Monthly Archives: July 2016

Leccia Tobacco Desnudo Sunday Video Cigar Review

Sunday afternoon I assembled a group of friends and we smoked the new Desnudo Robusto from Leccia Tobacco. My wife bought me a box of these in the 5″ x 54 size, the same size as my favorite Leccia Luchador El Hombre, and the presentation is spectacular. The box is woven from what I believe is Royal Palm bark, the same thing that is used to wrap bales of tobacco in some countries (called Tercios). The blend of the Desnudo is Brazilian Wrapper, Habano Binder, Filler: Brazilian, Nicaragua Ligero and Pennsylvania Ligero. I smoked another one tonight as I was putting the video here together, and really love the cigar. It’s exactly what I love in a cigar, watch the video to see what we thought (don’t worry, none of us were “desnudo” in the video).

 

Leccia_BarberPoleSam included a couple of bonus cigars with the box, one of which I smoked last night. This was a Churchill sized barber pole style cigar, wrapped in what appeared to me Ecuador Connecticut and Habano. The interesting feature of this cigar was that it came pre-punched, but instead of  a circular punch it had the Leccia Tobacco “L” logo punched in it. I chose to smoke it as is, I saw no reason to disturb this cool cut out, which obviously took a lot of time and energy to come up with Leccia_BarberPole_Capand manufacture. I’m sure Sam got some “you want me to do what?” looks on the rolling floor! Maybe Sam rolled these himself, I really don’t know (if he did, well done!). The cigar was sweet and creamy and was quite different from the Desnudo or the Luchador line. The burn meandered a bit, but I find that with many barber pole style cigars. Bottom line is, I enjoyed it a lot.  Sam is handing his own distribution now, and selling some of his lines, including the Desnudo, direct to the consumer. Sam is a great guy, despite being a Penguins fan, and he makes some really tasty cigars and does some incredible things on a rolling table.

**Edit: It’s been brought to my attention that the “L” punch is laser cut, which makes a lot more sense. **

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

 

CigarCraig

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Fourth of July Cigars, a La Flor Dominicana and a Caldwell

Monday was the Independence Day Holiday, and my wife and my 29th wedding anniversary. I know, Independence Day, getting married….it’s a bit ironic, but we figured at least we’d always have the day off, and Montecristo_No2there would always be something somewhere to do. over the last 15 or so years I have made a point to smoke a Havana cigar as a form of  celebration and of civil disobedience. I like to think the founding fathers would be pleased if they stopped rolling in their graves long enough to notice. Sometimes this works out great, other times it’s a disaster, and this time was somewhere in the middle. I’ve smoked some fantastic Montecristo No.2s over the last 20 years, and I’ve smoked some sucky ones. This one fell in the middle somewhere, as it was just a good cigar. I had been given this cigar last year, and I don’t know what the vintage was, so maybe I should have left it in the humidor for another four or five years. Most of the problem was with the draw, the flavor was good, although milder than I recall. It had the classic “twang” and a hint of citrus I expect from a Montecristo I could have dug a little further and found a Havana or two with sufficient age, but I was lazy, and the classic Monte 2 called out to me. After a great dinner out with my bride, I enjoyed the heck out of a Padron Anniversary Exclusivo Maduro that is the quintessential dessert cigar!

 

LaFlorDominincana_AirbenderMaduro_ChiselLater in the week I was moving humidors around and spied a La Flor Dominicana Air Bender Maduro Chisel. I assumed it was the maduro because I think by this point I know the difference, and the natural Air Bender is quite a bit lighter. This is a 6½” x 54 cigar with their patented (or is it trademarked, I’m not certain) Chisel shape, like a torpedo, but with a flattened head, not unlike a pipe mouthpiece. I’ve had success squeezing these to open them, but this time I tried a V-cut across the head. It looked pretty cool, but wasn’t giving me the draw I wanted, so I ended up lopping an eighth of an inch off to open it up a little. While the Air Bender isn’t quite as full-bodied as the Double Ligero line, it’s still a reasonable strong cigar, with rich flavor and a bit of a kick. La Flor Dominicana makes some awesome cigars, and this is one of them. They are almost always satisfying. the Air Bender uses a binder and fillers grown on their own farms in the Dominican Republic, and a very pretty, dark Habano wrapper. These are a treat every time I light one up.

 

Caldwell_TheKingisDead_DiamondGirlFriday I wrapped up another week with a cigar I had some trepidation about.  Las year I caught up with Robert Caldwell at a local shop and bought a handful of his cigars to try. I’ve enjoyed his Blind Man’s Bluff line, but I had so much trouble with the Long Live the King cigars that I was worried I’d have similar problems with The King is Dead. the Long Live the Kings I smoked had such construction problems that they just pissed me off, both because I hate it when a pricey cigar doesn’t work right, and I hate wasting my valuable smoking time fighting with a cigar. It’s just not relaxing for me to have a cigar that doesn’t work right. So I decided to try this the Caldwell King is Dead Diamond Girl, a 6 ½” x 42 pigtail cigar. The blend information provided on the website is exceptional, it’s listed as: Capa (that’s the wrapper): Negrito Dominicano – 2008, Banda (that would be the binder, sometimes called “capote”): Corojo Dominicano – 2006, Tripa (filler…think tripe, yuck): Corojo Ligero Dominicano 30% – 2006, Tripa: Negrito Viso Dominicano 20% – 2008 and Tripa: HVA 20/20 50% – 2010. I think Steve Saka is the only cigar maker who is more specific in his blend information. This cigar smoked great, with some wood and cocoa flavors and solidly medium bodied to me. I’m glad I finally smoked this one.

 

That’s it for now. As you can see, I still seem to be grabbing shaped cigars here and there, not sure what that’s all Hemingway Classic SGabout, but I like torpedos and perfectos.  Sunday I stopped by Holt’s in Center City Philadelphia and enjoyed a Fuente Hemingway Classic Sungrown, another pefecto. It was a fantastic cigar, and while I was there  I had the pleasure of meeting and smoking with former Phillies player and broadcaster Gary Matthews, who I saw play countless times in my youth. He was a super nice guy, and apparently a regular visitor to the store. I would have figured him for just a regular patron if he hadn’t been wearing his huge World Series ring, with was hard to miss. I guess I should have gotten a picture with him, but he was such a “regular guy” it didn’t occur to me. Anyway, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Ora Vivo Armand Assante World Edition Cigar

I was digging around the humidor tonight, thinking that I really hadn’t prepared anything for tonight’s post. I came across an Ora Vivo Armand Assante World Edition Toro (6″x56) that looked lonely, so I decided to put it out of its misery and skip my midweek post. Then it occurred to me that I wrote an article about this cigar for the November/December 2014 Issue of Prime Living Magazine, and decided it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to post  it. This, as well as the rest of my articles, can be found on the Prime-Living.com website in the Gentlemen’s Room. It can also be found in print in Prime Living Magazine, available in Barnes and Noble stores in Texas, and by subscription. If your browser doesn’t support the embedded article below, it can be found here: http://prime-living.com/gentlemens-room/the-ora-vivo-armand-assante/

 

[pageview url=”http://prime-living.com/gentlemens-room/the-ora-vivo-armand-assante/” border=”yes” scrolling=”yes”]

 

That was easy! I have yet to see a comment on one of my articles on the Prime Living site, challenge dropped! That’s all for now, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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A Recluse, A Johnny Tobacconaut and a Joya de Nicaragua Cigar

It seems like the last few days I’ve been reaching for Figurados for some reason, I think five of the last eight cigars I’ve smoked were shaped cigars in one way or another. I don’t know why that’s significant, it probably isn’t, it just happened to be what I grabbed. None of the cigars featured here are new appearances on this site. I craved some Recluse_OTG_Kanu1favorites this week, what can I say. I’ve had a couple Recluse OTG Kanu #1 in the humidor for three or four years, I figured Wednesday was a good day to smoke one of these.  The Kanu #1 is a cool 6″ x 54 box pressed perfecto, styled after a Kayak.  It has a little “bun” pigtail cap that easily pinches off so you don’t have to cut it. I don;t know if this is a case anymore, but originally the larger sizes (the #2 is 7″ x 52 and the #3 is 8 x 58) had little o-rings or something on the head of the cigar telling you where to cut, because the recommended cutting them a little higher to get thee best draw. The #1, withe the pigtail pinched off had a perfect draw. The OTG line has a Brazilian maduro wrapper, Cameroon binder and Dominican fillers. I happen to be a fan of maduro over Cameroon, so I’ve been a fan of this line since it came out in 2012.  It had a great bittersweet cocoa flavor with a little bit of spice. The Recluse line in general has been very good, I can’t recall a single cigar in their line-up that I didn’t really, really like. They are innovative and patient in their approach, and word on the street is that they will be releasing a TON of new sizes and line extensions at the show. It’s criminal that the FDA has companies like this in their cross hairs.

 

Room101_JohnnyTobacconaut_Ranflactic(1)Friday I decided to wrap up the week with a Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut Ranflactic (6½” x 50). If you’ll recall, I’ve bitched about this before, that this size is mis-labeled on a ton of retailers websites as 5.5 x 50 b(including the site I linked to, don’t get me started on the lack of a Room 101 cigar website or an easy way to find it on Davidoff/Camacho’s sites), when it’s the Room 101 Ranfla size renamed to fit the astronaut theme of the brand. It blows my mind that this hasn’t been fixed, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that big a deal. It just seems to stand out to me and I don’t often see mistakes like this. This particular cigar came from a Davidoff trade show sampler from last year’s show, which has some Avos, some Camachos and some BG Meyers. I have more that I purchased that come in the paper sleeve much like the original Room 101 OSOK. I was really blown away by the first one of these I smoked, and I continue to be a fan. The perfecto shaped cigar has a nice woody, toasty flavor and a great burn. I don’t know how available these are as they only made 3500 boxes of twenty and released them last year, but, considering they are rather pricey, they may still be around.

 

JoyadeNicaragua_CuatroCincoReservaEspecial_TorpedoYesterday I managed to install two ceiling fans with a minimum of profanities, which is something for me. After dinner I sat down with a Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco Reserva Especial Torpedo. Joya de Nicaragua came out with the original Cuatro Cinco in 2013 to celebrate 45 years of operations in Nicaragua. The following year they came out with this tweaked blend, the Reserva Especial. Oddly, this isn’t a Nicaraguan puro, it has a Dominican binder, but the rest is Nicaraguan with a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan filers. I felt like the original Edition Limitada Cuatro Cinco release was a fantastic cigar, I saw it as a refined version of the Antaño Dark Corojo, which is a favorite. This Reserva Especial seems to be missing something that the original limitada had. Here’s the dangerous thing with comparing cigars: The Reserva Especial is a great smoke, it’s got wonderful construction, great flavors, and I would absolutely love it if I wasn’t comparing it to the original. This is just me, and I’m sure there are people who see the Reserva as an improvement, which makes another point, everyone has different tastes. Joya remains one of my favorite brands, there are very few cigars in the lineup that I don’t enjoy.

 

That’s it for now. It’s the Fourth of July weekend, so be careful out there, have fun and smoke some great cigars. I have a Prime Living Magazine article due that I need to put the finishing touches on (on which I need to put the finishing touches?), then I’ll be getting on with my day. So, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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