Tag Archives: Sindicato

by CigarCraig | May 21, 2014 · 9:21 pm

A Sindicato, a Dunhill, a Debonaire and a Cigar Contest

I finally got around to putting some contest goodies together. Some of the cigars were some spare samples, and some were ones I bought and enjoy quite a bit. More on that at the end of the post, maybe folks will read to the end, some may scroll down. If you scroll down, you might miss reading about some of the cigars I’ve smoked so far this week.

Monday evening I picked out a new cigar from Sindicato Cigars. These guys are a little different than other manufactures. Jim Colucci is the president of the company, and he comes from many years at the helm of Altadis, probably the largest cigar company on the planet. The company is made up of a bunch of retailers across the country, so they have a unique perspective of what sells in tobacco shops and what consumers want. Last year they came out with the Hex and Affinity, along with the very inexpensive Casa Bella. I’ve smoked all three and they are very nice smokes. This latest offering, the Sindicato, is at the high end of the price range, running from $10.95 to $13.95 and are made by the folks at Casa Fernandez with Aganorsa tobacco. I smoked the Corona Gorda, a 5½” x 48 cigar with a nice pigtail and partially closed foot. I really enjoyed this cigar, it was lush and meaty and loaded with delicious tobacco flavor. It burned perfectly and was a very satisfying smoke. Thanks to Yoffy for sending these along.

Tuesday I selected another new cigar, this one from General Cigar Co. This is the Dunhill 1907 Box Pressed Toro, measuring 6″ x 54 with a Honduran Olancho wrapper. The wrapper is wrapper mottled, not at all what I expected from a Dunhill, as they are generally beautiful cigars. The rest of the cigar is Dominican and Brazilian Mata Fina. It was a nice smoke, although I think a few more months in the humidor will benefit it. I received two, so I’ll revisit it in a few months. It was medium bodied, and had a nice flavor, reminiscent of the CAO OSA Sol, which has a similar wrapper (although I think the OSA Sol’s wrapper was prettier). It had similar bright tobacco sweetness that I enjoy from time to time. This was a nice smoke, I look forward to smoking it again after a long rest in the humidor.

Tonight I smoked a Debonaire Sagita petite lancero. The reason I grabbed this one is a little less than debonair, I’m afraid. Phil Zanghi is the man behind the brand. He developed the Indian Tabac line back in the ’90s and sold it to Rocky Patel. I’ve heard him on at least two podcasts describe this cigar as a 5½ x 48, which I knew was wrong. It’s a 38 ring gauge (I measured it), although I would have loved this in a corona gorda size. This is an ultra premium cigar, it even states it on the band. Another feature of the band was on the inside, where it has the box date, which was July of 2013 (this was an IPCPR show sample). The blend isn’t listed specifically, but they use high priming, excellent quality tobaccos, and are rolled with great care. The cigar was exceptional, it was meaty, like prime rib, and burned perfectly. It had a nice little pigtail cap too. I put a very small nub in the ashtray when I was done. I would almost say this would be worth the nearly $10 price tag, if I wasn’t such a cheap SOB. Worth trying if you have the opportunity.

Contest

OK, it’s been over 5 months since I had a contest. Sorry about that, but after the December contests I guess I got a little burned out. So here is the prize.

There are 15 cigars, including some special cigars from La Sirena (including a Merlion Sea Lion and a La Sirena Dubloon, which are very limited), a couple Alec Bradleys, a couple of the New Partagas 1845 offerings, and some of the house brands from Best Cigar Prices. There’s a few other cigars in there that I enjoy too. Also a CAO cap (had to include a CAO concert to go with along with it), a Nomad S-307 and a Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings Vanadium from the box I bought a few months ago. There’s a nice La Gloria Cubana tube too (now I have to find a La Gloria to throw in). A little something for everyone, I can’t imagine anyone complaining. So leave a comment to enter. Feel free to Tweet and share, but only the comments on this post will count. Good luck, and I’ll select a winner on Sunday!

That’s it, until the next time,

CigarCraig

47 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Best Cigar Prices, CAO, cigar, cigars, Contest, Debonaire, Dunhill, general cigars, La Sirena, Sindicato

by CigarCraig | April 9, 2014 · 9:20 pm

A Hex From Sindicato and an Ora Vivo from Legacy Brands

It seems like only yesterday I was posting about smoking that enormous 7” x 70 Asylum 13 Ogre, and here it is Wednesday already and I find myself with little to report! Yesterday I revisited the Hex from Sindicato Cigars in the Figurado (5¼” x52) size. Honestly, I wasn’t certain what I wanted to smoke, and this was on the top of the humidor and I grabbed it and lit it up. This is from a batch I bought on National Hex Day back in January. These are made at the Ortez factory in Condega, Nicaragua, and use a dark, almost maduro, Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. What they ended up with was a really sweet, rich smoke that is very satisfying. When I smoked this on Hex Day the example I smoked was on the wet side, and wasn’t the best representation of the blend. After some humidor time, it was a really tasty, well behaved smoke. The perfecto shape and the curly-cue pigtail cap are visually appealing details. I like these, and I look forward to trying their new eponymous line (called Sindicato) in the near future.

