September 6, 2020 · 11:12 am

Saka’s Taste For U’rself !!! Sobremesa Brulee Cigar Sampler Recap

For those who haven’t been following this particular cigar industry soap opera, let me set the scene for you. First, as the card included in this five cigar sampler explains, these are five Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Sobremesa Brulee toros. Soon after they came out there were allegations that they were sweet capped, much like a Baccarat, or many of the Acid cigars. This was flatly denied, and explained away as a natural sweetness in the Connecticut shade wrapp

er. I smoked an early version of the Brulee and never got the saccharine sweetness that I associate with a sweetened cap. If you go back to my very last podcast episode, Steve talks about the Brulee, I think it’s pretty interesting. So Steve was bored during the COVID pandemic, he decided to have some fun and put together this Brulee sampler and mess everyone with the whole sweet vs. not debate. I’ll post my findings below, but I have a few things to get off my chest first. I was questioned as to whether Steve was making me smoke these cigars, and I said that Steve doesn’t make me do anything, but

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I need to back off of that statement. After thinking about it, Saka is a master manipulator. A few examples: Steve and I have known one another for a long time, and Steve will tell people, unsolicited, that I am a cheap bastard (I have this on good authority). It’s true, of course, I admit it. That being said, when Steve releases a new cigar, I go out and buy a few. I know that if I see Steve, he’ll hand me a few, and if I were to asked him, he’d send me some, but I never ask for anything as a general policy. So he puts out $15-$20 cigars and, like a sucker, I go and buy a few because I want to smoke them, and partly because I don’t want Steve to think I’m a cheap bastard. Another way he manipulated me, in this case, is that when I buy a handful of cigars, I generally smoke a couple and set the rest aside for a while. Under normal circumstances, if I buy a fiver of cigars, especially dropping the coin I did on this fiver (I bought local, but with taxes and shipping it hit my wallet harder than my cheap ass prefers), I’d stretch out the purchase over the better part of a year, I bet. So, with a deadline posted, and an admittedly self imposed deadline for writing a blog post, I smoked the five cigars in four days. I rarely smoke the same cigar twice in a row, let alone five in a row. Can you see how I feel manipulated? It is a genius sales move, although I doubt the margins are great on Saka’s end (I’m sure Steve would whine about what a pain in the ass, money losing venture it was, but he’d be an idiot if this were the case, of course it has to have profit built in or he wouldn’t do it! Then again, there’s the three foot Sakaquatch statues, so maybe he does just do stupid shit  😆  ).  All that being said, spoiler alert, here’s my analysis of the five cigars:

 

All five cigars were the excellent Sobremesa Brulee 6″ x 52 Toro with an Ecuador Connecticut Shade Wrapper over a San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This is, literally, meant to be your grandfather’s Connecticut shade cigar, a throwback to shade cigars from the ’80s and early ’90s. It’s got some body, it’s milder, but not mild, it’s great with a cup of coffee, like I’m enjoying the !!! right now as I write this. My process was to fellate (hat tip to Jon Carney for bringing this term into the cigar lexicon!) the head of each cigar to determine the presence of the sweetener used on the cap. Honestly, I could have cheated and put the cigars away after this, but that would have been gross, and I couldn’t have lived with myself. For the seven or eight readers who got this far, I soldiered on and smoked five great cigars back to back. I took that hit for you, faithful readers. Needless to say, I smoked them in order, I’m not an animal. The S – no sweet cap. The T – Sweet cap. The F – a slight hint of sweet, if this one is sweetened, then the T is the double sweet. The U and !!!, no sweet cap. So to me, three were straight up Brulee, maybe even four. I can only definitely say the T was sweetened, and I kinda liked it, to be honest, it was a nice change of pace, to the point where I was a little disappointed that none of the others ended up being sweetend.

 

One thing I did confirm is that there’s a reason I don’t smoke the same cigars back to back like this. No matter how great the cigar is, I really need the variety, and I’m looking forward to smoking something completely different later today, although it was a little bit liberating not having to make a choice. I look forward to Steve’s reveal to see how far off I was on my analysis.

 

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

 

CigarCraig (word count 887 😀)

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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 ne

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ed 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

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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. Tonig

ht’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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August 30, 2020 · 8:06 am

A Couple More Cigar Bundles of Miami Cigars, a Padron 1926 and a Unicorn

In the later part of the week I smoked a few more cigars from Cigar Bundles of Miami, both from the Tampa Blend line. The first was the Candela. I approach all candela cigars with some curiosity, they can go one of several ways, they can be quite good, mild to the point of flavorless, or grassy to the point of being nasty. I really enjoyed this one. It was flavorful, not overly grassy, but refreshing, which is a characteristic I  look for in a good candela cigar, and medium bodied. It was a pleasure to smoke, something I’d keep on hand for a change of pace, or a nice cigar for a hot day, which it was the day I smoked this one. I think these are around $20 for a fiver, so they are quite reasonable. I think this is a great value, and definitely worthwhile if your curious about candelas, or like them and want some good ones to add to your rotation. This one was a 6″ x 50 toro. I think the folks at CBM should add some details to their website.

 

I followed the candela the next night with the Tampa Behike Habano, the 6″ x 56 pigtailed fat toro. I actually liked this one better than it’s Maduro sibling, oddly enough. I think it was mostly because it had a little more open draw, but the flavor was very nice and well balanced. Like the other two, the burn was even and it was an easy cigar to smoke.  This cigar had a nice spice and some sweetness. I’s love to know what the blend is on these cigars, perhaps most people buying cigars from this company don’t really care about the details like I do. I suspect it’s a Nicaraguan based blend, but that’s purely conjecture on my part. I’m not even sure where these are rolled. I’d love to get more details, perhaps Alex will read this and weigh in in the comments.

 

Yesterday was my 57th birthday, so I smoked a couple decent cigars. First, I smoked a cigar that has been around for a long time but I’ve never gotten around to smoking one. I’ve long been a fan of the Padron 1964 series, but I’ve never smoked a Padron 1926 Serie! Weird, right? This cigar has been around since 2002, and I’m just getting around to trying one. I smoked the No. 35 Maduro, a little 4″ x 48 box pressed beauty. This cigar was included in the CigarProp Smoke Inn Battle of The Bands pack, which I received on Friday. Knowing Kevin, and after smoking this cigar, I’m a little surprised he included this, it seems a little outside his usual wheelhouse. This little cigar is a powerhouse! It’s peppery, it’s got a kick, and it’s nothing at all like the 1964. It was a bit of a surprise! I’m not saying I didn’t love it, it was a spectacular little smoke, and it smoked for about an hour, which was perfect, as I lit it up after my daughter and her family left after spending the day with me. I’ve heard some people prefer the Natural in the 1926, I’m curious now. I’m a cheap bastard, I’d have trouble dropping $12 or so on a little cigar like this. Of course, amortized over the cost of the Battle of the Bands pack, it felt OK, and I think Kevin’s sampler is a great value. It certainly was a treat and I enjoyed the crap out of that little cigar. I think it would kick Kevin’s ass though. By the way, I linked to Padron’s website, and on the off chance anyone from Padron reads this, it might be a good idea to redesign your site and get away from the Flash site, I have a feeling that after December it might be a problem for you. If you try to go there on iOS you probably won’t have any luck.

 

Finally, I wrapped up my circum-solar anniversary with a Muestra de Saka Unicorn. I received this Unicorn from the Sakas a year or so ago, it was from the original batch, a very generous gift. This is a Broadleaf wrapped cigar with all of the tobaccos hand sorted by Saka himself, and have a retail price of $100. Steve wanted to see how goofy he could get making a stupidly expensive cigar. These are made by one pair of rollers at the Joya de Nicaragua factory, and they only make a little over 1000 a year. When they have cigar that don’t meet the ridiculously high standards, they cut them down and smoke them in the office and call them “horn of a dead unicorn”, true story. I figured combining my birthday with my recent new job, it was a good enough time to slay the Unicorn. Of course, a cigar like this inherently comes with some expectations. First, the cigar is beautiful, it appears to be without flaw, the shape is very unique, as Steve went out and bought a lathe to make the prototype for the molds for these. It’s a 6¼” x 60 diadamas, but because of the proportions, or maybe because the head is so pointy and you end up cutting quite a bit off, it doesn’t seem like it’s that long. That being said, it smoked for over two hours, I lit it before the hockey game started and finished it (with about a half an inch or about $6.25 left) at the end of the second period. I think if I ever had the good fortune of having another one of these I’d remove it from it’s coffin, because I’d be really interested in seeing if the cedary flavor I got was a result of having been in that coffin for as long as it was, as I suspect. It was delicious, sweet broadleaf cocoa, with that woodiness. I enjoyed the crap out of it, and am glad for the opportunity to have smoked such a masterpiece. Honestly, if I were spending my money, I’d buy a whole bunch of Umbagogs and be much happier, but, as I mentioned above, and Steve Saka will tell you, I’m a cheap bastard. I wouldn’t trade the experience of sitting on my porch on a summer evening, watching hockey (except that the Flyers would win in the best case scenario), and smoking a special cigar like a Unicorn for anything. It capped of a very nice day.

