Guest Review

Cigars were few and far between this week. A combination of struggling to get rid of this damn cold and other general business made having a cigar a lower priority. I did manage to get a couple in, but stuck with some familiar cigars as I didn’t feel up to smoking anything new or special.

Mid-week I grabbed a Chateau Real Maduro Small Club for my walk. I just love these cigars and will be sad when they are gone. They have a nice strength of flavor, but aren’t particularly strong nicotine-wise. Great little smokes.

Today was the day of the Aids Walk Los Angeles in which my wife participated. Of course, we are in Pennsylvania, but I joined her on a 10 Kilometer walk here in town in solidarity with Team Price is Right, where she was second to Drew Carey in funds raised! A big thanks to those who contributed in her name! Anyway, I took a Hamiltons House Selection Torpedo for half the walk, which had some good moments, but I’m finding that these burn quite fast. For the second half of he walk I went with a National Brand maduro robusto which lasted until we got home. I still think these are one of the better $2.00 cigars around, once you get past the sweet cap. Burn draw and flavor always satisfies me.

I received an e-mail from Jose, who was last months contest winner. One of the prizes he won was a Liga Privada T52 Belicoso, which was one of a couple that were given to me at the IPCPR show by Steve Saka. He smoked it as well as a No.9 and I’d like to share his comparison:

OK; the LP9 has about 6 months in my humidor; the T52 was gifted by Craig (from cigarcraig.com) and rested for 2 weeks before lighting up.

Similarities: Great construction for both cigars; oily wrappers, except because I botched lighting up the T52 they would had the same burn lines (sharp). Similar strength and complexity (but different flavors).

Differences: LP 9 started with espresso, roasted nuts flavors (kind of a “dark” impression) and went spicy after first third without losing the “dark” overtone; eventually went creamy but adding nutty and leather, cedar glimpses and it was GREAT! Paired with Jack Daniels Single Barrel and matched really good.

T52 started floral and spicy; more complex than LP9 at the beginning; burn line was a problem and maybe related to a little more oil on the wrapper. I have to mention that I had preferred the T52 over the 9 in other sizes (Robusto and Toro) but I have enjoyed immensely the Flying Pig (looking forward to the T52 version!!). After the initial ash fell off (after 1.5 inches, same for both cigars) the flavor changed slightly and started ‘darkening” (I called that when the flavor goes to coffee, espresso and roasted nuts) and sneaking up the strength. It also went creamy but with the floral taste still around, some cedary impression (slightly); did not pair well with the JD Single Barrel, changed to Macallan Scotch (Elegance) and it matched much better (because the bourbon was sweeter I think). Anyway it was better than average but I liked the 9 better.

Interestingly for me (and maybe because of the shape) I prefer the Toro size in the T52 over the LP9 but loved the Belicoso in LP9 against the T52. Personal preferences I believe.

Thank you again for the cigar and the accessories; as you mentioned I could not use the cutter on these but I have been using it with regular vitolas.

best regards,

J.A. Solis

As always, I enjoy sending out cigars to people, and am absolutely thrilled to receive feedback such as this! Thanks for sharing that review!

By the way, I received the following information from Thompson Cigar Co. via E-mail. Most of us, I’m sure, have our opinions of Thompson’s, but I share this with my readers as a community service:

1. Sweepstakes: This month we launched a Sweepstakes. This month, we are giving away a 20 pack of Padron Serie 1926 40th Anniversary Cigars (retail value is $516). Your readers can enter once a day through October 31. We’ll have a new giveaway in the Sweepstakes for November.

Here is a link to the Sweepstakes page:

http://www.thompsoncigar.com/content/content.jsp?pageName=Sweepstakes1

And here is a link to the Padron Serie 1926 Cigars, in case you wanted to check them out some more:

http://www.thompsoncigar.com/product/PADRON-SERIE-1926-40TH-ANNIVERSARY-NATURAL-TORPEDO/73913.uts

2. Coupons for ThompsonCigar.com: We also just launched a new site, http://www.thompsoncigarcoupons.com/ where your readers can get some pretty sweet deals for ThompsonCigar.com purchases. Right now we have free shipping on your entire order and some other pretty good deals ($10 off a order of $50, $20 off an order of $100).

Here is the URL of the coupon site:

http://www.thompsoncigarcoupons.com/

In an unrelated note, I attended a book release party at Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown, PA Saturday for Jude Southerland Kessler’s new book “Shivering Inside“, which is the second book in a series of nine. Jude’s books are novels about the life of John Lennon and are painstakingly researched to be as accurate as possible. I was there the help out as my wife is Jude’s publicist and organized the event. One of the people who helped Jude a lot in writing the book was Richard Langham, who was one of the engineers at EMI Abbey Road who worked on the Beatles “Please Please Me” album. Richard is an amazingly nice gentleman who had some wonderful stories. It was a pleasure to spend the evening with Jude, her husband Rande, Richard, and a host of other wonderful people.