E.P. Carrillo Dusk, Kristoff Cameroon and La Flor Dominicana La Volcada Cigars

OK, all of these cigars have something in common…they are cigars, they have a band, they are, in fact, made in the Dominican Republic, but that’s not what I was going for in my current contest on Sunday’s post. I’m disappointed that everyone is just parroting the first response, even though it is technically correct, assuming it’s the answer I was looking for and not giving it any further thought.  Don’t worry, I’ll be fair and just pick a random comment like I always do. I’m also a little disappointed that there have only been 15 entries, where there are well over 50 by now when I just ask for a comment. Would it help if I said there would be another 5 great cigars included in the prize? Guess what? There’s now 10 cigars in the pack, several of them will be from La Aurora (if that’s not a hint I don’t know what is!) So go back to the last post and enter the damn contest and try to win some great cigars out of my humidor! If it has anything to do with me being between jobs and giving my own cigars away, faggeddaboutit! I’ve got plenty to share! </rant>

So far this week I’ve smoked a few cigars, two that aren’t new to me, and one that was.  The E.P. Carrillo Dusk is from Ernesto’s “The Classics” line and has a dark Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Ecuador binder and Nicaraguan fillers. I had a lonely “Obscure” 7”x 54 double corona in the humidor which had been there for a while. I’ve been going through my larger size cigars with the long evenings and lack of employment. The Dusk, as ive mentioned before, hits me just right. There are still a mess of cigars in the EPC portfolio I need to explore, I keep grabbing this Broadleaf beauty when I see them in the shops. Espresso and  cocoa all day long!

I was moving some cigars around and found a Kristoff Cameroon Matador, the 6 1/2” x 56 toro in the line, although it seemed smaller than that.  I actually would have sworn this was a 6” x 50, I got it at an event, so maybe it was an event only cigar, I don’t recall. Whatever the size, it was a tasty smoke. As a rule, I’ve found Kristoff cigars to be, how should I put this diplomatically, not real exciting to my palate.  This is funny to me, because I really like Dean Parson’s Epic Cigars which are made in the same factory.  However, this Cameroon was really, really nice,  it had the distinct Cameroon sweet spice with a little something sour in the background, Camerooniness, I call it. With the Kristoff signature closed foot, one gets a nice blast of that up front. I will keep trying to like the Kristoff line, I love the pigtail cap and closed foot and overall rustic feel of the line. I found a few of the “Pistoff” Kristoff too which I’ll revisit.

Finally, last night I revisited, again, the La Flor Dominicana La Volcada. Jonathan Carney at LFD sent me a few of these before they hit the stores and I had one left, and picked a couple up at the event I attended a few weeks back so I lit up that last pre-release cigar. It was un-cello’d, and I actually prefer my cigars to be stored in cellophane, another of my odd proclivities. This cigar is so limited that it does not appear on the company’s website! It’s available in one vitola, a 7″ x 48 Churchill with a pigtail cap, has a San Andrés wrapper, Corojo binder grown in Ecuador and Dominican fillers. This is another cigar, like the aforementioned Dusk, which hits my palate right, which is a shame, because it’s limited and not inexpensive. It’s not super expensive, but it’s not cheap. It’s got a nice spice and earthiness and the dark, rich flavors I like. I waffle between wondering if I should have smoked one I just bought and saved the older one, and the path I took, but tomorrow I won’t be concerned about that anyway, I enjoyed the crap out of the cigar, and I di for a good two hours or more.

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig