by | May 21, 2014 · 9:21 pm

A Sindicato, a Dunhill, a Debonaire and a Cigar Contest

I finally got around to putting some contest goodies together.  Some of the cigars were some spare samples, and some were ones I bought and enjoy quite a bit. More on that at the end of the post, maybe folks will read to the end, some may scroll down. If you scroll down, you might miss reading about some of the cigars I’ve smoked so far this week.

 

Sindicato_CoronaGordaMonday evening I picked out a new cigar from Sindicato Cigars. These guys are a little different than other manufactures. Jim Colucci is the president of the company, and he comes from many years at the helm of Altadis, probably the largest cigar company on the planet. The company is made up of a bunch of retailers across the country, so they have a unique perspective of what sells in tobacco shops and what consumers want. Last year they came out with the Hex and Affinity, along with the very inexpensive Casa Bella.  I’ve smoked all three and they are very nice smokes. This latest offering, the Sindicato, is at the high end of the price range, running from $10.95 to $13.95 and are made by the folks at Casa Fernandez with Aganorsa tobacco.  I smoked the Corona Gorda, a 5½” x 48 cigar with a nice pigtail and partially closed foot.   I really enjoyed this cigar, it was lush and meaty and loaded with delicious tobacco flavor. It burned perfectly and was a very satisfying smoke.  Thanks to Yoffy for sending these along.

 

Dunhill1907_BoxPressedToroTuesday I selected another new cigar, this one from General Cigar Co. This is the Dunhill 1907 Box Pressed Toro, measuring 6″ x 54 with a Honduran Olancho wrapper. The wrapper is wrapper mottled, not at all what I expected from a Dunhill, as they are generally beautiful cigars. The rest of the cigar is Dominican and Brazilian Mata Fina.  It was a nice smoke, although I think a few more months in the humidor will benefit it. I received two, so I’ll revisit it in a few months. It was medium bodied, and had a nice flavor, reminiscent of the CAO OSA Sol, which has a similar wrapper (although I think the OSA Sol’s wrapper was prettier). It had similar bright tobacco sweetness that I enjoy from time to time. This was a nice smoke, I look forward to smoking it again after a long rest in the humidor.

 

Debonaire_SagitaTonight I smoked a Debonaire Sagita petite

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lancero.  The reason I grabbed this one is a little less than debonair, I’m afraid.  Phil Zanghi is the man behind the brand. He developed the Indian Tabac line back in the ’90s and sold it to Rocky Patel. I’ve heard him on at least two podcasts describe this cigar as a 5½ x 48, which I knew was wrong. It’s a 38 ring gauge (I measured it), although I would have loved this in a corona gorda size. This is an ultra premium cigar, it even states it on the band. Another feature of the band was on the inside, where it has the box date,  which was July of 2013 (this was an IPCPR show sample).  The blend isn’t listed specifically, but they use high priming, excellent quality tobaccos, and are rolled with great care. The cigar was exceptional, it was meaty, like prime rib, and burned perfectly. It had a nice little pigtail cap too. I put a very small nub in the ashtray when I was done.  I would almost say this would be worth the nearly $10 price tag, if I wasn’t such a cheap SOB.  Worth trying if you have the opportunity.

 

Contest

OK, it’s been over 5 months since I had a contest.  Sorry about that, but after the December contests I guess I got a little burned out. So here is the prize.

 

Contest_052014

 

There are 15 cigars, including some special cigars from La Sirena (including a Merlion Sea Lion and a La Sirena Dubloon, which are very limited), a couple Alec Bradleys, a couple of the New Partagas 1845 offerings, and some of the house brands from Best Cigar Prices. There’s a few other cigars in there that I enjoy too.  Also a CAO cap (had to include a CAO concert to go with along with it), a Nomad S-307 and a Foundr

y Compounds, Elements and Musings Vanadium from the box I bought a few months ago. There’s a nice La Gloria Cubana tube too (now I have to find a La Gloria to throw in). A little something for everyone, I can’t imagine anyone complaining. So leave a comment to enter. Feel free to Tweet and share, but only the comments on this post will count. Good luck, and I’ll select a winner on Sunday!

 

That’s it, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | May 18, 2014 · 5:27 pm

Lancero Weekend! Herrera Esteli and 1502 Cigars

I decided this weekend would be Lancero weekend, as I recently accumulated several samples in that format.  This is a size that everyone seems to want, but retailers say it doesn’t sell, so manufacturers don’t want to make a bunch. I guess that’s why they are usually released as special or limited editions. I like the size, and I have a bunch of them in the humidors. It’s an elegant size, and I really haven’t had the burn problems that they used to have years ago.

