On 
Saturday a New Jersey based Facebook Group held a herf at Mane Street Cigars in Woodbridge to celebrate a year of existence. I would have gone, but I had to work, and I had that other thing to go to in NJ that day. Ray Zinar, one of the principals of Providencia Cigars was in attendance, and they featured several of the Providencia cigars at the herf. Ray had sent me a few of their new offerings a few weeks ago, so I figured it was a good time to try some of them out. I noticed a bit of a violent theme to some of the names, I started with the Providencia Bloodshot. There’s usually a story behind Providencia’s cigar names, but I didn’t get any with these. This Bloodshot is a limited edition 6″ x 52 Toro with a San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Ometepe Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. Of course I’m going to select the dark toro first, right? This was a nice cigar with the beautiful dark and dirty flavors from the Mexican wrapper and that special spice from the Ometepe. While the draw was a tad resistant, it was super tasty, and burned very well. I’ve found myself enjoying more cigars from Honduras lately.
Next up was the Providencia Infringement. This is a 7½” x 38 Lancero, with a Habano wrapper, Indonesian binder and Honduran and Nicaraguan fillers. I’m going to make a guess here. This is purely speculation on my part, but I think this is a the same as the La Misión that was released about one year ago. The wrapper is much prettier on the Infringement, the name of which might hold a clue as maybe there was a trademark dispute with the name or something. Did I hear that? I don’t remember honestly, but the blend seems the same, the size is the same, and I enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed the previous one last year. For Lancero fans, this was a treat to smoke. The burn and draw were perfect, requiring gentle draws to keep from over-heating it, of course. I’ll say it again, the small ring cigars taste different because they burn hotter, so smoking them slowly and not letting them overheat is the key to proper enjoyment in my opinion. Leather, coffee and cocoa, a very good cigar with a nice, long burn time. I still have a La Misión and the fun thing to have done would have been to have smoked them back to back to compare. I didn’t do that, maybe I’ll smoke it tonight, or not, we’ll see.
Finally, last night I did smoke the KillShot Limited Edition. We get back to the violent named cigars, which seems inconsistent with the first couple cigars they produced, the El Padre and El Santo, which seemed very serene and pious. These last few have taken a more sinister turn. Perhaps Ray can weigh in in the comments section with some context. The Killshot is a 6½” x 42 Corona Larga with a Sumatra Colorado wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan Ligero/Honduran fillers. Like all Providencia cigars, it’s made Honduras. The company website
lists this cigar
as Medium, I don’t agree. I found this to be, by far, the strongest of the three outlined here today. It had loads of spice right from the start, which carried through the cigar. I don’t mind the size at all, the long corona was a nice presentation, and, kind of like the lancero, the smaller ring requires a slower approach. Still, it was stronger and I liked it. Sumatra has a different vibe than most other tobaccos and the spice complimented the homemade sausage, egg, cheddar and feta pizza my wife had made for dinner.
I’m still trying to get a face to face meeting with Ray. Our schedules never seem to line up. Seems he’s a south Jersey guy who lives in Texas, so he gets to my general area now and then. Saturday just didn’t work out, as much as I would have enjoyed attending the Jersey Cigar Club’s anniversary herf. I met Angelo, the founder, at the PA Barnsmoker and look forward to hanging with him again, and I’ve known Alex, who manages Mane Street Cigars for several years. Sometimes it’s hard to get to do everything you want to do! Anyway, that’s all fo now. I think I’ll motor off and visit a new lounge in the area. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
