First off, go back to my last post and comment to enter the giveaway! These Freshbox humidor starter kits are nice! There’s the humidor, cutter, lighter and 12 cigars from major brands. It’s possible that some additional goodies might fall into the box when packing them for shipping! These take coolerdors to the next level!
That’s all for today…just kidding. I smoked a few cigars this week that I hadn’t smoked before, the first of which is the Gold Star from 
United Cigars. Oliver at United was kind enough to send me a couple of these a few weeks back, and I was excited to try them. I thought originally these were made to commemorate Gold Star families, families who’ve lost children in the line of duty. Looking at the website, there’s a different story, one of a gold star painted on a tobacco barn. I kinda like the first story better, but maybe there’s excess baggage that goes along with it. Anyway, this toro, 6″ x 54, has a Habano 2000 wrapper, grown in Ecuador. Thirty years ago when the Hanaco 2000 wrapper was developed as a disease resistant strain, one of the byproducts was that it was also flame resistant. You could make kids pajamas out of those wrappers! It’s improved. The binder is an Indonesian Sumatra, and the fillers are Dominican Ligero, Criollo ’98 and Corojo ’98 and Connecticut Broadleaf. The website also mentions some flavor components I don’t know anything about: “Bohea tea, kalamata olive”. I have no reference for these, nore have I ever heard the words (Bohea and kalamata, tea and olive I’m familiar with). Maybe those flavors are there, who knows. I know that I got a bready sweetness, maybe some leather, and the spice built as I smoked. Overall, I liked the cigar, I’d buy these, but I don’t know of any United retailers locally.
Next up is the Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust 10th Jubilee. One of my local shops, CigarCigars in Frazer, PA, has Dunbarton cigars now. I’m happy that the new ownership has brought in Dunbarton, as well as some other brands I like. This cigar was outside of my price comfort zone, but I bit the bullet anyway and justified it by spreading the cost out with some less expensive cigars. OK, I just wanted to try this one. These are dangerously close to $20 in PA. This is a 5 5/8″ x 48 corona gorda with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, a Mexican binder and fillers from Condega, Estelí, Jalapa and Ometepe. These are made at the NACSA factory where Mi Querida and Red Meat Lovers Cigars are made. Saka says that he hadn’t used any of these specific tobaccos in his prior blends. While I enjoyed this cigar, I think if I’m going to splurge on a cigar, it’ll be on a Sin Compramiso which better suits my palate. This was a really interesting cigar. It started out with what I think of as umami, with a mild spice. I swear I got a cinnamon flavor around the halfway point. I don’t have a great palate, and sometimes subtleties elude me, but there were some neat flavors in this cigar. No regrets, I might pick up another one if I’m feeling reckless with money (which I rarely am).
The last cigar this week was the new El Titan de Bronze Nicaragua. I have smoked a couple of the new Cohiba M Reserva Plata, which is made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami with some mixed results. I thought it was weird to get Cohibas made in Miami and El Titan de Bronze cigars made in Nicaragua in the same shipment. I’ve smoked and enjoyed El Titan de Bronze cigars from the miami factory before, and had high hopes for the Nicaraguan. These come in in the $8-10 range, which would be impossible for a Miami made cigar, I suppose. Like the Dunbarton 10th Jubilee, these are made at NACSA. I smoked the 5″ x 54 robusto which has a Broadleaf wrapper, Mexican binder and Nicaraguan fillers. On paper I should really like this cigar. My notes are pretty limited on this, I just wrote down meaty…charcoal grill meaty. This was totally savory without a hint of sweetness. I will have to smoke a few more of these, I’m not quite sure how I feel about them. I might also have to dig out some of the El Titan cigars I picked up at the factory when I was there a few years ago (sheesh, 7 or 8 years? , time flies).
That’s all for today, don’t forget to go back and enter the contest! Until the next time (for real this time),
CigarCraig