 

I almost forgot to mention that today officially marks the 11th anniversary of CigarCraig.com. Not as long as a few, but longer than most! That’s all I have for today, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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August 26, 2020 · 9:21 pm

Cigar Bundles of Miami Tampa Behike Maduro and Rocky Patel Edge Barrel Aged Cigars

It’s been a busy week so far, but that’s good. My cigar consumption is down by about 50% just because my afternoons are consumed by a job where they weren’t before! I’m not suffering any ill effects! I dug into another pack of cigars that CigarProp Kevin sent me, these were from Cigar Bundles of Miami, a retailer in, you guessed it, Miami. I’ll get to the others in the pack Sunday, but I started with the Tampa Blend Behike Maduro, a pigtailed 6″ x 56,  which actually measured slightly longer than 6″ by my ruler. I don’t complain when they measure longer. This was a really nice looking cigar, and, according to t

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he website, they retail around $8. I have no idea what the blend is, but the cigar was flavorful, what I expect from a Maduro cigar, tasty cocoa and coffee flavors with some sweetness. If I had to guess, I’d venture to say that the wrapper was San Andrés, but that would just be a guess. It was solidly medium and burned very well, was nicely constructed, and burned a solid two hours. I’d probably allow this to dry a bit if I were to smoke this again, but it was certainly a nice cigar. I am looking forward to smoking the rest of the cigars in this sampler. 

 

I was going to smoke one of the other cigars in the sampler tonight, but one of my new coworkers threw me a curve ball. One of the guys who started the same day I did is a fellow cigar lover, and he said he smokes Diesels, so I gave him a Diesel Whiskey Row Sherry Cask as it’s my favorite Diesel and he hadn’t heard of it. He didn’t understand that I give cigars and don’t expect reciprocity, and returned the gesture today with a Rocky Patel Edge Barrel Aged Toro, which is another one of his favorites. Of course, I appreciate the gesture, it’s always fun to trade cigars, and I hadn’t smoked this cigar, so I figured this would be tonight’s cigar. I can see this becoming a thing. I’m liking this

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new gig. This cigar might be a Cigars International Exclusive, as I know that this gentleman lives in the Lehigh Valley and frequents the downtown Bethlehem, PA store, and I don’t see it listed on the Rocky Patel website. The cigar was a 6″ x 52 toro, and has a Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. This was a good smoke, fairly heavy with a good load of spice. As I’ve mentioned many times before,

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nearly 30 years without a drink I have no frame of reference for

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any residual flavors that may be imparted by bourbon barrels, but the flavor of the cigar was good, rich, spicy and earthy. Again, it was on the stronger side and I liked it. Thanks to John for sharing this one with me, and I’m glad he enjoyed the Diesel! 

