Tag Archives: Foundation

by Craig Vanderslice | December 8, 2024 · 11:27 am

Cigars from Nestor Miranda, Joya de Nicaragua, Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust and Foundation

I ended up smoking some pretty great cigars over the last few days! I started off with the Nestor Miranda Grand Reserve 2024. I have memory of smoking the 2011 and 2012 versions, which were the only other two previously released. The 2024 was released in celebration of Miami Cigar and Company‘s 35th anniversary. It’s a 6 1/8″ x 52 torpedo, made at the My Father factory in Esteli, and is a Nicaraguan Puro. This is an absolutely delicious cigar. It started with an interesting spice, maybe like nutmeg, very intriguing. It had a really nice desert cigar feel to it, like smoking a pie. I thought it was really good. Thanks to Gabe Pińeres for sending me this. Super-yummy.

Next up was the Joya de Nicaragua Cinco de Cinco. I know this one has been around for a while, but one came into my possession at the the Florida Barn Smoker last month. This was the Corona Extra vitola, 6 ¼” x 46 with a pigtail cap. Cinco de Cinco seems to translate to “5 out of 5”, but I want to say it has something to do with the company’s 55th anniversary. I think this is my favorite cigar out of the Obras Maestros collection, and there are some great cigars in that collection. I have to say that it’s really hard to pick a favorite, Numero Uno, Cinco Decadas, Cuatro Cinco, now this one? What a line up! This one has a San Andrés wrapper, with Nicaraguan fillers and binder. Burn and draw were outstanding, and it was loaded with dark chocolate flavors, and I loved it. It’s definitely one I’ll be revisiting. For someone who loves dark chocolate, but has to severely limit my intake because it triggers migraines for me, this is an acceptable substitute!

Yesterday, while watching hockey, I smoked the newest size in Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust‘s Sin Compromiso line, the Selección No. 4, a 5″ x 54 soft box pressed robusto. This is another San Andrès wrapper, this one Saka calls “Cultivo Tonto” which has the farmer removes all bet the best leaves from the plant so that they get the most nutrients. This make the tobacco more expensive, of course, because there’s no lower quality leaves to subsidise the better leaves. Saka only ever uses the best and most expensive materials anyway, right? I absolutely love the No. 5, which is a Toro, so I was excited to try the robusto. This was a really good cigar, although I felt like it wasn’t quite as sophisticated as the larger size. Sure, it was better than a lot of cigars, had some earth and black coffee notes, but it just seemed less refined. If I can afford it, I’ll pick another one up one day.

Finally, I smoked a cigar that Stace Berkland sent me a bit ago. I may have mentioned before that Stace had sent me some cigars in an unexpected reciprocation for some things I sent him. Here’s the silliness: Stace wanted to purchase one of my 20 year old plastic cutters, the little rectangular ones that Saka’s über expensive Guillotino de Saka is based off of. I had a few that’s I’ve had for years, used to buy them at my local shop, the guys there called it the “hot knife through butter cutter”. Like I said, I have had three of these for 20+ years, I’ve got a load of cutters, sending one to a friend wasn’t a problem! He felt the need to retaliate, so he sent some nice cigars. One of them was this Foundation Cigars Grasshopper, which appears to be from an exclusive box from Small Batch Cigars. This box had six of the Candella Grasshoppers, six of the Maduro, and one barber pole version. I had never seen this cigar before, but my first thought was that it was from Foundation, something about the look of the band. This is a small, box pressed torpedo, 5¼” x 52, with a San Andrés wrapper, Jalapa binder and fillers from Jalapa and Esteli. This was another great smoke with some spice and dark cocoa. Burn was excellent and I really dug it. Thanks Stace!

