The Premium Cigar Association trade show happened last weekend, so I figure I’d share my thoughts on a few cigars that were showcased there by General Cigar Co. I wasn’t there, I’ll get back one of these days. It’s a great experience, but it’s a lot of work, and I haven’t been able to justify the expense over the last few years. 
Fortunately, General sends me samples, so I tried a few of them this week. Sometimes they are really good, sometimes just OK, but the odd thing is that I rarely see them show up on retailers shelves. In the case of the three today, I hope they do. First off, there’s the El Rey del Mundo limited edition King of the World VSOP. I’ve smoked and enjoyed El Rey del Mundo cigars for the last thirty-ish years, they’ve always been really good cigars. This new line was rolled in 2021 and has been resting since then in the STG factory in Esteli. The 6″ x 52 toro has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican Habano fillers, and is $11. This cigar was a surprise. It was perfectly constructed and had a nice, white ash. There is an odd sweetness, hard to pin down, but I like is a lot. Some spice sneaks in near the end. While this didn’t really remind me of the ERdMs I remember from the past, it was a very good cigar, elegant and balanced. By the way, El Rey del Mundo King of the World is redundant!
Next up is a new Punch, this one celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rare Corojo line. The Rare Corojo has been an annual release, and for many years the Corojo was so rare that it didn’t appear in the cigars, just in the name. for the 25th anniversary General Cigar has fixed this, even going so far as to have the cigars produced by the Eiroas at the Aladino factory in Honduras with a Corojo wrapper, binder and Corojo and Habano fillers. Of course, Julio Eiroa is the king of Corojo. These are 6″ x 54 and $11 a cigar. Apparently the regular Rare Corojo is now available year round. As with the ERdM, this burned perfectly. I can only describe the flavor I got as a nice tobacco sweetness, not sugary, but not a savory flavor either, it was just really pleasant to smoke. It’s different from the Rare Corojo, I guess the addition of actual Corojo will do that! It was always curious to me why they called it that when it didn’t have any of the tobacco it was named for in the blend. This is good.
The third cigar in this weeks trilogy was another anniversary cigar, this one from Bolivar celebrating 130 years. It’s called, predictably, the Bolivar Aniversario, and is a limited edition, priced at $10 for a 6″ x 52 toro. I want to take a moment to thank General for sending samples in my favorite size for a change, for years it was robustos, lately it’s been toros. I used to smoke a lot of robustos, but lately they don’t fill enough time for me. I’ll smoke them on the odd occasion that I can have a morning smoke, or when I know I only have an hour. There have been times that a larger cigar burns too fast, doesn’t burn well or taste good and I have that time to fill that a robusto works, but it can’t be something new at that point, it has to be something familiar, because I can’t get the same flavors out of a second cigar. Anyway, this Bolivar has an interesting list of ingredients. The wrapper is Ecuador Habano, that’s not awfully interesting. The binder is Brazilian Arapiraca, with fillers from Paraguay, Argentina, Columbia and Brazil. That’s a wild blend, with the wrapper being the only Central American tobacco, the rest is South American, which is unusual. It’s made in Honduras at the HATSA factory. Some Peruvian and Panamanian tobaccos would have fit with the Bolivar theme, maybe they didn’t work in the blend. I ended up really enjoying this cigar, although it started out kinda weird. My impression was that the flavor was if saccharine was more sour than sweet. This is a weird description, I know, but it was a perplexing melange of flavors that ended up being really interesting and entertaining. Another winner.
That’s enough for today. I’m working on making a video for a new humidor system from the folks at CigarBros that impresses me. Hopefully I get it done for a midweek post. Editing video is not my forte, hopefully I can get it done in one take. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
