Tag Archives: La Gloria Cubana

by | February 26, 2013 · 5:10 pm

A Couple La Gloria Cubana Cigars and One That Used To Be a Favorite…

LaGloria_RetroCubanoSunday afternoon turned out to be a fairly nice day, so I thought I’d pick something on the larger side.  I have been enjoying a box of La Gloria Cubana Artesanos Retro Especiale Cubano for about a year and a half, and hadn’t had one in a while. This is a 6.5 x 58 parejo with a lighter colored wrapper that is a special cross bred Connecticut grown in Honduras. The idea behind this cigar was to have a fairly neutral wrapper that doesn’t overshadow the blend.  I took a late afternoon walk with the dog and enjoyed the heck out of this smoke.  It’s a smooth and flavorful blend that was very enjoyable. The quality of the tobaccos and the construction is obvious, it’s one of the reasons that the La Gloria Cubana line has been among my favorites over the past 15 years or so.  Certainly there have been changes, and there have been a lot of line extensions, but there have been very few LGCs that I haven’t enjoyed over the years.

 

LaGloria_SerieR_5One of the first cigars to explore the world of large ring gauges was La Gloria Cubana back in the early part of the ’00s with the Serie R line.  Sure, there was the Casa Blanca Jeroboam and Half Jeroboam as well as the Puros Indois Chief (10×66, 5×66 and 18×66 respectively), which were the early pioneers in big ring gauge, but the Serie R brought the format into the mainstream.  By today’s standard, 52, 54 and 56 ring aren’t overly large, but at the time it was quite a big deal.  I picked up a 5-pack a bit over a year ago on a visit to Famous Smoke Shop‘s retail location in Easton, PA in the No.5 maduro, a 5½ x 54 robusto.  This was my Monday evening smoke. The dark brown Connecticut broadleaf wrapper is nice and oily.  I have to admit the first couple I smoked out of this 5er were disappointing, I thought they were pretty flat and flavorless. Perhaps the humidor time has helped, but this was a nice, medium bodies smoke that burned perfectly, and had one characteristic that I really appreciate, a nice, flat ember.  It’s a thing of beauty when you tap off the ash and it’s perfectly flat.  I love that.  This was a nice smoke.  I was in the mood for a Serie N actually, and am sadly out of those, but this was a very acceptable alternative. Different, but tasty.

 

MariaMancini_RLLater in the evening I had to run to Philadelphia to unlock a car.  In an effort to simplify things, and instead of having to rush home after work and run out to the Flyers game, I sent my two sons to the game.  I had to make a 50 minute or so drive, so I grabbed a cigar.  Last year I picked up a five pack or two of Maria Mancini Robusto Largas when I last visited JRs store in Whippany, NJ. This is a cigar that I’ve really enjoyed over the years and always had in my humidors. I met up with Peter, from ACigarSmoker.com and recommended these, and was a little surprised that he wasn’t impressed.  I think the one I smoked Monday may have been the first from that batch, and I now understand his reaction. These used to be a very rich and flavorful cigar, they had a distinctive flavor that I appreciated.  This one was off. It burned very well, considering it’s an under $3 cigar, but it was a shadow of what it used to be.  It’s a shame that the blend changed, I guess I was lucky to have an inexpensive cigar that I really liked for as long as I did.  I may still have some older ones floating around.  It’s not that it was a bad smoke, it just wasn’t what it should have been.

 

So that’s it, three cigars that I’ve smoked a bunch of in the past.  Nothing new or unusual.  Sometimes when it’s winter, things are a little crazy, and life gets busy, it’s nice to take comfort in some old friends and not have to think too hard and just enjoy a cigar for what it is.  Believe me, When I smoke a cigar it’s for the sheer enjoyment, and whatever I write on these pages is off the cuff, pretty much from memory impressions.  I enjoy something about just about every cigar I smoke.

