San Andrés | CigarCraig's Blog

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by CigarCraig | May 6, 2018 · 9:59 am

A RoMEo San Andrés, Macanudo Inspirado Red and Cigar Podcasts

A bunch of cigars I smoked this week have already been covered here, so I’ll concentrate on ones that haven’t been. Notable among them were a Camacho Ecuador, a Guardian of the Farm and a Flor de Gonzalez that were all really tasty. Now that I think about it, maybe I didn’t write about the Guardian of the Farm the first time around, I suppose I’ll have to get my hands on more and feature it, it was a really tasty cigar that was refined, complex and had some subtleties. A cigar that was a bit of a polar opposite of that was the new RoMEo San Andrés Toro, which is another collaboration between Altadis and AJ Fernandez. I’ve long struggled to find cigars in Altadis’ range that I like to smoke, with a few exceptions, the cigars they’ve made with AJ Fernandez have fallen into the “like to smoke” category. There have been plenty that I’ve wanted to like, some that I tolerate, but the cigars that have really excited me were those made by AJ (H. Upmann, Montecristo, Gispert and now the RoMEo SA). I do like the Placencia made RoMEo 505 quite a bit, so there are exceptions. The RoMEo San Andrés comes in four sizes, Robusto at 5″ x 50, Toro at 6″x 54, Pirámides at 6-1/8″ x 52 and the Short Magnum at 5½ x 60. Of course the wrapper is Mexican, the binder is Nicaraguan and the fillers are Nicaraguan and Dominican. I’ve been pretty much leaning toward Toros lately, so that’s the size I smoked. I really liked this cigar a lot. It’s got the bold, earthy Mexican tobacco flavors I like, that take me back to when I started on Te-Amo Maduros, and while my tastes have expanded over the years, I still like that “dirty” profile. Next to the H. Upmann by AJ, this might be my favorite Altadis cigar now. Worth a try if you like San Andrés tobacco. Odd side note: one year ago today I smoked an H. Upmann by AJ, and three years ago today I smoked a RoMEo by Romeo y Julieta.

Yesterday I intentionally avoided being cliché and smoking something with Mexican tobacco. The new CAO Zócalo would have been an obvious choice, and I really like that cigar. I decided to take a different journey. As previously reported, I am a big fan of the new Macanudo Inspirado Red, made in Nicaragua at the Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s factory in Esteli (I’ve been past it twice, never visited!). I really liked the Robusto, so I figured I’d try out the Toro and Gigante too. Interestingly, the Robusto is the only box pressed cigar in the line, the Toro and Gigante are round. I have no clue why that is. I smoked the 6″ x 60 Gigante yesterday. This is the blurb from the website about the blend:

This bold, full-bodied offering represents the marriage of rich volcanic soil and profound aging techniques to achieve unmatched strength and refinement. Dressed in Ecuadoran Habano ligero and blended with rare tobaccos including twelve-year aged Nicaraguan Ometepe, ten-year aged Honduran Jamastran and five-year-aged Nicaraguan Esteli, Macanudo Inspirado Red is bound with hearty Nicaraguan Jalapa. Enticing notes of pepper and spice reign, transcending the experience of Central American tobaccos to the point of sublime.

For starters, make sure you set aside a couple of hours to smoke the Gigante, while it’s only 6″ x 60, it burned so slow. I was almost a mile into my walk and hadn’t gotten to the one inch mark, and I think the total smoking time approached two and a half hours. It was ridiculous, making it a very good value, because these aren’t expensive cigars. It was a very enjoyable smoke, it had the richness and great flavors of the Robusto in a little less focused way. I wouldn’t use the term “washed out”, but the cooler burn of the larger ring gauge certainly smoothed out the flavors. I thoroughly enjoyed the smoke and look forward to the Toro. The Inspriado Red is a great cigar to celebrate 50 years of Macanudo.

I’ve been listening to a few new-to-me podcasts lately. I’ve really enjoyed the Boveda Box Pressed and Cigar Snob Magazine‘s podcasts, very informative. A few months ago when I was in New Hampshire for The Cigar Authority‘s 400th show, I met Dave who launched the Cigar Hacks Podcast, in the last few months. The Cigar Hacks features a revolving panel and they do a blind tasting and run down events in the New Hampshire and Massachusetts areas. There is much spontaneous discussion and it can be quite hilarious. I’ve been invited on the show, and I need to make that happen, as there are some areas I can help them out with (like pronouncing words like Aganorsa). It was through this show that I was introduced to The Retrohale Podcast. This show is done by a couple of guys in Colorado, and what I like about it is their tagline: “We don’t review cigars, we smoke cigars and talk about them.” , which pretty much aligns with my own MO here at CigarCraig.com. This one is more entertainment than informative, but it’s akin to hanging out in a cigar shop and talking. There are a lot of cigar podcasts out there, I have my rotation, but try new ones out all the time.

