Rocky Patel Super Ligero, Oceano, Nomad, and Romeo y Julieta Cigars at Mojo

Another week in the books. Last weekend turned bad with the new dog, who had to go back to the SPCA on Tuesday. It got the point where she was in attack mode whenever she saw another animal, and that can’t be allowed.  So I took tomorrow off so we could have a weekend “do-over” and my wife and I are headed to the shore for some walking on the boardwalk.  I have to pick out a few sure thing cigars to take along, as I’ve had a couple disappointments this week. What wasn’t disappointing was yesterday’s lunch with my wife at the Flying Pig Saloon in Malvern, PA. Naturally, I have a bit of a Flying Pig attraction, and this place is decorated with a ton of different flying pigs. My wife had a Havana sandwich, which was pork and peppers and pickles on a ciabatta roll. I had the Cheesy Pig, bacon, ham cheddar and blue cheese in a triple decker grilled cheese/club sandwich format. Both were delicious, and they had ginger beer by the bottle! (for the beer drinkers, they also have what seems like hundreds of craft beers on tap and bottled). I should have followed that up with my last Liga Privada No. 9 Flying Pig, but by the time I got around to having a cigar, I had forgotten.

After the mayhem of the weekend, I found relief with a new-to-me cigar from Rocky Patel, the Super Ligero. I’d been hearing a lot about this cigar, and the band is certainly a bit different for RP, almost, dare I say, new Camacho-esque.  Whatever band is on it doesn’t matter, this is a really tasty smoke, and right in my wheelhouse. It’s not overly powerful, as the name could imply, Super Ligero is the actual name of the leaf, not a description of its nicotine content. The cigar burned and drew perfectly, had a wonderful rich coffee, spice and cocoa flavor.  I smoked the toro size, it seems to be a very common size for Rocky’s cigars, but I really am on the look out for the lancero.  Whatever you might think of Rocky Patel cigars, this one is a winner and one I’ll go back to regularly. It wasn’t priced too bad either.

Once again, in response to a reader question, I revisited the Oceano Indian this week. Lonnie smoked one that was included in his contest winnings a few weeks ago and found it to be spicy and stout.  This cigar is made for La Sirena by the Quesadas in The DR, and it is definitely a strong cigar.  It’s certainly got some spice, and some chocolate notes, but still has a but of creaminess. I have had this example in the cabinet for a few months and it smoked perfectly. I really need to get some more of these, it’s a darned great cigar, but I haven’t really had any clunkers from La Sirena yet.  I featured this in one of my Prime Living Magazine articles last year.

I grabbed a Nomad  S-307 toro for a walk this week. I seemed to have accumulated a handful of Nomad cigars for some reason, and have them on the top tray of one of the desktop humidors, so they are staring me in the face every time I open the lid. So, being that I’m basically lazy, I grabbed the S-307 and went on my way. This cigar is made at the AJ Fernandez factory in Esteli, and has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This was Fred Rewey’s first full production Nicaraguan cigar and he really nailed it. If you like cigars from AJ Fernandez, you are sure to enjoy this one. It’s sweet and spicy and a real treat.

Thursday we went down to Cigar Mojo in King of Prussia, PA for a Romeo y Julieta event hosted by Altadis‘ rep Tom Stroud. This is the second time in a week we’ve gone to one of Tom’s events. Considering I’ve not had a strong focus on Altadis products over the years, this is something unusual!  As usual, I purchased a handful of cigars, Romeo’s and Vega Finas, mostly, and decided to give the RoMEo Añejo another try, this time in the toro vitola. We sat in the outside seating area as we had brought Macha along. I still need to revisit this cigar, as it really didn’t burn as well as I’d like. It was a bit over-humidified. It was a muggy day, and the cigars were out in the lobby, not in the walk-in humidor, so that may have had something to do with it. Cigars usually burn perfectly right from the Mojo humidor, and the Vega Fina Nicaragua I tried to smoke last night just smoldered, didn’t produce any smoke unless I really puffed on it, and pissed me off to the point where I chucked it before the half way point and lit up an Alec Bradley Nica Puro. I VERY rarely give up on a cigar like that, but life’s too short to waste an hour fighting with a cigar…I digress.  The RoMEo Añejo wasn’t as bad an experience as the VF, and both show a lot of promise in that what flavors I did get tell me I’d really enjoy the properly performing versions. I’m really excited about the Romeo/Aging Room collaboration that should be in stores soon too.

That’s it for now, gotta get ready to hit the road. Don’t forget to go back to yesterday’s contest post and enter (maybe read the review too!). Those Toscano Modiglianos are darned tasty cheroots! Until the next time,

CigarCraig