Tag Archives: Epic Cigars

Belvedere Cigar Lounge Some Epic Cigars, and a Trinidad Espiritu No. 3

Thursday evening my wife had a thing she wanted to go to in New Jersey, and she found a cigar lounge three miles away I could visit! It turned out that Belvedere Cigar Lounge in Lawnside, New Jersey, was hosting Irving Rodriguez of Epic Cigars doing a cut and light event.  I know Irv, and I love Epic Cigars, so it was a no brainer. Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered, the lounge is really nice.  It’s 1300 square feet, has seating for a little over 40, and has some massive TVs and a sound system. It has 24 hour member access, with a BYO bar. I would have been happy to buy a couple cigars from their modest, but well curated, retail selection and enjoyed one there.  As is was, I spent the better part of an hour enjoying a delicious Epic Habano and talking with Irv.  I’ve known about Epic cigars for the better part of ten years, and been a fan of them. They are made in the same factory that Kristoff cigars are made in, are really tasty, and always well made.  Dean, who sold the brand to Nat Cicco Cigars a few years back, is a cool dude who I like to call a friend.  The Habano should be first on your list of Epic cigars to try, it’s got a nice sweetness I like. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, a Cameroon binder (this might be the seced sauce!), and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I had the 5½ x 52 Robusto. I love maduro cigars, but the Habano might be my favorite in the line.  

 

Of course, I bought a handful of cigars while I was there, why wouldn’t I? I was rather hoping they would have the tenth anniversary, but that wasn’t available, so I bought some Habanos and Corojos.  Friday I smoked an Epic Corojo in the toro size. The Corojo has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper, Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. They call the 6″ x 54 toro a Double Corona for some reason.  Great cigar, although on the leathery side of the spectrum to my palate. It was much more savory than the Habano, it really lacked any sweetness at all. I enjoyed it before heading in to watch a Flyers game.  on a side note, last week’s weather took out our power for 14 hours overnight, and in the process somehow damaged our Verizon set top box. After the customer experience I’ve had trying to get the situation resolved, I think this might be the impetus to “cut the cable” finally, and ditch the TV service.  I’ve been hanging on mostly for access to the Flyers games, but I  think there’s enough alternatives available now that we can ditch the $100 a month.  That’s today’s project.

 

Yesterday I picked up a couple cigars that I hadn’t smoked before, one of which was the Trinidad Espiritu No. 3. I was really looking forward to trying this one, I loved the No. 2, and the No. 1 was pretty good too.  The No. 3 is a tribute to Mexico, with a San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers, made by AJ Fernandez in Nicaragua.  This was very different from the No.2, now that I’m thinking of it, I’d have swapped the two based on flavor. I thought the 2 tasted more typical of a San Andrés than the 3. There’s an interesting exotic spice flavor present, with an overall savory base flavor.  I thought it was really interesting, far more interesting than the La Gloria Cubana TAA 2023 cigar I bought and was severely disappointed by. I love La Glorias, but this one had nothing going for it. It didn’t draw well, it didn’t have much flavor, and just wasn’t good. I thought TAA cigars should be a good representation of a brand?  The LGC is a pass for me, but the Trinidad Espiritu line is a winner, and there are not a lot of Altadis cigars that I can say that about (ironically, almost all the Altadis cigars I like are made in one factory). 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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Epic Cigars: Maduro Reserva, Corojo Reserva and Habano

When we were out in Colorado last month for the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival, we went to an event the night before at Havana Manor in Longmont, CO. with Pete Johnson and Janny Garcia.  It turned out to be a cigar industry who’s who, and we ran into a bunch of friends. While there my buddy Storm Boen (Op: Cigars for Warriors) introduced us to Dean Parsons of Epic Cigars. Dean is a hockey player from Newfoundland (the Canadian province where they make the enormous dogs) who relocated to the Caribbean and got into the cigar business. Sounds like a logical progression, right?  I decided to sample his wares this week, so I could slip in this video from the festival.

 

 

Epic_MaduroReserva6x60As if you’d expect anything else, I started out with the Epic Maduro Reserva 60×6. Brazillian Arapiraca wrappper with a Cameroon binder. Just now reading that I know why I was totally blown away by this cigar. I love that combination of wrapper and binder, you don’t see it every day. It had a very unique (and delicious) meaty flavor, like smoking a perfectly cooked steak.  Just enough fat, pink in the middle, mouth watering!  This is a flavor bomb of epic proportions, and certainly aptly named.   This is a cigar I’ll be looking for as it really performed well in all departments, it was a hat trick, great flavor, burn and draw. It was a beautiful looking cigar too!

 

Epic_CorojoReserva6x54Friday I selected the Corojo Reserva 54×6. I appreciate the clever names Dean has given each vitola!  This cigar has Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers like the Maduro, with a Corojo Ecuador wrapper over a Dominican Piloto Cubano binder.  This was another great burning cigar with excellent flavor. It didn’t have the uniqueness I was hoping for, but it certainly was a solid, satisfying cigar in the medium to full flavors range.  An interesting side note, Dean was telling us that he sent Altadis a cease and desist letter over the Montecristo Epic when it came out, and instead of the giant company crushing the little guy with litigation, they signed a coexistence agreement!

 

 Epic_Habano5x52Yesterday I smoked the third cigar in the Epic line, the Habano.  This was released at this years IPCPR show, and it has a n Ecuador Habano wrapper, a Cameroon binder and the Dominican/Nicaraguan fillers like the rest of the line. Once again, the construction on these was perfect. The burn never needed correction, and the draw, while a little snug, was acceptable. I thought it has a nice spicy and earthy flavor. Perhaps if I had smoked the maduro last, I would have enjoyed this and the Corojo more, but the Maduro set the bar high and similar flavors I was looking for in the Habano and Corojo weren’t there. I think the Epic lineup plays a full three periods, for sure.

 

I may smoke some goodies from Michael Giannini’s Foundry line this week, then next Saturday I’m going to attend The Smokin’ Goose, a multi-vender festival hosted by Goose’s Tobacco Outlet and Cafe.  This is being held at the historic Sunny Brook Ballroom & Convention Center in Pottstown, PA.  It’s only a few miles up the road and I’m looking forward to seeing this inaugural event succeed so close to home. So, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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