Tag Archives: Cuba Aliados

by Craig Vanderslice | April 13, 2025 · 9:44 am

Cuba Aliados, Some New CAO, Cohiba Cigars and an Ashtray Condom

I’m not in New Orleans for the PCA show, it was a combination of not being able to get the flights I wanted, the expense of it all, and having to tend to my mother that made me decide to skip it. I’ll try again next year. I have plenty of friends there now, watch for their content: CigarProp, Cigar Pulpit, Coop and his team, Boston Jimmie, Developing Palates, etc. I’d love to have been there just to hang with friends. I understand Anthony Mackey (Captain America/Falcon) was there and must have said something wrong to Abe Dababneh, because he’s launched a bit of a smear campaign saying he was a dick to everyone. I’d love to know the whole story. Anyway, I managed to get some cigars in this week. I started out with a Cuba Aliados Original Robusto. This came in the bag from the Cigar Circus event. I have had the Aliados that E.P. Carrillo made, but not this one. This one is made by JRE Tobacco Co. in Honduras and is a Honduran Puro. I remember smoking some Cuba Aliados back in the 90s, and I seem to recall it was a favorite of Steve Saka back then. It was originally made by the Reyes family, who also made the Puros Indios brand, which had a 18″ x 64 cigar called the Chief, and was a little bit notorious for having tight draws. True to it’s roots, this example was packed really tight at the head, and the draw was on the firm side. It still smoked OK, and started with a citric sting, and ended with some cane sugar. Nice cigar, I’ll try it again.

I got a few things in the mail this week that were a surprise. General Cigar sent some samples, and I figure while a lot of the folks who would have received this are away, I’d get a head start on this batch. First was the CAO Fasa Sombra. I rather enjoyed the Sol and Noche, I think they are some of the best CAO cigars in the post-Ricky Rodriguez era. This is a Shade wrapped cigar, Ecuadorian shade-grown wrapper, a Cameroon binder and a filler blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan tobaccos. I smoked the 6″ x 50 toro. This was a nice shade cigar, with some bready, nutty notes. It was very pleasant, nothing overly exciting, just a solid shade cigar. Although not my favorite Fasa, It’s a nice addition to the Fasa lineup. I’ve had worse CAOs (Firewalker anyone?).

General was very generous, they provided me with a $30 cigar, the Cohiba Serie M Reserva Azul. This is made at El Titan de Bronze, a factory which the Brand Ambassador for Cohiba, Sean Williams, has a history. When I first met Sean in 2011 he was working with Sandy and Willie Herrera at El Titan making his El Primer Mundo cigars there. The first Cohibas made at ETB were just called the Serie M, and were really quite good (the lonsdale was better than the toro, to me), and I never had the 2024 Reserva Roja. Reserva Azul’s blend is a Dominican Corojo wrapper, Esteli binder and Nicaraguan Jalapa Viso & Ligero, Nicaraguan Estelí and Dominican Piloto Cubano fillers. This is an exceptional cigar! It starts out with some baking spices, and there’s a sweetness that comes and goes, I’m reminded of spiced gumdrops. I really enjoyed the crap out of this cigar while watching hockey. It’s competing with the Cornelius and Anthony Cornelius for my favorite ETB cigar.

An envelope from Kevin at Cigar Prop arrived this week with a strip of Cigar Porn Ashtray Condoms. I feel like he’s pranking me. There have been some incredibly useless “Cigarbage” items I can think of. The Shurikan “cutter”, the Select Draw and Five Star piercing tools, and the Cigar Bib, all silly useless gadgets. Maybe I’m being overly cynical, but an adhesive backed silicon disc to adhere to ashtray stirrups is silly. I think it’s supposed to protect your cigar from germs, I don’t know about you, but I don’t set any part of the cigar that touches my lips on an ashtray. Besides being dumb, it’s a few years too late. Maybe it would be clever if it had your logo on it and you went around to lounges putting it on ashtrays to promote your brand, I don’t know. I wouldn’t do it. Anyway, thanks Kevin! (pictured on a Cigar Prop for irony sake).

I was going to talk about the new Macanudo Emissary, but I think I’ll save that for next week so I can smoke another one. I liked it, I just was distracted and didn’t take notes. I smoked a Panacea Green Label earlier in the week that was delicious, and I can’t stress enough how good the Panacea line is. Check the daily deals on the left sidebar, you can try some cheap, and you’ll be happy you did! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

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Tagged as Ashtray Condoms, CAO, cigar, cigars, cohiba, Cuba Aliados

by Craig Vanderslice | February 5, 2023 · 10:02 am

Oliva Serie V, Cuba Aliados and La Patissier Cigars

Last Sunday I was out and about and came across a couple cigars that I hadn’t tried yet, so I bought them. I smoked a couple this week, although by Saturday it had gotten ridiculously cold, so I opted for a shorter smoke so as not to over-tax my propane heater. I started off with the Oliva Serie V 125th Anniversary Edicion Limit

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ada. I thought this would be priced higher, but it was reasonable $10, and well worth it. It wasn’t all that long ago that I felt like I was really going top-shelf spending $8-12 on a cigar. Times have changed. Still, what else could I do for an hour and a half or more that costs less than $10? This is an interesting figurado, it’s tapered at the foot, once you burn past the first inch and a half it may as well be a parejo. It measures 5½” x 54 overall and is Nicaraguan filler and binder wrapped in a Sungrown Ecuador Habano leaf. That narrow foot not only makes it easy to light, but seemed to make the opening few puffs pretty sharp and powerful. It settled into leathery and earthy with some cocoa sweetness. Overall I really enjoyed this cigar. I haven’t smoked a lot of Serie Vs lately, they have to be priced higher than this one. It’s highly recommended. By the way, the 135 refers to the anniversary of when Melanio Oliva started in the tobacco business, Oliva cigars has only been around for about 30 years.

Next up was another cigar connected with Oliva, from the recently acquired Cuba Aliados brand. I smoked a bunch of these in the ’90s when they were made by Rolando Reyes and existed alongside Puro Indios in their lineup. I can’t say I remember too much about them, but I know the Cuba Aliados brand was a favorite of Steve Saka back then. This one is made by Ernesto Carillo, it has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. Ernesto is kinda famous for using Sumatra, and I like Sumatra. The cigar I smoked was a 6″ x 54 torpedo, and I probably selected that because it was the only vitola the shop had available. This was a really nice tasting cigar with a sweet spice. It’s burn and draw were perfect and I quite enjoyed it. It was closer to $15, so I don’t think I’ll smoke a lot of them, but it was worth the money. I’m a fan if EPC from way back, so that probably worked in the cigar’s favor.

Like I said, Saturday was super-cold, and I know we weren’t along in this weather pattern, a lot of the country seems to have had a cold snap. below a certain temperature, my propane heater doesn’t do as good a job. This is the perfect time for shorter cigars, so I had a La Patissier No. 50 from the PCA show that would fit into this scenario perfectly. It’s 4 3/8″ x 50, not tiny, but not huge. I don’t smoke a lot of Crowned Heads cigars, and this particular one was made at the Pichardo factory before they had the falling-out. I don’t recall where they will be having this made, it might be made by Ernesto Carillo which would connect all three of today’s cigars in some circular way. Anyway, this cigar has a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Jalapa binder, and fillers from Costa Rica, as well as the Ometepe and Pueblo Nuevo regions of Nicaragua. My guess would be that future iterations of this cigar will not have the Puebla Nueva tobacco, as that seemed to be a favorite of Luciano Marielles. This cigar was really good, although I’m a little surprised to see it was Broadleaf, it didn’t smoke that way to me. It started out bold, and had an exotic spice that I couldn’t put a label on. It was very good, I may see if I can find some of these older ones so I can see if it changes.

A week or so back I smoked a La Gloria Serie S, their new San Andrés offering, and I guess I bought a couple of them and forgot that I had, because I couldn’t remember where it came from. Last week I got some samples of these and smoked one yesterday. I’m going to set them down for a while, lets just say that I had pretty much the same experience the guy who smoked one on Dojo’s last Smoke Night Live show had. I like San Andrés and I love La Gloria, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. More to come on that. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 135th Anniversary, cigar, cigars, Crowned Heads, Cuba Aliados, EP Carillo, La Patissier, oliva, Serie V

by CigarCraig | June 15, 2014 · 10:06 am

Another CigarMojo Event, an Alec Bradley, a Recluse and a CAO Cigars Contest

Thursday came around and one of our favorite lounges in the area was having an early Father’s Day event, so we (my wife and I) took a drive to King Of Prussia PA for a visit. For those of you unfamiliar with the Philadelphia area, King of Prussia is the home of the larges shopping mall on the east coast. It’s big, actually two malls, and it’s evolved from a strip center in the ’60s to what it is today. There is a cigar shop in the mall with a smoking area, which is nice when your wife wants to shop and doesn’t require you to play the part of Sherpa. Cigar Mojo is down the street a bit, occupying a free standing building nestled between a cemetery and a Wawa (another fairly regional convenience store chain with a nearly fanatical following). They were concurrently having an Alec Bradley event with “The Player” Jon Lipson, a Xikar event with local rep Rich, and a Cigar Rights of America member

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ship drive with Alan Price. Having stocked my humidors with Alec Bradly cigars at the last couple events I’ve been to, I perused the generously stocked humidor and came out with a handful of reasonably new singles. Trae does a very good job of having the newest releases on hand. I picked up a couple of the new Tattoo from Tatuaje, some Leccia Luchador El Castigo, a Cro Magnon, and a Nica Rustica. I always get the CigarCraig discount, where they add 10% 🙂 I smoked one of the Luchadors, which I really think is my favorite cigar to come out in the last year. I hadn’t smoked this size, which is the 6″x60, and it was great. I love the interplay of sweet and spicey that goes on. Once again, The guys there at Cigar Mojo put on a great event, if you ever find yourself in the area, check them out.

Friday I took my usual evening walk with a cigar that was generously gifted to me by Jon Lipson, the new Alec Bradley Family Blend “The Lineage” in the toro size. This cigar has a nice caramel colored wrapper with a pigtail cap which is from Honduras. The rest of the cigar is a mix of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos. I should have given this cigar some more humidor time, I think, because it smoked a little bit moist. It has been raining here all week, so it’s damp everywhere. Still, the cigar had very nice flavor, was solidly medium bodied to me, although if it were drier it may smoke a little more on the full bodied side. I’m looking forward to trying this one again because the flavor was very appealing and the finish was clean. It opened up in the last third and gave an indication of its potential for me.

Saturday I had two cigar opportunities, one sitting in my favorite beach chair out back soaking up some sunshine. I smoked another Cigar Rights of America cigar that I’ve had for a few years. This one was a Cuba Aliados Miami, and I hadn’t smoked a Cuba Aliados in years. Back in the day, Rolando Reyes made the Puros Indios and the Cuba Aliados. The Puros Indios were tasty, but almost always had a draw like a dowel rod. This one was a nice smoke, medium bodied, fairly normal good tobacco flavor and burned well without dropping ash anywhere it shouldn’t have. I had the Perfecto Cigar Holder clipped to the chair arm, which reminds me, I need to do a whole post on some accessories I’ve been using lately. I enjoyed the cigar and had a very relaxing time sitting in the sun reading a book. Don’t forget to let the FDA know how you feel about regulation of premium cigars, and if you aren’t already a member of the CRA, join!

Last night I took a walk with a new cigar from the folks at Iconic Leaf, the Recluse Amadeus. This is a box pressed Ecuador Connecticut wrapped beauty in a toro size, 6¼” x 50. Iconic Leaf uses the entubado method throughout

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their lines, and this one smokes no different, nice, open draw and even burn. This is another Connecticut Shade cigar with a little more spice and body. I’ve always liked the flavor that the Connecticut wrappers have as a change of pace, so this trend of slightly stronger shade cigars is welcomed. This sample came without bands, but I’m to understand they will be using a similar design in white as opposed to the black bands they use on the OTG and Draconian lines. Tremendous cigars all around. Interestingly (to only me, probably), Trae’s, of Cigar Mojo fame, uncle came to him with a scap of paper with the name Recluse Draconian written on it as a cigar he was looking for. I was able to educate Trae and his uncle on the line. Perhaps he’ll look into stocking something from Iconic Leaf.

Contest

It’s, once again, time to give away some CAO goodies! This time we have two of the cool tin CAO Flathead signs and a four pack of the new Flathead Spark Plug, which is a delicious little box pressed 4½” x 50 smoke. I’m doubling up the signs because, quite frankly, it cost me a bundle to ship these things. I’ll have one more contest coming up with these, I’ll look for more cost effective shipping method for sure. Anyway, my problem, not yours! Leave a comment to win, and I’ll pick a winner on Wednesday. Thanks again to Gary and Ricky from CAO for providing these goodies.

That’s it for now, Happy Father’s Day to everyone who either is, or has a father. I’m going to enjoy my special traditional cigar, a Esperanza par los Niños from 1998. I was recent;y gifted more of these by my dear friend Mike Perry, so I can continue the tradition through 2020! Thanks!