I’m off to yet another Flyers game, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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by | January 16, 2013 · 6:27 pm

A Cigar Shop Visit, a Cain, a Perla del Mar, a Rodrigo and a La Gloria Cubana

Sunday I decided to go hang out at one of my locals shops that I’ve been to a few times and had mixed feelings about,

Light’n Up Premier Smokeshop in Ludwigs Corner, PA. This shop is about 5 miles from home and I pass it on my commute every day. In the past I’ve had less than competent service, and limited selection. This visit, along with my last, was better and I want to give another chance. I spent a few minutes browsing the humidor and found the selection to be adequate although sparse. There were numerous empty boxes on the shelves which I suppose is excusable in the off season, but not something I like seeing, especially when it’s something that interests me. I would have picked up a couple more of the Padilla Reserva Maduros if they had them, but they did not. I ended up picking up a Cain Daytona torpedo and smoking it in the shop while talking with Rudy, the gentleman working in the shop, and several of the patrons who came in for a smoke. I think there was a foo

tball game on the TV too. I also picked up a couple other cigars I wanted to try as well. The Cain Daytona Torpedo was an excellent smoke, I like all of the Cain cigars, but I think the smoothness of the Daytonas makes it my favorite. It doesn’t pack quite the punch that the rest of the line does. I spent about 2 hours at the shop and the worst thing I can say about this visit is that they close at 4 pm on Sundays, not that I would have hung out longer on this particular occasion, but it would be nice if they were open a little later.

 

Perla del Mar_3x56After dinner I took the dog for a walk with one of the other cigars I picked up at the shop, a Perla del Mar 3¾x56 stubby, fat little robusto. I have a sample from the trade show floating around someplace in the depths of the humidor, but I was too lazy to fish it out and figured the shorter size would be

better for a damp and dreary evening. By the way, don’t visit the website with a full bladder, just a bit of friendly advice. This cigar is from J.C. Newman and is made in the same factory as the Brickhouse and El Baton in Nicaragua. It’s a Nicaraguan blend with an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper. I found it to be a pleasant smoke, medium bodied and flavorful and well behaved. It’s a good, well priced cigar. Personally, I’d love to see a Brickhouse maduro in the same size.

 

Rodrigo_Fortaleza_AbsolutoMonday’s evening smoke was a Rodrigo Forteleza Absoluto, a sample I received from Gary at Emilio Cigars, the distributor for Rodrigo Cigars. George Rodriguez had sent me samples of his original line a while back and I really dug the lancero over the larger ring gauges, so, I was looking forward to smoking this pretty little pigtail capped corona (5 ⅛” x 43). It started out pretty bold, and continued to be a full bodied, full flavored smoke. This is a very nice cigar! I can understand why this had such critical acclaim. I found it to be quite a satisfying smoke. I’ll try this in a larger ring gauge one of these days when I run across them in a shop someplace.

 

Tuesday I was having a little trouble deciding what to smoke, so I went with an old friend, the La Gloria Cubana Retro Especiale Club. This is a cigar that I’velgc_artesanos_retro smoked quite a few of, and 5¾“ x 47 is a really nice size for me. It’s a different cigar than what I generally gravitate toward, it’s bright and mellow as opposed to dark and spicy, but it provides me with a nice change and the cigar is interesting enough to keep my attention, but not particularly challenging to smoke. Once in awhile I just want to smoke a cigar without thinking about it too much and the Retro Especiale is one like that. This isn’t a knock on the cigar, quite the opposite. I’ve always enjoyed the La Gloria Cubana line and have some of the new Trunk Show samples to smoke, but they are just enormous! Too large for winter smoking. I also continue to beat myself up for not picking up the Rabito de Cochino 3 pack when I saw it at Cigars International on my last visit. That’s a cigar I’ve wanted to try and I can’t believe I didn’t grab one. I will, no doubt, smoke more Retros this summer.

 

I received an email today about a new product and I’d be curious to know what you think of it? I’m far too impatient to use matches to light my cigars, but this is a pretty slick match case/striker combo that could be a great gift item for the cigar smoke who has everything, and I’m told the target MSRP will be around $8, so it’s priced right. Check it out at http://www.quirky.com/products/215-Strike-new-match.

 

That’s it for now, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | November 7, 2012 · 8:23 pm

Cape May, a NUb and a La Gloria Cubana Cigar, and Some News

Last weekend my wife and I took a little trip to Cape May, NJ to just relax and recharge. Fortunately the superstorm from last week wasn’t as mean to the little town on the southern tip of the state and we had a nice visit.  We happened across a nice little cigar shop in the Washington Street Mall, which is a three block long pedestrian mall a couple blocks off the beach.  The store is called “Up In Smoke” and has a pretty good sized walk in humidor.  The gentleman working there, Buddy, seemed to be knowledgeable and helpful, however the combination of New Jersey’s cigar tax, resort prices, and the absence of a place to smoke kept me from making my usual courtesy buy (and I tried to buy an issue of CigarPress magazine, but Buddy hooked me up).  The Opus X Lancero priced at $100 wasn’t even tempting!  I’m, admittedly, spoiled living in Pennsylvania and not having a cigar tax like most of the other states, but seeing cigars that retail around $4 at home priced at $10 scares me off.  However, I had no problem paying $10 each for some beautiful, hand blown glass Christmas ornaments for our tree this year (as un-macho as that sounds!).  These two ornaments spoke to me and I had to have them!  I didn’t have a cigar on the trip, but it was still a really nice weekend away with my wife, we were able to relax and unwind.

 

Monday evening called for a walk and a smoke.  I decided to give one of the NUb 464Ts that I got from the aforementioned Thompson’s auction to see how they were.  I picked a maduro.  I hadn’t had a NUb maduro, and it looked really good.  I snipped a bit off the end and the draw was really easy, a good sign.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that cold weather really increases my desire for maduros, I think because they have such a strong flavor.  Not that maduros are strong

nicotine-wise, it’s just that a lighter, more delicate flavored cigar will get lost in the cold air. This NUb had a pretty potent dose of power right off the bat, but it mellowed out as it got warmed up and was a very entertaining smoke.  One must take care smoking this shape as one wrong move and the cigar can shoot out of your mouth like a torpedo.  I always thought is was called a torpedo due to the shape!  Anyway, I think these need so

me more humidor time, but that probably won’t keep me from trying the other wrappers.  These will be good on the other side of winter.

 

Tuesday evening I opted for a rare treat of a cigar that I like a great deal, which is a shame because I may not get to smoke many of these in the future.  The regular production La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros have a Connecticut shade wrapper on the first couple inches of the cigar, followed by and Ecuador Sumatra wrapper.  These are excellent cigars, but for special events they made some cigars that start out with the Sumatra wrapper and morph into a rich, dark Connecticut broadleaf wrapper that is just amazing.  I came across a lonely little robusto version of this that I picked up at an event last December and fired it up.  I have to say that I had endured a day of frustration, always happens when one dares take time off work.  It was a day of catching up and putting out fires, and I needed the respite of a great smoke.  It was also freezing cold!  It had been the first “bike-worthy” day in nearly 2 weeks and I had to take the scooter to work. I found out the following: 23 degrees is too darned cold to spend 30 minutes outside driving to work.  I wish the bike had a heater.  Anyway, I digress.  This cigar was awesome.  Rich, earthy and full flavors that gave me a nice hour to settle do

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wn and return to normal.  If

you ever get to attend a La Gloria event, don’t just do it to get one of these awesome smokes, if you can hang out with Michael Giannini you will be doubly rewarded, because he’s a really cool guy who know his stuff.

 

 

News

I’m pleased to be able to say that the 12 Days of Spectacular Giveaways is coming along nicely. I’ve already got five of the days just about completed, with confirmations for another 6 of the days.  If you thought last year’s contest series was spectacular, just wait until you see what’s in store this year! I don’t want to rush things, time goes by fast enough as it is, but I’m getting really excited about this!   Mark December 12

-24th on your calendars.

 

In other news, Smoke Inn announced today the release of the latest cigar in their “microblend” series, the  Tatuaje Apocalypse.  I got a press release, other’s have posted it, so just head over to http://www.tatuajeanarchy.com/ to see what it’s all about!

 

That’s all I got, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | September 2, 2012 · 8:48 am

IPCPR 2012 – A La Sirena Merlion and Someone Wins Some Cigars!

Friday evening, the start of a holiday weekend, the (sigh) end of summer, all good reasons to spark up a good cigar.  One of the cigars I’ve really been looking forward to smoking from the IPCPR show is the Merlion from La Sir

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ena and Miami Cigar and Co.  The sample I smoked was the Toro size, measuring 5½” x 54, which is a nice size for a late summer evening.  The cigars are made at the La Aurora factory with Ecuadoran Corojo wrapper, a Brazilian Sumatra binder and Dominican Corojo, Dominican Criollo, Nicaraguan ligero and Brazilian Mata Fina fillers.  It’s a very nice cigar.  I could certainly taste the influence of the La Aurora factory in the blend,

there’s a signature flavor that I’m familiar with that stands out.  It performed perfectly and was a nice, satisfying smoke. Another winner from Arielle Ditkowich and the folks at Miami Cigar and Co.  Arie

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lle took a few moments to talk to me at the show, here’s the video.

 

 

Thank you, Arielle, for being one of my first few interviews at the show. Keep making tasty smokes!

 

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Contest

 

I know, nobody is interested in video of me talking to a lovely lady about cigars, you just want to know who won this weeks contest!  I was pretty amazed by the response, especially considering I was pretty vague about what the prize was (and I’m sorry, there will not be a Taboada in the prize pack! I had one and that was it).  What is in the package is a pair of Tortuga LE 2011 torpedoes from Victor Vitale, along with a selection of General Cigar Co. goodies, including some new releases and special cigars that are only available at special events. I also threw in a few favorites from my humidors.  As usual, I’ve consulted with the Random Number Generator at Random.org which has produced the number 15, which corresponds to Christian Logay by my figuring.  Congrats Christian!  Please send me your contact info so I can get this in the mail to you!   Again, thanks to everyone for reading along and making the last 3 years very special for me.

 

That’s it for now!  Have a great Labor Day weekend.

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | July 18, 2012 · 7:20 pm

A La Gloria Cubana, a Brun del Re, a La Palina and a Hoyo de Monterrey Contest Winner!

I think the combination of the outrageously high heat and humidity and the air conditioning being on in the house has wreaked havoc with a couple cigars this week.  I’ve been taking the cigar out of the humidor, getting ready to take it outside, sometimes it hangs out unprotected in the dry air conditioning for 10 minutes or so, then I drag it out into the hot and humid out of doors.  I fail to see how these short periods of time have any effect, but I’ve had a few cigars that seem to smoke “wet”, as if they dried out a little inside, then soaked up a big drink of water upon go

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ing outside!  I know this is unreasonable, but I can’t think of anything else.  Other cigars from the same humidor are fine.  Certainly some tobaccos burn differently at various humidities, or maybe I just got a couple duds!  The first cigar to give me a little trouble was the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros retro tour edition, the one with the Sumatra and Broadleaf, as opposed to the Connecticut and Sumatra configuration that’s in regular production.  I have had a couple of these in the Robusto size and absolutely loved them.  It took some

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work getting the smoke out, having to double and triple draw for the first half to get at that deliciousness.  Once it got to the half way point it started working a little better.  In my experience, this is a terrific smoke, once you hit the broadleaf wrapper those nice, dark flavors really take off.  If you ever get a chance to get to a La Gloria Cubana event and mooch one of these, do it, they are tasty as all get out!

 

Mondays can sometimes be “experimental” cigar days.  I chose a Brun del Re Don Corazza robusto from the couple of cigars left over rom last year’s IPCPR show.  I had smoked this cigar in a 4″ x 60 format and was less than impressed, which is one of the reasons I’ve passed over the robusto in my humidor.   I figured after a year of age I’d give it another shot.  I’m a strong believer in the idea that every cigar is someone’s baby, so this Don Corazza guy must love this cigar.  It smoked pretty well, with a little hint of the “smoking wet” feeling I got with the La Gloria.  I did enjoy the cigar past the band, it burned evenly and had a pleasing flavor.  It may not be something that’s necessarily up my alley, but it’s still a nice smoke.  I think I have a Brun del Re Premium Connecticut floating around someplace that I’ll have to try soon.

 

Tuesday, for some reason, I decided on a La Palina El Diaro Torpedo for my usual walk.  This one had been sitting in my Griffin’s humidor for about six months or so, and it was one of those situations where I thought of that cigar for some reason during the day.  I felt compelled to smoke it and I don’t know why.  I’m glad I did because it was a terrific smoke! This line is one of those that I can’t put a name to any flavors, but I just know I like them and that they are always a high quality smoking e

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xperience.  The construction is spectacular and they are smooth and rich and tasty.  I am so looking forward to the maduro version, you know how much I love the San Andreas maduro wrappers!

 

Contest!

 

It’s time to select a winner for the third week of our Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros contests!  If you haven’t already, make sure you enter Hoyo’s Box-a-Day contest at HoyodeMonterrey.com.  I consulted the random number generator at Random.org once again, and it spit out the number 7.  By my figuring, foozer69 left the 7th comment so he’s the winner!  Send me your contact info so I can send you cigars.  Sunday will be another contest, so you’ll have another chance to win a six-pack of cigars. Many thanks to the fine folks at General Cigar Co. for sponsoring this series of contests!

 

Finally, as long as you’re leaving comments on Sunday (or on this post), do me a favor and tel

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l me what you’d like me to ask manufacturers and brand owners at the IPCPR show.  I’d like to come back with information that you, the readers, want to hear, so I figured it would be easiest to ask!  So let me know!

 

That’s more than enough for today, until Sunday,

CigarCraig

 

 

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