I need to start getting my Secret Santa gift together, names went out and it’s too late to join! I gave plenty of notice. I”ve got my work cut out for me this time! That’s all for today, until the next time,

CigarCraig

😃+

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Tagged as 2024, cigar, cigars, Cinco de Cinco, Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust, Foundation, Grand Reserve, Grasshopper, joya de nicaragua, Nestor Miranda, Sin Compromiso

by Craig Vanderslice | March 3, 2024 · 9:55 am

My Father, Metapa, and Perdomo 30th Anniversary Cigars

This week I smoked some cigars I bought on recent forays into some of my local cigar spots. All were new to me, although not necessarily new to the market. This happens, I don’t always jump right on the new stuff, and sometimes I miss out! Thursday evening I met up with my fellow Craig, and recent contest winner, at Cigar Mojo – The Grove, to hand deliver his prize. Shipping is always less expensive than visiting a cigar shop! I picked up a few cigars, and lit up a My Father The Judge in the 656 Toro size. This has been around for a while, I just never got around to it. Since Mojo carries a lot of My Father cigars I see myself catching up on them. I’ll grab something I haven’t tried whenever I stop in. This is a 6″ x 56 cigar, oddly they call their 6″ x 52 a Toro Fino, which seems like a toro to me. Maybe the 6″ x 56 should be a Toro Gordo and the 52 should just be the Toro? Not my circus…anyway, this has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, with a nice box press. This got off to a slow start, good, although fairly mediocre. It built up some sweetness, which I like, of course, and worked out to be a very enjoyable cigar, one I’ll smoke again. Naturally, the company was exceptional, I always enjoy time with my fellow Craig. We’ll definitely have another Craig cigar summit soon.

Friday evening had us attending a middle school theatrical production that one of the granddaughters was in, so I got a late start. I was going to skip a cigar altogether, but I had picked up a Foundation Metapa Corona Gorda at Mojo and it wasn’t that big, so I figured I’d light it up. Sometimes having a cigar too late gives me sleep issues, not the case this time, although I did get to bed a lot later than usual! I wanted to smoke a Metapa because these are being rebranded to Aksum, I guess to keep in line with the Tabernacle/Menelik/Ark of the Covenant theme. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this cigar, and maybe it’s the Maduro vs. Claro? I only had the maduro to chose rom, so that’s what I got, as if anyone would be surprised at that. This is a nice 5½” x 48 with a coil pigtail cap (I know there’s a name for it, just can’t remember it!). This was the best cigar I had all week. It started a bit heavy, cloying like licorice, which worried me. It settled in to a really nice, dense dark chocolate, not much sweetness, the kind with a high cacao percentage. I found this to be quite enjoyable, whatever the name, and I might have to see if I can find the claro version (although I still need to try the Olmec Claro!). It’s hard for me not to like Foundation Cigars, there seems to be something for everyone.

Last week I stopped in The Wooden Indian looking for some new cigars, and picked up some Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicures in Sungrown and Maduro. These come with a lot of hype, and my expectations were high. I’m a big fan of the 20th Anniversary Maduro, probably my favorite Perdomo. I thought the 10th Anniversary Sungrown was my favorite of that line, which, oddly, only really came out a couple years ago. The 30th aren’t priced bad, I could see companies asking a higher price for their anniversary cigars, but Perdomo does things right in this respect. I admire them for keeping their cigars pried within reason. I decided that yesterday was going to be Perdomo day, so I started with the Sungrown. I chose the 6″ x 54 Epicure size because, well, that’s the size I like. This has a 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and has a nice box press. I think this one had a patch near the cap on the underside of the cigar, which I find to be unacceptable on a cigar like this, regardless of price. This, of course, came off and I had to do some wrapper surgery because I don’t care for the mouth feel of a flappy wrapper. Other than that, the burn and draw were very good, and the cigar had a sweet spice that was nice. Not blown away, I’ll stick with the 10th Sungrown.

I had high hopes for the Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicure Maduro. This has the same 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan wrapper processed to a maduro, not overly dark, but dark enough, with a nice oil. This is a nice looking cigar, again, lods of hype, best Perdomo cigar ever, yada yada…It was a good cigar. It had rich dark roast coffee and cocoa and was very nice. For me, I find that the 20th Maduro to have more that I enjoy, to be honest. I suppose I was expecting a more refined experience, and maybe my palate just isn’t acute enough to appreciate the subtleties of these cigars. I’m told that the 30th Connecticut is something special. Given I was never a fan of the Champagne, I actually disliked it ( a rarity), I always pass on the Perdomo Connecticuts. Perhaps I’ll give this one a try, for science.

