Royal Gold Nirvana, Villiger Caberete and Nat Sherman Timeless Cigars

Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day so, after doing a little yardwork, I alternated between smoking cigars in my chair in the yard and smoking cigars in the pool.  We’ll be moving soon, so whether we’ll have a pool in the future is quite uncertain, so I’m trying to take advantage of the pool as much as possible.  I started the day with an old La Gloria Cubana Artesanos Retro Especialé Cubano from a box that came back with me from the DR in 2011.  These have aged nicely.  When that was done, I found a Merlion Robusto from La Sirena. I figured the aquatic theme would fit in with my day. I’ve had this robusto since at least a year ago and age has been kind to this cigar made in the La Aurora factory. Both were on the smooth and mild side, which was nice on a hot day.  After dinner I grabbed a new-to-me cigar that came out after last years IPCPR show.  Royal Gold is the premium cigar division of Swisher International, and I talked to Alex Goldman, the president of the division at the Cigarnival a month or so ago.  The Nirvana is made by Drew Estate and has an African Cameroon wrapper. It had the construction you’d expect from a Drew Estate cigar, and had a nice flavor with that Camerooniness that I love.  It was sweet tobacco all the way through and was quite tasty.  I have examples of their other lines, the Kismet and Casino Gold which I’ll get to in the coming weeks.  Based on the Nirvana, I’m impressed.

Monday morning I got to work and there was no power, the previous nights storms had taken down a couple poles, so we did what we could and got out of there early.  I came home and took a nap, then grabbed a cigar for my evening walk with the dog.  I’ve been a fan of Villiger Cigars for a while, and I came across a new cigar from them called Caberete Maduro. This jet black, box pressed cigar looked like one I’d enjoy, and is made at the Tabacalera Palma factory. This factory has been producing lines like Aging Room, Señorial, etc, and is one of the hottest factories in the Dominican Republic right now.  The cigar was quite enjoyable, medium bodied, with a strong coffee/cocoa flavor. It burned admirable and gave me a very nice smoking experience.   The cigar I smoked was the Toro Largo size at 6″ x 54 and had a severe box press.  I look forward to smoking more of these. More information about this can be found here, as Villiger’s site has yet to updated with the latest information.

Tuesday I grabbed a cigar that had been gifted to me by a work associate, the Nat Sherman Timeless No. 2.  I have no excuse for not having sampled this line before. Back in the eighties I smoked Nat Sherman MCD cigarettes for a while. They were gool because they were brown, and they were all tobacco so they went out if you didn’t pay attention.  Totally irrelevant to this story, but I used to get their catalogs at the time.  It may have had a little to do with my cigar fascination.  Anyway, this is a nice torpedo shaped cigar, a classic 6¼” x 52, made in the Dominican Republic with a Honduran wrapper and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.  I don’t have sophisticated tastebuds, so I was surprised when I got cinnamon. Is wasn’t cinnamon stick as much as a hard cinnamon candy.  I really enjoyed the flavors of this cigar and I’m sorry I haven’t smoked this line before. I’ll have to try some more, as well as the Nicaraguan line.  What an interesting and tasty smoke.

That’s about it.  We’re running out of time to comment publicly on the FDA Deeming Document. Go HERE and tell the FDA that regulating premium cigars will devastate not only local economies and put people out work, as well as hurting economies internationally.  It’s important, and I can’t wait to stop talking about it!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

You might also like:

http://www.cigarcraig.com/?s=retro+especiale

http://www.cigarcraig.com/?s=Merlion

http://www.cigarcraig.com/?s=Villiger