We’re getting ready to take a road trip to Chicago for the weekend. My wife’s working the Fest for Beatles Fans and I’m going to explore some cigar shops. Again, if you are in the area, let me know and we’ll try to connect! I’m already planning to get to Smokey Bear in Evergreen Park on Friday, and TESA Cigars on Saturday afternoon for some events. I’m going to try something new for me, posting “live” blog posts, so there may be several posts instead of one big one on Sunday. Since ditching my dumb phone for an iPhone, I’m going to experiment a little with it. We’ll see how it goes and I beg your indulgence.
Sunday was a spectacular day, and after a very busy morning of yard work I decided to spend the afternoon in the pool with a big cigar. I picked up a CAO Flathead Big Block a while ago, the square pressed 7″ x 70 monster. I generally feel quite uncomfortable with the 70 ring gauge, but I like the Flatheads, so I thought I should try them all. I gave this a couple punches with my Screwpop punch (by the way, I’m really looking forward to seeing the next generation of this punch. It looks like they took my advice in the redesign. Yeah, I’m taking credit, you heard it here first! They also have another cigar cutter coming out that looks like it could be interesting) and just about emptied my lighter lighting that monster. I spent close to two hours reading in the pool, smoking that big Flathead, and enjoying it quite a bit. The enormous size tempers the blend quite a bit, it lacked the punch of the smaller sizes, and needed a few corrections. I got out of the pool and smoked the cigar for another forty-five minutes, until I just plain got tired of it. Great smoke, but I’ll stick to the smaller sizes.
After a little Sunday afternoon nap and some dinner, I needed to take the dog for a walk, so I grabbed an MBombay Brazil Mata Fina Maduro robusto. The beautiful band dominates this cigar, and it needs to be removed very soon after lighting. this is a super little smoke, smooth and sweet, with a little extra something from the Peruvian tobacco in the blend. I have been really impressed with cigars from the same factory in Costa Rico, which also makes the Atabey (which I have yet to sample, but we gave away some in the December contests courtesy of Dave Garofalo), the Byron and the Bandolero, all exceptional cigars. The MBombay burned perfectly, nice flat and even burn and a perfect draw. I am very excited to hear that a local shop is trying to bring these in, I’m quite taken with them.
Tuesday my youngest son and I went down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA, for their La Flor Dominicana event. I’ve not smoked a lot of La Flor Dominicana cigars. Not for any particular reason, I always liked them, I just never managed to pick any up. Litto Gomez was on hand for the event, along with the local rep, Kyle. I picked up a couple Double Ligero Maduros in the chisel shape, and some Colorado Oscuro No.3s (and a couple others I can’t bring to ind at the moment and am too lazy to go to the humidor to check) and lit up one of the Chisels. I asked Litto what the best cutting method was and he suggested just giving it a squeeze which worked well. This is a formidable cigar, loaded with rich, dark flavor. I ended up giving it a bit of a scissor cut afterwhile to open the draw up a little, but other than that, it was a terrific smoke. I was able to have a really nice discussion with Litto, in spite of the fact that the place was packed, impressive for a Tuesday night. I’ve said it before, but the guys at Mojo do a great job. In less than a year they have built a really good shop and have excellent events. It was nice to run into Shaun, the proprietor of D&S Cigar Lounge in Lancaster,PA and Arline, who I met the first time I visited Cigar Mojo before they officially opened, there’s always a good bunch of folks there. My son seemed to thoroughly the Colorado Oscuro he smoked, and he only smoked cigars occasionally.
Since Christian (my son) enjoyed the La Flor Dominacana Colorado Oscuro last night, I figured I had better see what it was all about tonight. Since I had bought two, I took the second one for a walk and enjoyed the heck out of it. I didn’t find it to be as strong as the Double Ligero Maduro Chisel, but the burn was much better and it was totally satisfying, and since I had a lot of stuff to do to get ready to go away, the 5″ x 50 size worked into my schedule perfectly. I have been remiss over the last few years where this brand is concerned, but I will work on sampling through the line in the future. Nice smoke. La Flor Dominicana is one of the great survivors of the cigar boom of the ’90s.
That’s it for now, I have twelve hours of driving ahead of me tomorrow, so I need to get some rest! Stay tuned for my experimental posts over the next few days. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
I love the Big Block. I’ve also found they vary a bit in strength. I’ve had ones from the same box that had completely different levels of strength.
I also love the Chisel. It’s one of the first cigars that truly kicked my butt.
The CAO 770 is a good cigar but takes forever. I smoked one by the pool in Vegas and it was a four hour cigar, enjoyable all the way through though. Awesome to hear about the LFD, I was recently turned on to them and have been enjoying them.
Wow !!! a FOUR hour cigar? That’s better than an all-day lollipop !!!
As to your venture into the world of smart phones, I wish you on the best of luck. If you get a good one and have a good service provider, they are great. Personally, I bought one about a year ago and it’s been nothing but a nightmare and it’s strictly a hardware issue. It has a mind of its own. About every 45 minutes, it decides that it wants to reboo … right in the middle of whatever I’m doing, no warning. It also apparently has an antenna flaw because I can make a call from exactly the same spot where my brother makes a call on his phone, the number of “bars” is the same, but mine drops calls. I can’t erase e-mails from the server, thus, they just pile up and clog up the system. It’s time for a change, but I’m afraid that buying another one will eat into my cigar budget !!! Eventually, mine will find itself thrown from a tall bridge into deep water.
Good luck in Chicago. A great town. Have a safe trip and smoke some good cigars !!!
7×70 is just way too big for my liking. I think I’ll stick to trying the smaller vitolas.
As I’m thinking about the 70 ring cigars, if there can be an upside, they make 60 ring cigars seem normal! Thanks for the great comments!