Wednesday evening I stopped in to Old Havana Cigars south of West Chester, PA and caught up with Jack Toraño of Espinosa Cigars and Mark Weisenburger, the area broker for the brand. I had the day off and hoped to catch them earlier in the day, but I got caught up cutting the grass and finishing up putting the roof on the new chicken enclosure I’d been building, so I didn’t get out as early as I would have liked. It worked out, I got to hang out with Jack and smoke the new Laranga Reserva Escuro toro. The original Laranga Reserva was so-named because of the orange hue to the wrapper and Laranga is Portuguese for Orange. The Escuro has a Brazilian Mata Fina wrapper that is very dark, and one must assume that Escuro is Portuguese for Oscuro (or really dark). I bought a couple of these and lit one up and it was much to my 
liking. It had deep, rich flavors of espresso, exactly what I like in a cigar. After the busy day I had, which was personally rewarding, having finally solved a problem in construction of my chicken run which had bothered me for some time, as inconsequential as that sounds, it was an extremely satisfying cigar. Quite lovely, and certainly enhanced by the company! I learned many things from Jack, lots of secrets and things I didn’t know! ;-)Â I also picked up an Espinosa Habano No.8, which is a Gordo, that I smoked the following evening on a walk, which I enjoyed, it’s an excellent cigar, especially for the price. I have been enjoying a lot of La Zona cigars, but not enough Espinosa cigars. I have to start picking more up as I see them. Now I know a few places that carry them!
Here’s a little rant unrelated to cigars, but related to blogging in general. I receive a few e-mails a week from folks who are “regular readers” and would like to submit a guest post. Usually they are in an area my readers may be interested in, like finance, fashion, sometimes it’s vape or hookah (at least that’s close). This paragraph is really just for those “regular readers”. Don’t lie about being a regular reader. If you were a regular reader you’d know that I don’t have a lot of guest posts or sponsored posts, my content is original except in a few very isolated instances. Regular readers also will know that there are very few posts about vape, hookah, finance or fashion (especially fashion). If you are an aspiring writer and are shopping around articles for whatever reason, be honest, don’t think I’m a fool and buy in to your BS about being a big fan of my site and wanting to be a part of it. It’s irritating, it makes you look like an idiot and I delete your email. When I get your second email saying “I know you’re busy, just wanted to make sure you saw my first e-mail”, I sent the reply telling you I don’t have any use for you. Since all you guest post writers are “regular readers”, this should save you all a lot of time, to my real regular readers, sorry to have wasted yours!
Last week I posted a few times about Diesel cigars and mentioned that I was looking forward to the new Whiskey Row Sherry Cask. Low and behold, what should appear in my mailbox but some samples of said cigar. To recap, Diesel Whiskey Row: not a fan. Diesel Hair of the Dog: big fan. Anything aged in booze barrels with any expectation of flavors from the cask: no frame of reference. Just reading the description of the Whiskey Row Sherry Cask had me intrigued. I could care less about the liquor angle, this is well established, the fact that it’s made by A.J. Fernandez just tells me that the quality is going to me spot on. It’s wrapped in Connecticut Broadleaf, it has a Brazilian Arapiraca binder and Nicaraguan fillers. The press release say that the tobaccos are cultivated on three continents, which I’m trying to figure out. I only count North and South America. I need a ruling on this one. Here’s a perfect example of tasting with one’s eyes. Looking at the cigar’s presentation: the dark brown wrapper with the band with a purple accent, reminds me of semi-sweet chocolate with raspberry. We had cooked a turkey and made all the trimmings as if it were Thanksgiving and had that for lunch, so this was desert, and dammit if it didn’t remind me of semisweet chocolate with raspberry cake, and boy was it delicious! This was the polar opposite of the Whiskey Row for me, and I know people who think that cigar is a great cigar, and, even though they work for another cigar company, still smoke them (without bands, even at their own events! not naming any names…). If aging the Arapiraca binder in the sherry cask is the trick, or it’s the combination of the Broadleaf and Arapiraca, or (probably) the overall blend of the cigar, for my palate, this was a real treat and I hope that it wasn’t just the first one that wow’d me. I’ll be picking up Toro and Gigante sizes to sample when these hit the stores next month. This is the best tasting cigar from General since the Macanudo Inspirado Red to my palate.
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
I smoked a couple cigars from Espinosa Cigars over the last few days, just because I, for some reason, don’t find myself smoking a great many cigars from the Espinosa line. I do enjoy many cigars made at La Zona, as I told Jack Toraño one evening when I was hanging out with him at the hotel lounge, one of my favorite La Zona cigars is the La Sirena. I had picked up an Espinosa Habano on Sunday when I stopped into Son’s (more news from that visit to come), as I hadn’t had one in a very long time. I smoked it Monday. This is a nice smoke, cedary and earthy, with a little bit of sweetness and some spice. Not so much in my personal wheelhouse, but an enjoyable cigar nonetheless. This, of course, was the 6″ x 52 No. 5 vitola.
When I met with Erik at the TPE he gave me a Laranja Escuro, in the box pressed 6″ x 52 Toro size. This is the Brazilian Matafina wrapped version of the Laranja, made at the A.J. Fernandez’ San Lotano Factory. This cigar is more up my alley, as I generally favor a maduro. It performed perfectly, and had loads of dark rich flavors, which included espresso, and some nice spices. I was thoroughly impressed and satisfied by this cigar, and I don’t believe I had smoked this cigar before, and I don’t know why. It will definately be on my list in the future. 
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