A Mardi Gras, a Cain, a CigarCraig Safari Blend and a La Sirena

Last year at the IPCPR show a little corner booth caught our eye, primarily due to the model they had working there. Oddly, my wife was the one who talked to her while she was getting in costume. Call me a cigar geek, but I’m afraid I get distracted by all the cigars at the show. Anyway, this young lady was representing Mardi Gras Cigars, which is a house brand of The Huntington Humidor in Huntington Village, NY. They call the Mardi Gras their own special, extra aged Double Ligero Corojo creation, and I smoked a corona at the show which was a pretty nice smoke, and came home with a torpedo and a corona. I finally smoked the torpedo on Thursday evening. I’ve already told you all I know about the blend, and the flavor was very nice. The construction gave me some problems as it refused to burn right. I had various issues including requiring frequent re-lights, poor draw and uneven burn. It’s almost as if the cigar was over humidified, but it was in the humidor since July of last year and I’ve smoked countless other cigars from that humidor.  I’ll have to give the corona a try one of these days, maybe it’s just a torpedo thing.  There aren’t many things more disappointing than struggling with a cigar.

Friday evening called for a great cigar, first because it’s Friday, and second because Thursday’s smoke was less than satisfying.  I was digging around for a shorter smoke and I came across a Cain Habano 460 which was given to me by Sam Leccia (who, at that time, was still with Oliva) at the 2011 IPCPR show.  I had forgotten about this (as well as a 4×60 Padilla Reserve Maduro Short Robusto…tough decision!). The Cain was what I was craving so it got the nod. I like Cain Habanos with some age quite a bit. This is one line where the maduro seems to be at the bottom of the list for me.  I don’t quite know why that is, but I prefer the Cain F, Daytona and Habano much more.  This cigar burned perfectly and tasted great.  Of course, when you choose a 4×60 and think it’s a short cigar, it’s short in length only, not necessarily smoking time. This size can certainly smoke longer than a robusto unless you have really fat fingers!  I suspect these are readily available now, when it was given to me it was something of a rarity.  This was a perfectly satisfying smoke.

Saturday we finally had some warm weather!  It was in the 50s all day and some of the piles of snow are starting to get a little smaller, and some of the tree limbs that came down in the ice storm a few weeks ago are re-appearing.  Those will have to get cleaned up soon!  I took a nice, long afternoon walk with one of the cigars I blended at CigarSafari last year.  This blend consisted of a San Andreas Negro wrapper with a Cameroon binder.  I used Brazilian Mata Fina, some Ometepe and Jalapa Ligero  in the filler. After 10 months in the humidor these haven’t changed too much. The first half is a little dry, I like the flavor, but I may have been over ambitious and have too much going on, the flavors fight with one another too much.  The second half mellows out to what I wanted it to be, a smooth and chocolate barrage of flavor.  I think sticking with a neutral binder is the way to go for me.  I don’t really care how the cigar tastes though, every time I smoke one I’m reminded of an exceptional experience in Nicaragua.

After dinner, which was take out from a fairly new fish place specializing in  North Carolina style cuisine, Triton Seafood, I fished out a La Sirena Trident again.  I really have to bury this box or it will not last the summer.  Once again, this is a Churchill sized cigar with a Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper, double binders of Nicaraguan Corojo and Habano and fillers of Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 & Nicaraguan Corojo ’06, all rolled at Pepin Garcia’s My Father factory in Esteli. How can you go wrong with that recipe and pedigree!  It is, indeed, a delicious cigar.  I love the dark, lush flavors and the construction is top notch.  I definitely have to move this box to the bottom of the coolerdor, it’s much to easy to reach in and grab one in a moment of indecision, and I have hopes of enjoying more than one of these in the pool on a hot summer day (perfect given the aquatic theme)! By the way, the Fish and Chips was pretty good, although we probably should have eaten in instead of taking it home as it would have been better piping hot! Their hush puppies were delicious!

That’s it for now. It’s another 50-something degree day, so I want to get out and clear some more of the snow off the patio before tonight when it goes and rains/snows again.  My back hurts, but it’s nice to be outside without freezing!  I’ll have to find some interesting cigars to smoke today…

Until the next time,

CigarCraig