We are saddened here this week by the passing of our beloved dog, Macha. Many have met Macha over the years, she even made an appearance on the Cigar Authority once, and she was a large part of our household. We suspect she was 14 or 15 years old, so she lived a long life, especially since the last 12 were with three legs. We adored here and she leaves a hole on our hearts. I appreciate everyone’s condolences. I smoked a Padron 1964 Anniversary that I got in 2014, the year we adopted Macha, in her honor.
A few weeks back I walked into a local shop that I haven’t been to in a while, and asked the owner what was new and exciting. He said that they just got the Colonel E.H. Taylor San Andrés and it was selling well. I don’t know anything about this brand, I suspect it’s a Meier and Dutch (CI) creation. It, obviously, has a San Andrés wrapper, Criollo binder and Nicaraguan fillers and is made in the Dominican Republic (La Isla, I generally like their stuff). It isn’t really budget priced, I think it was around $12. I smoked it, and my first thought was that I should have asked Jeff what was good, not what was new. It was OK. I would think it would be better at half the price. I know E.H. Taylor is a bourbon brand, and I didn’t get any boozy flavors, but I really wouldn’t know one if I tripped over one. It was a typical dry cocoa, San Andrés cigar. Nothing special. My notes say that the E.H. is for eh…
For obvious reasons (welcome Davidoff to the CigarCraig family! thanks for the support!), I feel the need to get back into some of their lines, such as Camacho and Avo. This week I revisited the Camacho Triple Maduro in the gordo size. This 6″ x 60 has a Honduran wrapper, Mexican binder, with a filler blend from Brazil, Honduras and the DR. The website is a little out of date, it says it’s the only all maduro cigar, a category which now includes the Drew Estate Blackened. Fun fact: Abe Dababneh, owner of Smoke Inn, coined the term Triple Maduro and licensed it to Christian Eiroa when he owned Camacho. Davidoff bought the brand and I want to say they paid Abe off. (Edit: Abe tells the whole story on the latest Prime Time show with Cigar-Coop, which I listed to a whole 24 hours after writing this post.) I remember smoking this a long time ago. This was a really good cigar. It’s heavy and rich, with a load of cocoa and some sweet earth. I enjoyed this and will pick up some more.
Finally, I was in yet another store nearby and picked up a couple of the RomaCraft Maestranzas Caballería Valencia (6 x 52). These were very reasonably priced, around $10 I think. This is a core line cigar that’s been out for a year or two and this is the first I’ve come across them in the wild (granted, I don’t get out much). This is another San Andrés wrapper cigar, with a Brazilian binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua. It’s made at the Nica Sueńo factory. I’ve been a fan of the Nica Sueno output going back to 2011 or thereabouts. Fortunately the new ownership of the local CigarCigars stores brought in RomaCraft stuff, so I have a local source now. I enjoyed this 6″ x 52 cigar quite a bit, although it didn’t have the intensity that I find in most of their stuff. Again I got a dry cocoa predominantly. I’ll be grabbing more of these, as well as the Cromagnons, next visit.
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
