Tag Archives: cigar store

by | September 14, 2014 · 6:46 pm

A Toraño Vault, a La Flor Dominicana 1994, A Perdomo Event and a Gunslinger Cigar

Thursday the news broke of the acquisition of Toraño Family Cigars by General Cigar Co., which came as a surprise to many, none more than the employees of Toraño Family Cigars, some of whom are actual family. Many saw this as a small company selling to a big company to save the brand before the FDA regulations put them out of business. I’ve been a fan of both companies, and have or had friends in both. I can’t help to feel let down by Charlie Toraño in the way he, from an outsiders perspective, let his employees, sales force, even employees bearing the family name down by not preparing them for this eventuality. From the outside looking in, based on conversations both public and private, it looks like Charlie was the big winner in this transaction, and the rest of the company is out on the street, so to speak. Oddly, this isn’t the first time Charlie’s done this. Several years ago he let his sales staff go when he entered into distribution with CAO, without warning and right before Christmas. I have to admit, I had a pretty good opinion of Charlie up until Thursday, and now I’m not so sure.  General gets a reasonably good line of cigars out of the deal. From what I understand, Leccia Tobacco wasn’t included in this deal, and Sam has several options available to him. He’s in a good position as he’s probably a pretty attractive property in the market, a hard working guy with a quality product.  Anyway, I grabbed a Toraño Vault D-042 robusto for my Thursday walk and reflected upon all of this. This cigar started off with a void in the center, which I found ironic.  I’ve enjoyed these in the past, it’s got a Habano wrapper that’s very oily looking, and features a leaf of Pennsylvania tobacco in the filler. Once it burned past the tunnel, about an inch and a half of the 5″ length, it behaved nicely. Rich and tasty. General Cigar Co. says they aren’t planning to make any changes to the manufacture of the Toraño line, and there’s a few that I really like and hope they leave alone.  I’ve had a good relationship with someone at Toraño for most of the past tern years, I’m sorry to see the company leaving the industry, so close to their centennial too.

 

Friday I grabbed the La Flor Dominicana 1994 Rumba that I bought at Cigar Mojo on my birthday a couple weeks back.  This is what The LfD website has to say about the 1994:

LaflorDominicana_1994_RumbaWe have set aside tobacco for years in anticipation of this very special blend to commemorate our 20th anniversary. The complex and powerful flavors of the 1994 originate from the best fillers and binder grown on our farm in the Dominican Republic and are complemented with a sweet and savory Mexican San Andrés wrapper. This blend is as special as the occasion it serves to commemorate and is symbolic of the quality and pride with which La Flor Dominicana has built its name.

I gave this a snip with the Xikar XV cutter, then opened it up a little with the scissors after a few moments of less smoke production than I wanted.  The Rumba is a 6½” x 52 toro and burns really well, once it’s opened up all the way, that is. Here’s a thing:  This has a San Andrés wrapper, but it’s not you’re standard maduro processed San Andrés wrapper. This appears to be the elusive natural San Andrés wrapper, which doesn’t have the familiar cocoa/coffee grounds kind of flavor. This is more refined, and silky smooth.  This was an enjoyable cigar, and as I dig back into the LfD lines after many years of neglecting them, I find this to be a winner.  I think it was under $8, which is also a plus!  Good smoke.

 

Yesterday I went up to a local cigar shop, Cigar Cigars’ Light’n Up Glenmore cigar store (I’m still a little hazy on what they are calling it since CigarCigars purchased the location!) for a Perdomo event.  Joe Winder, our local Perdomo rep was there, and I was greeted by him and Steve, who was the previous owner of the store, and now manages the shops. I picked out some cigars, a couple of the 20th anniversary in the Corona Grande size, which is a great 6½”x 48 size, and the new Perdomo Double Aged 12 Year Vintage, which I promptly lit up.  This is a unique cigar, the cigars are made using tobaccos from a 2001/2002 vintage crop, aged in bales for 10 years followed by an additional 2 years aged in wood barrels. I smoked the Connecticut wrapped version, and very much look forward to the Sun Grown and Maduro Versions.  It was very smooth, and was a great choice for a pre-dinner smoke.  It has tasting notes right on the band, so I really didn’t have to work to hard. It was indeed creamy with hints of caramel and cedar. Thanks to reader Kevin Shahan for putting this one on my radar!  It was a great smoke, and as a bonus, my old friend Jeff, who I grew up with, stopped by and enjoyed a 10th Anniversary Champagne with me.

