Some New Cigars: Cuban Grande from Perseo and Michael Lington Cigars

First order of business: I have yet to hear from the two (2) winners of my last contest.  I’m itchin to put together the prize packs, but I need smoke770 and PapaLloyd L. to send me their current addresses! You’d think it would be easier to give stuff away!  I may have to add a rule stating that any prizes unclaimed after thirty days will be donated to Cigars For Warriors ! So let’s go guys, e-mail me so I can ship this stuff out! I need the humidor space. 🙂

After wrapping up a couple weeks worth of Cigar Safari reporting  it’s  time to get back to boring you to tears with the cigars I’ve smoked this week.  I decided to dive into some of the new and unusual stuff I’ve been generously gifted recently.  As far as cigars I smoked on Cigar Safari, they were all pretty darned good!  Keep an eye out for the new Kentucky Fire Cured which will be released under the My Uzi brand.  It’s unique, and if you like a smoky, barbecue flavor it’s a must try.  This thing has the powerful aroma of campfire off the foot, and has a smokey taste that’s not overpowering.  It wasn’t up my particular alley personally, but I look forward to trying it when the production starts.  Jonathan Drew is VERY excited about it and it will be worth a try, for sure.

A few weeks ago on my New Jersey adventure, I met up with Matt R. (@MattSRoss81) and he handed me a bunch of cigars on the flawed premise that I had sent him cigars and he “owed” me.  Nothing could have been further from the truth, but all were cigars I hadn’t tried yet, and of particular interest were a pair of 6″ x 60 cigars called Cuban Grande, from Perseo Cigars (Roxor).  I can’t find any information about these on their website, or elsewhere, so I’m going to stick my neck out a bit and hope I don’t hurt any feelings!  This is a well made cigar with a fairly common looking, dry, medium brown wrapper, probably habano, which has a very nice aroma.  The burn was very nice, it had a pleasing flavor, but wasn’t especially unique or special. I would put this in the “budget” category and say it’s a nice everyday smoke and hope it isn’t too expensive.  I’ve fallen into this trap before and had the same thoughts about a $12 “super premium” cigar, on the other hand I’ve had cheap bundle cigars that smoked like premiums, so who am I to judge.  I appreciate Matt sharing these with me, I always enjoy trying new things, and this was a nice smoke.

Yesterday I dug into some cigars that another loyal reader and friend, DB (@USAF_test) sent along.  When I met DB in California a few weeks back he told me about this friend of his who is a Jazz musician and cigar lover who has his own line, Michael Lington Cigars. He sent me a Classic Robusto and a couple Connoisseur Toros.   I selected the Toro first, since I was taking a long walk and needed a larger cigar.  As an aside, I like a regular old 6″x 50 toro, in these days of chubby cigars, this almost feels like a corona.  Anyway I used the V-cutter and got a really open draw. Looking  into the cut, one could see that the cigar was loosely packed (it seems like a lot of cigars I’ve smoked lately have been very tightly packed, so this was a welcome change).  One of the striking details of this cigar was the dark grey ash.  It burned well, it tasted good and was a good smoke that lasted well over an hour, which was a concern initially based on the draw and fill). These are available through Butthead’s Tobacco Emporium‘s online presence, Fumée, and are fairly priced.

My evening walk featured the Michael L ington Classic robusto, which is wrapped in what I assume to be Ecuador Connecticut.  this is a very pretty cigar, the V-cut showed a more dense fill than the Connoisseur, and the draw was perfect. I’ve given up on having expectations based upon wrapper color, so I wasn’t surprised when I got loads of medium bodied, flavorful smoke.  Oddly the dark grey ash was very similar in appearance to the Connoisseur, strange given the vastly different wrappers.  I enjoyed this cigar, although, like it’s sibling, it was a nice, everyday kind of cigar that isn’t priced badly.  Too many celebrities decide to put their name on a cigar and price it in the stratosphere, kudos to Mr. Lington for putting his name on a solid smoke at a good price.  I hadn’t heard of Michael before DB brought him to my attention, but he’s a gifted alto sax player (my dad teaches alto sax so I’ve grown up hearing it played!).  I hope he doesn’t mind, but here’s a video from his site of him playing God Bless America at a Dodgers Game (being a Flyers fan, this one jumped out at me. He’s no Kate Smith, but he’s pretty good!) 

httpv://youtu.be/e_rDU26nV2I

There you go, three cigars that are new and interesting.  Over the last few weeks I smoked some old favorites that I’ve posted about before.  Having a few weeks worth of trip report posts allowed me to catch up a little and smoke some cigars without having to pay attention to them and document them.  It’s nice to just grab a cigar and smoke it once in awhile!    Also, please join me in welcoming Best Cigar Prices to the CigarCraig.com family.  These guys have been around for a long time and have terrific customer service. I looked to them way back when I interviewed George Hamilton as they carried a Hamilton House cigar that was dirt cheap and not too bad.  They were very helpful on the phone on a Saturday and I ended up ordering a box as well. Fine folks, check them out.  Thanks to them for the support, and thanks to  Matt and DB for sharing these cigars with me!

That’s it for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig