Before I get into the giveaway winner business, I’d like to talk about a a couple cigars that were given to me when I visited Single Barrel Cigar Co.‘s Clearwater, Florida aging facility with Kevin last November. My first disclaimer, most of you know already, is that I don’t drink, haven’t since about 1990. I’m not a “friend of Bill’s”, but I know who he is. Therefore, I have no frame of reference for booze related flavors. Second disclaimer is that I don’t regularly partake in flavored cigars. There are a couple of infused/flavored cigars I enjoy, but on a semi-
annual basis. I might pick up a Tabak, Deadwood, or an Acid Kuba Arte once or twice a year. There are more traditional cigars that I enjoy that the altered cigars take a back seat. I have to kinda talk myself into smoking something like this, and the booze thing is a double whammy. I’m going to give my thoughts, and those of you in the know can comment. Anyway, We talked to Nick there, and he gave me two cigars to try. These aren’t necessarily flavored, the cigars are placed in bourbon barrels, the barrels are “mixed” every so often so the cigars get equal access to the wood. I don’t know how cigars aren’t damaged in this process. The first one was a Blanton’s Gold Maduro Robusto. The aroma once the tube was opened was pungent, had me worried for a bit. I admit, I really enjoyed this cigar. It had a honey sweetness, very satisfying. I was concerned that the cigar was wet, it wasn’t, the burn and draw were perfect. I definitely could taste what I assume was the bourbon, and it was pleasant. Thumbs up on this one.
One of the trademarks of Single Barrel Cigar Co. is that they put a pinch of the barrel char in the bottom of each glass tube. I asked if they scraped the barrels themselves, which seemed like a lot of work, but they get it from the distillery. This might have been the reason that this second one I smoked put off some interesting colors when I toasted the foot. The second one was the Weller 107 Maduro Robusto. I’m to understand that Weller and Blanton’s come from the same parent company. This one was noticeably different from the Blanton’s version. It seemed more savory than sweet. It burned great, draw was good, but this one didn’t appeal to me. If I had smoke this one first, I may not have been keen to try the Blanton’s, which, again, I really enjoyed. Like everything, taste is subjective, but this Weller didn’t do it for me. It’s not that it tasted bad, but I think it failed in comparison to the first one. That’s on me, not the cigars. Kevin is working on something with Single Barrel for his Trash Panda store, although I’m not at liberty to say any more. Not that I signed an NDA or anything, just going to let Kevin talk about that. I thought I’d taken more pictures, but the only ones I took are of Kevin’s barrel and that would be a giveaway, although if you know Kevin, you’ll probab;y be able to figure it out. I’ll say that if you find yourself in the Tampa area, and come across these cigars, give them a try.
Some of you may have scrolled down to this point already, please go back and read the rest! I’ll wait… OK, it’s time to announce the winner of the huge batch of goodies. To recap, there’s the better part of the DE25 Barnsmoker backpack full of goodies. Some neat stuff from Miami Cigar and Co. Villiger, and Dunbarton, as well as a selection of cigar from my humidor, which will be a surprise. Basically I’m going to fill the travel humidor and cigar case, but who knows what falls into the box when I pack it. Shipping is going to cost me a fortune on this one! Anyway, there were 32 entries, and I used Google’s random number generator to pick a number, and numbered the submissions from first to last. The winner is a long-time reader and supporter, Tim McCabe! Please email me your details so I can get this package shipped! Thank you all for your comments! I’ve been doing this blog thing for 15 years, and it’s nice to know people appreciate it!
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
