Tag Archives: Blue Label

Two More Panacea Cigars, a Room 101 and a Diesel Vintage

I finished off the sampler of Panacea Classic line cigars I bought from them a couple weeks back.  I’m to understand there are a few shops that carry the Flatbed Cigar Co. line, but they mostly are selling direct via the website. I’ve placed a couple orders and both were easy transactions and the cigars came well packaged, presented well and in a timely manner.  Of course, the company is located barely an hour from me, which helps with the shipping.  I’m going ot have to arange a visit one of these days!  I had the Blue Label and Black Label left, and smoked the Panacea Blue Label on Thursday.  This was the Toro size, a 6″ x 52, with a Cameroon wrapper.  I had thought that the Green Label was my favorite, bt I might have to amend that after smoking this Blue Label.  This was a delicious cigar, it had a nice white sugar sweetness, along with the nuttiness I get from Cameroon.  This was a fine, medium bodied cigar that I really enjoyed.  I might have to see if they offer a sampler of these like the Green Label sampler I got!   

 

The Panacea Black Label, which I keep wanting to call the White, I guess because I associate Connecticut wrapped cigars with white. Probably something Davidoff and Montecristo put into my head.  The Black Label was their first line launched in 2007, If I’m not mistaken.  Like I mentioned, it has an Ecuador Connecticut shade wrapper, and the rest is Dominican and Nicaraguan.  I had the Perfecto shape, which is 6″ x 51.  I was impressed with the flavor, it had a hint of that white sugar I got with the Blue Label, along with some of the classic shade grass and nuts.  I wish this had a better draw, I thought it would open up after the tapered foot burned down, but it really didn’t.  This would have been an outstanding cigar otherwise, certainly a Connecticut I’d smoke again.  After smoking thought the line, I think I’m most looking forward to sampling the Green and Blue Labels again, or maybe I’ll explore their Panacea Grande line.  Good stuff.

 

Yesterday I got some yard work and errands done, and spent a little time i the afternoon with a Room 101 Hit & Run Redux Robusto.  This 5″ x 50 has aSan Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder, and Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania fillers.  This is made at the William Ventura factory in Tamboril, DR.  I have to start out saying two things:  Is it weird that a 5″ x 50 seems like a small cigar now days?  It used to be y go to size, now I avoid them because they seem to smoke too quickly.  I suppose an hour isn’t that quick, but I guess I like to spend a little more time smoking now than I used to.  Second, I have not historically cared for a lot of cigars from William Ventura. I’m not entirely sure why that is, they seem to smoke well and have a large following, I just can’t seem to get into them.  Given the blend, I should have really liked this cigar, and I did like it, just found it a little underwhelming.  It had a nice toasty cocoa, almost a dark chocolate flavor.  The presentation is nice, and I’ll give another one a try after a while.  

 

Finally, I smoked the Diesel Vintage Series Natural in the Robusto Gordo size. This is 5″ x 56, made by A.J. Fernandez in Nicaragua, with an Ecuador wrapper, Nicaraguan Habano binder and five to seven year old Nicaraguan Jalapa fillers. I’ve smoked a lot of Diesel cigars over the years, And I really liked the original Diesel Vintage, which had a San Andrés wrapper. I have a rather basic palate, I got some saltiness, along with some citrus and nuts. Burn and draw were exceptional, it was a pleasurable smoke.  I would suggest you read my buddy Kaplowitz’ review of this if you would like a more colorful description.  I hit the basics, Kap digs deep into the flavors.  This probably falls near the bottom of my list of favorite Diesel cigars through no fault of the cigar, it is a more refined Diesel, which misses the point of the brand in my eye.  I think there’s some 13 year old Unholy Cocktails in the humidor, I might have to smoke one later.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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La Palina Blue Label TAA 2018 Cigar

La Palina_BronzeLabel_RobustoI managed to smoke a couple of the new La Palina Blue Label TAA Exclusive Toros this week, and thought I’d share my thoughts, but first, I mixed last year’s TAA Bronze Label in just to compare. These follow the Black and Red Label releases, which were made at the PDR factory in the Dominican Republic, with the Bronze and now the Blue coming from the Placencia’s El Paraiso factory in Honduras. The Bronze Label went into regular release after it spent a year as the TAA exclusive. I smoked this last May and I think the few months in the humidor did it some good, because it had noticeable sweet flavors that I failed to note originally, and I probably would have made mention of that. I selected it because the size was right for the time I had, and the 5½” x 50 size was good for a nice hour and a half or so smoking time. I’d be very interested in smoking other sizes of this blend, I found it to be quite enjoyable!

 

La Palina_BlueLabel_ToroNew this year is the La Palina Blue Label.  The Blue Label is exclusive to TAA stores and is made at El Paraiso in Honduras, which is owned by Placencia. The wrapper is Habano, the binder is Honduran, and the fillers are Nicaraguan and Honduran. This is available in a 6½ x 52 Toro, which is a size I like in a cigar I like, and I like this cigar. When I can get another fifteen or twenty minutes smoking time out of a cigar that’s very good, I’m a happy dude.  I smoked two of these over the course of a few days, which I rarely do. The first example I smoked left me with some questions, I found it slightly more earthy and leathery than I prefer, however, I had some distractions, and tonight I smoked the second example without any distractions and found more of the sweetness along with that earthiness that I had found with the Bronze Label, although the sweetness was far more in the background and subdued. The burn and draw were exceptional. While this cigar is ready to go, I think age will be kind to this cigar.  Fortunately, I have a chain of TAA stores close by, so I should be able to get my hands on more of these, I’ll have to see if they have them.

 

That’s all for today, until next time,

 

CigarCraig

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