I was passing through the Harrisburg area last week and made a quick stop at Harrisburg Beer and Cigar where I grabbed a couple “new to me” cigars for this week. The primary motivator was the Catastrophic 
Failure from Powstanie Cigars. I thought this was a terrible name, but I was intrigued by the thought of a Sumatra wrapped cigar made by Nica Sueńo. I also was interested because Kaplowitz gave it an A-, high praise. These are very limited, 500 ten count bundles, and I got the last two that they had. This is a 5½” x 52 box-pressed robusto,with an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, Mexico and Pennsylvania double binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Lots to look forward to here. I lit this up on Wednesday, when I participate in what I call a support group, several cigar guys on a video call smoking and shooting the shit. This is a really nice cigar, well behaved, which isn’t surprising considering the factory. It has what I think of as a hard candy, but it’s a spiced hard candy, and I haven’t been able to find it in the wild. I really enjoyed it, the PA and San Andrés binder seemed to add quite a bit to the blend, beefed it up, I guess. Definitely not a Catastrophic Failure, but I think the Szczepankiewicz boys like irony. Including their name in a post almost uses up my allotted number of letters.
James happened to be there at Harrisburg Beer and Cigar (because he works there) and gave me a couple of exclusive cigars to HB&C/BL Luxuries which I found interesting. These are variations on the King’s Gold and Queen’s Pearls in ADVentura‘s The Royal Return line (they should offer seconds as the Jester’s Junk, just a thought…), in a barber pole format. Here’s what confuses me: These cigar look identical except for the band. They’ve added a Ecuador Connecticut wrapper to the Broadleaf wrapper on the King’s Gold and vice versa to the Queen’s Pearls. I thought James said the two were the same blend with opposite wrapper but I think I better understand, unless the only difference between the two is the wrapper, in which case I’m still confused. I don’t know a lot about ADVentura, typically the Henderson Ventura blends don’t particularly appeal to me. I warned James about this. These are sold in ten count boxes containing five of each. I smoked these on consecutive evenings, starting with the Queen’s Pearls. This has both Ecuador Connecticut and Broadleaf wrappers, an Ecuador binder and Dominican, Ecuador and Nicaraguan fillers. I got a distinct cinnamon bun flavor on the cold draw, which was weird. This didn’t continue when it was lit. It had some citrus tang and woody/leathery flavors throughout. Maybe a little creaminess. While not my preference, it was a very good cigar.
The Royal Return King’s Gold Barber Pole is also a 6″ x 54 toro with a Broadleaf and Ecuador Connecticut striped wrapper, San Andrés binder, and fillers from DR, USA and Nicaragua. I should like this one more, right? I remember smoking the “normal” King’s Gold and was neither repulsed nor impressed, it was just a decent cigar. Like an idiot, I forgot to look for that Cinnabon flavor on the cold draw, I just dug with in. I think this is a little more cocoa/coffee forward than the Pearls, with the same wood/leather undercurrent, of which I’m not a fan. Great burn and draw, enjoyable flavor, these are very nice. I imagine smoking these two at the same time they would be hard to tell apart, at least for me. I could definitely tell they were closely related. I appreciated being allowed to smoke these, thanks to Nick and James at Harrisburg Beer and Cigar/BL Luxuries.
I spied a freshpack of Patina Robustos on the rack and picked one up because I like Patina cigars, and Mo the owner, and I don’t see them around much. James brought out a Patina LE 2024 robusto that has recently come in. I think this is one of the reasons my bill was so high, I didn’t ask questions, I just bought. This is a 5″ x 54 Robusto with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, San Andrés binder, and fillers from the U.S. and Nicaragua. It’s made at NACSA, which is where the Broadleaf Dunbarton cigars and several other brands, are made. NACSA is an older factory, owned by the Oliva tobacco company and perhaps Lew Rothman still has a stake. For many years this factory pumped out tons of JR Cigars bundles. It’s become a major player in premium cigars largely due to Saka going in to make Mi Querida and teaching them how to make excellent cigars. I wouldn’t normally spent close to $20 on a robusto, or any cigar for that matter, but this was an excellent cigar, right up my alley. Rich, meaty, espresso/cocoa, al the things I love in a cigar. To be honest, if I smoked this blind I might have guessed it was one of Saka’s broadleaf blends. I’m sure Mo will be pleased that I say that. It’s a great cigar, my favorite of the week.
That’s all for today, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and happy holidays to everyone. Until the next time (when I should have a holiday giveaway, I guess!),
CigarCraig
