Tag Archives: EP Carillo

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 Limitada. 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 Craig Vanderslice | July 22, 2020 · 8:57 am

Villiger TAA 2020 Exclusive Cigar

Villiger Cigars has a couple of firsts with this cigar. It’s their first TAA cigar, exclusive to participating Tobacconists’ Association of America stores. Looking at the listing on the website, I’m not entirely sure they have the name right, they have it listed as “Villiger 1888 Edicion Regional USA”, where the band just says TAA Exclusive 2020. Considering this second point, it doesn’t have any relationship with the Villiger 1888, except that it’s made in the Dominican Republic. The second first for Villiger is that this is the first time they’ve worked with Ernesto Perez Carrillo Jr. to produce a cigar. It’s a box pressed toro, 6” x 54, with an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers.

When I lit this cigar up, before I looked at the blend and where it was made, I was 99% certain it was a Sumatra wrapper. It had that nice, sweet hard candy flavor I love. I wasn’t surprised when I read who made it either. Ernesto is a huge Sumatra fan, and he used a wonderful tasting Sumatra leaf on this cigar. I absolutely was enamored with the flavor of this cigar! It was a fantastic smoking experience. Like I said, it had that great Sumatra sweet flavor that I love, and it was medium bodied and not overpowering, very well balanced. Of course, as I got to the band it lost some of the sweetness and became slightly stronger, but don’t they all? Later I smoked the Villiger Cuellar Black Forrest toro (yummy), which, up until smoking the TAA, was my favorite Villiger to date. I suppose the limited nature of the TAA will force me to rein in my desire to stock up on these, my local Cigar Cigars stores are TAA members, and one can hope that they have these in stock (if I ever get out to visit one of them again!). By the way, if anyone from Cigar Cigars reads this, let the folks who run the TAA website know that they have the wrong website address listed for you!

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, CIgar Cigars, cigars, EP Carillo, EPC, TAA, Villiger

by Craig Vanderslice | January 26, 2020 · 10:39 am

A Diesel Whiskey Row Sherry Cask and a Montecristo Ciudad de Musica Cigar

I feel like a put out a load of posts this week leading up to the TPE. There was plenty of other news, but I’ve made a pledge to myself to keep things positive, and not report anything negative or divisive! I’m going to advocate unity from here on out and try to keep my cynical, sarcastic (I had a superior call me that once, then he gave me an award!) comments to myself. Sure, I have my opinions on things, and I have recently voiced my opinions on things and stand by them, but from here on out I’m taking the “can’t we all just get along” stance. I have to back-burner some other website ideas I had, but I’d have register them anonymously anyway 😁. Anyway, I smoked a few other cigars this week, I want to write an in-depth post about one, but I’m waiting for more information. I revisited the Diesel Whiskey Row Cherry Cask, this time in the Toro size. I’m not sure if I’ve written about this in this size, I know I’ve really enjoyed the robusto, and, being a bit of a Toro fan, I wanted to try it in that size. I bought a few last week, and didn’t get around to smoking them, but found myself meeting a friend in the cigar shop again and felt like that’s what I wanted to smoke, so I grabbed a couple more. I’m not sure why I can’t just buy one cigar. Anyway, I seem to think I smoked the Toro a while ago and liked the Robusto better, but this time I really did enjoy the Toro. In this cigar, and I don’t know whether it has to do with the color of the band, or the cask aging, but it’s like smoking a raspberry chocolate cake to me. I love the sweet, dessert flavor I get from the cigar. I suppose I’ll have to give the 6″ x 60 a try, but I wonder if that might dilute the flavors I like. I won’t know until I try, I suppose. These are priced well in the $7-9 range, and have a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, Brazilian binder and Nicaraguan fillers. Without the cask aging, there’s a lot to like in this blend.

The other cigar I want to talk about was a gift from my Secret Santa Adam. This is a cigar I probably wouldn’t have chosen to sample on my own, as it only really has one thing appealing to me. Honestly, there aren’t a great many Montecristos that I really like, there’s the White Vintage Connecticut, and the Espada, and Probably the AJ Fernandez. The Montecristo Ciudad de Musica is a collaboration between Crowned Heads and Montecristo, made at E.P. Carrillo‘s Tabacalera Allianza in the Dominican Republic. I’ve always approached Crowned Heads with some ambivalence, bordering on apathy. They always had a “we’re the little guy, we are anti-corporate” thing going on, then they go and make a cigar with the biggest company out there. I get that it’s a huge deal to have your company name on the biggest name in the biz, it’s really cool. Hang on, let me go back and read my first few sentences…OK…I’m back on track. This cigar pays homage to Nashville, the City of Music, or Ciudad de Musica, and has a Habano wrapper grown in Ecuador, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers and comes in four sizes. Initially, this was only available in Casa de Montecisto stores (CdM, see a pattern?, like Crowned Heads and Condor and Huber?, The Angels Anvil and TAA? Jon Huber loves that stuff apparently), then sold in TAA stores, and I did see these in my local shop which is a TAA store. I’m not sure if these are available to a wider range than that at this point or not. So I would like to thank Adam fo sharing this delicious cigar with me, because it was probably one of the most delicious cigars with the either the Montecristo, or Crowned Heads name on it. It was medium bodied, and had a very nice sweetness that I found very appealing. It wasn’t too heavy, or too light, it was just right, and the construction was perfect. I am a fan of much of EPC’s products, and have been for an awful long time, and this one is among the better I’ve enjoyed. I was stunned. I had mixed expectations. I expected a great smoke because of the person who shared it with me, but I had reservations because of my past experience with Montecristo. This is definitely a case of keeping an open mind, it was a delicious cigar, I may try other sizes.

