Tag Archives: Espinosa

by Craig Vanderslice | February 9, 2025 · 10:08 am

Flor de las Antillas, Espinosa, and a Couple Platinum Nova Cigars

A few weeks ago I picked up a Flor de las Antillas Maduro toro at Cigar Mojo since I didn’t think I had smoked that cigar before. I know this isn’t a new cigar, it came out in 2016 and was based on an Anniversary cigar for Federal Cigars in New Hampshire, I believe. Nobody ever said I had to write about new cigars, they are new to me. I’m basically making a searchable database here that I can use to find out when I smoked a cigar and what I thought of it. You’d be surprised at how many times I use the search on my own site! Anyway, I knew I hadn’t tried this cigar, and it looked really good. It has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is a 6″ x 52 Box Pressed Toro. It’s made at the My Father factory in Esteli. This started with a toasty flavor, with some spiced candy sort of flavors, I really enjoyed it. Mojo has a great selection of My Father cigars, I try to find something new to try when I stop in, and If I don’t see something, I grab a favorite. I’ll definitely grab this again.

I came home from the TPE show with a few new-to-me cigars last week, and one of them was the Espinosa Sumatra, again, in a toro size. There are only a few places around me that have Espinosa cigars, I know Wooden Indian has them, but I don’t get there as often as I’d like. My friend Richie at Espinosa gave me this when I stopped by the booth at the show. You probably don’t remember, but I met Richie back in 2019 when we were on the same episode of KMA talk radio. He was with PDR Cigars at the time. I was excited to smoke this cigar. It’s a 6″ x 54 with a Sumatra wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. This has some of the sweetness I associate with a Sumatra wrapper, and some nuttiness and earthiness. I enjoyed it, although I think I’ll stick with the Laranja Azulejo as my favorite in the line.

I always enjoy seeing Leo from Platinum Nova cigars at events and shows. I first met her at the 2020 TPE show, I remember Anne, formerly of Sutliffe, presently of City of Palms Distribution, introduced me to Leo and Ari. Platinum Nova cigars are made in the Dominican Republic and are very high quality in my experience. I remember seeing the Nova Champion Football Cigar in their display in 2020, and was lucky enough to get one from Leo last week. This is a football shaped perfecto, with a Habano 2002 wrapper, and Dominican binder and fillers. It, obviously, is stylized to look like a football. I hear that the Super Bowl is on tonight, so I figured I’d better smoke it before it was out of season. Wouldn’t make much sense smoking this on a warm summer day on the beach, would it? Of course, I was concerned that this 5″ x 70 perfecto wouldn’t burn right, or wouldn’t be that exciting, but I knew it had a good pedigree. It burned perfectly, and had a good draw right from first light. The flavor was sort of a leathery sweetness, lots of flavor, but medium strength. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was, and I enjoyed it while watching a movie on the porch. I’m kinda clad nobody makes a cigar shaped like a hockey puck!

Last night, while watching hockey, I smoked the Platinum Nova Platinum Batch Torpedo. This is a 6″ x 54 torpedo with a Habano 2000 wrapper and Dominican binder and fillers. It’s a really nice looking cigar. This is an $11 cigar that smokes like a much more expensive cigar. Burn and draw are perfect, it has bright tobacco flavors, is a little on the leathery side, but with some light floral notes. This is a sophisticated cigar that I would pick over a Davidoff or the like any day of the week, especially at that price. Nofa has some pricey cigars, but this one, on the low end (which 10 years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of calling an $11 cigar reasonably priced), is one of my favorite Nova cigars. It won’t knock you down, but it will give you a really pleasant flavor and smoking experience. I was delighted by it.

I’ve been using this lighter I got on Amazon for $24 and have been really happy with it. It’s a little big to carry around, but it’s nice for use at home. The V cutter does a nice job too. The link is an affiliate link. That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

Some Viaje Cigars, an HVC and an Espinosa Rerun

I try to include new (to me, or actually new) cigars in my Sunday posts, if nothing else but to create a searchable database of sorts for myself. This is a blog, with is short for “Web Log”, and I write it for my own benefit and it’s a happy accident that other people choose to spend their time reading it. This is something for which I am grateful, by the way! Once in a while I smoke a cigar that I’ve written about in the past that I feel deserves mentioning again. In this case it was the Espinosa Laranja Azulejo. This week I smoked both the Robusto Extra (5½” x 52) and the Gordo (6″ x 60) and enjoyed them very much! This has a sungrown Sumatra wrapper, a Brazilian Arapiraca Binder and Nicaraguan fillers and is made at the San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua. I smoked this back in 2021, and loved it, a recent mention somewhere put it back on my radar, and I picked up a few when I visited a shop in the area that has some Espinosa cigars. Oddly, not a lot of my local shops have them for some reason. Anyway, I smoked the robusto in the shop on Monday evening, one of the friendliest visits I’ve had to that particular shop in quite some time, and it was an excellent smoke. I picked up the Gordo on the way out because I was so impressed. The gordo is box pressed, so it smoked more like a toro, both shapes have deep, rich espresso and spice flavors, all my favorite flavors. This is a supre good cigar, if you like the cigars I like, you’ll like this one.

On to the “new to me” cigars! On that same visit to a shop on Monday I picked up a Viaje Birthday Blend Collector’s Edition. This shop has a pretty “classic” selection, it was hard for me to find a cigar I hadn’t smoked before. By the way, Viaje’s website sucks, it’s just a landing page with rudimentary contact info. I got information from Cigara, which is owned by Scandinavian Tobacco. This is a 6¼” x 52 classic torpedo, which comes with a birthday wrapping paper sleeve. I admit that I don’t know what year this cigar is from, they seem to change every year, and I am not familiar enough with Viaje to know to look. I’m guessing it’s the latest, based on wrapper color and flavor alone, which is Criollo, not one of my favorite tobaccos. Anyway, I found this to be an interesting cigar, with some mild spice and a somewhat floral quality. It performed very well and while I wouldn’t seek this out again (unless I find myself in the same shop in the near future and can go look at the box!), but I wouldn’t pass one up if offered.

Smoking the Viaje prompted me to visit Cigar Mojo close to home here knowing that they had some Viaje cigars in stock. I selected a Satori Nirvana, which is the 6″ x 50 toro in the line. When I see “Satori” I’m reminded of a song off one of my favorite albums, King Crimson’s Beat from 1982, “Sartori in Tangier”. I know, Satori is different from SaNtori, but my mind goes there. This has a rather ugly, mottled wrapper, bu that usually means it’s going to taste great. It’s listed as San Andrés wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and filler, made at the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras. There were some earthy flavors and some chocolaty flavors, and I rather enjoyed the cigar. They had a couple other Viaje cigars at Mojo, but they were on the smaller side, maybe I’ll pick them up for the future.

Finally, I got around to picking up an HVC Hotcakes Golden Age in the Laguito No 5 vitola, 6″x 54. I probably have passed this by in the past because it’s Connecticut wrapped, but I think I’ve worked my way through the HVC line, and had to try this one. I’ve heard good things. This reportedly has some “Corojo 2006 Maduro” in the Nicaraguan filler blend. This cigar combines the bready, sweet grassy Connecticut Shade flavors with some gutsy sweetness from the fillers. I like this, and it was very nice smoking this on the porch watching a movie last night, amongst my favorite activities (or lack thereof).

