Snow, Blue Mountain Cigars, Snow, a 601 La Bomba, a UF-13 and Ice

This winter has been pretty, er…wintery?  We had a mild couple winters in years past, so this one just seems rough, but it’s probably not that bad.  Today we had ice and a lot of broken branches and trees.  It’s going to be a mess to clean up.  As long as there’s no property damage we’ll be fine.  It’s resulted in a couple “snow days” which has given me some time to smoke cigars!  This week, so far, I’ve chosen some old favorites, along with something completely different.

Sunday….what happened on Sunday?  It seems so long ago.  Oh yeah, it was Groundhog Day and the furry little bastid saw his shadow. That and there were a lot of new commercials on TV.  IT was a reasonable nice day, so I figured it was a good time to take a chance on a cigar from the IPCPR show, a 6″ x 60 BMC El Threesome from Blue Mountain Cigars. They say that this cigar not only has three different wrappers (Connecticut, Habano and Maduro), but also has three different blends. The cynic in me finds this hard to believe, it looked to me like a Connecticut shade wrapped cigar with overlays of Habano and Maduro. I guess I’d have to see them being made to actually comment on this with any authority. The cigar started as you would expect, I guess, with a fairly mild and typical Connecticut shade flavor, and it did have noticeable transitions when it burned from wrapper to wrapper. I liked the end of this cigar more than the start, and it’s always interesting to see how the wrapper changes the flavor. If this does, indeed, have three different blends (would that make it NOT a long filler cigar but a mixed filler?), I didn’t get that big a flavor change, it was subtle. this is not a new factory, it’s been in Esteli since 1995, and they make cigars for other people.  I’d welcome comments from the folks at Blue Mountain on this cigar, I thought it was an interesting and entertaining cigar, and I’d love to see a video of these being rolled.

Monday was a snow day.  When I heard pouring rain, then sleet, then saw it dump about 4 inches of wet, heavy snow in an hour, I decided to stay home.  We ended up with about 10 inches and wore ourselves out shoveling the slop. I decided this wasn’t the time to fool around, and went straight for the 601 La Bomba Atom, a 5½ x 46 corona gorda with a long “Fuse” pigtail. I absolutely adore this cigar. I don’t find this vitola to be quite as strong as some of the larger sizes, but it’s loaded with flavor, and it’s a flavor I really like. This is another great cigar from Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory (although I can’t say for sure if this wasn’t from an older box from the EO Brands days, which would mean it was made in the My Father factory). If you have a fondness for stronger cigars, you can’t go wrong with this one. I really want to try the La Bomba Warhead, I just haven’t come across them in a shop yet, and I’m really looking forward to the Bunker Buster, Smoke Inn‘s next micro-blend.  This is one of those cigars I reach for when I want a “sure thing”.

Tuesday I grabbed a Drew Estate Liga Privada Serie Unico UF-13 Dark, a birthday present from Steve Saka last August. I don’t like taking cigars from the unemployed, but he was insistent. It was a lazy selection. We had another forecast for snow and rain and ice and stuff, so I wanted a satisfying smoke.  This is just such a smoke. the presentation is awesome with the fan style pigtail.  I just know when I select one of these it’s going to make me happy.  It burned perfectly and tasted great.  I have trouble finding fault with any of the Liga Privada line.

Today was quite an adventure.  We awoke to freezing rain. After Monday’s wet snow clung to the trees, there was excessive weight on a lot of branches and we had limbs coming down left and right.  Fortunately, no damage was done, but there were a great many road closures and getting to work was tricky.  At one point I stopped on one local thoroughfare and helped clear a tree from across the entire multi-lane road.  One lane going one direction and two going the other. Last I read about 90% of our county was without power, luckily we have auxiliary power, so I can post as usual. I took a walk tonight with a two plus year old Macanudo 1968 Robusto which was quite nice. It has developed a sweetness over the years and hit the spot after a long day.  It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it hits me just right.

I was quite honored to be included in the Famous Smoke Shop Blog‘s “Top 10 Cigar Blogs of 2013”.  Famous Smoke Shop is a supporter of CigarCraig.com, and has recently upgraded their advertising here (look for a new ad on the left side bar coming soon). These guys have been around a long time, as a matter of fact, I signed up on their site in the late 90s and still get alerts when some old favorites come into stock. I should probably go in and edit those alerts, as I probably wouldn’t be interested in some of those cigars any longer anyway. Check them out if you are ever in Easton, PA, they have a nice shop, lounge and restaurant. In addition to their blog, they also have the CigarAdvisor online magazine, as well as the annual Cigarnival. Thank you to Famous Smoke Shop for their continued support and recognition!

Also, please join me in welcoming La Sirena Cigars to the CigarCraig family. La Sirena Cigars recently went out on their own after a long association with Miami Cigar and Co. and produce some really tasty cigars. I smoked a Merlion just last week.  I look forward to featuring more of their cigars in the coming weeks. I’m quite pleased to have another cigar manufacturer represented here.

That’s about it for now.  Sunday’s post will be up in the air a little, as I have some travel plans.  If nothing else, I’ll have something ready Saturday morning and set it up to go out Sunday. Until the next time, Stay safe!

CigarCraig