Tonight I selected an Ora Vivo 5 x 54 that I got at the Ora Vivo dinner I attended last fall in New Jersey (story here). I only have one or two left, and I would have had a box of them, but at the event they were only taking cash and I came woefully unprepared. Helpful hint for those hosting cigar events where cigars are for sale, if you can’t accept credit cards remotely, please let people know before hand that you are only taking cash so we can be prepared! Anyway, I’ve smoked several of these cigars and find them to be exceptional cigars. These are made in Honduras by Victor Vitale’s Legacy Brands, but are Nicaraguan puros. This certainly isn’t a powerful cigar, it’s refined, smooth and well balanced. This is a cigar that’s on a par with the best out there. It’s not an inexpensive cigar, I think I paid $9 for one when I bought one on my New Hampshire trip last fall. It’s a cigar that’s not heavy on the palate, you could, theoretically, smoke these one after the other. One of the reasons I had this cigar on my mind was that Armand Assante was a guest on The Cigar Authority last Saturday. If you have a podcast habit, like I do, give it a listen.

Getting a late post out on Sunday and skipping my evening cigar on Monday for various reasons makes for a short installment tonight, my apologies. I’ll endeavor to do better in the future. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

2 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Hex, Ora Vivo Armand Assante, Sindicato, Victor Vitale

by CigarCraig | February 16, 2014 · 10:29 am

Recluse Draconian, Sindicato Hex, La Sirena and Toraño Cigars

Well, winter just keeps getting better and better! Thursday we had a Nor’easter here in PA, which dumped a bunch of snow, sleet, rain, then rain and more snow. Fortunately, my day job closed for the day to allow me the luxury of shoveling the driveway. The snow was heavy and deep and I still hurt. I rewarded myself for a job well done with a lovely Recluse Draconian Sidewinder No. 2, which is one of their proprietary vitolas. The unique feature of this vitola is that you don’t need a cutter, it’s constructed in such a way a squeeze to the head splits the cap and you can peel away the cap and have a perfect draw. Here’s the video from he IPCPR show where J.R. Dominguez shows us how this works:

httpv://youtu.be/TLBHP-pW6x8

The cigar is a 6″x 57 and box pressed. Like all of the cigars from Iconic Leaf, these are rolled in the entubado method. The wrapper is a dark and oily Ecuador maduro. I sat in the garage watching fhe various precipitation and fully enjoyed this rich and flavorful smoke. It had the dark, sweet flavors I love getting. This is a truly delicious cigar, my only complaint is that it burned fairly quick. I would have liked to have smoked this for another thirty minutes. I give this 3 Ds….dark, deep and delicious!

Later in the day I took the dog for a walk with a Sindicato Hex Figurado. There’s a lot to like about these cigars. This is another rich, dark smoke that has a lot going on. I dig the shape, it’s got a bun-shaped pigtail cap and a classic taper on either end. With this cigar it’s also possible to open the head up without a cutter, just by popping the little bun off, but I used the cigar scissors to get a larger opening. If I remember correctly, these are made at the Ortez factory in Condega, Nicaragua and the dark Ecuador Habano wrapper is quite tasty. These are quickly becoming a go-to smoke for me. It’s a little rustic looking, but still a fun size and shape, and the flavor delivers for me.

Friday I selected a new inmate in my cigar asylum, a La Sirena Trident. I don’t smoke a lot of Churchill sized cigars, but I got a box of these last week. Certainly, I smoke more larger format cigars in the warmer months, but I had to sample one of these and it wasn’t that cold out for a change (might have been in the 20s!). This cigar is made at the My Father factory in Esteli and features a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper. I can see that I’m goung to have to pace myself with these, as I think they will age beautifully. They are not without some strength, and is another cigar with those deep, dark flavors I like, with some nice sweetness. I got a good hour and a half or more out of this cigar, I can’t wait to fire one of these up in the pool on a nice hot day! The thing I like best about the Trident size is that the beautiful band looks more properly proportioned on the longer cigar! The band is a work of art, but it overwhelms the robusto. Putting the very simple slim band underneath this great band is genius, because the band almost has to come off before smoking.

Guess what happened yesterday? If friggin snowed again! All day, but it didn’t accumulate much on the driveway, which saved my sore muscles a bit. I grabbed the leash and a Toraño Master toro from the 90+ rated sampler Jack Toraño sent me over a year ago and took the dog out for a walk. This cigar is a smooth, well balanced, medium bodied cigar. The wrapper is a perfect looking Ecuador Habano, I have to get my hands on the Master maduro one of these days, that looks really tasty. They offer this cigar in a 6″x60 size they call the BFC. Don’t make the mistake I made and assume that the initials stand for something other than “big fat cigar”. I’m embarrassed that my first thought was something less polite. Charlie Toraño is far to much of a gentleman to name a cigar something so undignified (Jack might 🙂 ). At the 2012 IPCPR show in Orlando they featured a LFC size, which was a 4½”x60. They offered this in several blends and it doesn’t appear that it caught on based on the fact that I don’t see them on the website, nor have I ever seen them anywhere but at the show that year. I liked the Loyal I smoked in that format, and wouldn’t mind smoking some of the Exodus blends in this shape. I admit to being a fan of the little fat cigars.

I have to tell you, I appreciate spending my weekend mornings watching Olympic Hockey. I get annoyed with weekend afternoon games as I like to think I have better things to do than watch TV. Getting my hockey fix out of the way before 10 AM works out better for me. Too bad it’s only every four years!

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

CigarCraig

5 Comments

Filed under Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Draconian, Hex, La Sirena, Recluse, Sindicato, Toraño

by CigarCraig | January 19, 2014 · 11:55 am

An Azan White, A Toraño Exodus 50th Cigar and I Got Hex’d!

It’s been a busy time in the cigar industry, it seems. Press releases are flying everywhere, and, although I’m not the guy who has the ability, or the inclination, to post them upon arrival, they did inspire some of my cigar selections this week! There are several sites I can count on posting a press release shortly after I receive the e-mailed version, and I think that’s great! I just feel like it would be redundant for me to post it a few days later and I try to keep my content just a little different from everyone else. That being said, I’m all about promoting the premium cigar industry, so I’ll endeavor to smoke a cigar from a company in the news and link to the relevant press release on one of my esteemed colleagues sites. Everyone (with some exceptions) loves links, so hopefully this is a winning solution. Enough of my editorial views, I smoked some cigars this week!

Thursday evening I selected my last IPCPR sample from Roberto Duran Cigars, an Azan White Robusto. I had enjoyed the Campaña a while back (here with some back story) and really enjoyed it. I’m sure glad that I accidentally came by samples at the show, because this is a dynamite cigar. It’s flavor is smooth and rich and it’s what I look for in a premium cigar. The construction is also perfect. I have it on good authority that they are coming out with a Corojo Maduro next, which sounds really interesting. This 4 7/8 x 50 robusto has an Ecuador Corojo wrapper and perhaps it’s the Brazilian Mata Fina in the filler (along with leaf from Jalapa and Esteli) that give it that little something extra that I like. This is a really nice, refined cigar that would be smokable just about any time of the day. Another cigar with a “very nice” rating. The press release I mentioned above can be found posted at Cigar Federation here.

Friday I cracked open a Toraño 90+ Rated Sampler I received last year from Jack Toraño. As I am prone to do, I started with the maduro offering, the 93 rated Toraño Exodus 1959 50 Years Toro. This is also the highest rated out of the bunch. Aesthetically, this is a beautiful dark, oily cigar and I really like how the copper colored band looks against the wrapper. Very pretty. This is a rich, smooth maduro that is another “very nice” cigar. Burn and draw were spot on and it gave me about an hour and a half of smoking enjoyment. I’ll continue to smoke through this sampler and report in on the rest of the blends represented, it’s nice to know that this can be purchased for under $25 at a lot of outlets (BCP has them here, shilling for one of my advertisers!). Toraño announced last week their “Blends From the Vault” tour beginning in February. TheCigarNut.com is one place you can find the press release about the tour. I was actually having a discussion yesterday with a gentleman in a local lounge about the lack of a big Toraño presence here in south-east PA, and the proprietor of the same shop asked me about Sam Leccia in a separate conversation. Toraños are great smokes and Sam is the hot ticket over the last six months or so, it amazes me a little that the presence is so limited.