I’m not sure what next Sunday’s post will be, it will probably be TPE heavy, as that’s where I’ll be Wednesday thru Friday. So, until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

Sweet Jane, Murcielago and Alec Bradley Filthy Ghooligan Cigars

As October moves along, we get closer to Halloween (and eventually winter, ugh), so I figured I’d string together a few cigars following that theme. I’m omitting the obvious, mostly because I haven’t gotten out and found any yet, but there are other options. It brings up the question: do we really need holiday themed cigars? No, of course not, but it gives the marketing guys something to do. Drew Estate recently added the Sweet Jane Dia de los Muerto cigar to the very popular Deadwood line. It’s a 6″ x 50 box-pressed toro, with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper with binder and fillers from Nicaragua (although some sources say “undisclosed”, we are pretty sure there’s some tobaccos more usually associated with pipe tobacco). This has a sweet cap, and is aromatic. There are some baking spices, some cocoa, and it’s a nice change of pace. The sample I picked up locally, and at $12 I only grabbed one to try, ended up with a tunnel about half way in, but it eventually worked itself out. This is frustrating with any cigar, but more so as the price goes up. A $12 cigar should always burn right. I do enjoy the Deadwood line once in a while, and I see the appeal to the occasional smoker.

My local TAA shop had the Espinosa Murcielago de Oro TAA 2023 in stock, so I grabbed one of those on my last visit. I’ve been a fan of the Murcielago line going back to 2011 or so, when it was still Espinosa and Ortega (EO Brands). I miss Eddie Ortega, I need to see what he’s up to. It’s not meant to be Halloween themed, but I figured the bat thing would fit in here. The original has a San Andrés wrapper, This one, and the name gives it away a little, has a shade wrapper. I thought it seemed darker than usual, but that’s OK. It’s presented in a 6″ x 54 oval-pressed toro format, made at A.J. Fernandez’ San Lotano factory. This was a bold cigar, not as mild as one might think. I liked it, but it sorta seemed like a strong cigar with a shade wrapper, maybe some Cafe con Leche flavors? Nice cigar, probably another cigar that’s near $12, I think I’ll stick with the maduro version. I’ll have to stop back in and see what other TAA cigars they have that I haven’t tried.

Finally, Alec Bradley has added a cigar to their holiday offerings. They have had success with the Filthy Hooligan, which started out in 2012 as a Candela cigar (I still have one someplace), and morphed into a Candela/Jalapa barber pole with Honduran and Panamanian fillers, a Sumatra binder. Then they added the Shamrock, with Honduran Candela, Habano and Habano Maduro triple wrap. This year they decided to jump on the Halloween bandwagon with the Filthy Ghooligan. These are all in the Alec Bradley Black Market family and are limited releases. First, I think it’s silly. I get the play on words, but Ghoul is spelled with a U, and while the band is cute, it pushes “Marketing to children” to the line a bit. I know this isn’t the case, but I’m more of a traditionalist. That being said, I don’t mind a Barber Pole style cigar. This one has Ecuadorian Habano and US Broadleaf wrappers, making a nice light vs. dark brown spiral. It has Indonesian Besuki binder and Nicaraguan Jalapa,Estelí, and Condega fillers alongside Dominican Piloto. It smoked well, has a decent flavor, some leather and dark chocolate with some spice. I did smoke a Shamrock later in the day and I can see the family resemblance. The Candela makes the shamrock a little brighter in flavor. I do. find myself wanting to smoke more maduros in the fall, so I suppose this is a good choice. Overall, not a bad smoke

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, Black Market, cigar, cigars, De Oro, Deadwood, Dia de los Muertos, Espinosa, Filthy Ghooligan, Murcielago, Sweet Jane, TAA

