We’ve had a bit of a cold snap here in Pennsylvania. I don’t like it one bit! Not only is it dark when I get home, but it’s cold too! It gives new meaning to taking a brisk walk! I still need the exercise and so does the dog, so I grab a cigar and go! As I said last time, I’ve gotten the ball rolling for this years Christmas contests and am already 75% there with boxes of cigars already starting to roll in! Last year is going to be tough to top, but I’m certainly going to try! I smoked a Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico UF-13 Dark to celebrate a productive and entertaining Sunday and it was darned good! This came from a box I received for my birthday. Every time I see the box in the humidor I hear a dozen little voices singing “smoke me”. The next time there will only be eleven voices! This is a nice smoke, and had plenty of horsepower for a brisk evening. I love the closed foot and the fancy fan/pigtail. This is probably my favorite of the Serie Unicos so far, although there are several I’ve yet to sample. Awesome smoke and I’m looking forward to further reducing the voices coming from that box!
Monday I came across a Villiger Talanga Selecto Lancero from the IPCPR show. I’ve been really looking forward to smoking this special take on the Talanga line. I’m a fan of the Villiger premium line. They do things right, and they make good cigars. Don’t base your opinion on their machine made lines, although the Export is a really nice little smoke. The premium lines are tasty and this lancero was no different. At one time the Lancero size could be counted on to have a hard draw, but I’ve smoked a bunch in recent years and never had a problem. This one has a beautiful Honduran grown Connecticut wrapper with a Jalapa Habano binder and Esteli Corojo, Ometepe Habano & Condega Habano fillers. It’s perhaps a little more refined than the regular Talanga line, which isn’t to say that line is unrefined, it’s very tasty. This Selecto line is a little more complex, perhaps. I’ve had both vitolas now (the other is a corona gorda, both excellent sizes) and enjoyed them fully. The Lancero was smooth, sweet and burned very well. It dropped the ash on it’s own, sometimes unexpectedly, but that’s not so big a deal since I was outside walking. I will certainly look for some of these to add to my growing selection of Lancero sized cigars.
Tuesday I celebrated, well….Tuesday, with another Lancero, this one a La Palina Classic that arrived in my mailbox last week. I think I saw that Cigar Aficionado gave this a 92 rating, and I think after some more humidor time I would agree. I was impatient with this one, I’m afraid. It was a great smoke, but could have burned better. Granted it was a breezy evening, but I had some burn issues that felt like it needed more rest, if only from it’s time in transit, Again, it’s a classic size, and a great way to really taste how much the wrapper brings to the table. This cigar is made in the PDR factory in the Dominican Republic with a Brazilian wrapper, Ecuador binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. This works out to be a smooth and flavorful cigar that was quite nice to smoke. I’ve not tried any of the top tier La Palina cigars, but the El Diario and Classic lines are quite nice, with, of course, the maduro in the El Diario line being my favorite in the range. The Classic line is on the low end of the price scale, but still runs from $6.75 to $8.50 per cigar. Nice stuff.
Prior to sitting down to write this post I pulled out a little cigar that was gifted to me last spring by my friend Alex Martiniez, the Stogiecop, the weekend I spent herfing around North Joisey. Alex gave me an Edgar Hoill OSOK Cultura which was in a white sleeve. This is probably one of the first cigars produced in Christian Eiroa’s Fábricas Únidas. It’s a Nicaraguan cigar and is a neat 4 ½” x 54 shaped cigar. Since it was cold and I had a lot to do tonight, I thought this would be a good time to light it up. This was a lot lighter in body than I imagined it would be, and really only approached the high side of medium when it got too short to smoke any more. It had enjoyable flavors, and I’ll have to revisit this cigar either on a warm day or indoors, as I’m afraid the cold air didn’t allow this cigar to shine for me. It could be that the cigar just doesn’t suit my preferences, but I like to give cigars a fair shot. I hate to say it, because I go back a long way with Christian, but his CLE cigars didn’t really hit me right either, so maybe it’s me. Either way, I’ll still keep trying, because that’s just the kind of open minded guy I am! Thanks to Alex for sharing this cigar with me.
That’s it for now. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
The UF-13 is interesting. What size is it? I could look it up but feeling too lazy.
Sorry about that! The UF-13 measures 5.5″x52.
Jealous of the box of the UF13. I managed to snag two and they are sitting in my “special occasion” humidor and cannot wait to try them. Looks like a few good days of smoking. Enjoy your week.
I get a day off tomorrow and will be visiting Lake Country cigars in Delafield, WI and will be looking to light up a LaPalina Classic! Thanks for the review.
Pennsylvania + cold snap +” a dozen little voices singing “smoke me” = you need to move South!
Hey Buddy, Great little write up those UF13 look amazing and are on a must try list for me. Hope all is well!