Tag Archives: Brun Del Re

by CigarCraig | July 18, 2012 · 7:20 pm

A La Gloria Cubana, a Brun del Re, a La Palina and a Hoyo de Monterrey Contest Winner!

I think the combination of the outrageously high heat and humidity and the air conditioning being on in the house has wreaked havoc with a couple cigars this week. I’ve been taking the cigar out of the humidor, getting ready to take it outside, sometimes it hangs out unprotected in the dry air conditioning for 10 minutes or so, then I drag it out into the hot and humid out of doors. I fail to see how these short periods of time have any effect, but I’ve had a few cigars that seem to smoke “wet”, as if they dried out a little inside, then soaked up a big drink of water upon going outside! I know this is unreasonable, but I can’t think of anything else. Other cigars from the same humidor are fine. Certainly some tobaccos burn differently at various humidities, or maybe I just got a couple duds! The first cigar to give me a little trouble was the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros retro tour edition, the one with the Sumatra and Broadleaf, as opposed to the Connecticut and Sumatra configuration that’s in regular production. I have had a couple of these in the Robusto size and absolutely loved them. It took some work getting the smoke out, having to double and triple draw for the first half to get at that deliciousness. Once it got to the half way point it started working a little better. In my experience, this is a terrific smoke, once you hit the broadleaf wrapper those nice, dark flavors really take off. If you ever get a chance to get to a La Gloria Cubana event and mooch one of these, do it, they are tasty as all get out!

Mondays can sometimes be “experimental” cigar days. I chose a Brun del Re Don Corazza robusto from the couple of cigars left over rom last year’s IPCPR show. I had smoked this cigar in a 4″ x 60 format and was less than impressed, which is one of the reasons I’ve passed over the robusto in my humidor. I figured after a year of age I’d give it another shot. I’m a strong believer in the idea that every cigar is someone’s baby, so this Don Corazza guy must love this cigar. It smoked pretty well, with a little hint of the “smoking wet” feeling I got with the La Gloria. I did enjoy the cigar past the band, it burned evenly and had a pleasing flavor. It may not be something that’s necessarily up my alley, but it’s still a nice smoke. I think I have a Brun del Re Premium Connecticut floating around someplace that I’ll have to try soon.

Tuesday, for some reason, I decided on a La Palina El Diaro Torpedo for my usual walk. This one had been sitting in my Griffin’s humidor for about six months or so, and it was one of those situations where I thought of that cigar for some reason during the day. I felt compelled to smoke it and I don’t know why. I’m glad I did because it was a terrific smoke! This line is one of those that I can’t put a name to any flavors, but I just know I like them and that they are always a high quality smoking experience. The construction is spectacular and they are smooth and rich and tasty. I am so looking forward to the maduro version, you know how much I love the San Andreas maduro wrappers!

Contest!

It’s time to select a winner for the third week of our Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros contests! If you haven’t already, make sure you enter Hoyo’s Box-a-Day contest at HoyodeMonterrey.com. I consulted the random number generator at Random.org once again, and it spit out the number 7. By my figuring, foozer69 left the 7th comment so he’s the winner! Send me your contact info so I can send you cigars. Sunday will be another contest, so you’ll have another chance to win a six-pack of cigars. Many thanks to the fine folks at General Cigar Co. for sponsoring this series of contests!

Finally, as long as you’re leaving comments on Sunday (or on this post), do me a favor and tell me what you’d like me to ask manufacturers and brand owners at the IPCPR show. I’d like to come back with information that you, the readers, want to hear, so I figured it would be easiest to ask! So let me know!

That’s more than enough for today, until Sunday,

CigarCraig

5 Comments

Filed under Contest, IPCPR, Review

Tagged as Brun Del Re, cigar, cigars, general cigars, hoyo de monterrey, IPCPR, La Gloria Cubana, La Palina

by CigarCraig | May 6, 2012 · 10:38 am

Brun Del Rè Cigars, a La Palina Cigar and a Little Rant

I was feeling adventurous again this week and reached for a Brun Del Rè Premium Robusto from last year’s IPCPR. I had smoked a sample from their Don Corazza line a while ago and wasn’t very impressed. I fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never judge a cigar line based upon a single sample”. Based upon that one sample, I had been hesitant to invest my valuable cigar time in what might have been just another ho-hum, run of the mill trade show sample. However, my faith has been restored with this cigar. It was a beautiful Ecuador Connecticut shade wrapped 5″ x 50 robusto stuffed with Nicaraguan filer and made in Costa Rica . It was well made, had a nice sweet flavor and was on the medium end of mild. I’m very much looking forward to sampling the rest of this line and even re-visiting the Don Corazza. This cigar is worth a try in my opinion.

