Sadly (for me, I seem to be in the minority for some reason), it’s the last Sunday of summer. I am not a fan of Autumn, or Winter, and I only tolerate Spring because it means it’s almost Summer. As I age I am far less tolerant of cold, and I just find the trees losing their leaves and everything turning brown really depressing. Lots of people love it, and that’s good for them, but I’m not a fan. The only leaves I enjoy burning are properly fermented black tobacco leaves, lovingly rolled into beautiful cigars! So kindly STFU about how great Fall is and LMTHA (to use some partial Saka acronyms).
I received some of the new Diesel Esteli Puro Samples a week or so ago from General Cigar Co., for which I’m grateful, and smoked a few this week. I posted the full press release about this here. Here are a few important points:
The wrapper was harvested from La Lilia, the binder from San José and the fillers from several plots including AJ’s celebrated San Lotano farm.
Blended by AJ Fernandez, handcrafted at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez in Estelí, Nicaragua and developed by General Cigar’s Justin Andrews.
I smoked the Robusto, as it’s General’s MO to send samples in that format. In this case, the Robusto is a generous 5¼ x 54 and comes wrapped in a cedar sleeve from the band to the foot. Warning to those with a sensitive constitution, this cigar starts off very strong! The first inch or so is a pepper blast with a load of nicotine. I’d almost call it hot. I was taken aback, honestly, and I like stronger cigars for the most part. It settled down after a while, but remained full bodied, and I really rather enjoyed the two samples I smoked. I have a couple more, I think I’ll take the cedar sleeve off of one, and revisit them in several months, smoking one that has been stored with, and one without the sleeve and see what differences I find. I often regret storing cigars long term with the cedar sleeves, and I leave them as they are out of sheer eyes laziness mostly. If you like strong cigars, this would be a good one to try! Lots of rich tobacco flavor under the pepper!
I visited a couple of my area CigarCigars shops yesterday, and I wish I had hit one more to complete the trifecta, it slipped my mind to do it. I had hoped to visit with my friend Kevin, who is retiring as manager of the Downingtown store in a week or so, but he wasn’t working, 
so bought some cigars, and stopped at the Frazer store on my way home and bought a few more cigars. Both stores had a mask policy, and social distance practices arranged in their lounges and were open for business. The Frazer store even had a sign on the door saying if you’re sick, stay home. Happy to see that they are taking proper pandemic precautions. The Downingtown store had good foot traffic while I was there, the register was ringing. One of the cigars I bought there was the Micallef A. I’ve even hearing a lot about this cigar recently, it was apparently a cigar that was named through a contest held among the ambassadors, of which I’m one (but I didn’t vote). You’d think they’d be able to come up with something better than “A”, but they actually settled on “Ambassador”, which makes more sense. There was a little bit of a copyright issue with that (I’m guessing Joya with L’ambassadeur?), so they just went with “A”. Now, when I think of a cigar called “A”, I expect a 9¼ x 48 cigar, but this is a 6¾ x 54 cigar with a Nicaraguan Sumatra wrapper that’s fermented to a dark Maduro. It also has a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers and is made in their factory in Esteli by the Gomez Sanchez Family. Lotsa Sumatra there, and I like Sumatra, and the price is right at around $7.50 here in PA. I lit one up and it was good. Lots of sweet, dark coffee and cocoa notes that I like, but I couldn’t help but think there was some youth, or at least that some age could certainly be of benefit. I liked it well enough, there was just something a little bit out of balance that some humidor time will address. I’ll have no problem experimenting with this one though, the construction was perfect, and at that price, it’s a no brainer.
Contest
I almost wrapped this up without selecting winners for the CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers. If you aren’t a lucky winner, or even if you are, I’d recommend going and buying one or three of these samplers, you really can’t go wrong. The only way you can justify not buying one is if you are opposed to lining Abe Dababneh’s pockets, and if that’s the case, well, I guess I can’t help. I met Abe before I ever even though about launching this site, so we go back a ways. Anyway, We need two winners. The random number generator tells me that the winners of CigarProp Smoke In Battle of the Bands Samplers are: Xolatol and Gregg Hearl! Please send me your contact info and proof that you’re of age so we can get these samplers to you!
I had to take a break from writing this to take a call from Jose Blanco, among other topics discussed, I confirmed with him that plume is, in fact, real, and will have some other theories I have related to that whole controversy verified (or disproved) in the future. That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
few Fratello cigars I don’t like, OK, there aren’t any really. There are obviously some I like over others, I love the Bianco Boxer most of all I think. I believe I understand why this cigar might appeal to the European palette, and this isn’t a slight on either the Europeans or the cigar. The cigar was a very good cigar, it was subtle, nuanced, without the pronounced flavors that the American palate is accustomed to. I think this is why it might have more appeal abroad than in the US. I’m excited to try the Arlequin now, and might have to get more packs. I bought them at one of the great sites who supports my site (Fox). 
