Happy Father’s Day. I find myself in an interesting position. For the last 15 years or so I’ve smoked the same cigar, a special project that Christian Eiroa did with a group of alt.smoker.cigars newsgroup members to help children orphaned by hurricane Mitch in 1998. I had bought. box for Father’s day in ’99, and at some point started smoking them annually on Father’s day. Last year I smoked the last one. I don’t see myself finding one cigar to smoke every year, so I think I’m just going to smoke a special cigar today. I had a good run with the Esperanza Para Los Niños, good memories, and they were very good cigars. I imagine Christian used the blend in something somewhere along the line. Enjoy the day!
One of the cigars that had been on my 2020 list of cigars I didn’t smoke was the HVC Hot Cakes, so I bought a couple at the Wooden Indian a few weeks back. I’ve since smoked them. I got the Laguito No. 5 size, a 6″ x 54 toro with a San Andrés wrapper, a double binder of Jalapa Corojo 99 and Esteli Corojo 98 and Corojo 06 Maduro filler, which is interesting. I would have liked for these to have been a little drier, and they seemed like they should have been ready to go by Humidimeter readings, but they smoked like they were a little too moist. Not bad, I just would have liked more smoke output. I’ll get more and drybox them. If the filler is “maduro”, that implies to me a heavier leaf which can hold more moisture which makes sense now. I should have looked at the blend before smoking them, but I rarely do that. It had great flavor, very rich and earthy with some coffee notes. I liked it. I’m working on sampling more Aganorsa product a can acquire it.
A few weeks ago when I was at Cigar Mojo, disappointed that I couldn’t buy any Stolen Throne cigars, then disappointed once again by the Mil Dias that I bought instead, I picked up a few Patina Maduro Oxidations, their 6″ x 56 offering. I’ve heard a lot about this line from listening to the Sultans of Smoke podcast, which features Mo Maali, Patina’s owner. Of course, Maduro is my go-to, but I would have picked up the Habanos if they had them as well. If I understand correctly, these are made at the same factory that Saka’s Mi Querida and Umbagog (and Unstolen Valor) are made, so I felt confident in my purchase. I don’t find any blend information on this cigar. The wrapper is a lighter shade of maduro, it’s not dark at all like the Hot Cake, which is maduro but isn’t billed that way, or the next cigar, which is blatantly called “black”. The cigar was nice and smooth, with little bite and was simply a darned tasty cigar. I’m looking forward to smoking the other one, and getting ahold of the Habano.
Finally, I had received some samples of the new Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur Black Toros from General Cigar a few weeks ago and smoked a few of them. Excalibur is one of the brands that goes back to the beginning of my cigar smoking career. The Excalibur No. 1 was one of my splurge cigars when it was about $5 and that was an expensive cigar. It’s nice to see that they are still offering this cigar in that size, which is a whopping 7¼” x 54, normal by today’s standards, but a veritable the baseball bat in 1996. The Toro is 6″ x 52 and has a dark U.S. Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. The binder is a Sumatra leaf from Ecuador and the fillers are Ligeros from Nicaragua and Honduras. This cigar has a bit of a punch to it, I made sure this one was on the drier side because of those heavier tobaccos, and it poured smoke. Lots of spice, bitter chocolate and espresso flavors. It was nothing like the Excaliburs I remember, of course they had a Connecticut shade wrapper, and for some reason I rarely smoked the maduros then, my shop may note have had them. I Like a lot of Hoyo’s and this is another one I like!
I still need to hear from the contest winner, before I smoke all the cigars. Mitchell Smith, second notice! Don’t make me track you down! Anyway, I think one of today’s cigars will be a Julius Caeser, that’s a nice cigar. It’s appropriate too because I’ve got some pain in my back…any way…have a great day, until the next time,
CigarCraig
