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by Craig Vanderslice | December 17, 2023 · 10:05 am

A Micallef and Some New Cigars from Cayman Cigar Co.

Before I get into a couple cigars, check in here tomorrow morning for a special giveaway. I keep remembering back a decade ago when I was doing the 12+ days of giveaways and thinking about how much fun that was, but how many hours I spent on it! It consumed me! I have a few good giveaways up my sleeve yet, I can’t let this time of year pass without giving some stuff away! Stop by any time during the week and leave a comment on the contest post to enter! Along the holiday festive spirit lines, my Secret Santa was local and dropped off a generous package to me this week. I had a problem that I was able to solve Friday evening so I dug right into the cigars and selected the Micallef Gomez/Sanchez Family 1934 Reserva Churchill. This is a beautiful 7″ x 52 double corona, and I believe this is a the Limitada Privada that was among the first Micallef cigars to come out, carrying a higher price tag. I’m not sure if knowing this was a super expensive cigar would have changed my decision to smoke it when I did or not, I was feeling pretty celebratory, having the kitchen sink clogged all week and fixing it without calling a plumber felt pretty good. This cigar had what I call bright tobacco flavors, with some floral, almost perfuminess especially in the second half. It was medium bodied and sophisticated and complex. Quite a nice smoke, and I thank my friend with the excellent first name for the special gift. He managed to present me with a selection of cigars that were almost all new to me, no easy feat.

Last week I heard from an old friend, Anthony, who I met back in 2011 on a trip to the Dominican Republic. He was a blogger then, and has since been a broker and done some other work in the cigar industry. I feel bad that I didn’t get a chance to catch up with him during a brief time when he was living up this way, but it was during that odd time in history around 2020 when things were weird and some of us didn’t get out much. Apparently he’s working with the guys at Cayman Cigar Co. in the Cayman Islands and had them send a couple of their newest blends. Yesterday seemed like a good day for aquatic themed cigars, since I managed to break a pipe in an upstairs bathroom sink that had always been really slow to drain. It resulted in cutting out wet drywall in a downstairs ceiling to find a hole in the pipe, and a bit of a mess. My project for today is fixing that problem. I love plumbing problems…so while I was trying to get a plan together I smoked the Mariner. This cigar has a Corojo wrapper, and is 5¼ x 50. Best I can figure, this is rolled in the factory in the Cayman Islands, by Maria Delvis Hernandez, their master roller who learned her craft in the Partagas factory in Havana. This had an interesting and different tobacco flavor. I don’t often get “salty”, but I think this one had it. Maybe that was the Mariner imagery in my head, or maybe it really was salty, but it was good, and it help prepare me for wet ceiling drywall and leaky drain pipes.

The other new cigar from Cayman, and one Anthony worked with them on developing, is the Caravel. Another 5¼” x 50, this one is made at Tabacalera la Isla, Hostos Quesada’s factory, in the Dominican Republic. One of my favorite cigars, the La Sirena Mexican Mermaid is made at this factory. This Robusto has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper which is on the darker side, it could almost be confused for a Habano. It has fillers from the DR and Nicaragua. To me, this one was loaded with a citrus tang, I found it very refreshing. I may smoke another today after I fix the plumbing. Aside: the guy at Home Depot gave me a perfect setup last night: he asked if I was handy with a torch. I said, “sure, if I’m lighting a cigar!” For the record, I shy away from sweating pipes, using a torch in proximity to 60 year old rafters and waste pipes with possibly volatile gasses gives me the willies. I digress. I suppose I smoke enough cigars to be considered jaded when it comes to deciding whether a cigar is full bodied or not, this is described as full bodied, I found it pleasantly medium. This line is a bit more financially approachable than some of their others, I suspect the manufacturing costs are higher in the Cayman Islands thank in the DR. I’d love to visit some winter and see the factory ;-).

That’s all for today. Next Sunday will be Christmas Eve, so I’ll have to write a short post, announce the contest winner, and go shopping! Just kidding. Maybe. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Caravel, Cayman Cigar Co., Gomez/Sanchez, Mariner, Micallef

by Craig Vanderslice | March 5, 2023 · 9:00 am

Cayman Cigar Company Sovereign, Monarch and Diplomat Cigars

I recently received a sampler from Cayman Cigar Co., located in the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands is a British territory south of Cuba and west of Jamaica. It looks like the sort of place I’d love to visit about this time of year! The Cayman Cigar Co. donates 100% of their net profits to charity, and they seem to be working on actually growing tobacco on the islands, there isn’t any Cayman tobacco in their blends. It seems like the cigars are rolled there, and they are rolled very well, all five samples I smoked burned perfectly. Of course, I smoked these in a logical order, but, at least in the Sovereign series, they seem to be named a little out of order. All five were a 5¼” x 50 robusto vitola. I started with the Sovereign No. 1. This has a Brazilian Bahia Sumatra wrapper, over a Broadleaf binder, with Criollo and Brazilian tobacco in the filler. The Criollo is a constant in four out of the five blends, according to their literature. This is a medium bodied cigar, with a very interesting sweetness. The flavor was mouth coating, almost cloying. I was quite impressed with this cigar.

I moved on to the Sovereign No. 2, of course, the mildest of the set. Why the No. 2 is the mildest and not No. 1? You’re guess is as good as mine. It might be the only thing that bothered me about these cigars. This seems like it’s the same makeup as the No. 1, without the ligero, as there was a very similar cloying sweetness, along with a bakers spice of some sort that was both familiar, but I couldn’t identify. I’ve said it many times, I’m a picky eater, so my reference group of flavors is fairly small. Again, this was a nice smoke, accessible to the novice or experienced smoker alike.

The Sovereign No. 3 has a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, over what I assume is the same bunch as the No. 1. This is supposed to be the boldest of the three Sovereigns, and must be front loaded with the ligero, because it started out with a sharp bite. It quickly settled and had that cloying sweetness that the other two had, along with that baking spice, and some espresso. Despite being numbered out of order, which is more of a me problem, these are all very unique and interesting cigars. There’s definitely a common thread amongst the three.

The next cigar I smoked was the Monarch. This cigar also has a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper, over an undisclosed blend of fillers. It must have been the Brazilian fillers in the other three which gave them the sweetness, because this one was more on the savory side. It actually started out on the harsh side, I was concerned, but it smoothed out. There was a hint of the spice that the others had. So far, my least favorite of the three, but not a bad cigar by any stretch.

Finally, the Diplomat. I failed to take good notes on this one, except that it started out bold. This one they call “the ambassador of cigars. Representing the balance of strength and sophistication…”. It has the Arapiraca wrapper used on the Sovereign No. 3 and Monarch. The binder is a San Andrés, and what they refer to as “our most robust long leaf filler”. This cigar was the most full bodied of the range, and quite delicious. It had some espresso, as well as that signature spice that runs through the portfolio. All five had a perfect burn and draw, as I said at the beginning of this piece, very well made. I just took a look at their website, and see that this sampler sells for $96, so they darned well should smoke perfectly. These are priced high, but that’s not awfully uncommon with cigars made in atypical locations. Costs of importing all the tobacco, labor, etc. are all much higher. I would assume they are buying small amounts of tobacco that’s already processed and ready to go, which is more expensive. Considering that they were very unique, and of good quality, I’d smoke them again. the presentation was very nice as well. Maybe I’ll get to visit one of these days, it seems like a nice island. Many thanks to Scott Hough, one of the founders of the company, for allowing me to try these.