had any of Kafie’s cigars. He once blocked me on social media because I called him out for having his kids at a cigar rally. He justified it, but I pointed out, like I did in a recent rant, that it doesn’t matter what rational justific

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ation he might have, people against tobacco will use it against us. Remember, when it comes to the government and tobacco, rational thought goes out the window, tobacco is bad, nothing else matters. Anyway, This Divinus was a good cigar, maybe the first cigar from them that I didn’t really fall in love with.

I did, however, really like the Born To Be Wild cigar from DAHOT. I wish I had taken pictures of the box for this, it looks like a motorcycle piston. You can kind of see it in the video I did at the TPE show (HERE) where Susana talks about the cigar a little. Again, I don’t have blend info, but it’s a dark maduro, maybe San Andrés, maybe another Honduran varietal fermented to a maduro. It had a dark, meaty flavor, very savory, as opposed to sweet. It was really interesting and unusual, and I liked it very much. I’d love to have to make room for a box of these in my humidor! The company has several maduros in the portfolio, the Don Juan Calavera, the Marchetti, the Flor Maya, Caterina, even the Clown has a Maduro barber pole, all oare on the sweet s

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ide, but this one is so different. I desire more. I admit that I prefer more traditional branding, but the cigar is really good.

I walked in to Son’s Friday evening and encountered John Ciabocchi, our area’s A.J. Fernandez rep, who stopped in to do an impromptu Cut and Light event. This threw off what I had planned on smoking for the evening, but I’m adaptable, so I started off with a Dias de Gloria in the box pressed toro vitola. This is a Nicaraguan puro made with tobaccos from four of the company’s Esteli farms. I don’t believe I had smoked this cigar before, a mistake I don’t intend to repeat. This is a damned good smoke. The marketing on this says something about this representing the pre-castro days of cuban tobacco. Maybe? I don’t have a frame of reference, and I have a hard time with Abdel Fernandez, who might be 40?, having any notion what that tasted like then. It’s nice to dream about, but hardly verifiable. Can we agree that it’s a great tasting cigar? If you like a cigar with a good balance of rich tobacco and some sugarcane sweetness, give this a shot. It was a nice way to spend two hours, and it’s always nice seeing John again.

Last cigar: The Hawk from Blackbird Cigars. I hadn’t smoked this one before and figured I’d give it a try, even though I’m not a big fan of hawks. We’ve lost a couple of really nice chickens to hawks, right in front of our eyes, and it wasn’t pretty. We do our best to keep them out of our yard. They are neat and all, just not around our place! Hawk isn’t a regular production Blackbird line, but a special release with Adrian Acosta’s Cigar Culture. This cigar was a Gran Toro, 6″ x 56, box pressed, with a Brazilian Cubra wrapper, a San Andrés binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. This cigar falls into the woody/nutty spectrum for me, with some hints of sweetness and cocoa here and there. The two I smoked had some mendering burns, nothing that caused problems and couldn’t be easily corrected. Overall, enjoyable cigars, and I believe Son’s has some of these limide release cigars left. I like what Jonas does at Blackbird, and I do enjoy a lot of the cigars he makes.

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

CigarCraig

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March 20, 2022 · 10:25 am

Smoking Some Black Label Trading Co. Gordos

Friday evening I picked up a selection of Black Label Trading Company cigars in the 6″ x 60 size. I actually don’t mind the 6″ x 60 format, it’s not my go-to, but I don’t shy away from it. I think if it’s done right, buy the right maker, it works, and if it fits into the time I have, it’s perfect. This five-pack of cigars had been sitting in a display of samplers on the counter at Son’s for quite a while, and it intrigued me, so I sprung for it. I smoked four out of the five, the Lawless will have to wait for another time. I started with the Emilio Cavatina on a fresh palate. I never smoked the original Cavatina, although I smoked a lot of the other original Emilios, and still have a couple AF1 and 2, Grimalkin, etc. in the humidor that are going on ten years old. This Cavatina was a delicious cigar. It has an Ecuador Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, and Nicaraguan fillers. It had some nice cocoa and sweetness with a little spice. Thoroughly enjoyable. I’m certainly going to try other sizes.

Later in the evening I lit up the Last Rites. I’m not sure if I’ve smoked this line in the past or not, I know I’ve smoked the Viaticum, but that’s different, and this was the first time I’ve smoked anything from BLTC in 6 ring gauge. The Last Rites seems to have a similar wrapper to the Emilio, Ecuador Maduro, with a Honduran binder and a blend of Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. As this was my second cigar of the evening, and I was doing some other things, it was hard to put too fine a point on tasting notes, but I never do anyway. It was a great cigar. Very full flavored and earthy, along with the coffee/cocoa flavors I like. Right up my alley. I could have squeezed three gordos into my 6 hour shift, but I really didn’t want to. I like to rest a little in between cigars.

Saturday afternoon I went with the Royalty. This one has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Now, this cigar has a lighter wrapper than the others, not as light as a shade grown wrapper. The Royalty has a brighter flavor than the other cigars represented here. It still has the full flavors of coffee and spice, but maybe with a little cream and sugar to take the edge off. I really enjoyed smoking this cigar on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. This is another cigar I’ll try in a toro or robusto.

Last night I went back to the darker wrappers, and smoked the Salvation. This 6″ x 60 has what they call an Ecuadoran Sungrown wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Ecuadoran Sungrown confuses me a little, because I thought the whole appeal of growing in Ecuador was the frequent cloud cover that replicates growing under cheesecloth, or shade, reducing the labor costs. This was another cigar that suits my palate well, it’s dark, rich and heavy on the espresso and spice. I may smoke the Lawless today, or I may put it away for another day, probably the latter, but I have some general observations about this little experiment of mine. First, like I said, I don’t have a problem with 6″ x 60s, and these didn’t seem to compromise any thing for flavor or construction. All burned perfectly and had a good draw. My go-to remains a Toro. I find a general consistency in a lot of the BLTC cigars, probably because my palate lacks the sophistication to pick up subtle differences, but I think a lot of their dark cigars taste very much the same to me. that b

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eing said, I really

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like that taste, so I’m very happy with ev

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erything I smoke with a BLTC or Black Works band, I just don’t have to worry too much

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about what I grab! Makes life a little easier for me I guess. Gives me something to work on, and since I have a broad range available to me I’ll work my way through. Great cigars, nice people, I like.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Black Label Trading Company, Cavatina, cigar, cigars, Emilio, Last Rites, Oveja Negra, Royalty, Salvation

March 13, 2022 · 10:55 am

Memento Mori and CHC Serie E Cigars and a Short Rant

Friday evening I got back to working at Son’s after a two week hiatus, and the new Memento Mori from Black Works Studio had just come in. Of course, I had to sample one, so I selected the Lonsdale. This cigar has a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers and starts out smacking you on the face with a load of pepper. This is a fairly heavy cigar, it’s rich, decadent, and loaded with flavor. I think it’s quintessentially Black Label, if that makes sense. I really like this cigar. I’ll certainly be picking up some more of these, they hit my palate just right, although I wouldn’t recommend smoking one on an empty stomach! One of my goals working at Son’s is to smoke more BLTC cigars, since they have a large selection and a great relationship with the company.

I had a whole Op-Ed piece written on the “responsible marketing” stuff that’s been in the cigar news lately, actually it was fairly short. I’ll summarize it here. I think , probably cynically,

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that the government doesn’t really care about cigars, they just want to see tobacco eradicated. To the brand owners who insist on “having fun” with their marketing by using names and images that could maybe in some way appeal to a child, think about all the people that will be displaced when the government shuts down the industry for a minute. When manufacturers family legacies are destroyed, and their employees families are starving, you can think of all the fun you had selling childishly branded cigars. That will be a pretty cool feeling, I imagine. Not really. By the way, I think “S

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elf Regulation” means be responsible adults and do the right thing, not that there’s going to be a cigar industry rulemaking committee with Jorge Pardón, Carlito Fuente and Pepin Garcia sitting around telling everyone what to do. Let’s resist the urge to draw attention to ourselves, maintain the traditions of this 500 year old art form and not say f*ck the FDA every chance we get, or they are going to f*ck the cigar industry.

Another cigar I picked up was the Crowned Heads CHC Serie E Hermoso No. 2. While I have not typically been enamoured with Crowned heads cigars, or marketing (tho not irresponsible), I have been impressed with cigars made by Tabacalera Pichardo, so I thought I’d give this one a try. This is the cigar with the Eddie Van Halen theme on the band and box, the E in the name stands for Eruption, one of Van Halen’s famous guitar solos. I’m a musician, I’ve never made the connection between cigar flavors and music, but good for Jon Huber for conceptualizing cigars in that manner. Some people smoke in color too. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano oscuro wrapper, a binder from Jalapa, and fillers from Jalapa, ometepe and Pueblo Nuevo. They say where the tobacco is grown, but not the varietal. Pichardo likes using the Pueblo Nuevo tobacco, perhaps that’s a common denominator in cigars I like from that factory. I found this cigar to be thoroughly enjoyable, even delicious. There’s a sweetness, like warm breakfast rolls of some sort, along with some leather and spice. Despite not liking a lot of what Crowned Heads does (even though I like Miguel Schoedel!), I really liked this one.