Tag Archives: sangre de toro

Some Thoughts on Taste and A Tortuga 1950

My wife and I took the train into Philly yesterday to go to the Reading Terminal Market.  We have both lived in this area pretty much our whole lives, and had never been there.  This is a huge, indoor farmers market with produce, meats, fish, ethnic food, just about everything one would want.  One of the first stalls we came across was a candy counter.  I’m a nut for black licorice, so I purchased a mixed bag of “salty” licorice.  I had never had salty licorice and was curious.  Some of it wasn’t bad, some of it had a distinct ammonia flavor, which I can’t say that I enjoyed, I mean….who would?    It seems that this is a common treat in Nordic countries and Northern Germany, and is flavored with ammonium chloride, which explains the ammonia flavor I got.  This all got me to thinking of the way everyone’s tastes are different and how that translates to cigars.  This is no great revelation, we all know that we have different tastes, that’s one of the things that makes life interesting, but it reinforced the point to me when I thought ” who in thier right mind would enjoy this flavor?”  It seems that somebody does, and the same is true with cigars.  I’ve smoked some cigars that I consider to be vile, nasty tasting cigars that I can’t imagine anyone would want to smoke.  Obviously, the guy who makes the cigar likes it, and, let’s face it, considering all of the work that goes into making a cigar, who’s going to waste all that time and energy making a crappy cigar?  I know that as someone who apparently has a voice in the industry, it’s my responsibility when I talk about a cigar, to not denigrate a cigar just because it isn’t to my taste, and to allow for the myriad of variables in construction and storage that could cause a less than ideal cigar experience.  That same candy counter did have some chocolate cigars!  I passed since I can get a real cigar for the same price and have an hour or so of pleasure instead of the few minutes the candy variety would give me.  This bag of unusual licorice will last me a lot longer than a similar bag of sweet licorice would, as I can’t stop eating it once I start.   It’s one of my many failings…

 

Upon my return, I selected a Tortuga 1950 torpedo for an afternoon smoke.  This lovely dark cigar was sent to me by Victor Vitale, cigar maker, importer & distributor, along with a 1948 Connecticut and an Edicion Limitada 2011 in the same vitola.  There isn’t a lot of specifics on the website, but I assume that this is made in Nicaragua, based upon the “America Central” on the band.  According to information that I received with the samples, the cigar has a Mexican broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan,  Honduran and organic grown wild “jungle” filler leaf exclusive to this cigar.  The wrapper on this is beautiful, deep, dark brown, like dark chocolate, and the seems were virtually invisible and the veins were very fine.  The flavors appealed to me quite a bit.  They were dark and decadent, lush and satisfying.  There was an underlying flavor that intrigued me that I can’t put a finger on.  It was different from many maduros that I like, but really kept my attention down to a finger burning nub.  I’m really looking forward to the  other two in this line now, as this was a terrific smoke.  Besides the lack of details on the make-up of this cigar on the website, they also do not list a torpedo, so your mileage may vary when shopping for these.  Certainly a cigar I’d like to smoke more of. The Short at 4½” x 44 looks like a great winter cigar walk size.  I’ve been underwhelmed with Victor’s other cigars, but that’s just me, and, as I said above, taste is a subjective thing and no two palates ate the same.

 

I smoked some other cigars this week, notably a Macanudo 1968, a J.  Fuego Sangre de Toro Original, and a Gurkha Seduction.  All cigars I’d talked about before, and the only thing that bears repeating is how much I like the Gurkha Seduction.  I’ve been seeing a ton of reviews on this brick and mortar exclusive cigar.  I think Mike at MikesStogies.com is currently having a contest featuring these cigars, so check out his review.  I’ll feature these in a contest at a later date assuming I can keep my grubby little mitts off of them long enough!  I also noticed that the Seduction is Doc Stogiefresh‘s cigar of the week for his podcast episode 303.  Also of note was a La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros with Sumatra and Broadleaf that I got from my visit to Famous Smoke Shop.  Delicious cigar, if you have an opportunity to go to a La Gloria Cubana Retro event and meet Michael Giannini you will be in for a double treat as these cigars are special and Michael is a heck of a guy!

 

One last thing:  Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the site.  I’ve had some feedback that there are still some glitches and some operating systems or browsers, or some connections speeds still have problems.  I want everyone to be able to see the site the way I do, so please let me know if there’s a problem or complaint.

 

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

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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The J. Fuego Originals and Citizens for Tobacco Rights

I realize that I’ve gotten everyone used to morning posts, but it’s back to work and back to writing when I can.  I have to admit, I’m experiencing some writer’s block at the moment, so bear with me please.  It’s gotten bitterly cold here in south-east, Pennsylvania, which is not awfully conducive to the proper enjoyment of a cigar.  My normal routine is to take a walk, which usually keeps me moving enough to enjoy a small cigar, as it turns out, the rigors of returning to work after a week plus off has left me without the energy to bother.  That’s my excuse, I’m sticking to it.

 

Monday I received a call from my brother-in-law, Jeff, who has recently taken to fine cigars.  He’s been picking one up at his local shop in New Jersey, and called me from my local shop while visiting for the holidays.  He wanted some inexpensive “everyday” cigars, and wanted my advice.  Oddly, on my last visit to the shop the previous Friday, I failed to really take a good look through the humidor.  I was able to direct him to the National Brand bundles, which happened to be in the same place I remembered thme being. Since he really enjoyed the Acid Kuba Kuba I gave him, and had been enjoying working his way through the Alec Bradley range, I figured they’d be a good bet.  I’ve certainly enjoyed my fair share of National Brand maduros, and I hope he likes them too.  Naturally, since he was in the area, I invited him over for a smoke.  I had picked up a pack of the Jesus Fuego Sangre de Toro Originals while I was at the shop Friday.  I had been offered a sample at the IPCPR show by Jesus, but I never managed to get one for one reason or another.  I had enjoyed the heck out of the robusto in this blend, so I figured for $12.95 for five cigars I had to try them.  I’ll eventually try the other two blends in this size as it seems to be a very good “winter” size.  I really enjoyed the cigar.  Great flavor, the mold-less old style shape is fun and burned well, and I can’t wait to smoke another one.  That may be my equivalent to a “10” or whatever rating scale one uses.  Very good smokes.  I gave Jeff a Maria Mancini Magic Mountain to try which he enjoyed.  That’s a hard cigar to beat and they can be purchased for around $2.50 a piece if you find yourself in a JR store.

Editorial

In the “Editorial” department, I wanted to encourage everyone to sign up at Citizens for Tobacco Rights, which is sponsored by Philip Morris USA. Now, I understand that this site is not cigar specific, and is provided by a cigarette company, but the challenges we face as cigar smokers certainly run parallel to those of our other tobacco product using brethren.  So far I’ve received no unwanted e-mail from them, and found no reason not to add my name to their numbers. Registration is free and they provide many of the same tools as Cigar Rights of America and IPCPR for contacting your elected officials. It can’t hurt to take every opportunity we have to have our voices heard as our rights are being eroded. Please write to your senator and congressman about the FDA issue too, there’s a link in my sidebar to enter your zip code and take you to a pre-writen letter you can send.  It really will be a problem if the FDA is allowed to regulate cigars.  Our hobby and passion will be ruined at best, and criminalized at worst.

 

I guess I did OK considering I had no clue what I was going to write about. Please let me know what you think in the comments, and feel free to share your smoking experiences as well!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

 

 

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End Of The Week Cigars and News: Alec Bradley, J.Fuego, Best Cigar Prices and Irene

After a long day, and getting a late start on my evening smoke, I selected the Alec Bradley Family Blend D3 (4½” x 58) that I purchased on my Father’s Day Cigar ride. It is a beautiful cigar, short and fat, with a fanned little pigtail not unlike a Liga Privada Unicos Dirty Rat. That’s where the similarities end. This cigar had a unique flavor, not one I usually find in a cigar, which really made me happy. Was it a, dare I say, fruity flavor? I was talking about this with my wife and she asked if it was like sex in your mouth, which I didn’t quite understand and decided that no, it was not like that at all! What does that even mean? Whatever it was it was quite refreshing and a cigar I look forward to re-visiting the line.

 

News

In the news, it looks like another major internet retailer is moving to Pennsylvania. BestCigarPrices.com announced that it was relocating from New York State to North-eastern PA this week. Since PA is friendly toward tobacco products tax-wise, and New York state isn’t, this move doesn’t surprise me. It also gives us another business to fight any future proposed taxes on cigars and other tobacco products (OTP) as they are proposed, and they are pretty regularly. I think this brings us to five of the larger internet cigar retailers that are headquartered in PA. Now, if one would just move to my area…

 

Saturday evening had us waiting for the arrival of Hurricane Irene. We are about an hour west of Philadelphia, and aren’t expecting a direct hit. Certainly we are in far less danger than many in the path of this large storm, but our town has a creek running through it that is prone to flooding. We are on high ground, but it’s possible that the roads leading to our neighborhood will be impassable at some point. I am hopeful that the trees behind us stay put and everything clears out tomorrow. Obviously, our thoughts are with those directly effected by this storm. Anyway, I took a Jesus Fuego Sangre de Toro Robusto out on the front porch for my evening smoke. This was a sample from the IPCPR show, given to me by Jesus Fuego himself, who may be the most under rated manufacturer in the business. I’ve enjoyed his 777 line quite a bit, in the maduro and corojo wrappers, although I’ve been mixed on the Xikar HC line that he makes as well. This Sangre de Toro was a really nice cigar. It was solidly medium to me, and had some very pleasant flavors. Again, it was a refreshing cigar, rich and a little spicey, and burned perfectly. I finished it just as the wind was beginning to blow the rain on the front porch.

 

Here is a little video of Jesus Fuego telling me about the Sangre de Toro as well as his other lines:

I should have included this warning when I first started posting videos, but remember to turn your volume down after watching so you don’t blow your speakers the next time you get an e-mail!

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

CigarCraig

 

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