by Craig Vanderslice | March 17, 2024 · 10:33 am

Knuckle Sandwich, Julius Caeser, Postanie and Aganorsa Cigars

I smoked a good variety of cigars this week, the next couple weeks will probably be featuring some retailer exclusive cigars, so I figured I’d mix it up. I had picked up the Knuckle Sandwich 56 Maduro on a recent visit to the Wooden Indian, it was on the high side of what I like to spend, but I wanted to try it. This cigar is made by Espinosa, at the A.J.Fernandez’ San Lotano factory, for Guy Fieri’s 56th birthday. Obviously, it has a 56 ring gauge, and looks to be made using the San Lotano Oval molds. I like a 6″ x 56, and I liked the Oval shape. It has a San Andrés wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. Can anyone tell me why the word “Sandwich” sounds like “Sangwich” when persons of Cuban descent say it? I went through a phase of smoking cigars with the ring gauge of my age for a while, now that I’m 60 I’m over that. I loved this cigar, which is a shame because it’s limited and expensive. It started with a nice spice over cocoa, and mellowed into a chocolaty treat, with a hint of the spice. I dug it, even though when I met Guy at the PCA show a few years ago he really could have cared less and my request for Erik Espinosa to get in the picture with us was ignored. I don’t get starstruck and fawn over celebs, some of them don’t like that. Anyway, I don’t regret the purchase at all, it wa sa really good smoke, probably the best I had all week. It was my Pi Day treat.

We are in the midst of a string of March holidays, so on Friday I was compelled to smoke a Diamond Crown Julius Caeser Toro. We all know that March 15 marks the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. We know the exact date because he invented the calendar we use. He instituted that just a year before his death. Anyway, he was a heck of an Emperor, but I guess his friends thought he was a dick, so they stabbed him. I may be oversimplifying things a little. A few millennia later some Hungarian folks named their son after him, and US immigration screwed up the spelling on his paperwork and Julius Caeser Newman started a cigar company that makes some great cigars. The Diamond Crown Julius Caeser is made at Tabacalera A. Fuente, has an Ecuador Havana wrapper, Dominican binder and Caribbean and Central American fillers. They could just say Dominican, Nicaraguan and/or Honduran fillers, but they can be vague if they want. I enjoy Diamond Crown cigars, from the mild Diamond Crown, to the bolder Maximus and Black Diamond, and this falls in between. I find the flavor to be largely sweet wood, which is a nice change of pace for me. I like this cigar a lot, I remember smoking one of these a long time ago with a shop owner who has since passed, before a big celebrity cigar launch dinner. It didn’t give me any stabbing back pain either.

Saturday ended up being a Connecticut Shade day, which isn’t normal for me, but I had a couple shade cigars I hadn’t smoked yet, so I figured I’d give them a go. The first one I have smoked, but there’s a new size launching at the PCA show that I had a chance to smoke. It was the Powstanie Connecticut Justice, a 5½ x 46 Corona Gorda which Mike Szczepankiewicz blended nine years ago for the birth of his son. This is made at the Nica Sueño factory like the rest of the Powstanie cigars. I really like the Robusto that Mitch shared with me late last year. This shape seemed different, it didn’t have the character that the larger ring had, although I still found it to be exceptional. This was a really good shade cigar with some body, which I think must come from the PA Broadleaf binder in large part. For someone who doesn’t gravitate to shade wrapped cigars, this is a really good one, and worth a shot, but I don’t even think it’s due to be released until next month, some additional age won’t hurt this one. If you come across any Postanie cigars, try them, they are all really quite good.

Finally, I smoked an Aganorsa La Validacion Connecticut Robusto that I got at the Wooden Indian a few weeks ago when Fabien and Mike King were there doing an event. Aganorsa is a brand I struggle to find a favorite in. There’s a few I like, and some I don’t, and I can’t seem to remember which is what. So I buy them and smoke them and enjoy them or not and start the cycle over again. I don’t care for Criollo ’99 too much, so that probably has something to do with it. I think this series is one I like, and I definitely liked this Connecticut. It was medium bodied, nutty with some wood and spice and really a nice cigar. I’m going to remember that I really like the La Validacion line (I just went back and checked and I did like the Maduro and Corojo!).

