Smoking Alec Bradley, CAO, Macanudo and My Father Cigars

Finally it’s here, the day we’e all been waiting for (me at least), it’s Daylight Savings Time! I don’t even really mind losing the hour, it’s a good trade-off for the extra evening daylight hours. It also means spring is coming, which means summer’s coming, which I like.  I’ll try to find a good cigar to smoke to celebrate today, but for now, I have a few cigars I smoked this week to discuss. I found myself a bit torn between smoking something “new to me” and smoking an old familiar friend, so I did both. Balance is the key to life.  Thursday I lit up an Alec Bradley Post Embargo in the 6½” x 54 Toro size. This one falls into the “new to me” category as I have only smoked one before back in November of last year around the time they were released. I stand by my original thoughts that the wrapper isn’t the most flavorful, but it was a very nice, medium bodied smoke, with some leather and earth, no real sweetness to my palate.  I don’t know that 5 months in the humidor did anything to this cigar one way or the other, but I think it’s another solid Alec Bradley cigar, of which they have many. Their Nica Puro still remains my favorite in the brand.

This week was a beautiful week, weather wise, which made for a long week in the office, stuck behind a desk while it was sunny and in the 70s outside. As I mentioned in my last post, I was able to take two wheels to work this week, which makes the commute a little more bearable, but by the time 4:30 hit on Friday I was ready for a sure thing to wrap the week.  After a delicious diner featuring corned beef, I grabbed my final CAO Flathead 554, which was probably a leftover from samples I received when they were first released. I punched this with my ScrewPop 2.0 punch (the website lists a 3.0 now, I’ll have to find out how they improved this already fine tool) and lit it up. This must have had one vein in a leaf near the foot with a lot of oils left in it, because I got a runner that got nearly an inch ahead of the rest of the burn. This didn’t have any effect on the flavors of dark, black coffee and cocoa, which I love in this Broadleaf wrapped beauty. At some point in the future there’s going to be a box of Flatheads in my humidor, I’m just now sure which one.  CAO has just announced the release of two smaller sizes in the Connecticut Habana wrapped Steel Horse line, the Handbrake (4.5” x 50 – SRP per cigar is $6.99) and the Roadkill (5.5 x 54 – SRP per cigar is $7.00) which I’ll need to try before making a decision. I might just have to load up on singles of all the sizes just to have variety.

Saturday afternoon I took a walk with a Macanudo Maduro Vintage 1997.  I bought a handful of these a few years back at my local shop, they were reasonably priced, and there were only a few left in the box, which I wanted as I had seen them making these boxes in the factory when I was there in 2011. That box sits on my desk holding things like cords and flash drives and is  a pleasant reminder of that trip. I’ve had this cigar floating around the humidor for about four years now, and with the big metal band it has, it’s always been a bit awkward. I worried about it damaging other cigars, or having the 1997 Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper damaged by something else since it’s uncello’d. So I smoked it, and it was good. This has a Honduran binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Brazil and the DR, and is a really nice maduro cigar. Macanudo’s are often dismissed as mild and flavorless, I’ve not found that to be the case with the maduros. This was a refined blend with some sweet and spicy notes, quite entertaining. I think these are still around and worth trying if you like a good maduro. One thing that was very surprising on that trip back in 2011, by the last day my palate was pretty fried after smoking cigars nonstop for several days, so I grabbed a regular old Macanudo Maduro and I  could taste it!  Now, I just need to figure out what to do with the metal band (and where I stashed my other ones…), it reminds me of my old Boy Scout neckerchief slides, although I hardly think that would be tolerated in this day and age.

Last night I was in an exploratory mood, so I selected a cigar from CDMCigars.com‘s exclusive collection, the My Father Oro de NicaraguaRobusto. Holy crap was this a great cigar! There’s not a lot of information about the blend on the website, as I’ve complained about before, so I can’t tell you what differentiates this from the regular My Father line, but I can tell you it’s very good. It’s smooth, rich,  loaded with a bunch of flavors and is interesting right down to the nub.  If I’m not craving a sweet, mocha maduro, this is exactly what I want a cigar to be.  It wouldn’t be a My Father cigar without a little spice right at the start, and this one had it, although it was far more subtle.  I’m going to have to pick up some of the regular My Father line , or rummage through the humidors to see if I have one, which happens more than I’d like to admit…Thanks to Craig at CDMCigars.com for sharing this great smoke. I imagine they have these in the Casa de Monteristo store in Chicago?  These also come in a bunch of cool sizes.

That’s it for now, I have somethings that need doing today that I’m going to try to get out of the way early, then find something good to smoke this afternoon, and maybe something this evening to celebrate the extended daylight!  Until the next time,

CigarCraig