 

Gunslinger_Perdition_ToroToday was a bit of a whirlwind. Long story short, we had scheduled a cleaning service this morning, and planned to have an open house this afternoon. The cleaning service canceled on us at the last minute, leaving us to rush around scrubbing and dusting and hiding all of our clutter.  My brother-in-law Jeff and his girlfriend ran over and helped us out. The open house was a failure anyway, but at least the house is clean! I can’t thank Jeff and Karen enough for coming, and I owe Jeff a nice cigar! When it was all over, I sat on the back deck with a cigar I got at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival, a Gunslinger Perdition Toro, from Kendall Culbertson of Outlaw Cigar in Kansas City, MO.  I’ve included the video of my brief interview with Kendall below, but he’s a passionate cigar man to be sure.  The cigar was terrific.  It’s made at the AJ Fernandez factory in Esteli, and features Nicaraguan, Honduran and Broadleaf (origin unspecified) fillers, a Nicaraguan binder and a San Andrés wrapper. I rarely have a cigar smoke so perfectly. It was a very rich smoke with smooth,flavors. I’m very glad I chose this cigar to cap off a less than satisfying day. I will be looking forward to sampling more of these, even though at $9 each they are on the high side of my price preference.  It was a treat meeting Kendall, I look forward to visiting his store one day, the next time I am in Kansas City will be my first.

 

 

That’s it for now, sorry the post is late, but it’s been a long day. Time to get some dinner and think about an evening walk with a small cigar. Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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by | February 19, 2014 · 8:29 pm

A Shop Visit with a La Gloria Cubana, a Great Wall and a Monte Pascoal

Serie R Esteli_cigarAs you well know, I’ve been tiring of smoking in the cold lately, so I paid a visit to a local shop on Sunday afternoon for a smoke. Lightn’Up in Glenmore, PA is only about 5 miles from home, and I pass it just about every day. I haven’t made a habit of stopping there because the inventory has been quite thin over the last few years. I heard that the store, along with it’s sister store in nearby Frazer, PA, was recently purchased by the CigarCigars chain which is growing steadily in the south-east PA area. I wanted to see what had changed, and the inventory is vastly improved. I selected a couple La Gloria Cubana Serie R Esteli, a CAO Flathead V642 Piston and a huge Foundry Compounds, Elements and Musings Uranium (I have to admit to a fascination with the Foundry line, and I dig the skeleton band on the Uranium. When I’m smoking a 7×70 I can’t say. This, along with the Carbon, are going to be regular production cigars, the rest in the Compounds, Elements and Musings line are limited editions). I sat down and lit up the LGC Esteli, which I like quite a bit. I think it’s the best in the Serie R line. It was the typical cigar shop scene, a few guys sitting around shooting the bull while the History Channel is on the TV. Yes, I wondered why there wasn’t some Olympics on, but there was a show about the White House (actually history programming on that channel, who’d think it?). They close at 4 on Sundays, which isn’t a bad thing, I was there for two hours enjoying the smoke, and it was good. Glad to see the shop improving. It’s in a good spot and is certainly convenient to me. I need to go visit their other recent acquisitions in my county. I was not impressed with the Frazer location when I stopped in last year, and I haven’t visited G&G Cigars in West Chester since they took it over. I’ll be interested to see how they have changed.

