Tag Archives: La Zona

March 17, 2024 · 10:33 am

Knuckle Sandwich, Julius Caeser, Postanie and Aganorsa Cigars

I smoked a good variety of cigars this week, the next couple weeks will probably be featuring some retailer exclusive cigars, so I figured I’d mix it up. I had picked up the Knuckle Sandwich 56 Maduro on a recent visit to the Wooden Indian, it was on the high side of what I like to spend, but I wanted to try it. This cigar is made by Espinosa, at the A.J.Fernandez’ San Lotano factory, for Guy Fieri’s 56th birthday. Obviously, it has a 56 ring gauge, and looks to be made using the San Lotano Oval molds. I like a 6″ x 56, and I liked the Oval shape. It has a San Andrés wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. Can anyone tell me why the word “Sandwich” sounds like “Sangwich” when persons of Cuban descent say it? I went through a phase of smoking cigars with the ring gauge of my age for a while, now that I’m 60 I’m over that. I loved this cigar, which is a shame because it’s limited and expensive. It started with a nice spice over cocoa, and mellowed into a chocolaty treat, with a hint of the spice. I dug it, even though when I met Guy at the PCA show a few years ago he really could have cared less and my request for Erik Espinosa to get in the picture with us was ignored. I don’t get starstruck and fawn over celebs, some of them don’t like that. Anyway, I don’t regret the purchase at all, it wa sa really good smoke, probably the best I had all week. It was my Pi Day treat.

We are in the midst of a string of March holidays, so on Friday I was compelled to smoke a Diamond Crown Julius Caeser Toro. We all know that March 15 marks the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. We know the exact date because he invented the calendar we use. He instituted that just a year before his death. Anyway, he was a heck of an Emperor, but I guess his friends thought he was a dick, so they stabbed him. I may be oversimplifying things a little. A few millennia later some Hungarian folks named their son after him, and US immigration screwed up the spelling on his paperwork and Julius Caeser Newman started a cigar company that makes some great cigars. The Diamond Crown Julius Caeser is made at Tabacalera A. Fuente, has an Ecuador Havana wrapper, Dominican binder and Caribbean and Central American fillers. They could just say Dominican, Nicaraguan and/or Honduran fillers, but they can be vague if they want. I enjoy Diamond Crown cigars, from the mild Diamond Crown, to the bolder Maximus and Black Diamond, and this falls in between. I find the flavor to be largely sweet wood, which is a nice change of pace for me. I like this cigar a lot, I remember smoking one of these a long time ago with a shop owner who has since passed, before a big celebrity cigar launch dinner. It didn’t give me any stabbing back pain either.

Saturday ended up being a Connecticut Shade day, which isn’t normal for me, but I had a couple shade cigars I hadn’t smoked yet, so I figured I’d give them a go. The first one I have smoked, but there’s a new size launching at the PCA show that I had a chance to smoke. It was the Powstanie Connecticut Justice, a 5½ x 46 Corona Gorda which Mike Szczepankiewicz blended nine years ago for the birth of his son. This is made at the Nica Sueño factory like the rest of the Powstanie cigars. I really like the Robusto that Mitch shared with me late last year. This shape seemed different, it didn’t have the character that the larger ring had, although I still found it to be exceptional. This was a really good shade cigar with some body, which I think must come from the PA Broadleaf binder in large part. For someone who doesn’t gravitate to shade wrapped cigars, this is a really good one, and worth a shot, but I don’t even think it’s due to be released until next month, some additional age won’t hurt this one. If you come across any Postanie cigars, try them, they are all really quite good.

Finally, I smoked an Aganorsa La Validacion Connecticut Robusto that I got at the Wooden Indian a few weeks ago when Fabien and Mike King were there doing an event. Aganorsa is a brand I struggle to find a favorite in. There’s a few I like, and some I don’t, and I can’t seem to remember which is what. So I buy them and smoke them and enjoy them or not and start the cycle over again. I don’t care for Criollo ’99 too much, so that probably has something to do with it. I think this series is one I like, and I definitely liked this Connecticut. It was medium bodied, nutty with some wood and spice and really a nice cigar. I’m going to remember that I really like the La Validacion line (I just went back and checked and I did like the Maduro and Corojo!).

Today is Green Cigar Day, or as some call it, St. Patrick’s Day, so pick out a nice Candela and drive the snakes out of your country! Why have none of these companies made a Candela Culebra in honor of St. Patrick driving the snakes from Ireland? Because it would suck and it wouldn’t sell, that’s why. I’ll suggest it to Saka. I mentioned him making a Candela Lancero on my last Podcast episode with him and he poopoo’d it, now he’s making a lancero box featuring the candela. I’d write more today but I used a lot of letters on Mike Szczepankiewicz name. Anyway, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 56, Aganorsa, Aganorsa Leaf, cigar, cigars, Diamond Crown, Espinosa, Guy Fieri, Julius Caeser, Justice, Knuckle Sandwich, La Validacion, La Zona, Powstanie

January 9, 2022 · 10:35 am

Stolen Throne War Council and Sensei’s Sensational Sarsparilla Cigars

It was implied in my last post that the Stolen Throne Three Kingdoms was among my favorite cigars of the last year, and honestly it was right there at the top. I keep going back for more of this cigar, there’s a sweet flavor that I haven’t been able to put a name to, and it wasn’t until I smoked the War Council yesterday that I think I finally am able to label that flavor. A little bit about the War Council cigar: it’s a 6″ x 46 corona extra, not a skinny toro, or whatever the site that sold them called it. Silliness. They made something like just under 1900 of these, and I was gifted one of these by Kevin and JR of Stolen Throne when I met them a few weeks ago. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, undisclosed binder and Nicaraguan and undisclosed or Honduran (sources vary), fillers. Best I can tell it contains tobacco, that’s a safe bet. It’s very good tobacco. I’d be remiss if I failed to mention that this cigar was the cigar of the year for 2021 at Kaplowitz Media, after smoking it, I don’t find that at all curious. Going back to my tasting notes, I thought it had loads of the same sweet flavor that I love in the Three Kingdoms, which I’m now going to recognize as “sugar cane”. Since my palate is less refined than most, that sweetness carried throughout the cigar for me, and was dominant, and I loved it. I find the Three Kingdoms more balanced for my palate, which is fine, it’s obviously in greater supply, but the War Council was definitely a treat! I love smoking special cigars, but I don’t like falling in love with them! Thanks guys fr the opportunity, and I learned something from it!

I made a little exception to my own rule with this next cigar, although I suppose it’s not the first time. I generally let other media entities promote their own wares, unless there’s some reciprocity. This particular cigar is now in general distribution, so I’m giving it a pass. as the post title implies, the cigar in question is the Sensei’s Sensational Sarsaparilla, which is part of the Espinosa portfolio. I picked up one of these to sample at an Espinosa event at Son’s a few weeks ago. This originated with the Cigar Dojo, who has done an amazing job with coming out with their own cigars in small batches. This is the maybe the third one that has “made it”, following Drew Estate’s Dogmas in Maduro and Sungrown. It’s pretty impressive, the only other cigar that I can think of that’s similar is DE’s BOTL (RIP TP)

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, which, while is a great cigar, hasn’t seen the success. It’s a 5½” x 52 Belicoso, with a San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and fillers from Condega and Estelí. Reading the blend, this cigar doesn’t taste anything like it should. I expected dark, cocoa/ coffee, and I got an almost saccharine sweetness. It was more of the sweetness, maybe the Sarsaparilla thing got in my head, but I got the sweet flavor through the cigar. Not that it was a bad thing, it was just not what I expected. It was another good cigar from La Zona, and a lot of my favorite cigars are/were made at La Zona (for other peo

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ple, ie: La Sirena, the former Cornelius and Anthony and Arandoza).

That’s all for today. The new e-mail alert system should work on this post! I’ve been working on it for a week and hopefully I’ve just about got things ironed out. When it works like I think it will I’ll kill the Feedburner e-mails so everyone doesn’t get two! Fingers crossed again, thanks for your patience, and there’s two of you who may have gotten both e-mails last week! until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Espinosa, La Zona, Sensei's Sensational Sarsaparilla, Stolen Throne, War Council

January 5, 2020 · 11:24 am

Happy New Year Cigars, a Cornelius and Anthony, and a Warzone

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone stayed safe and enjoyed whatever celebration you chose to partake in. I enjoyed a 5 year old Padrón 1964 Anniversary Exclusivo Natural which was magnificent. It was from a box which was a gift from Padrón from my first magazine article which featured them in Prime

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Living Magazine in 2014, signed by the senior señor Padrón. I’ve heard people say that Padróns don’t age well, but I beg to differ. This cigar smoked just fine. Perhaps it’s because it’s the natural wrapper variety, I’m not sure. I love the Maduros, but these Naturals have been fantastic cigars, and I’ve been savoring them because it’s a special box, ya know? One of these days I’ll get around to trying a 1926 or one of the other anniversary cigars, but the 1964s are so good, and not outrageously priced, how can one go wrong? I was in bed early, but neighborhood fireworks upset the dog.

I went looking for an interesting New Years Day smoke, something to smoke between watching the Mummers Parade, and the NHL Winter Classic. I remembered that I had a couple of Montecristo Le Cigares des Artes 2000 Millennium Edition that had been gifted by a great friend probably 18 or 19 years ago. These originally came in a really neat box with artwork by Michael Delacroix. You still see the Delacroix art in Montecristo branded lounges, so now you know it goes back 20 years. I little useless trivia fr you. Anyway, this was a Churchill sized cigar of Dominican descent, which caused me some concern about how this might have held up over the last 20 years. I chose the one with the broken tube, I don’t know how it broke, it’s been moved around from humidor to humidor over the years, I’m not a fan of glass tubes for this reason. I’m far too careless for fragile things that are meant to protect fragile things. There’s a reason egg cartons aren’t made out of glass. Oddly, the cigar had some white spots on it, mold or plume, hard to say. I’d have said it was mold but it seemed unlikely, it dusted right off, and there was no intrusion into the foot. If it was plume, it was the blotchiest plume

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I’ve seen. Regardless, it had no bearing on the smoking experience, however, I would not have bought a cigar that looked like it looked. The cigar started off very mild, as expected, but it built up in flavor as time went on

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and ended up being a very enjoyable and flavorful cigar. It had the delicate sophistication of a well aged cigar. I’ve smoked plenty of old cigars before, and this was one of the better ones. It held up well. I have smoke a Padrón Millenium in the past few years and it has also held up, but it wasn’t as impactful as it was when it was younger, and, not having smoked the Montecristo in it’s youth, I have nothing to compare it to. I would say that if you have these, smoke one! Why not? It’s fun to smoke a well aged cigar now and then. I still have a Cuban Romeo y Julietta from 1977 someplace that I’ll smoke one day.

I followed up the old Montecristo with a favorite flavor-bomb, the Cornelius and Anthony Señor Esugars Toro. This was made at La Zona by Espinosa. I have asked Steven Bailey directly about the future of Cornelius and Anthony and gotten no response. I’ve talked to high level sources at both factories that made his cigars and pretty much confirmed that he is out of the premium cigar business. Unless the brand is bought by someone, and, considering the history and branding were so intimately tied to the Bailey family I don’t see it happening, I fear the brand is dead. It’s a shame. Cornelius and Señor Esugars toros have been two of my favorite cigars over the past 3 years. The Gent, Venganza and Meridian are really good cigars. Daddy Mac never really did it for me, and the Mistress is the only cigar that ever made me barf. I hope that Espinosa recycles the blends and someone lets me know what the Señor Esugars blend becomes, because I absolutely love that cigar! Now I have to ration out the last box I have, as well as the Cornelius Toros and handful of Lonsdales! Adios Cornelius and Anthony! We saw the writing on the wall…stock up while you can.

On to a newer cigar! This week I stopped in to CigarCigars in Downingtown, PA to see Kevin, the manager there. Kevin asked me if I knew anything about the CigarMedics Humidimeter, and, whattayknow, I do happen to know about it! I went over to demonstrate it to him. We talked about the relative merits of the Humidimeter, I shared my experiences and knowledge, and he felt like he could find some good uses for it in the shop and ordered one. This was on a Thursday evening, and he received it the next day! Talk about great service. If you look in the right hand sidebar on this site, you’ll notice that there is now an ad there for CigarMedics, so if you find that you’d like more information, or want to get one for yourself, there’s a quick and easy way to get there! Welcome CigarMedics to the CigarCraig family! Like I said, I went to CigarCigars, and I picked up a couple cigars I hadn’t smoked before. One of them was the Warzone, the collaboration between Espinosa and General Cigar Co. I got the 5½” x 52 Robusto. This is made at the La Zona factory with a Cameroon wrapper from General Cigar (who has used amazing Cameroon wrapper on cigars for years, Partagas come immediately to mind), and it being distributed by General. I’ve been anxious to try this cigar, I’m a fan of Cameroon, a lot of the La Zona (see above), and a lot of General, so this

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cigar had a lot going for it out of the gate. I was encouraged by the Humidimeter readings off the shelf, Kevin does a good job keeping the stock in the store right. It’s a humidified store, no small feat. The Warzone was much as I expected, nutty “Camerooniness”, medium bodied, smooth and delicious. I have another that I’m looking forward to smoking (thank you Kevin!) and really concentrating on, I was busy talking and in a store, one can’t completely concentrate on a cigar that way. I picked up a couple of Black Label Trading Company Morphines while I was there too, a great corona gorda (I smoked one last night, great flavor, the draw got snug, I noticed a gob of tar on the head. Fortunately it didn’t touch my lips or tongue. I wiped it off and the draw opened up! I hate that liquid tar build up. if it hits your mouth you’re done!). The also have some of the Dunbarton Tobacco And Trust line there.

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

CigarCraig