Thursday evening I grabbed a Buena Vista Short Churchill that I was given by Gary Heathcott, the company’s director of global marketing when I was waiting for a Coke at the Cigar Journal awards reception at last year’s IPCPR show. This cigar is unique in that it’s an Ecuador Puro and it’s rolled by Cuban rollers that come to Ecuador on special visas to work in the factory. The cigar had a stunning appearance, very smooth and even in shape and color. I grabbed this based on the size, it’s a 4¼”x 54, so it’s a short, fat cigar, and I only had an hour to smoke. I have to say that I really enjoyed the smoke, it was good, but not as unique as I had hoped. There was really nothing especially different about it. It was a good tasting cigar. I had to touch it up frequently as it wanted to burn faster on one side, but not a bad cigar. If this is priced right, I’d say give it a try, if it’s too expensive, I’d personally choose something else based on this sample.
Friday evening my son and I attended and Oliva event at Old Havana Cigars in West Chester, PA. I’ve been to several events there and it’s always pretty crazy. Nice bunch of folks there and I always enjoy spending time with the local Oliva Rep, Mike Staiber. I picked up some cigars and promptly fired up a Serie G Maduro box pressed belicoso. This is a cigar that I haven’t smoked many of, and I don’t know why. It’s got a really tasty broadleaf wrapper and really hit the spot. I also grabbed a few of the Cameroon in the same size. For my troubles, I was rewarded with a couple free Nub Habanos (it was buy 5, get 2 free). Lots of people buying cigars, quite a few picking up boxes and getting all kinds of freebies and swag to go along with it. My son had a Cain Daytona in a corona size that he enjoyed as well (and is one of my favorites). We had a good time talking with Mike (@olivastaiber on twitter. Follow him!), who I’ve known for quite a while and is a great cigar rep and a very cool guy.
Of course, Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day, so that called for a candela cigar. Several years ago I picked up a box of the Camacho Monarca Candela because I really liked them and they were a nice change of pace. We had to go to a percussion competition at my son’s high school, in which he plays bass guitar in the ensemble, so I grabbed one of these for our walk to the school. If you have never had a candela cigar, you should certainly try one. It’s a different flavor, a little more vegetal or grassy, but refreshing in a way. In this case, we have the Camacho Corojo with the candela wrapper, so it’s no slouch when it comes to strength, as many candela, or as the were once called, American Market Selection (AMS) can be on the mild side. Astral is a cigar that comes to mind in the mild candela area, as does the Arturo Fuente 8-5-8. La Flor Dominicana and Illusione have recently put their spin on this once popular wrapper. Anyway, this box of Camachos has been consistently loose in the draw department, so I’ve taken to punching these to make them a little better in the draw department. Pretty strong for a noon-time smoke, but really tasty with a long finish, so long that I could still taste it several hours later after another cigar and dinner.
On the walk home from the event I had grabbed a Cain Habano Tubo on the way out the door, so I fired it up. This was the 550 Cain in a spiffy aluminum tube, and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and had a mile or so to walk, so I was lamenting my decision to grab this one as I lit it up. My fear turned out to be misplaced, because it was a damned tasty cigar! I spent another 20 minutes with this on the porch when I got home, it was just too good to put down. Perfect burn and draw. Strong, but balanced and, dare I say, complex. Every now and then an interesting flavor would dance across my palate, something I’ve missed in past Cain Habanos. Perhaps this one was well aged, or aged better in the tube, I don’t know, but it was likely the best Cain Habano I’ve had.
I don’t usually have a two cigar day, but the weather was so great, despite it being a very busy day, I had two spectacular cigars walking to and from the high school. The competition was excellent as well, lots of talented kids, and I’m a drum geek as well as a cigar geek, so I always enjoy stuff like that, cigars or not.
Until the next time,
CigarCraig
After starting off Saturday’s Delaware Cigar Festival with an Ortega Serie D maduro, I decided to fire up the Serie D No.8 natural that was a IPCPR show sample. It’s well documented that I love the Serie D maduro. The San Andreas maduro wrapper on that cigar is stunning and “D”licious and I’ve enjoyed several of the sizes offered. Of course, I was excited to sample the Natural version. The wrapper is an Ecuador Habano Rosado and is quite attractive. It burned wonderfully, but I got the sense that it was still a little young. Six months to a year in the humidor will do wonders for the already very nice smoke. I picked up a couple of these at the Delaware Cigar Festival and kind of regret not grabbing more of them, but there were so many other cigars there I wanted to try!