 

Herrera Esteli_LanceroELFriday evening I picked the new lancero from Drew Estate, the Herrera Esteli.  This one was a little shorter than the traditional 7½” x 38 size, I want to say it was around 6¾” which is fine. I really like this line, and Willy Herrera was just promoted to head blender at Drew Estate, which is well deserved. Some of the best Herrera Estelis I’ve had were first thing in the morning at the Drew Estate factory, and the lonsdale was my favorite of the bunch. The line has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Honduran binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Will spent a year working on this and really did a great job. I think the lancero just replaced the lonsdale as my favorite. It was really nicely balanced, loaded with flavor and just really good.  Thank you to John Brooke for sending this. It’s a dynamite smoke.

 

 
1502_Ruby_LanceroSaturday I decided to try tackling the new box pressed lanceros in the 1502 Cigars line. These were included in with a bunch of goodies the Gary Griffith of The House Of Emilio sent me recently. I really love the 1502 line, the Black Gold being my favorite,  but all three are exceptional.  I started with the Ruby,  which has an Ecuador Habano wrapper. The Ruby falls in the middle of the strength range of the line, and I decided to start with that as opposed to the Emerald since it was after lunch and I wasn’t ready for a milder cigar. This is a flavorful smoke that burned very well. When you light your first 1502 you find that the foot has the wrapper leaf folded over the end. It’s not fully enclosing the foot, but just framing the filler tobacco. This gives you a little extra blast of wrapper flavor upon lighting. This is a really great cigar that’s loaded with rich flavor.

 

1502_BlackGold_LanceroIt was such a nice afternoon and I was not quite through sitting outside when I finished the Ruby, so I decided to light up the 1502 Black Gold Box Pressed Lancero.  Like the others, this is a 7″ x 38 box pressed cigar with the partially wrapped foot.  It lit easily and smoked well. It’s a little bolder than the Ruby, and has the signature flavor of the Mexican San Andrés wrapper. It followed the Ruby nicely, making a natural strength progression from medium to strong. I liken this cigar to semisweet chocolate with a little jalapeño pepper in it, which I don;t get to enjoy frequently enough!  I was left with a feeling of satisfaction after finishing this, it was my last cigar of the day.  One complaint I had was that the ash fell on it’s own, twice falling into my lap. It’s quite fortunate I was wearing pants at the time.

 

1502_Emerald_LanceroToday, after spending the early part of the day doing yard work, which partially consisted of disassembling a large brick patio, I decided to finish the trifecta of 1502 cigars with the Emerald. This is considered the mildest of the three, but it’s not that mild a cigar. Enrique, the creator of the 1502 line, calls this Fina Fuerte ,  or Fine Strong. This is listed as a 7″ x 40, but I can’t say I noticed a difference, nor did I look for one.  I may have enjoyed this the most out of the three in this vitola, where as in the toro size I like the Black Gold the best, and the Emerald a close third.  There was a nice hint of sweetness, and it held an ash a bit better than it’s siblings (it got a little chilly, so, again, I was wearing pants).  Again, Enrique killed it with the lancero format!  These are brilliant cigars, if you like lanceros, and you like cigars, you should like these. Thanks to Gary for sharing these with me and helping make my Lancero Weekend a success.  While I enjoy lanceros, I wouldn’t want to smoke them all the time. I enjoy the smoother, rounder flavors that I get from a larger ring cigar.

 

I am still working on that contest, I’ll try to have something together this week. I’ve been lazy about scouring the  humidors for cigars to include. I probably have enough set aside, but sometimes enough isn’t enough, know what I mean?  Don’t forget about the FDA nonsense, if you haven’t left your comment, click on the blinky CRA graphic in the top right of the sidebar and make your feelings known in an educated and reasoned manner.  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | May 14, 2014 · 8:42 pm

JdN Quatro Cinco, Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva and the Nomad Connecticut Fuerte

I’m going to lead off with the usual reminder to head on over to  http://cigarrights.org/fda-response.php  and make sure you make an educated comment on the FDA deeming document. This is scary stuff, folks. Nuff said.  I also wanted to make a bit of a policy statement.  Rest assured that when I receive products they are either for evaluation or for contest prizes. At no time will I ever sell, raffle, or otherwise profit from any items I receive from vendors or manufacturers.  I feel that the purpose of these items being in my possession is for the promotion of said products. If you’ve been reading long, you’ve seen me pass along my good fortune more times than not.  Stay tuned for a contest coming soon, it’s been a while since I had one and I have some cigars I want to share.  Enough ranting for now, lets talk cigars!