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

CigarCraig

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Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Boveda, cigar, Cigar Hacks, Cigar Snob, cigars, Insprirado, macanudo, podcasts, Red, Retrohale, Romeo, San Andrés

by CigarCraig | April 22, 2018 · 11:12 am

Some San Andrés Wrapped Cigars from Rocky Patel and JRE

I experimented a little this week with posting some news as I received it (or as soon as I was able). I didn’t get any complaints, so I’ll keep doing it when I can. I realize other sites do this and it’s a little redundant. It looks like the traffic numbers were up a bit this week, so I guess it doesn’t hurt. Anyway, I went on a bit of a San Andrés bender this week, with a sprinkling of PA broadleaf in there to change things up a little. I decided to try the Rocky Patel Vintage 2006 San Andreas that was a sample from the IPCPR show last year. I like that the robusto in this line is 5½” x 50 as opposed to the standard 5″ length. I’m not sure what took me so long to get to this one, it has a beautiful dark, oily wrapper, which is from the 2006 crop year. The name of this cigar confuses me. It’s San Andreas, not San Andrés, the latter being the region in Mexico where the leaf is grown. I know it’s a common mistake, one I was guilty of myself early on, maybe there’s another reason it’s marketed this way that’s not obvious? Anyway, this is made at Rocky’s Tabacalera Villa Cuba S.A. factory in Nicaragua, the first of the Vintage line manufactured there. I picked it up because the orange bands and the dark wrapper were close enough to the Flyers orange and black, and the Flyers were playing that night (and suffered a humiliating defeat). I also had been neglecting it since last July, so it was time. Good smoke, perfect construction, and a great experience. If you like the earthy espresso flavors of the San Andrés wrapper, you’ll like this one.

Continuing the San Andrés trend, I went with the Aladino Maduro Elegante from JRE Cigars. I bought a couple each of these and the toros from 2 Guys just before becoming unemployed, at the time (and maybe still?) they were the only ones who had them. the Elegante is the most reasonably priced cigar in the range, oddly, and it’s a lancero. Being a lancero, the flavor is different form the toro, and I don’t think it’s because the Lancero is round and the toro box pressed. I thought it was a little “dirtier” tasting, if that makes sense. The extra heat sharpens the flavors of the already earthy Mexican wrapper. It’s a 7″ x 38 traditional lancero, and the San Andrés wrapper covers Honduran Corojo filler and binder. The profile is coffee heavy, which I like. I still have a couple more Aladino Maduros in the humidor, it’ll be interesting to see how they are in a few months.

As long as I was smoking San Andrés wrapped cigars, I had to smoke an Undercrown Maduro (I don’t remember these being called maduro until the Shade came out, they still were, obviously, but I thought they were just “Undercrown”). Always a good smoke, the Belicoso is basically the toro with a pointy head. I also had a couple of cigars from Southern Draw with PA Broadleaf wrappers, the Jacob’s Ladder and a Quick Draw, both incredible cigars. Speaking of Southern Draw, Robert Holt was on KMA Talk Radio yesterday, and I can’t wait to listen to the show. Also on the same show, CigarProp Kevin was on and I’m sure he mentioned the Kickstarter he just launched for a new item he’s making. In two days he’s halfway to his goal, and the product is a useful item for all of us. It’s a tool specifically to bleed your butane lighter. Although some may argue, there’s always a little bit of non-butane that gets into your lighter when you fill it. Call it air, propellant, whatever, it gets into your lighter and degrades the performance over time. I’ve used a small Philips screwdriver over the years and always worried about damaging the fill valve doing it this way. This tool lets you safely bleed the lighter, just don’t do it near and open flame! It can also empty a lighter if you need to fly with it or mail it, but the primary purpose is to let the air out so there’s more room for gas and your lighter work right for a long time! I’ve been bleeding (or purging) my lighters for years and have a drawer full of working lighters. I use Kevin’s Cigar Props daily, the quality is excellent. Finally, I’m sad to see the unrest in Nicaragua this week. I’ve visited the country twice, and yearn to go back. Hopefully things return to the tranquil place I remember.