First, let’s get some news out of the way. I know you all like contests, and my friends at Joya de Nicaragua are having one. From Sept. 9th to Sept. 24th every 4 days they will draw a winner for a box of the new Joya red. They are giving away a box of each size over the two week contest. I’ve had the good fortune of smoking several of these in the toro, robusto and corona size and they are terrific cigars. Head on over to JoyaCigars.com/winjoyared/ or click the graphic on the top of the right sidebar and enter to win.
Monday evening I selected a cigar I picked up on my birthday at Cigar Mojo, who was recently selected as an appointed Tortuga Cigars merchant. I had smoked the Tortuga Reserva Maduro “El Coyote Negro” with Victor Vitale a few months ago, but it was my second cigar and I wanted to give it a re-do. I smoked the Cedro No. 600, which is a 6½” x 56 toro. This has a dark Brazilian maduro wrapper, and it’s a shame to cover the majority of this beautiful wrapper with a cedar sleeve! I think this may be my new favorite Tortuga, and I do love them all. It had a great balance of strength and flavor, exhibiting the dark, cocoa flavors I enjoy. I’m so glad I smoked this with a clean palate, as I failed to properly appreciate it the first time. Thank you to Trae at Cigar Mojo for making a birthday present of this cigar, I would happily have paid for it with the rest of cigars (and a Xikar Ashtray Can) I bought. Great cigar, no question.
Tuesday I enjoyed a La Palina Classic Robusto. This is a 5″ x 52 robusto made in the PDR factory in the Dominican Republic. This also has a Brazilian wrapper, but this time it’s a Habano, with Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. I was torn between the robusto and the lancero in this blend, and decided to go with the robusto since it’s starting to get dark earlier, which I hate. This cigar has a nice, nutty and earthy flavor with a bit of sweetness. It’s perfectly constructed, the draw and burn were excellent, it behaved very well. I gave this one a straight cut, I tend to rotate between cutters, and happened to have a double guillotine on me this time. Tasty smoke.
While I was at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival I talked to Bill Paley and got this video. I tried using iMovie on the iPhone to create this one, I’m nit sure I’ve gotten the hang of it yet. While I’ve been using the iPhone and iPod Touch to take the videos for the last couple years, I’ve been using Windows Movie Maker. I thought I’d give this a try.
Tonight I took my evening walk with a La Palina Maduro 40, which is a 6″ x 40 short lancero. this cigar is made in Honduras, and has my favorite San Andrés maduro wrapper. It also has a double binder form Honduras and filler from Nicaragua. I love this cigar, it’s sweet and spicy, flavors of bitter sweet chocolate and coffee, and quite satisfying. It had a great burn and draw, this time I happened to have a punch in my pocket, the first generation ScrewPop punch, which was the perfect size for this cigar. It was a nearly perfect smoke which has been in my humidor since the end of last year. I think I enjoyed this more in the warmer weather than the one I smoked back in January. Whether it was the age of the cigar, or the difference in weather, I don’t know. I just know I like it. I smoked a couple La Palina cigars because the article I wrote on the Mr. Sam for Prime Living magazine was published this week. You can read it at Prime-Living.com (page 53 on the online version).
I’d like to welcome CigarSmokes.com to the CigarCraig family. This Spain-based company caters to my non-US audience providing Havana cigars.
That’s it for now, until the next time,
CigarCraig
Glad to see those Joya Reds I offered aren’t more than a 54 RG.
I see you are smoking a birthday cigar. Soon, I’ll be doing the same. Birthday coming up this weekend and I was just given a Cohiba Comador !!! I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to that one !!!
These Reds sound interesting. I really like the Antanos. They have LEGS and a ton of flavor. Wish me luck !!!
Craig, would you ever order from CigarSmokes.com?
If it were legal for me to do so, I’d give them a try. As it is not legal, I won’t.
Craig great article as always I have had the La Palina and I really enjoyed it, Great smoke for the Price. Also the boys at Cigar Mojo said hello when I stopped in there the other day Great place thanks for the rec. on that one.. Go Flyers!