CigarCraig's Blog

Sometime around Wednesday I picked out a cigar I had purchased a few weeks ago at Cigar Mojo. Because Skip over at RoMa Craft Cigars is quite in tune with the weasel culture, I feel the need to mention that I bought the cigar, along with  bunch of others. This one was the Intemperance BA XXI “The Ambition”, from what I can tell (and I’ll double-check this when I go to Cigar Mojo later today). The Ambition is a belicoso, 5½” x 54, and the reason I’m second guessing myself on this is that I don’t remember this having the shaggy foot (although looking at the picture the wrapper does look like it’s cut a

little short, almost like it shrank). It certainly had the Brazilian wrapper (it’s funny to me that a “Brazilian” would be “shaggy”) based upon flavor and appearance, the cigar certainly wasn’t wrapped in Ecuador Connecticut. This was a powerful cigar. I really enjoyed the flavor, but the nicotine content was almost overpowering. I had to sugar up a little after I finished the smoke, and that rarely happens. It had a nice sweet, spicy flavor and was very good. At $7, I may have to grab a couple more to let rest for a year or so and revisit.

You may recall reading here about the Inka Secret Blend cigars available in the UK. These are an exclusive to C.Gars Ltd and are made in Peru from all Peruvian tobacco. Mitchell and his team are releasing the Inca Secret Blend to the US market this year, they should be available at selected retailers already. The first thing you notice is the presentation, the box is incredible. It’s obviously Inca themed, black and gold with a gold medallion on the top. Even the inside rim of the box is painted gold, the attention to detail is crazy.

The cigars are available in two sizes initially, the 6″ x 50 Tambo, and the 6″ x 60 Imperio, which is the cig

ar I smoked this week.  I’ll preface this by saying that I had the great pleasure of sitting in on a tasting of these at Casa Fuente in Vegas back at the 2013 IPCPR show, with Mitchell Orchant and Gennaro Lettieri, the owner of Tabacalera del Oriente in Tarapoto, Peru where these are made. It was comical to watch, and I didn’t get to sample any at that time, but they went through dozens of samples and filled the ashtrays, much to the wonder of the staff at Casa Fuente. There was also some smoldering, my fault, actually, as I dissected one of the samples that had a less than desirable draw. I noted at the time that it had a double binder, and was rolled entubado if memory serves. I also enjoy most cigars that have Peruvian leaf in the blend, and have enjoyed the UK Inka Rojo and Azul that I’ve smoked quite a bit, odds were pretty good that I’d enjoy this cigar. The sample I smoked in the 6″ x 60 size was pretty fricken awesome. There were some similarities to a Havana cigar, it had the same kind of open draw, a similar Colorado colored wrapper, and an underlying spice. Considering the folks behind this cigar are mostly Havana cigar smokers, this isn’t really a surprise. The burn was acceptable for a cigar that had only recently come into my humidor, and I put them in the same day I put the CigarOasis Magna in, so there were some general fluctuations in humidity over a few days. I expect in a months time these will smoke perfectly. This cigar is a winner in my book, and it’s different from all the “New World” cigars out there. Assuming the FDA doesn’t screw everything up this year, this cigar should be a big hit.

Yesterday I was rummaging through my Adorini Carrera humidor, making sure everything was OK and it wasn’t jealous of the new humidor across the room, and I came across a Kings Cigars King of Kings Habano, box pressed 6″ x 64. Also going back to the 2013 IPCPR show, just before the show I received a package from them out of the blue, never heard of them, had never had contact with them, it’s was actually kind of creepy.  We searched them out at the show very early on, the curiosity factor worked, I had to figure out what the deal was with these guys. Well, they were a great group of entrepreneurs with a passion for cigars, and some nice, well made smokes and a flashy booth (with Cuban coffee, always a plus!). We got along well with the folks there and hung out with them several times during the week.  I actually haven’t heard much from them since, but I have heard their advertising recently on the Cigar Guys Radio Show out of Atlanta. So I made some room in the piano top humidor (it’s on the piano in the living room, and its a beautiful gloss black) by removing this large cigar, and took it out for a walk. It’s been close to two years since I smoked one of these, and it’s a good Nicaraguan cigar, well-balanced with a nice, meaty Habano sweetness.  The box press makes the 64 ring gauge a little more manageable, but it’s still a formidable cigar. I really want to try this in the Broadleaf wrapper, and will have to see if I can find someplace that carries these, or hunt them down at the show this year.  The cigar business is tough, so it’s no surprise that this brand isn’t as widely recognized as some, but the product is  solid and it takes time.

I’m planning to go to New Orleans for this year’s IPCPR show, so I want to ask you who you’d like me to seek out and what interview questions do you want me to ask, besides the usual “what’s new” that everyone asks. I have some folks on my list, but I want to get some fresh ideas. Leave a comment here, and while you’re at it, go back to my last post and leave a comment to enter to win some tasty treats from La Sirena cigars (Arielle is on the IPCPR list already). I’m going to head over to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA today for a smoke, stop by if you are around!

That’s enough outa me, until the next time,

CigarCraig