 

Great Wall_TudorAfter I got home and ran out for Chinese take-out, I figured it would be a reasonably good time to try a cigar I got at the IPCPR show. for the last several years I’ve seen the huge, elaborate booth of the China Tobacco Chuanyu Industrial Co. Limited. I’ll admit that entering the booth held little interest to me. I guess I’m a little closed minded, I see premium cigars as a Latin American product, and it’s hard for me to associate cigars with anything else. I have to applaud the companies persistence, it has to cost a bundle to bring this enormous booth to the show every year, and I honestly don’t recall seeing a lot of traffic there.  My friend Mitchell  passed his bag from the booth on to me, and I’ve been passing up sampling the coronas that were in with the glossy 50+ page brochure. I figured I already had a great cigar earlier in the day so I figured this was the time to try something outside my comfort zone. Not many things bother me more than wasting quality cigar time on a sub-par cigar.  The cigar is called the Great Wall Tudor No. 2, and is about 5 1/8″ x 42.  It is described as having Indonesian wrapper and binder and “domestic” filler, which I assume is grown in China. I was expecting the worst, given I’m not a fan of Indonesian wrappers, but it wasn’t a terrible smoke.  It was fairly neutral, with some interesting flavors. It burned and drew well, I should hope that a factory that turns out five billion cigars a year (I’m assuming that not all are handmade). I’ve smoked worse, and I have a couple more floating around including a Great Wall Flourishing Age III, which is cello wrapped with a handy pull tab that’s described as “sweet flavored”. This one may wait for a while.

 

MontePascoal_BelicosoMonday  evening I selected a Monte Pascoal Belicoso for my evening walk. This 5½” x 52 cigar was given to me last year by a gentleman know as Matt Ross on Cigar Federation and Twitter.  I met Matt up in New Jersey last year when we had a bit of a herf at Cigar Emporium in Lyndhurst, NJ.  I figured I was meandering from the traditional tobacco regions with the Chinese cigar, so it wouldn’t hurt to smoke something from south of the equator.  This is a Brazilian puro, wrapped in Mata Fina, but not a maduro Mata Fina like we are used to seeing.  These are terribly tasty smokes, and I can’t recall smoking one that misbehaved.  The laws are such in Brazil with their regulation that it’s costly and difficult to introduce new blends.  This is precisely what the FDA would like to see happen here in the US, which will virtually eliminate the need to walk into your tobacconist and ask “what’s new?” Good reason to support all the efforts out there to keep the FDA out of our humidors (CRA).  Many thanks to Matt for the cigar!  It was greatly enjoyed.

 

That about concludes today’s journey around the world!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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by | February 12, 2014 · 9:35 am

My Sunday Visit to The Cigar Inn in New York City

Sunday I found myself in New York City with a few hours to kill and made my way to The Cigar Inn on 2nd Avenue around 54th street. This place came highly recommended and I hadn’t been there before, so it seemed like the right choice. I arrived at about 9:30 which was about an hour and a half early, so I wandered to a nearby McDonalds and had breakfast and sat down to fix Sunday’s post that I goofed up! That’s what happens when I deviate from my schedule and pre-write a post. I got it fixed for the most part, apologies to 838100927those who had to suffer through the less than optimally formatted post. Anyway, I headed back to The Cigar Inn right on time for their 11:00 opening time. If I have one complaint about this shop it was that it was late opening. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine, if your sign says you open at a certain time, you should be open! I understand stuff happens, and the weather lately has not been exactly cooperating. I sucked it up and was happy to come in out of the cold when one of the owners arrived to open shop. As I had some time to look at the storefront while I waited, I noted that there was a small cigar store Indian, some shaving equipment, and some hats and shirts, no real evidence of cigars present, except for the name on the awning. Is this how the future may be?

 

Once inside, the store is really beautiful, lots of dark wood and leather. There’s a generously stocked walk in humidor to the left, and the counter on the right. Just past the humidor there is a fully appointed barbershop with two antique barber chairs and sinks. Just beyond that there’s a shoeshine stand on a raised platform. From there back there is a large bank of humidor lockers with tables and stools in front of them. The Cigar Aficionado branded lounge takes up the back of the store with comfy leather seating and several TVs. The back of the store has an atrium kind of feel with floor to ceiling windows looking out on a garden sort of area. Classical music is quietly playing in the background lending even more class to the place.

 

IMG_1193I bought my day’s supply of cigar from Bacz (I believe that was his name), who recommended their house brand and offered me the Brooklyn size to try. This is a 6″x60 with Nicaraguan fillers, a Honduran binder and a wrapper from Peru. This is a very nice smoke. It had a unique flavor, not your typical house blend, I think that the Peruvian wrapper really adds a flavor that sets it apart. It reminded me a little of  the C-Gars Ltd. Inka Secret Blend from the UK. It was obviously my first cigar of the day and it wasn’t too heavy, but it wasn’t mild either. Loads of pleasant flavors, smokes very well with perfect construction and burn (I gave it a V-cut). I ended up going back and buying another Brooklyn and the 5″ x 60 Bronx.  They were out of the smaller ring gauge sizes. At $9 in NYC, you have to try it if you find yourself in a Cigar Inn Shop.

 

IMG_1197I smoked a La Aroma de Cuba Monarch next, followed by the new Camacho Corojo Maduro toro, both I found to be pretty reasonable by NYC standards at around $8 each.  Oddly, and I have to wonder if the first cigar may have had something to do with this, but both cigars had an “ashy” taste to them. I will need to revisit both of these because neither were very enjoyable, and they should have been. It’s a Winston cigarette kind of taste, which certainly may not be something everyone can relate to, but that’s how it struck me. I get the same sensation from Cuban Cuaba and Victor Sinclair cigars. I will IMG_1198say that it didn’t detract from the ambiance of the lounge, and I smoked the Camacho in the company of Matthias Clock, who writes the FineTobaccoNYC site. I had corresponded with him in the past and dropped him a note that I’d be in town. He was gracious enough to take some time to meet up with me and hang out for an hour or so. I always enjoy meeting peers in this endeavor of cigar smoking. Matthias organizes cigar events in New York City, so if you’re in the area check his site for the latest goings on.  All in all, I had a nice, relaxing day in the big city, just hanging out and smoking cigars.  If it hadn’t been so frigidly cold I might have been tempted to break some laws and have a cigar in Times Square or Central Park!

 

On a related note, last night I smoked an Inferno Flashpoint, a Famous Smoke Shop exclusive made for them by Oliva.  From the website:

Inferno_FlashpointInferno Flashpoint cigars are the sister act to the original Inferno by Oliva. The core blend consists of perfectly fermented, estate-grown Nicaraguan ligero longfillers balanced by a healthy dose of sweeter Jalapa-grown leaves, deftly wrapped in an exquisite Sumatra leaf. Expect a medium start that blooms into a creamy, complex, full-bodied flavor bomb. Order a box now, or test drive a 5-pack and discover this affordably-priced selection that will spread like wildfire among cigar lovers.

This cigar is a winner. The flavor was very clean, that’s what kept coming to mind. I really enjoyed the creamy flavor and smoked it until I could no longer tolerate the juxtaposition of freezing/burning fingers. As it says above, it’s smooth and creamy, but loaded with flavor. The burn was perfect and I never had to touch flame to it after the initial lighting. From the name you might think this would be a knock your head off spice bomb, but it’s not. It’s a rich, satisfying experience. Thanks to Travis at Famous for allowing me to experience these!

 

That’s plenty for now.  Heading out to NYC again tonight to attend “The Official Memorial Tribute To Sid Bernstein – Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of “The Beatles’ Historic First Concerts at Carnegie Hall” Presented by The Bernstein Family and Sid Bernstein Presents…” at The Cutting Room.  Won’t be a cigar journey this time, but will be pretty incredible anyway.  Hopefully the impending snow storm tomorrow doesn’t get in the way!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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by | January 5, 2014 · 11:53 am

First Cigars of 2014: a La Palina, a Cain and a Los Blancos Nine

I see it’s going to be one of those winters!  We’ve already had about 4 snowstorms, and we’re seeing single digit temps for the first time in quite a few years.  I yearn for spring! I would rather smoke cigars without gloves and six layers! I have no problem going to any one of a number of local shops in the area, but that gets expensive, and I’ve got a ton of cigars here at home that need smoking.  Of course, when I go to a shop I can’t just buy one cigar and smoke it, I have to buy two, then something else catches my eye and I CE&M_Vanadiumhave to get two of them. It gets hard to keep up!  Then, I do something stupid like buy a box of cigars just because I dig the box and I think it’ll look good on the bookcase! Not only do I buy the box, but I add on a five-pack too! (remember the Famous-Smoke.com coupon codes folks!)  It’s crazy. At some point I send a bunch to Cigars for Warriors and give a bunch away, so it all works out, I suppose. Where was I going with this?  Oh, it’s been wicked cold (as they say in New England) here in PA.  Let’s see if that slows me down any…

 

La Palina Maduro Petite LanceroNew Years Day 2014. We had my daughter’s family over to watch the Winter Classic which was fun.  I spent more time playing with my grand-daughters than watching the game, but it looked like a great game with stoppages every so often to shovel the snow off the ice!  After they took off, I grabbed a cigar I’d been looking forward to smoking and took the dog for a walk.  The La Palina Maduro has been a favorite of mine since it came out last year. I was excited when a pair of Petite Lanceros showed up in my mailbox, and equally excited when I saw them on the shelf at Cigar Mojo last week (good to know a source of supply just in case I fall in love, right?).  It seemed like a good cold weather choice, easy to handle with gloves, strong enough in flavor.  I may like the larger ring gauge versions of the La Palina Maduro a little better, but this Petite Lancero was loaded with bitter sweet chocolate and coffee and was really quite enjoyable.  For me, I think the larger rings make for a little creamier smoke.  I will pick up a few more to have around, and I’ll look forward to smoking this again in the warmer months.  Quite a good smoke, a great way to start the year.

 

Cain_Daytona6x46Thursday evening is started snowing, so me and the pup went walking right after dinner. I’ve been in the mood for a Cain of some sort for a while.  Are these falling out of favor?  One of my local shop proprietors was a HUGE fan of these when they came out, now he says he will probably clearance them next month, they aren’t selling. I picked out a Cain Daytona 646, the milder blend in the Cain Line and fired it up.  I love the sweetness of this cigar. I think I only have a 543 and a couple lanceros left floating around the humidors, but the Daytona is my favorite blend o f the line.  I like the others after some aging time, and the Cain F tubed lancero is a clear winner, but the Daytona, to me, has the best balance and flavor.  This cigar was great, although it was better after I put it down for a while to dry out, and re-lit it after shoveling the driveway. The snow didn’t do it any favors, my fault, not the cigars.  I recently lost my local Oliva rep, so if someone from Oliva reads this and wants to chime in on the status of the Cain brand, please feel free!

 

 

Saturday morning I had my third appearance on the Kiss My Ash radio show in their “Bloggers Corner”.  It’s always a huge honor for me, and I felt the best about my performance this time.  I chose to resurrect a review of the Cigar Aficionado number one cigar of 2013, the Havana Montecristo No.2 that I did in 1996.  I took part in a Monthly Officious Taste Test on the alt.smokers.cigars Usenet group which was put together by Steve Saka.  This was probably the second monthly installment and this would go on for a few years as a feature on the CigarNexus website of which Steve was a part.  Anyway, I called the Montecristo No.2 a “dogrocket”, which was the lowest possible rating.  I can still remember the cigar as being acrid and nasty like
a pile of burning leaves in the autumn, you know, the wet, musty ones. I wish I had pictures of the cigar from 1996, but that was before digital cameras were anything really, and certainly before cell phones had cameras. Anyway, I though it would be interesting to read that review on the radio in contrast with Cigar Aficionado‘s recent number one rating. In their defense, it must have been a pretty good year for that cigar, as it was number two in Cigar Journal‘s rating, and I have had some spectacular No.2s over the years, but I’ve had some that were so-so too.  I give Cigar Journal some leeway since they are truly an international magazine, but I don’t find that giving a Cuban cigar the number one spot does anything for US readers, and retailers. A high rating is a very big deal as far as sales go for a cigar, it’s a waste for a US based magazine to promote a product that can’t be legally procured.  I’m not even going to get into the fact that this is an 80 year old marque which has been plagued with inconsistency over the years. Enough of that rant, Abe did let out that Steve Saka was going to be doing a regular feature on Kiss My Ash radio, so tune in to see what Steve has to say.  He has a ton of tobacco knowledge and I’m proud to know him for these last 17 years or so.

 

LosBlanco_Nine RobustoYesterday afternoon, although the temps barely got out of the teens, it turned out to be a nice day for a walk.  I had picked up a couple of Los Blancos Nine robustos Tuesday when I visited my local shop (see first paragraph!).  I’ve certainly know about this brand, and I’ve met David Blanco, but I haven’t smoked any cigars from them. The Nine looked tasty with it’s dark Oscuro Corojo wrapper. It’s a 5″ x 52 robusto with a Jalapa binder and three ligero fillers. This cigar blew me away with it’s flavor and construction. This is the best cigar I’ve smoked all year!  The flavor was bold, which I need in cold weather, and it had the right amount of lush, heavy bitterness that I really enjoy. When I was burning my fingers on the very tiny nub of this cigar I was really glad my compulsion caused me to buy two of these! I can’t wait to smoke the other one.  Damn great smoke and I’ll be looking to sample more form Los Blancos. It’s cool to find an exciting cigar like this one, not that there aren’t a load of great cigars out there, there’s more than ever, but this one was a surprise.

 

Once again, I’ve rambled on too long.  I’ve got stuff I want to get done today and sitting here writing isn’t going to get those things done.  I’ve got cigars to smoke before Wednesday rolls around!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | January 1, 2014 · 10:36 am

Happy New Year! – Cigars from La Jugada, Valentia, DBL, Asylum and Alec Bradley

Happy New Year everyone, I  hope everyone had a safe New Years Eve! I admit to falling asleep on the couch watching hockey!  I’m old and boring…anyway, best wishes for a prosperous 2014 without too much drama!  By the way, I couldn’t think of anything clever or amusing for a top ten list this year, but I would like to recognize the top 5 active commentors for 2013!  I appreciate everyone’s comments and thank everyone for reading along twice a week!  They are:

  • 1  czerbe 49 COMMENTS
  • 2  Agent 86 34 COMMENTS
  • 3  Craig (Not me, another Craig!) 33 COMMENTS
  • 4  jjo 33 COMMENTS
  • 5  George Satterfield 29 COMMENTS

 

Great job!  I’d send prizes, but most of you have already won something and my postal budget is shot after last week! How about this, cigars are on me the next time we get together (not all that far fetched!). Now you know the numbers to beat for 2014!

 

La Jugata Prieto ToroEnough nonsense.  Since I’ve been on vacation I’ve smoked a bunch of cigars over the last week.  I started out digging into some La Jugada Samples which were sent to me by the folks at Moya Ruiz Cigars.  I started off with the maduro offering the line, Prieto in a toro size. This cigar has a nice, dark San Andrés maduro wrapper, and the rest of the cigar is Nicaraguan.  I was struck by a distinct and different flavor in this cigar, not at all what I was expecting.  The closest I can come to describing this flavor is burning Mesquite wood. It was a very smokey flavor which was a surprise, and took a while to wrap my mind around.  You know how you grab a glass thinking it’s iced tea and it’s really Coke?  Your mind expects one flavor, when that other flavor, even though it’s a good flavor, hits your palate it just doesn’t seem right, know what I mean?  Anyway, it was a really tasty smoke, and I have a second sample that I may smoke in the very near future just to validate that flavor.

 

La Jugata Habano BelicosoI also smoked the La Jugada Habano  in the 6 1/8″ x 52 Belicoso size. This cigar, along with the Prieto, are made in Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Esteli.  There are some nice smokes coming out of that factory, in addition to Erik’s own lines, there’s also the Arandoza line, which I’ve enjoyed (see here). This beauty has a Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. This tasted much more like I expected a cigar of this pedigree to taste. It was smooth and full flavored.  I’m glad that it didn’t share that smokey Mesquite flavor that the Prieto had, because I think that set the Prieto apart and made it distinctive. To have that same characteristic across the lines would take away from the uniqueness.  The Habano was very, very good. Both cigars were perfectly constructed too, no complaints there. Thank you to the folks at Moya Ruiz Cigars for sending these along and for adding more cigars to my “to buy” list!  There’s not enough money or humidors for all the great cigars out there!

 

Valentia LucidoMonday (I think, they all run together over the holidays…I am lamenting having to go back to work tomorrow…) I smoked a Valentia Lucido, which is a 6″ x 56 cigar from the IPCPR show. I was impressed with the mission of this company. They funnel the proceeds of their sales to providing equipment for law enforcement. They do it in such a way that promotes the brick and mortar tobacconist, with donations made in the name of the local shop for every order, as opposed to hogging all the glory for themselves :-). This is a nice way to show local cigar stores in a positive light, and a double benefit as far as I can tell. Another benefit is that the cigar was darned tasty. I will smoke the regular line in the coming weeks, but this Lucido is supposed to be more full bodied than the core line, which gives me the impression that the core line will be quite mild. I really liked the color of the band too, but I’m weird like that.  I found the Lucido to be medium at best, but it had really nice, clean flavors that occasionally raised an eyebrow.  It was unfortunate that the band was attached with a little too much pectin, as it tore the wrapper up and made the last third of the cigar a bit of an adventure, but overall I’d gladly smoke this again.  Kudos to the guys at Valentia Cigars for giving back to the community in more ways than one.

 

Dominican Big Leager CoronaTuesday I went to my local shop, JM Cigars in Exton, PA to meet an old friend and enjoy a cigar or two without risking frostbite for a change. Jeff, the proprietor, when asked what was smoking well in the humidor, emphatically recommended a cigar called Dominican Big Leaguer. I had recently heard of this cigar in conversation in another shop, so I had to try it.  I smoked the Corona size and it was, indeed, darned tasty. These are reasonably priced in the $5-6 range and I’m told they fly off the shelves (along with the Asylum 13 in the 70 and 80 rings gauges, but that’s not a surprise) I picked up a robusto as well. It was a well behaved, good tasting smoke in the medium bodied range. It was a perfect first cigar of the day right after lunch. It’s a good idea to ask your local shop for recommendations, it can tell you a lot about the way the business it run. Jeff could easily have told me that the Padrón ’64s were smoking well, but he recommended a reasonably priced cigar. Good thing too, I spent way too much on cigars yesterday (more on that another time).

 

AsylumPremium 6x50After finishing the DBL, I moved on to an Asylum Premuim Toro. I’ve had a few of the Asylum 13 and enjoyed them for the most part (and I still have an Ogre in my humidor, it jumps out and scares me once in a while), so I figured I’d better try one of these while I’m parked in a big, comfy chair for the afternoon.  I liked this cigar much more than the 13. I found it to be very refined and smooth, with good flavor.  This is made by Christian Eiroa with all Nicaraguan tobaccos, and it was probably the best cigar I can recall smoking from Christian since his split from Davidoff. The oily, dark wrapper was really pretty and it burned perfectly with a nice, flat coal. Not badly priced, probably a cigar to try if you like good cigars! It was nice to meet up with a guy who I haven’t seen in 30 years and relax and catch up over some fine cigars!

 

Alec Bradley_Raices Cubanas RobustoAfter I got home, the dog needed a walk so I reached for a Raices Cubanas Robusto from Alec Bradley.  I was told when I bought this a few months ago to give it some time, as it had just arrived. It’s a nice cigar, but probably better suited to the lounge than the 20° wintery evening. There were tasty flavors that I could tell would be more pronounced in a more hospitable environment.  I’ll hang on the other single I have for a nice, summer day, I hope that day comes soon!  Don’t get me wrong, it was a well made and enjoyable smoke, but there was the potential for much more enjoyment lingering on the periphery. I don’t regret it as the last cigar of the year one bit.

 

That’s it, I’ve rambled on long enough.  Still trying to get back to some normalcy after December’s craziness! I’m sure things will calm down.  If you aren’t doing anything Saturday around 11:30 am EST, tune in to Kiss My Ash Radio, or listen to the podcast.  there might be someone familiar in their blogger segment!

 

Don’t forget the discount codes for Famous Smoke Shop!

CAPULET5 – Free 5-pack of Romeo y Julieta House of Capulet with any $75+ purchase

MONTAGUE5 – Free 5-pack of Romeo y Julieta House of Montague with any $75+ purchase

CAPULET20 – $20 off any $100+ purchase of Romeo y Julieta House of Capulet

MONTAGUE20 – $20 off any $100+ purchase of Romeo y Julieta House of Montague

 

Once again, Happy New Year!

 

CigarCraig

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