That’s all for today. I need to spend the day packing for my trip to the TPE show. Please let me know if there’s anything you want to know from the show! I have a few appointments, but will be free-ranging otherwise. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Ciudad de Musica, Crowned Heads, diesel, EP Carillo, Montecristo, Sherry Cask, Whiskey Row

by CigarCraig | November 16, 2018 · 8:53 am

Podcast: Episode 11: A Chat with José Blanco at Goose’s

This week I ran into my friend José Blanco at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA one morning and smoked an EP Carillo Seleccion Oscuro Especial No. 6 while talked about the newest cigars and Jose’s blending events and other stuff. We could have talked for hours, but I like to keep things short and sweet!

I’ve said it many times before, if you get the chance to go to one of José’s tasting events, do it, it’s a great education and very entertaining! Tell José I said hello!

That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, EP Carillo, Goose's, Jose Blanco, podcast

by CigarCraig | May 13, 2018 · 9:26 am

Debonaire Habano, EP Carrillo Elite Oscuro and Macanudo Inspirado Red Cigars

Spring, nice weather and unemployment lead to long walks with good cigars. Besides the constant searching of job postings, and brainstorming on my future path, it’s come to my attention that I’ll be launching a podcast soon, so I’m trying to figure out the logistics of that venture. More to come on that and obviously it will be announced here. Fortunately I have a stockpile of cigars to smoke, but one that recently arrived in the mail from my friends at Drew Estate was a Debonaire Habano Belicoso. I’m a fan of the Debonaire line, Phil Zanghi, the owner of the brand and chief cigar alchemist, is a cool guy with a ton of energy. Phil founded Indian Tabak cigars, partnered with, and later sold to, Rocky Patel. I’ve bought some of the Debonaire cigars in the past, and enjoyed them quite a bit, for me they are pricey but worth it. The Habano was the first line they released in 2012, and it has a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper, Dominican binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. This belicoso was one of the original sizes released in 2012, and the example I smoked burned perfectly and really had a great taste. These fall into the “savory” category, and this may be one of the few lines where I like the “natural” wrapper over the maduro. The Maduros are great (as are the Connecticut Shade “Daybreak” line), but this Habano wrapper really makes for a great cigar. the Belicoso and Toro both measure 6″ x 54 according to the Debonaire Cigars website, either is a good choice, I’d think.

About two months ago I went to an event at Goose’s lounge in Limerick, PA (which is named after Limerick, Ireland, not after the often off-color poetic style) with EP Carrillo‘s José Blanco. It was a guided tasting, which José is known for, and was great. I picked up some EPC cigars while there, some Dusk and some of the Elite Series Seleccion Oscuro in the Small Churchill size. I smoked the Oscuro Friday and was really, really happy with it. This line has a Mexico San Andrés Oscuro wrapper, binder from Ecuador and Nicaraguan fillers and is a sweet, earthy feast of the senses. I don’t think this was overly complex, and I don’t generally sense a great deal of changes in cigars, but the flavors that it had were very appealing to me and it was just fine that they didn’t change much. I hated putting this one down. I swear I bought more than one, I’ll have to do some humidor rummaging…by the way, I also smoked a Dusk from the Classic Series this week that was spectacular. That Broadleaf wrapper is tasty!

I was wow’d by the Macanudo Inspirado Red in the box pressed robusto size initially, and wanted to sample the other sizes in the line. I picked up some Toros and Gigantes (loved the Gigante but leave yourself 2+ hours…), and finally got around to smoking the Toro. I had been told that the Robusto was the best in the bunch, and I think I’m inclined to agree, but the Toro was also quite good. It’s a 6″ x 50 in a round format, not pressed, and shares the high priming Ecuador Habano wrapper, Jalapa binder and fillers from Honduras (Jamastran), Nicaragua (Esteli, Ometepe) as the other sizes. These are full-bodied on the Macanudo scale, but high medium in the grand scheme of things, I think. I enjoy the crap out of the Inspirado Red, in this case I think the Toro is my least favorite size, which is like me saying a Maduro is my second favorite wrapper in a line! I love Toros, they are almost always my favorite vitola in a line, but this time I go with the robusto. Maybe it’s the box pressing? I’d love to try a box pressed toro!