Today is Green Cigar Day, or as some call it, St. Patrick’s Day, so pick out a nice Candela and drive the snakes out of your country! Why have none of these companies made a Candela Culebra in honor of St. Patrick driving the snakes from Ireland? Because it would suck and it wouldn’t sell, that’s why. I’ll suggest it to Saka. I mentioned him making a Candela Lancero on my last Podcast episode with him and he poopoo’d it, now he’s making a lancero box featuring the candela. I’d write more today but I used a lot of letters on Mike Szczepankiewicz name. Anyway, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 56, Aganorsa, Aganorsa Leaf, cigar, cigars, Diamond Crown, Espinosa, Guy Fieri, Julius Caeser, Justice, Knuckle Sandwich, La Validacion, La Zona, Powstanie

by Craig Vanderslice | June 25, 2023 · 9:18 am

Smoking Through The Twisted Tasting Kit From Fox Cigars

Yes, Fox Cigar advertises on this site, but I purchased the Twisted Tasting Kit from them unsolicited, kinda for five reasons. I really like the Araposa Negra, and never mind having one more in the humidor (I’m smoking one now as I type! It’s absolutely delicious!), and I was quite curious to try the other four cigars. I started with the Araposa Blanca, a Fox exclusive made by Black Label Trading Co.. This is the Ecuador Connecticut answer to the Negra, and one thing BLTC does exceptionally well is make aesthetically appealing barber pole cigars. Another thing they do exceptionally well is make great tasting cigars, and this is a great tasting cigar. We know that shade cigars are low on my preference list, but this one was really, really good. It had a wonderful roundness to the flavor, if that makes any sense, it was full flavored without being overpowering, delicious without too much spice, it was very good. I may need to put more of these in the humidor, and I might need to sample Black Label’s other shade offerings.

In addition to the two Fox BLTC exclusives in the Twisted sampler, the other three were new cigars in the Altadis USA line up presented in a barber pole format. Historically I have not gravitated toward a lot of the Altadis cigar that are not made by A.J. Fernandez. I have a relatively open mind, although I’ll admit there are some cigars I have no interest in even sampling. Legacy brands such as the H.Upmann and Romeo y Julieta don’t fall into that category, I’ll give them a shot, even though I have pretty poor track record when it comes to liking cigars from the Tabacalera de Garcia factory in the DR. I gave the H. Upmann Barbier a shot first. This was a Toro, 6″ x 54, has Ecuador shade and Ecuador Sumatra wrappers, Indonesian Java binder with Nicaraguan, Dominican and Pennsylvania Broadleaf fillers. This was a very enjoyable cigar. It was smooth, rich, and had plenty of flavor. There was some sweet, bready flavors, and maybe the PA Broadleaf gave it a little oomph. I finally found a Dominican Upmann I like. Very nice.

I took a short break from this series to visit the Wooden Indian yesterday where they were hosting Erik Espinosa for the afternoon. I smoked, and very much enjoyed, a 601 La Bomba Warhead VII. I should buy more of these as I really enjoy the flavor. As always, the Wooden Indian staff was great, it was great seeing Erik, Mark, Jose, Bobby, and everyone else. I went home and took a nap.

After dinner I lit up the Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Twisted Toro. The Twisted Tasting Kit included both the Toro and the Twisted Love Story, which is the 4¼” x 46 perfecto version. I’m shocked that they were able to get away with using the name “story” with this shape cigar, although it would come down to who has the bigger lawyers, I guess. Still seems weird to me. I’ll get to the little guy when I need a small cigar, but the 6″ x 54 Toro works better for me. Regarding all of these dos capas, or barber pole style cigars, all four have burned perfectly, and often the dual wrappers can cause a meandering burn line, not the case. They all burned perfectly. The Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Twisted Toro has Ecuadorian Habano and Ecuadorian Connecticut wrappers, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, with the Ecuadorian Habano wrapper seeming to be the only change from the Reserva Real blend. I haven’t had a Reserva Real in forever, like I said, it’s not something I reach for (it kinda has two strikes against it for me, it’s DR Altadis, and it’s a shade wrapper). All that being typed, it was an enjoyable smoke, with the Habano knocking the grassi/nuttiness off of the shade a touch. It was good. For my palate, the Black Label offerings in this sampler were better, but I like a nice “theme” week now and then, and this was a good one. It was a good deal too, I was happy with the purchase.