Tag Archives: bolivar

April 26, 2026 · 10:19 am

New El Rey del Mundo, Punch and Bolivar Cigars

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

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Tagged as 25th Anniversary, Aniversario, bolivar, cigar, cigars, El Rey Del Mundo, King of the World, punch, Punch Rare Corojo, rare corojo, VSOP

August 11, 2024 · 9:59 am

Some New Hoyo de Monterrey, Bolivar and Alec Bradley Cigars

I have long been a fan of the Hoyo de Monterrey brand, going back to the ’90s. I smoked the maduro (and double maduro) Rothschilds, and when I wanted to splurge, I picked up an Excalibur No. 1 (for about $5!). I even wrote an article back in 2012 comparing the Punch and Hoyo brands (Punch vs. Hoyo-de-Monterrey, A Debate Finally Settled). I always get a little excited when General Cigars comes out with a new Hoyo. This time around they have the Oscuro and Rojo. I sense a theme at the company, after the release of the CAO Fasa Sol and Noche, releasing two cigars with different wrappers. I, as I usually do, tried out the Oscuro first. The Hoyo de Monterrey Oscuro has a Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers, and comes from the HATSA factory in Danli, Honduras. The wrapper is dark, I had high hopes. I smoked a couple of these and found that the initial flavors were weird, bordering on yucky. Creosote, came to mind, like how burning a railroad tie might taste, very pungent. The company has tasting notes of cherry cola, white and cayenne pepper, molasses and rye bread. I’d have to really reach to get maybe the molasses. It moved to tolerable after a while, but never really tripped my trigger. Construction was good! I’ll let some age for a while.

Moving on the the Hoyo de Monterrey Rojo, which has a Honduran Jamastran wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. Both of these were in the Toro size, 6″ x 52, which made me happy (although I might have prefered the Oscuro in the Rothschild, as it would have been done quicker). I really liked this cigar! As was the case with the CAO Fasa, I liked the “natural” more than the maduro! This cigar has what I refer to as “bright” flavors, a citrus tang, and just good tobacco. This was a really nice cigar and I look forward to smoking more. These are both priced from $5.99 to $8.49, darned reasonable these days.

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Next up was what I believe to be the first Alec Bradley cigar produced under new ownership, the Alec Bradley Safe Keepings. This is the first in a line that is from the Alec Bradley bled book, a Nicaraguan puro made at the Oliva factory. It uses Jalapa, Condega and Esteli Criollo 98 tobaccos, and prices run from $10.49 to $15.19. I had the robusto, which is 5″ x 52. I find that I like robustos on a Saturday afternoon after the chores/projects are done, possibly before an afternoon nap. No nap yesterday, but it’s been known to happen. Considering Criollo usually isn’t my bag, nor are flavors I consider woody, this was a really nice cigar. It has a woody sweetness, medium bodied, and really quite elegant. The band is kind of cool, it leaves room for alterations for future releases. I can see the starry, crescent moon background being changed to a sunny blue sky for another release. I was surprised how much I liked this.

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Finally, I smoked the newest addition to the Bolivar line, the Bolivar Cofraida Oscuro. Like the Hoyo Oscuro, this has a Ecuador Sumatra binder and Dominican, Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers, but has a dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. It comes in three sizes, Robusto, Toro and Gigante, I had the 5″ x 54 Robusto. I believe this line started as a JR Cigars exclusive, much like the Hoyo Excalibur line, that was before JR was acquired by Altadis. I really like this cigar, it’s up my alley. It has rich, dark chocolate with some spice. Remember when they came out with the Bolivar with the big red band? I really liked that cigar, although I prefer the classic Simon Bolivar bands. That one was a Foundry line, this one is in the Forged line. This is also a reasonable priced cigar, I’ll be on the lookout for the toro. Remember when the Cuban Bolivar was a really strong cigar?