 

JDN_QuatroCincoSunday I decided to celebrate Mother’s Day with my last Joya de Nicaragua Quatro Cinco.We had the kids over, then did some running around, so I was ready to relax with a really nice ciga

r. As you might recall, this cigar celebrates 45 years of the Joya de Nicaragua factory in Esteli, a factory I’ve had the privilege to visit twice and is one of my favorites. I can’t think of a cigar from that factory that I don’t enjoy. This is the top of the line smoke and is really quite tasty.  It’s smoother and more refined than the excellent Antaño Dark Corojo and 1970s.  I love both of those, but the Quatro Cinco really takes it up a notch in flavor and sophistication. This is a wonderful treat.   It’s only available in one vitola, a 6″ x 54 slightly pressed toro with a dark and oily wrapper with filers aged in oak barrels and even some 5 year old ligero. The burn was perfect and it was a terribl

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y satisfying cigar from start to finish. These are pricey, in the $12 range, but certainly worth a try if you like big, bold Nicaraguan flavor. I can’t wait to see what they do in five years if they put this much love and effort into a 45th anniversary cigar! Thanks to JB at DE for sending this to me last year.

 

CasaFernandez_ReservaMaduroMonday I revisited the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro Corona Extra. I got a late start, so the smaller 5” x 46 size worked well with my schedule.  This has been in the humidor since last October or November and came from the folks at Casa Fernandez.  This is a Nicaraguan puro rolled in Miami, with Aganorsa tobacco grown in the three growing regions, Jalapa, Condega and Esteli.  The size is really nice, it’s a little bigger than a corona, and smaller than a robusto. It smoked for over an hour though, and was very flavorful. I have enjoyed the cigars I’ve smoked from Casa Fernandez, I just don’t seem to see them around much.  I think I like the Aganorsa Maduro the best, it’s like a chocolate bar. I’ve got to dig around and see if I can find one in the humidors.

 

Nomad_CTFuerte_ToroLast night I smoked the new Nomad Connecticut Fuerte from Fred Rewey’s Nomad Cigar Co.  This one came in a goodie bag from Gary Griffith of The House of Emilio which distributes the brand. The tag line “Not you father’s Connecticut cigar” is a little over used, but in this case, the cigar has some horsepower.   I really enjoyed the contrast of the spice and relative strength of the filler with the creamy and slightly bitterness of the wrapper.  I appreciate the Connecticut wrapper on a cigar, but it’s not one I reach for first, probably because I worry that the cigar will be too mild for my tastes.  This one has enough flavor and strength to be satisfying at any time of the day.  In the Nomad portfolio, while the original Dominican line is good, and the Nicaraguan blends are really good, this one is my new favorite of the line.  It’s different from anything else out there. I liked it.

 

That’s it for now. I’ll work on putting a contest together, I already have a pretty good selection set aside from various vendors and my own humidors. It may not be Twelve Days of Giveaways spectacular, but it’ll be worthwhile.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

 

 

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by | May 11, 2014 · 10:16 am

Cigar Rights and Some Alec Bradley Cigars

I usually present the cigars I’ve smoked over the last few days, but I had a weird experience this week, and I’m going to hold off on talking about those cigars until I give them some more humidor time and revisit them. All I’ll say is I smoked two cigars that had a really odd finish, and while they were from the same company,  they were made in completely different factories. Unless they had a common component that had a flavor that just didn’t play well with my chemistry,  I’m going to give them a do-over in a couple weeks. It was weird and had me second guessing myself! In other news, Cigar Rights of America has published a response to the FDA’s deeming document with excellent recommendations on how to respond, and we MUST respond in numbers, or life will change negatively for many thousands of people. Glynn Loope, the director of the CRA made a comment that no cigar related anything should be published without including a link to http://cigarrights.org/fda-response.php. I created a simple animated 125×125 graphic and included it at the top of the right-hand column on this site (scroll down for mobile users), I don’t think my advertisers will mind being bumped down a spot for this. Anyone who wants to use it is free to to so, and if someone with talent in creating graphics (I have none) wants to improve upon it, please do. We need to make an intelligent and unified response to the FDA’s proposed destruction of cigars as we know them.

 

JMs_AB_JLYesterday was Saturday, and I had received an email earlier in the week that one of my long time favorite local shops was having an Alec Bradley event. I’ve been begging to get

email notices about JM Cigars events for years, and finally got on the list! I figured it would be rude if I didn’t stop in. Jonathan “The Player” Lipson, the local Alec Bradley rep, is a good guy and I like Alec Bradley cigars. I smoked a Nica Puro robusto, of course, one of my go-tos, mostly to see if that odd taste I was getting was me or not. It wasn’t, as the cigar was excellent as usual. The event was well attended for a spring Saturday afternoon. I’m not sure if it’s just that Jonathan does a lot of events or what, but I find myself going whenever I see one pop up, and, as a result, I seem to have quite a few Alec Bradley cigars in my humidors. I picked up a few American Sungrown torpedos too, for five bucks these are impossible to pass up!

 
AB_Maxx_RoboloAfter a blustery storm blew through,  I decided to keep with the Alec Bradley theme, and took a walk with an Alec Bradley MAXX Connecticut Robolo, which is a BestCigarPrices.com exclusive (the size, not the blend It turns out the Maxx Connecticut line is a BCP exclusive, thanks to Jason there for the update).  Something about the 4½x60 size appeals to me, not sure why that is.  This cigar has fillers from Nicaraguan, Colombian, Mexican, and Honduras, with a Connecticut wrapper, which I assume is Ecuador Connecticut judging by the flavor and the price point, however both BestCigarPrices and Alec Bradley’s sites just say Connecticut, so I could well be wrong. These can be

had in the five dollar range. I found this to be a really nice, milder smoke with great flavors. The burn and draw were very good, and I burned my fingers a little finishing it up. It probably smoked for over an hour, not bad for a four and a half inch cigar. In the Maxx range, I’ve only had the Brazilian wrapped version, which is exclusive to another retailer, and I really liked that cigar. This one was tasty, perhaps a better choice for earlier in the day than I smoked it, but a very nice cigar. Thanks to Jason at BCP for providing this sample.

 

That’s all for now.  It’s Mother’s Day, so if you have one in your life, try to do something a little special for her today.  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | May 7, 2014 · 8:08 pm

Bodega Premium Blends Reunión Aperitivo and Digestivo Cigars

Bodega Premium Blends is one of the newer additions to the House of Emilio group of boutique manufacturers.  From what I can gather, the brand was started by four cigar loving entrepreneurs from the Great White North. They currently have two cigars in their Reunión line, the Aperitivo and Digestivo, which are available in three sizes. I received one of each in the 5” x 54 “Double Robusto” size recently in a goodie bag from Gary Griffith.

 

Bodega_Reunion_Aperitivo_RobustoTuesday I took a walk with my wife with the Reunión Aperitivo.  Don’t get me wrong, I love taking walks with my wife, but I’m still wrapping my head around not having an energetic and curious canine pulling at my left arm on my walks. This will take some getting used to. Thank you all for your kind words on Monday’s post, it’s much appreciated. Anyway, the name of this cigar implies that I should smoke it perhaps before dinner, or early in the day. My weekday schedule is such that I prefer to have a cigar after dinner, and after a meal normally. I just don’t ever feel like smoking on an empty stomach. So after dinner I lit up the Aperitivo and we took a walk. This one has a Jalapa Habano wrapper and fillers from Jalapa and Condega. The binder is listed as “proprietary”, so I don’t know if it’s a Nicaraguan puro or not.  Anyway, the cigar burned perfectly, the draw was perfect, and it held an ash very well. It had a nice, medium flavor that was kind of dry on the palate, with some nuttiness. This cigar smoked really well, and was enjoyable, even though it isn’t in a flavor profile that I usually gravitate toward.  I resisted the urge to smoke the San Andres wrapped Digestivo first in this case, it just seemed like these should be smoked in order, from a CDO standpoint (CDO is OCD in alphabetical order, like it should be).

 
Bodega_Reunion_Digestivo_RobustoThe “after dinner” cigar in the Bodega line is the Reunión Digestivo. It’s wrapped in San Andrés Negro and has fillers from Jalapa and Esteli, with presumably the same proprietary binder as the Aperitivo. The wrapper is beautifully dark and oily and it was a really hard decision last night to choose the Aperitivo over this one, but the CDO won out. I took a solitary walk as it was looking like rain, which it eventually did.  The Digestivo lit well and started with a very similar  astringent quality to that which the Aperitivo had, a dryness, if you will.  It had the underlying cocoa flavor associated with the San Andrés wrapper, which I liked. It burned dead even and had a very nice draw. It was a bit stronger than the Aperitivo, as the names would indicate ans smoothed out nicely into a nice smoking experience. Considering it’s Canadian roots, it had no maple syrup undertones or hints of back bacon.  It was a nice smoke and I wouldn’t hesitate to smoke it again. I would give these both 97s on my rating scale, with this Digestivo having a slight edge.

 

I think it’s a risk offering two distinctly different cigars for sale in the same box. Suppose you really like one and hate the other? You have to buy both to get the one you like, and either be stuck with the one  you don’t like or have to figure a way to get rid of them, and, starting at $10 each, it’s a tough sell. If you love both, it’s a great way to have some variety in your life.  Fortunately, they are available in boxes of ten in each blend. I suppose it would have been silly to have the mixed box be the only way to get these other than buying singles. I gotta say, for Canadians, these guys are making some good cigars :-). It shouldn’t be a surprise as Gary only really invites good cigar makers into the House of Emilio. Thanks again to Gary for providing the samples of these tasty treats. Nicely done, eh.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

 

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