The new year is off to a start, and I’m still managing to find new-to-me cigars to smoke. Over the last couple weeks I’ve stopped in to a few local shops and bought cigars. Now I’m forgetting where I got what! One of the cigars I picked up was a Crowned Heads Coroneta Maduro Baron, their 6″ x 56 toro. This cigar is made at Casa 
Carrillo by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, uses a Mexican San Andrés maduro wrapper over a Ecuadorian Connecticut binder, and Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Pennsylvania fillers. It’s a diverse blend for sure, and it’s not uncommon to see Ecuador Connecticut over a San Andrés binder, but vice versa is a little unique. This cigar came out in May of 2024, so I guess I’m not that far behind. I have an affinity for Carrillo cigars, have since the old La Gloria days, and this was no different. I was a little disappointed in the aesthetics, the cap was pretty sloppily applied, but it made no difference in the burn and draw, which were perfect. It had some dry cocoa and a nice depth of flavor, very satisfying. The band annoyed me, the pointy part hit my lip so I took it off. I hope this is one that they are rebranding. It seems I keep finding Crowned Heads cigars that I’ve overlooked, maybe because I was turned off to them early in the game and I just haven’t paid much attention to them. A few discussions I’ve had with Miguel Schoedel have made me take a second look.
I was surprised to find some Sinistro cigars in one of the shops I visited last week, which has more of a traditional selection. I picked up a Sinistro The Last Barbarian to give a try. Naturally, I got the Toro, which is 6″ x 54, why wouldn’t I? This has a Dominican Maduro wrapper, Cameroon binder and a Ligero heavy filler blend including Dominican, Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania Ligeros and a Nicaraguan Seco. These are made at the El Artista factory. I met the Sinistro guys at the Smoke-onos event last year, and I’ve known the folks at El Artista for a long time. I’m going to make an effort to smoke more of their stuff. This one was really good, right up my alley. It started chocolaty with some spice. It was very rich, and well behaved and not as strong as one might expect given the amount of high priming leaf in the blend. This is a winner, and I seem to remember it wasn’t stupidly priced.
Yesterday we painted our family room, one wall of which extended into the kitchen and dining room. Lots of moving stuff around, taping, painting and cleaning up. I really don’t like painting. It looks really good now 
though and needed to be done. While waiting for the walls to dry so we could put things back, I took a break with a cigar. I chose a 4½” x 60 Tatuaje Sextooth William Blake. This is a strange name for a cigar. It’s named after a track on musician Andreas “Sextooth” Contogouris EP Smoking Mirror. The Sextooth line consists of four sizes which are all priced in the $5.50 – $8.50 range, made at the My Father factory. They have an Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. I don’t know what a “Sextooth” is, but I thoroughly enjoyed this little guy. It had kind of a caramel sweetness, and no issues with the burn and draw. This is a line I will be further exploring.
I still have to get Ron’s winnings shipped, I’ve been carefully curating a selection of cigars for him. I hope it makes it out in tomorrow’s UPS. I should have gotten it out last week, but I’ve been a slug. It’ll be worth the wait, I think. That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