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, bolivar, cigar, cigars, Cofraida, hoyo de monterrey, oscuro, Rojo, Safe Keepings

March 6, 2022 · 10:54 am

Perla Del Mar Connecticut, Bolivar Cofraida and Aganorsa Leaf Cigars and the Contest Winner

As I mentioned in my Friday news post, the last half of my week was disrupted with some unexpected drama. This has thrown me off my game a little, I missed my Friday night shift at Son’s Cigars just because I was exhausted from the previous evenings ordeal with the pain and the morphine and all, I was passed out at home well before the shop closed. I came home to some Chinese take-out, smoked a Punch Fu Manchu (which isn’t a bad inexpensive cigar, by the way! I ‘m not sure I get the marketing of Punch line with the Chinese food, but they are good smokes at a great price) and crashed. Hard. For the sake of my CDO though, I’m going to rewind a bit to Tuesday when I smoked the Perla Del Mar Connecticut Toro. This is a relatively new rebranded Perla Del Mar Connecticut from J.C. Newman, made in Nicaragua. I really like this line, although I can’t say I’m a fan of the PDM on the

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band. I liked the old bands better, this new one could have been better. I get it, it’s a budget brand, it could easily be presented in a bundle insead of a box, so I’ll take it as it is. These are fantastic cigars. Even for someone who’s first choice isn’t a Connecticut shade, this is a solid cigar. It’s creamy, with a lot of flavor. There are a few shade cigars that make my “rotation”, this might sneak in there. It has a richness without being grassy. I like it. I like the Corojo and Maduro better, but this Connecticut is very good, I’d reach for it over a lot of other shade cigars.

Yesterday I got around to the Bolivar Cofraida Lost and Found EMS Toro that I had on deck for Thursday evening. I had picked this up, along with the Punch, when I stopped in to the CigarCigars store in Downingtown, PA to drop off a bag of cigars for OP:Cigar For Warriors, as they are a collection point. I’m not sure why I didn’t get the Oscuro, seems out of character for me, perhaps they only had the EMS, I really don’t remember. This line is a collaboration between Justin Andrews of Forged/Scandinavian Tobacco and Robert Caldwell, where the marketing materials say they blended the cigars from bales of tobacco that they came across in the HATSA factory in Honduras. So these aren’t “found” cigars, but “found” tobacco, in this case. This is another reasonably priced cigar, in the $7-7.50 range, I think. Ten years ago I’d find that to be a fairly pricey cigar. Now it’s cheap. Anyway, I remember the Bolivar Cofraida cigars that JR Cigars used to sell were on the strong side, this one not so much. It was well balanced, medium bodied, with some pleasant, fruit notes. Nice afternoon smoke while I refilled the hot tub and sat around waiting to see if my kidney stone was going to cause me trouble.

Last night I took a look in the tray of cigars I put the cigars that I got at the TPE show that I hadn’t smoked yet, the “new to me” tray. I settled on the Aganorsa Leaf Aniversario Robusto that Terence Reilly gave me at the show. This is the 5″ x 52 box pressed Nicaraguan puro with a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper. The paper sleeve isn’t there to hide anything, the wrapper is really pretty. This was another really tasty cigar. I was in one of my rare moods for a shorter smoke. I was tired, a hockey game was on during nap time! This cigar falls into the leather and nuts flavor category for me. It’s not a sweet coffee, cocoa cigar. It burned perfectly, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Smoking more of the Aganorsa cigars is on my todo list, oddly it’s one of the brands that I don’t get around to as much as I should. I’ll fix that. Good smoke, less of what I personally look for, but good nonetheless.

Contest

OK, it’s time to select a contest winner! To recap, the giveaway this time was for a cool Drew Estate 20 Acre Farm case with five (5) 20 Acre Farm toro cigars. It’s possible some other goodies could fall into the box before it leaves the CigarCraig.com offices! It’s been known to happen! The winner is Xolotal! Send me your coordinates