Took a long walk on Friday evening and needed a little heftier cigar, so I selected a recently received La Palina Toro. If I get a mile and a half from home and realize I’ve got a dud cigar I’m very unhappy, so cigar selection in this case is critical. Of course, I have the foresight to carry a back-up, either to smoke if I get a less than satisfying cigar experience, or to share along the way if the need arises. With the La Palina, I know I won’t need the back-up. These cigars are always perfectly constructed, they are made in the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras, the same factory that produces such excellent and consistent lines as Alec Bradley and Illusione (the later of which I’ve never had, but heard good things!). The La Palina Toro is a rich and tasty smoke, although still pricey at $10 each. It’s a premium smoke that has never failed to deliver in all of the sizes I’ve tried, but I think I like this size and the robusto the best. Thank you to La Palina for providing the samples, and for their support of this site.

A Little Rant

This is probably the wrong time to type this. I tend to be the most curmudgeonly on Sunday mornings after I’ve worked at my part time job until 3 am, but I feel the need to vent. A couple things annoy me when reading/listening to my contemporaries in what I’ll hesitantly call the cigar media. My first beef involves basic writing skills. My dear friend Barry Stein made a bit of a joke about his typos, and it annoyed me but I get it. He had a wildly successful site, did a great job, and it was a bit of an inside joke. I read other sites (and I’m going to be a wuss and not name names) and I’m appalled. I’m no writer, but I take what I do here pretty seriously and try to present readable content. Punctuation, run on sentences, misspelling, I feel like I’m reading something a 5th grader wrote (with apologies to most 5th graders). Seriously, word processor programs will at least tell you most of this stuff is wrong! I don’t know how people can put their names on some of the stuff I see. It’s a blog. It’s not twitter or texting. Please write coherently. Another thing that rankles me is when I’m listening to a podcast, and I listen to a bunch, and the presenters get basic information wrong. I’m far from an expert, but after more than a decade and a half of being a crazy cigar fool, I think I can pretty much tell a cigars size on sight, or at least come close. I also think it’s irresponsible to get the price-point wrong about a cigar, especially to represent it as a much cheaper cigar than it actually is. Really, as much time as it must take to produce such high quality podcasts, and as readily available as the information is in most cases, I think it sloppy to leave out these little details. People must think I’m nuts when I’m in the car or out for a walk and start talking back to the podcast trying to correct them! Anyway, it all comes down to details in both cases. If you don’t have the details, don’t make them up or guess while presenting yourself as an authority. As I said, I neither think myself an authority, nor any kind of writer, but I try to get the details right as I feel it’s my responsibility. Thanks for listening, and please leave a comment if there’s something I do repeatedly that annoys you.

Sometime during the week I smoked a Berger and Argenti Mooch Schnorr that was really good. I love the size of this cigar, (it’s 5″ x 50 but it seems more like a corona gorda for some reason) and the name always makes me smile as much as the excellent flavor and construction. This is a reasonably priced, medium bodied cigar that I think can be enjoyed by many different types of smokers. In all honesty, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned this cigar as I’ve mentioned it before, but I spent a lot of time on the photo of the cigar and didn’t want it to go to waste :-).

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

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as Alec Bradley, Berger and Argenti, Brun Del Re, cigar, cigars, connecticut, illusione, IPCPR, La Palina, rant

by CigarCraig | February 22, 2012 · 6:21 pm

A Few Cigars: A Romeo y Julieta, a Brun del Re and a Humo Jaguar

I got into a little pattern last week while working on my last article, and decided I needed some diversity. I’ve been working my way around the cigar making countries this week, so here’s a look at some of the cigars I’ve smoked and the circumstances surrounding them.

Sunday was my youngest son’s 18th birthday, and for months he’s been telling me that we were going to smoke a cigar together to mark the occasion. Since his older brother’s first cigar at 18 was a Romeo y Julieta Coronitas, I figured that would be the fairest choice. I had purchased a box of these almost 5 years ago to smoke and share at my daughter’s wedding, and they went over very well. It’s not a large cigar, and it’s interesting enough to satisfy the newbie and experienced smoker alike. I hadn’t smoked one in a very long time so I joined my son on the back deck for his first cigar. We had originally planned to go to the Cozy Hookah and Cigar Lounge in nearby West Chester to have a relaxing smoke indoors, but when we got there it wasn’t open. Fortunately it wasn’t bitterly cold so we took the heater out and fired up. It went well. Christian enjoyed the cigar, and didn’t turn plaid like his brother had years before. 🙂

The next night, eager to try out all of the little things that come with turning 18, my son wanted to buy a lottery ticket. He had stopped in to the local cigar shop, JMs Cigars, and purchased a little Arturo Fuente, it looked like a maduro Exquisito to me. I grabbed a Brun del Re Colonial Robusto from the IPCPR show and the three of us (oldest son, Corey, included) took the walk to the convenience store. I was hesitant, yet currious about the Brun del Re, my first experience with the Don Corazza line was less than fulfilling. I needed to mix things up a little, so I figured what the heck. The cigar has a nice dark Costa Rican maduro wrapper and a mix of Costa Rican and Nicaraguan fillers. I think the Indonesian binder takes a little away from an otherwise nice cigar, but that’s just me and my bias against Indonesian tobacco. All in all it was an enjoyable smoke. Enough different flavors to be interesting and very well made. I still have a couple of thier other lines to smoke, I’m looking forward to sampling them.

Today we had one of those rare February days where temps approach the 60s, so I’m typing this while enjoying a Humo Jaguar Gigante that was a gift from my friend Barry Stein, formerly of ACigarSmoker.com, presently of Miami Cigar and Co. This line came out of the cigar festival of the same name which was held last February in Honduras. The word on the street is that all of the Honduran cigar makers submitted blends in a sort of Miss Honduran Cigar contest, and this was the winner. It seems to me there is some disagreement over who actually won, but this is the cigar with the Humo Jaguar name, and it’s the one I’m smoking now, so I don’t care. This is a 6″ x 60 monster with a nice, dark Honduran Oscuro wrapper. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I’m getting is a really nice cigar! Rich flavor, perfect draw and burn, and some subtle little flavors that make me raise the occasional eyebrow and say “hmmmm….nice!” I’m only half way though, but I feel confident in recommending this cigar, and deeply appreciate the opportunity to try it. I’ll be picking some more of these up in the future.

News

It’s a bit of good news/bad news for those of us in the Philadelphia area. As reported in last Thursday’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

Center City cigar lounge Mahogany on Walnut (1524 Walnut) will be closing its doors Feb. 29.

Owner Tom Piazza, who opened the bar in 1997 says he’s been operating without a lease since August and that Holt’s Cigar Company, the store downstairs, doesn’t want to renew it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who came in while governor of California, is among the many famous faces who have enjoyed a smoke at the old-fashioned lounge.

Piazza says he hopes to soon open a new location “Within a four block radius.”

“I have some of the most unbelievably loyal patrons,” Piazza said. “I feel horrible for those people. They’re apologizing to me, but I feel bad for them, that I let them down,” said Piazza, noting that the bar survived two smoking bans and two recessions.

Holt’s declined comment on not renewing the lease or its plans for the space.

UPDATED Feb. 18:

Holt’s President Robert Levin got back to me Saturday to say that after Mahogany closes, the space will “Be totally renovated and rebuilt,” and re-open in 5 to 6 months as The Ashton Cigar Bar named after the popular cigar brand Holt’s owns. Levin says the bar will have an updated HVAC system and walk-in humidor

So the bad news is that Mahogany over top of Holt’s is closing, a place many of us have stopped in to enjoy a smoke or two with friends over the years. The good news, I suppose, is that downtown Philly will soon have two cigar bars! It will be very interesting to see what Holt’s does with the existing space on Walnut Street, and where Tom Piazza will open his new place.

That’s all I have for tonight, now I’m going to get back to this tasty Humo Jaguar! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

6 Comments

Filed under News, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as Brun Del Re, cigar, cigars, Costa Rica, habana, holt's, Honduras, Humo Jaguar, mahogany, Miami Cigar and Co, romeo y julieta

by CigarCraig | November 6, 2011 · 9:19 am

A Bunch of Cigars, A Shop Visit, and A Contest!

After a busy few weeks of chronicling my trip to General Cigar Dominicana, it’s time to try to get back into a normal routine. I haven’t smoked too many cigars since my return. When I got back I had a terrible cold, so I didn’t waste too many cigars, and the ones that I optimistically tried tasted pretty bad. I kept it to cigars that I knew pretty well to gauge my taste buds. After a week or so, I was pretty well back to being able to enjoy a cigar.

One of the first cigars I had was a sample from the IPCPR show. I ended up with a bunch of cigars from Brun Del Re, a cigar maker from Costa Rica. This was a cigar from their Don Corazza line, which is a cigar made from Dominican and Nicaraguan tobaccos. The size was a 4″ x 60 which isn’t listed on their website. The cigar started with a nice, unique flavor, which turned a bit sour in the second half. I have a robusto in this line yet, as well as robustos in three or four of the other lines. Unfortunately, I have some pre-conceived notions about show samples from companies like this. It’s not fair, I know, but there have been so many cigars I’ve smoked in the past that have just been “same old, same old”, and failed to impress. These are nice looking sticks and I’ll certainly smoke them with an open mind. I may not get to the rest of the samples until spring, as I smoke fewer cigars in the colder weather, and tend to stronger ones.

I enjoyed a Monte Pascoal Robusto as well last week, courtesy of Wes Gensel, of Monte Pascoal cigars. This is a Brazilian puro, was awarded the best Brazilian cigar by Cigar Journal Magazine at their awards ceremony last July in Vegas, and is a very nice smoke. Perfectly constructed and a pretty cigar with a nice flavor. This is the first larger vitola I’ve smoked and I actually liked it better than the petite corona. On the full side of medium, this is a cigar you should try if you get a chance.

Last weekend we had an unusual October snowstorm, which dumped about 4 inches of wet snow on our area. We were fortunate to not lose power as many in the area did, nor did we have any limbs down on our property. I took my usual Saturday walk with a Cuban Crafters Powerhouse. I chose this because it was a cold and nasty day and I wanted something that would cut through the crappy weather. I mentioned somewhere that if I’m going to have my cigar get wet while I’m smoking it, I prefer it’s on a 90 degree day in a pool. As rotten as the weather was, this strong cigar was quite enjoyable. Any cigar that can hold up to wet snow and still provide a satisfying experience must be OK. This is a 6″ x 54 pigtailed toro that has a Nicaraguan Ligero binder, which strikes me as unusual. This is probably the first Cuban Crafters branded cigar I’ve really liked, but certainly not the first from Tabacalera Estili and Don Kiki Berger.

Halloween is always a traditional stogie night for me, and this year I opted for one of the coronas that I blended at Cigar Safari. The first one of these I smoked was at the 3 month mark, and it was spectacular. This one, while really good, was not as good as the first. I suppose as these age they will certainly change, I’m hoping that they will get better rather than worse. I shared one of these with my son yesterday and he enjoyed it. Seven left.

My mid-week walk got off to a late start so I stuck with a shorter smoke. A Gran Habano Habano #3 that was sent to my by one of my readers, Lloyd Ladrillono. I’ve been seeing these in catalogs, and they had a really interesting booth at the trade show which I never managed to visit, and the cigars look great and seem to be priced well. Lloyd was kind enough to share these with me and I appreciate it. I really enjoyed this robusto, it had a sweetness that I like a lot. This cigar hit me just right, it worked the way it should and tasted great.

I finished off the work week with a Murcielago Toro Grande which I bought at the Delaware Cigar Festival from Eddie Ortega. I like Eddie a lot, and I like the Murcielago more. The San Andreas maduro wrapper is beautiful and delicious. This one went a little sour at the band, but I think some humidor time will solve that problem. If I can keep my hands off the couple I have left, I’ll see if that’s the case, but this is a perfect cold weather cigar for me.

Saturday I took a drive to Pottstown, Pa. and paid a visit to Cole’s Tobacco. My wife had seen a picture of the store on one of the local radio station’s websites and did some research which led us to the visit. They have been there for a century and it’s the first I’d heard of it. In addition to a reasonable sized walk in humidor, they sell roll-your-own tobacco, candy, all kinds of stuff like an old fashioned news stand. They had the largest selection of Lars Tetens cigars I’ve seen in 15 years, we picked up a bottle of Lars’ Steak Sauce for the heck of it, I certainly wasn’t going to smoke any of his cigars! Anyway I walked out with a couple of Kristoffs that I hadn’t seen before, and had a nice chat with the proprietor, a young guy named Courtney. No lounge that I saw, but not a bad place to get some cigars if you find yourself in downtown Pottstown, PA.

To wrap the week up I smoked a Oja Anniversary perfecto on my Saturday walk. This is a semi-box pressed cigar with a Brazilian Samba wrapper that is rustic and oily. It has a very dark, rich flavor and burned well, despite it’s rough appearance. This was a sample sent to me by Luis Garcia, the brand owner. This is one of the cigars made by Kiki Berger in Nicaragua that I alluded to earlier that I really like, the whole line is good, but this anniversary edition is really nice. It commemorates the brand’s first anniversary, which is a little odd, but the cigar works, so who cares?

I haven’t had a contest in a while, so I have a Drew Estate cap and a Liga Privada cutter to give away this time. I might as well throw in a Stogieboys.com Cigar Journal along with it as well as a C-Gars Ltd. ring gauge card. I can’t be trusted NOT to include a cigar or two in a prize package. Leave a comment for a chance to win, and a Tweet with a link to this page (mentioning @cigarcraig so I see it) will get you an extra entry. I’ll draw a name at random next Sunday, November 13, 2011. Good luck!