Midweek Cigars: An H. Upmann and a Kristoff

Welcome to the midweek edition, I’m working on some rather exciting things regarding the appearance of the site, so stay tuned!  If all goes well, there will be a new look over the next week or so.  I’m excited about it, as the look of the site has remained unchanged for the last 24 months and it’s time to spruce things up a little!

I dipped into the IPCPR show samples again and came up with this short, fat H.Upmann Sun Grown from AltadisUSA. I was taking an evening walk and wanted something short and different, so I picked out  this chubby robusto, which they call a Short Churchill.  Odd name, but I suppose if the “Churchill” in the line is 7″ x 54, then a 4½” x 54 is a Short Churchill…why not.  This was a super enjoyable smoke. Pretty rich in flavor and well behaved, although the draw was a bit loose and it smoked pretty fast.  Usually I can get more than a mile and a half (which is about two laps around my neighborhood) out of a cigar this size, with a few more minutes on the front porch to finish.  This one was just about done at the end of my walk.  This is another instance where, had I know the draw was so loose, I would have tried the punch first before whacking the whole end off of it.  At least if the punch doesn’t cut it, I can still give it the full clip, but you can’t really do it the other way around (well, with some pectin, extra wrapper leaf, a little skill and patience, I suppose one could conceivably put a new cap on and punch it, but that’s an awful lot of work…)  Anyway, totally decent cigar which I’d smoke again in a heartbeat!

Once again, I was in the mood for something different, so I grabbed a Kristoff Kristania robusto, one of two that I had picked up at Cole’s Tobacco Shop In Pottstown, PA a few months ago.  I have very limited experience with the Kristoff line, I think a Corojo that I smoked at the Delaware Cigar Festival was about the extent of my Kristoff exposure.  They look like really nice cigars, they always have a nice presentation, nice wood boxes with the cigars comfortably nestled in picadura tobacco.  The Kristania, on the other hand, is their budget line, and the cigar looks nice, the wrapper has a nice oil to it, and is kind of mottled in an attractive way.  As it turns out, I was very upset with myself for having put a Cain F Corona back in favor of this one.  I had some trouble keeping the wrapper burning, and wasn’t a big fan of the flavor.  Maybe this is mixed filler, which could account for the tunneling, but I don’t feel like this was worth my $4.95 all things considered.  I’m quite willing to explore the other cigars in the line, as the Corojo was a really nice cigar, but I’ll be avoiding the Kristania in the future.  I will say that, for the most part, Criollo wrappers don’t typically agree with my palate, and the burn problems and smoke production really took away from the experience.

Not a lot else going on!  Don’t forget to  go to to the Cigar Rights of America site to send a letter to your elected officials. Or you can use the widget in my side bar on the right, between the IPCPR and CRA logos.
Until the next time,

CigarCraig