 

I’m patiently awaiting my Smoke Inn Battle of the Bands sampler(s), go check out the competition and buy a sampler or two from tour favorite cigar media contestant! There might be something special happening here surrounding this coming soon!  that’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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August 23, 2020 · 10:46 am

A Liga Privada Serie Unico “A” and Some JRE Aladino Cigars

Friday wrapped up my first week at the new job, and I felt like it was a success, and my boss expressed his satisfaction, so it seems like it’s going to be a good gig. As I often do, I rummaged through

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the humidors looking for a cigar, and I wanted something befitting the occasion, but not only did I want something to celebrate the end of the work week (by the way, this is the first time since April of 2018 that I’ve worked Monday to Friday, 8-4:30, like a regular person!), but I also wanted something that would get me fairly deep into game 6 of the Flyers, possibly clinching, playoff game. I was in the NewAir CC-300H and spied a pair of Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico “A”s, one each from two of the Barnsmokers I’ve been to on the top shelf. I also have a coffin with two that’s probably 6 years old in there, but these two were just sitting there on the shelf, vulnerable, so I took one to smoke. I figured this was a great occasion for a 9¼” x 48 cigar. I must have smoked one of these sometime over the past few years, because I should have had one more I think, but I can’t really remember. I took a walk, my usual one mile loop, and got back and had a double corona. By the time the Hockey game started I had a Churchill. The cigar got me through the first two periods. The timing was excellent. Flavorwise it was a nice cigar, T-52ish on the Liga scale. It has the Stalk Cut Connecticut Habano wrapper, which is amazing that the grow the leaves that large.  It starts a little milder than a normal Liga, but the smoke has a mile of tobacco to filter it. It was a great tasting cigar, not overly unique or exciting, but interesting enough to not get bored with it over the two and a half hours I spent smoking it. Would I smoke another one? You bet! 

 

I’m smoking an JRE Aladino Connecticut Robusto as I type this, more as we go along. CigarProp Kevin sent me an Aladino sampler and apart from the Maduro, Toro and Lancero I really haven’t smoked any JRE cigars. I’ve been working my way through the sampler this weekend. I started with the Aladino Corojo Reserva. One can’t help but notice the similarity between the Aladino band and the old Camacho bands, and the similarity extends to the authentic corojo in blend and the fact that the flavor of the cigar harkens back to the many Camacho Corojos I smoked in the 90s and early 2000s, when Julio Eiroa and his son Christian owned Camacho. I actually smoked my first Camacho in 1996, but it was pre-Christian’s involvement I think. This is a bold smoke with rich leather and spice and I liked it a lot, as much for the sentimentality as the flavor. It was perfectly constructed, and a pleasure to smoke.

 

The Connecticut is very flavorful, not at all mild, and quite tasty! Perfect with coffee and staying lit while I’m ignoring it for long stretches while I type my nonsense. I was quite intrigued by the JRE Aladino Cameroon. Any time I see a Cameroon made by someone that’s not Fuente, La Aurora, Partagas, or someone who’s been making Cameroon cigars for decade

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s, I look forward to seeing the interpretation. I love Cameroon, it’s a great tasting wrapper, and even when used as a binder it adds a little something extra (look at the CroMagnon, it has a Cameroon binder and I think that is part of what makes it unique). This is another Aladino that burned perfectly. They really know how to make cigars right in this factory. I’m guessing the whole Bayer Crop Science processes they use on the farms extends to the factory as well, with regards to the quality control processes. The Cameroon had the nutty flavor on top of a fairly full bodied core which is a little different. Cameroon was almost a background flavor and not domina

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nt, as it is in many cigars with that wrapper. That was my take on it anyway. The same can be said for this Connecticut I’m smoking now, although the shade wrapper flavor is a bit more dominant, but the slight sweet grassiness is there, but it’s got a bit off ass to it! It’s no wimpy smoke. I have to say, my favorite Connecticut wrapped cigars hail from Honduras, and this ranks right up there. Very nice. 

 

So far, I have to say that to my palate, the JRE line suits me more than the CLE line. I’ve known Christian personally for many years (and he’s never once given me a cigar, btw 😁, no that it factors in to this), but I haven’t yet found a CLE cigar that trips my trigger. The Asylums I like. JRE, in my limited sampling, are outstanding, remind me of the tons of Camachos I smoked years ago, and get my attention. Thanks again to Kevin for sharing. Speaking of Kevin, and there will be more on this later, but head over to Smoke Inn and buy one of his samplers in their Battle of the Bands! All of the contestants are great, all of them are friends of mine, but I think Kevin is the new guy on the block and the underdog, and has a great sampler. That’s all for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig 

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