I woke up this morning to 8 inches of snow and counting. While it’s pretty to look at, I know it’s going to cause some inconveniences, and lower back pain. I do like the quiet that comes with the early morning snow. OK, enough snow for this Winter, can we move on to Spring? Anyway, i smoked a few cigars that were new to me, and probably most people, this week. I’ll start with the Cert Maith Bruscar from 
Trash Panda/CigarProp/Kevin Shahan. This is slightly different from the original Cert Maith Bruscar, besides the band being different. I’m not sure why he didn’t change the name slightly, as this is the result of the factory (Sinistro via Artista), not having a component of the original blend. It’s available in the 6″ x 52 toro (not listed on the website…get on that Kevin!). I ordered these and knew I was going to be seeing Kevin so I told him to save the shipping (which is free), and just hand them off. If you order these, and I don’t have any skin in the game apart from supporting a friend, do like Kevin says in the description and let the dry out a bit. I gave them a few weeks and dug in. This is a tasty cigar. It has a San Andrés wrapper over super secret, undisclosed fillers. I got some dried fruits and cocoa flavors. Financially, the ten pack is a better deal, these are good cigars. I should smoke one of the originals to compare, I think I have a few around. Good stuff.
I visited with the guys from Los Gallos Cigars at the expo I went to a couple weeks back. Had a nice chat with Christian, one of the owners. It seem that he spent some time living in Honduras and developed some relationships in the cigar industry. I was drawn to the poultry imagery on the bands, and purchased a couple to give a try. I smoked the Los Gallos Noche Negra in the short gordo size. They had Robustos and this 4″ x 60 gordo on hand, and I thought maybe the gordo would be a little longer smoke than the robusto. It turns out I thought wrong. This uses a dark Habano wrapper, and that’s all the website says about the blend. I got a bit of a rootbeer note on this, which I almost never get, and find interesting. It’s almost a spice, along with a leather and cocoa. It’s got more of a bright flavor rather than the darker flavors I would think a maduro cigar would have. I found it to be a fascinating cigar, and wished it had a longer burn time, a 6″ x 54 or 60 would have been perfect. These guys are fairly local, I hope to get a chance to connect with them again sometime soon.
Another cigar I got at the expo was from Osvaldo Morales of OM Cigars. I met Osvaldo at the TPE a few years ago, although he didn’t remember me. It was at one of the hotel bars after hours amongst a collection of my “cigar media” brethren. I think the fact that he didn’t remember me means I didn’t make much of an impression. Anyway, I had a bit of a preconceived notion about this brand based on my initial interactions. I smoked the OM 5th Anniversary Edition, a 6″ x 60 with a slight box press. This is made at El Galan in the Dominican Republic. this cigar has a Habano 2000 wrapper, Corojo 2012 binder and fillers from Pueblo Nuevo, Condega, Estelí Nicaragua. Five years in the cigar industry is halfway to overnight sensation, to be honest, I don’t know how old this cigar was, maybe OM is older than that, must be since it was the 2020 TPE where I met Osvaldo. This cigar surprised me. It was absolutely delicious, with some dry cocoa, and that root beer flavor I got in the Los Gallos. I have been indulging in the occasional root beer barrel candy here and there, but hadn’t had any inthe few days prior. Perhaps the flavor memory is there, do they call that recency bias or something? Anyway, I really enjoyed this cigar, burn and draw were great and the flavors kept me interested to the end.
Check out the discount codes in the right sidebar, there’s one for Panacea and one for Bariay 1492 Cigars. Both have great offerings, give them a try! That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
