This week I smoked some cigars I bought on recent forays into some of my local cigar spots. All were new to me, although not necessarily new to the market. This happens, I don’t always jump right on the new stuff, and sometimes I miss out! Thursday evening I met up with my fellow Craig, and recent contest winner, at Cigar Mojo – The Grove, to hand deliver his prize. Shipping is always less expensive than visiting a cigar shop! I 
picked up a few cigars, and lit up a My Father The Judge in the 656 Toro size. This has been around for a while, I just never got around to it. Since Mojo carries a lot of My Father cigars I see myself catching up on them. I’ll grab something I haven’t tried whenever I stop in. This is a 6″ x 56 cigar, oddly they call their 6″ x 52 a Toro Fino, which seems like a toro to me. Maybe the 6″ x 56 should be a Toro Gordo and the 52 should just be the Toro? Not my circus…anyway, this has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, with a nice box press. This got off to a slow start, good, although fairly mediocre. It built up some sweetness, which I like, of course, and worked out to be a very enjoyable cigar, one I’ll smoke again. Naturally, the company was exceptional, I always enjoy time with my fellow Craig. We’ll definitely have another Craig cigar summit soon.
Friday evening had us attending a middle school theatrical production that one of the granddaughters was in, so I got a late start. I was going to skip a cigar altogether, but I had picked up a Foundation Metapa Corona Gorda at Mojo and it wasn’t that big, so I figured I’d light it up. Sometimes having a cigar too late gives me sleep issues, not the case this time, although I did get to bed a lot later than usual! I wanted to smoke a Metapa because these are being rebranded to Aksum, I guess to keep in line with the Tabernacle/Menelik/Ark of the Covenant theme. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this cigar, and maybe it’s the Maduro vs. Claro? I only had the maduro to chose rom, so that’s what I got, as if anyone would be surprised at that. This is a nice 5½” x 48 with a coil pigtail cap (I know there’s a name for it, just can’t remember it!). This was the best cigar I had all week. It started a bit heavy, cloying like licorice, which worried me. It settled in to a really nice, dense dark chocolate, not much sweetness, the kind with a high cacao percentage. I found this to be quite enjoyable, whatever the name, and I might have to see if I can find the claro version (although I still need to try the Olmec Claro!). It’s hard for me not to like Foundation Cigars, there seems to be something for everyone.
Last week I stopped in The Wooden Indian looking for some new cigars, and picked up some Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicures in Sungrown and Maduro. These come with a lot of hype, and my expectations were high. I’m a big fan of the 20th Anniversary Maduro, probably my favorite Perdomo. I thought the 10th Anniversary Sungrown was my favorite of that line, which, oddly, only really came out a couple years ago. The 30th aren’t priced bad, I could see companies asking a higher price for their anniversary cigars, but Perdomo does things right in this respect. I admire them for keeping their cigars pried within reason. I decided that yesterday was going to be Perdomo day, so I started with the Sungrown. I chose the 6″ x 54 Epicure size because, well, that’s the size I like. This has a 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and has a nice box press. I think this one had a patch near the cap on the underside of the cigar, which I find to be unacceptable on a cigar like this, regardless of price. This, of course, came off and I had to do some wrapper surgery because I don’t care for the mouth feel of a flappy wrapper. Other than that, the burn and draw were very good, and the cigar had a sweet spice that was nice. Not blown away, I’ll stick with the 10th Sungrown.
I had high hopes for the Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicure Maduro. This has the same 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan wrapper processed to a maduro, not overly dark, but dark enough, with a nice oil. This is a nice looking cigar, again, lods of hype, best Perdomo cigar ever, yada yada…It was a good cigar. It had rich dark roast coffee and cocoa and was very nice. For me, I find that the 20th Maduro to have more that I enjoy, to be honest. I suppose I was expecting a more refined experience, and maybe my palate just isn’t acute enough to appreciate the subtleties of these cigars. I’m told that the 30th Connecticut is something special. Given I was never a fan of the Champagne, I actually disliked it ( a rarity), I always pass on the Perdomo Connecticuts. Perhaps I’ll give this one a try, for science.
The folks at Best Cigar Prices posted a bunch of pictures of the cigarlebrities that will be at their Smoke-onos event in May, but they didn’t ask for my picture. If you’re there, hunt me down! Also, keep an eye out for upcoming details about a multi-vendor event at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA which will be in the beginning of May. That’s more than enough for today, until the next time.
CigarCraig
Always enjoy reading your reviews, Craig. Hope we can catch up for a smoke one day.