Wednesday I posted the press release for National Hex Day, so I hunted down a participating store in my area and took a forty minute drive to Goose’s Tobacco Outlet in Limerick, PA. I had visited this shop once before and had wanted to visit again anyway, so this gave me an excuse. I walked in and said “Hex Me” and was presented with a Hex Figurado, and then purchased three more. John, the proprietor, invited me into their members lounge to enjoy my free Hex Figurado. From talking to a couple members there, I came to find that if you spend $20 in the shop you are welcome to enjoy the lounge without a membership. This isn’t generally a problem for me anyway, but I prefer a shop have a public area for patrons to come in and enjoy their purchases. Not everyone buys more cigars than they plan to smoke at one sitting, there may be people who want to come in and buy one cigar and sit and enjoy it in a comfortable setting. Just one of my pet peeves, and I can’t complain about Goose’s selection or lounge, because it’s not bad and the two times I’ve been there I’ve managed to meet nice people and be accepted, like one finds in many cigar shops. I’ve smoked the Hex before and enjoyed it quite a bit. The example I smoked yesterday smoked a little on the wet side, and in talking to some other patrons they seemed to have similar issues. I still found it to be delicious, but if I didn’t understand the problem, I may have been put off by the way it smoked. I know the ones I brought home will smoke great after some rest in the humidor (they are in the new Adorini humidor for now). Keep an eye out for Sindicato Cigars, they are doing some pretty interesting things! I also understand that Goose’s is working on bringing a brand to market as well as hosting a festival in the fall. I’d much rather get Hex’d at Goose’s than Goose’d at Hex’s! I hope some of you went out and got Hex’d yesterday (or goose’d, I’m not judging)!

That’s enough for today, enjoy the day, I understand there might be a game on or something (the Flyers played last night and tomorrow, so I don’t know what other games there might be…). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Azan, cigar, cigars, Goose's, Hex, Roberto Duran, Sindicato, Toraño

by CigarCraig | January 15, 2014 · 7:10 pm

National Hex Day, Room 101 and Man ‘O War Cigars

You’ve no doubt seen this, but in case you haven’t:

SINDICATO CIGAR COMPANY ANNOUNCES NATIONAL HEX DAY JANUARY 18TH

Sindicato Cigar Company, based out of Boca Raton, FL, has announced that January 18th will be “National HEX Day” incelebration of the release of their second Premium brand, HEX. All consumers who visit participating retailers andrepeat the phrase “HEX ME!”, will receive a FREE HEX cigar, while supplies last.

Participating retailers will have stick and box promotions for the day, along with limited edition HEX t-shirts forgiveaways.

Consumers who buy 3 or more HEX cigars during the “I’ve been HEX’D” weekend will be automatically entered in the “HEX giveaway promotion”. Winners will be announced on February 15th. The Grand Prize winner, along with his retailer, will visit the Nicaraguan factory of Omar, Omar Jr., and Alexis Ortez, where HEX cigars are handcrafted in Condega. In addition to a visit to the Condega factory during this 3 day trip, the lucky winner and his retailer will visit the NACSA factory in Esteli, makers of Sindicato’s Affinity brand cigar.

The lucky winner will also visit the Aganorsa factory of Eduardo Fernandez, maker of the highly anticipated Sindicato brand cigar. This Puro Nicaraguan beauty is blended by Master Blender Arsenio Ramos utilizing only the rarest and finest aged tobaccos of Fernandez’s farms in Jalapa, Esteli and Condega.

In addition to the Grand Prize winner, there will be prizes for a total of 10 consumers, who will each win a 25-count sampler of HEX’s 5 sizes. The 11 total winners will also receive a 5-count sampler of the Sindicato Puro Nicaraguan cigar by Arsenio Ramos.

To find the nearest retailer selling HEX cigars, please visit out retailer locator at www.sindicatocigars.com

Sunday was a reasonably nice day for this time of year in this part of the US. I needed a nice, long walk, so I selected a Room 101 Namakubi Ecuador Chingon, a Salamon shaped cigar measuring a whopping 8″ x 60 ring gauge at it’s largest point. This is an enormous cigar for a winter day! I spent over two hours with this cigar, about half of that walking around the neighborhood with the dog, and it was a really nice smoke. I’ve smoked a few of it’s smaller siblings which I probably enjoy more, but if you have the time, this is a really tasty smoke. I have one more in the Ranfla size, which is only 5½ x 50, which I bought at an event last year on Matt Booth’s recommendation. This Chingon was a gift from a business associate, thanks Mike! In retrospect, I should probably have waited for a nice, sunny summer day in the pool for this one, but I was in the mood for a nice, long smoke, so this certainly fit the bill.

I inadvertently fell into the theme trap again, and chose another Salomon shaped cigar for Monday’s walk. The Man O’ War Side Project: Skull Crusher. This was an IPCPR sample, and I loved the look of this cigar. It had a dark, oily Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper and was a 5¾” x 56 perfecto with the foot closed and finished off, as if it were capped. I suppose this could have been clipped off, but I burned through it with the lighter. This is a STRONG cigar! It crushed my skull! The black pepper was prominent throughout, although it either mellowed out near the end or I grew accustomed to it! I couldn’t smoke this cigar too often, and I have a pretty high tolerance for strong cigars. The other thing this cigar had in common with the Room 101 was that there doesn’t seem to be a website for either brand. I’ve linked to retailers websites for more information if you need it.

That’s it for now. I’m going to try to get out for a walk if it finally stopped raining, this weather has really been annoying! Maybe I’ll smoke my last Hex cigar.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig