I had a little different idea about how this week’s smoking was going to go. I got one each of the Connoisseur Club Over-Runs from TrashPanda, which are on sale for a ridiculously low price, by the way. These came with the caveat that they needed to be dryboxwd, as they had been sealed in the humidibags for several years. I opened them out and left them on the desk for a week (I think the house has been around 52% RH this week) thinking they would dry down sufficiently. The Foundation Lonsdales did, the Aganorsa Robustos did not, so you’ll have to wait until next week to read about that cigar and how there;s some left! I can tell you that the 
is quite a treat, and if you don’t go to TrashPanda.com and pick some up you’re foolish (and there’s nothing in it for me, at $25 each and buy one, get one, there’s probably not much in it for Kevin either!). the cigar is 6¼” x 46, has a Habano Nicaraguan grown wrapper, Habano Ecuador binder and fillers from Estelí and Jalapa. This is going to be a great cigar for the holiday season, because it has some really interesting warm spices, kinda like mulling spices. I thought it was very unique and delicious, and quite different from what Nick usually does. Maybe it’s close to something he’s come out with in the past two years that I haven’t gotten around to smoking? For $2.50 each you can’t go wrong, you might need to beat me to the checkout. I might note that TrashPanda is transitioning away from selling the rare and vintage cigars, and moving toward selling their own branded lines, so there are some great deals to be had all over the site. Again, nothing in it for me! (I just placed an order…as if I need more cigars…)
I’ve probably said this before, but I find that I have to talk myself into going out after a long day at work. I get home, eat dinner, and I just want to grab a cigar and retreat to the peace and quiet of my porch and enjoy that cigar for an hour and a half or thereabouts. Friday evening I had some choices to make, and I talked myself into heading to the Wooden Indian to celebrate All 
Saints Cigars 4th anniversary with Micky Pegg. When I arrived, Jim from Great Cigar Reviews was several hours in to his live podcast, which I assume was streaming on Youtube? Micky threw me to the wolves and sat me in front of the mic and Jim and I had a nice chat for a while. I had decided early in the day that I was in the mood for a Saint Francis Churchill, which was a motivating factor in going, I’ll admit. The cigar, as always, was delicious, it’s probably my favorite in the line. I came to be in possession of the new Solamente, which is going to be an annual release. I think I have one of the originals still in the humidor someplace. This is a 5″ x 58 cigar in the round, where the majority of the All Saints line is pressed. The Solamente comes in a box of 23, next year’s will be in a box of 24, and so on. How’s that going to work going into 2030? This is a $20 cigar, box buying is going to get a little cost prohibitive as the years progress. Anyway, I smoked it yesterday as I wanted to smoke it on a fresh palate. This. has an Ecuadorian Habano oscuro wrapper with Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers. I found this to be on the leathery side of the flavor spectrum, with some coffee notes, with a nice burn and draw. It was a fine cigar, but I’m in love with the Saint Francis and it’s hard to get me off that one right now, it suits me perfectly. It was fun hanging with Micky, I look forward to smoking the All Saints Collection Plate (my suggestion, doubt he’ll remember!). The Wooden Indian always has great events, they have a great staff and Dave, the owner is among the best guys around.
Of course, Micky Pegg wears two hats, when he isn’t a co-owner of All Saints, he’s the president of sales for Micallef Cigars, and I picked up a couple of their new toros as I’d been hearing good things about them. When it turned out that the Aganorsa Connoisseur Club cigars were still too wet to smoke, I grabbed one of the Micallef Black Toros to smoke last night. The first thing I notice when doing some background research on their website is that the have the measurements goofed up on this cigar. It’s 6″ x 52, not at all 5″ x 62 like the website says. Perhaps they should fix this. This has a San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers. This is a cigar that appeals to me. The construction was perfect, it was a good, solid maduro cigar with a nice chocolaty flavor, and it was just a good cigar at a great price. I don’t know what more to say about this that hasn’t already been said by others, I’m late to the game, but it’s good, and at $8 it’s great, can’t go wrong if you like nice, medium bodied, sweet, earthy maduro cigars.
That’s all for today. I figure I should get the temperature i n the room about doing a Secret Santa again this year. I’m fairly sure I know one person who will be interested, but who else would like to get in on a cigar exchange? Let me know in the comments. Until the next time,
CigarCraig