The folks at Best Cigar Prices posted a bunch of pictures of the cigarlebrities that will be at their Smoke-onos event in May, but they didn’t ask for my picture. If you’re there, hunt me down! Also, keep an eye out for upcoming details about a multi-vendor event at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA which will be in the beginning of May. That’s more than enough for today, until the next time.

CigarCraig

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Tagged as 30th Anniversary, Aksum, cigar, Cigar Mojo, cigars, Foundation, Foundation Cigar Co., Goose's Montecristo Lounge, maduro, Metapa, My Father Cigars, Perdomo, Smoke-onos, Sungrown, The Judge, wooden indian

by Craig Vanderslice | November 12, 2023 · 10:45 am

Trash Panda Connoisseur Club Over-Runs, All Saints and Micallef Cigars

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

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Tagged as All Saints, Black, cigar, cigars, Connoisseur Club, Foundation, Lonsdale, Micallef, Saint Francis, Solamente, Trash Panda

by Craig Vanderslice | October 15, 2023 · 11:25 am

Some Foundation Cigars, a Big Payback and a Little Papas Fritas

I went and got a flu shot and a Covid vaccine yesterday and the combination has really kicked my ass. Can’t recommend that pairing. Not sure which one gave me the fever and chills, but it was a miserable night last night, and I’m not exactly Mr. Happy this morning. We’ll see if the grass gets cut today or not, or if any cigars get smoked. Anyway, I stopped in to Cigar Mojo Thursday for their Foundation Cigars event with Eduardo Aguilar and Miguel “La Chaveta” Montanez for a quick visit. I probably could have stayed for a while, but I wanted to watch the Flyers game in the comfort of my own lounge, and I was fighting off a migraine, and a smokey lounge isn’t great for that. So I did the grab and go thing, and went home and fired up a Tabernacle Havana Seed No. 142 Doble Corona and watched some hockey. The Doble Corona is a 7″ x 54 cigar, good for the pre-game show and into the second period. The wrapper is a Connecticut grown Havana No. 142, obviously, which is a hybrid seed which is dark and oily and really quite beautiful. The binder is San Andrés and the fillers are from Estekli and Jalapa in Nicaragua and JAmastran in Honduras. This is a rich, spicy cigar with some sweetness. I also picked up a toro and a lancero, which I haven’t gotten around to smoking yet. really looking forward to those. I love the original Tabernacle, but this one is something special.

Friday I grabbed a Foundation The Wise Man Maduro in the Robusto size. I like their Robusto because it’s 5½” x 50 and skirts the line between toro and robusto. This was the sequel to the El Güegüense, which people fumbled over pronouncing. It seems it was easier to just call the maduro version by the translation: The Wise Man. Hard to argue the logic. This has a San Andrés wrapper, a COrojo 99 binder from Jalapa and fillers from Nicaragua. Being a fan of the Mexican wrapper, it’s hard for me not to love this cigar, it’s one of my favorites in the Foundation line. It checks all the boxes for me, coffee, cocoa, some spice. I dig it. I was disappointed that the new offerings from Foundation were a couple weeks out at the time they had this event. I was hoping to get the new Charter Oak offerings, even though I’m not sure I get the trend of budget lines coming out with premium offerings (Rocky Patel Edge, Brick House come to mind). I still want to try them, I’m desparate for anything new at this point!

So desperate I am for something new that I decided to smoke the new Room 101 Big Payback Redux while watching hockey yesterday afternoon. I figured this would be good for the better part of the game. Here’s what Matt Booth has to say about this cigar: “It has been my life’s mission to produce a combustible vessel so engorged and far more magnificent than its standard counterpart in cylindrical presentation, and it’s my greatest honor to offer our people such a product that overflows with both girth and grandeur.” If you’ve ever heard Matt, you just read that in his voice. This is a 7″ x 70 cigar, outside my usual comfort zone. I’ll do a 60 no problem, but a 70 is just unwieldy. I can count the number of 70 ring cigars I’ve smoked on one hand. This is a $9 cigar, and that’s the point of the brand, to give back to the loyal Room 101 supporters with a good cigar at a reasonable price. I have to say, mission accomplished, it’s a tasty cigar. This is made in Honduras, using a Honduran Olancho San Augustin wrapper (STG must grow a crapload of this as it’s been popping up on just about everything in their portfolio for the last dozen years, including Cohiba), a Connecticut Broadleaf binder and Nicaraguan, Dominican and Honduran fillers. I actually really enjoyed the cigar, which is good, because it’s a three hour commitment (a colleague noted a smoking time of 4½ hours! In a row?). Smooth, sweet nuts and creamy coffee notes. I can’t say this will be a regular for me, but if I find I need a three hour cigar, I won’t hesitate to grab one of these.

In an effort to balance things out, and since the effects of the vaccines were beginning to kick in, I decided to have something small for mey Saturday evening smoke. I hadn’t gotten around to smoking the Drew Estate H99 Papas Fritas yet, and I had bought a few several weeks ago. I figured I had smoked a behemoth cigar earlier, might as well off set things with something on the small side. This is 4½ x 44 with a pigtail cap, and made from the trimmings of the Liga Privada line. Steve Saka launched this line when he was at DE to utilize some of the valuable bench trimmings, and named it after one of his favorite things. Oh, I know, you think I’m being mean, but I’ve known Steve for over 25 years, and his favorite things are cigars, food and booze, gimme a break. Anyway, the H99 version came out last year as one of the Freestyle Live packs, and I’m not sure it would have been a big mystery, although I never saw the Freestyle Live pack, it’s a fairly distinctive format. This isn’t a pretty cigar, but it is tasty, and it burns well for a short filler cigar. I like having some short smokes around, and this and the original Broadleaf version are good ones to have. I still haven’t had the Nasty Fritas.

That’s all for today, I feel like the fever has made me drone on a bit. I’ll read this later and maybe do some editing (probably not). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Big Payback, cigar, cigars, drew estate, Foundation, Foundation Cigar Co., H99, Havana Seed No 142, Papas Fritas, Room 101, Tabernacle, The Wise Man

by Craig Vanderslice | May 14, 2023 · 9:39 am

An Olmec Claro, a 601 La Bomba Warhead and a Video

Last December I picked up the Foundation Cigar Co. Olmec in Madur and Claro. I had smoked the Maduro, and gifted he Claro. I happened to be shopping at The Wooden Indian a few weeks back and picked up another Claro, because I wanted to smoke it! I really enjoyed the Maduro, and I’ve enjoyed so many cigars made by Nick Melillo over the years. Of course, this is a cigar that is an homage to the original cigar smokers, the Olmec, and has a San Andres Claro wrapper, a double binder of Nicaraguan Esteli and Jalapa, and undisclosed fillers. Odd the undisclosed part, must be something interesting in there, although, upon reading the website description, there seems to be some some confusion, the filler may be Esteli and Jalapa, it says two different things! Anyway, this was a really good smoking cigar. I liked the Maduro more, but that’s not unusual for me, but this had some nice creamy coffee flavor and was very rich in flavor. I may not drop $15 on these regularly, but it’s a nice treat.

On the same trip to the Wooden Indian I picked up an Espinosa 601 La Bomba Warhead VII, just because it looked so tasty. The La Bomba line has been a favorite since the EO Brands days, when it was made at the My Father factory. This one is made at AJ Fernandez’ San Lotano factory in Nicaragua, has a Nicaraguan Broadleaf wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. It’s a 7″ x 50 Churchill, and it lacks the La Bomba “fuse” cap treatment. I actually haven’t smoked enough of the Warhead series to know if that’s a thing or not. I really liked this cigar. The box press makes it feel like a smaller ring than it is, and it’s really reasonably priced at around $10. It was loaded with dark coffee/espresso flavors. This was a really good smoke, burn and draw were perfect. I’m a fan.

Yesterday we attended the AC Cigar Social in Atlantic City, and I did a quick video interview with Jon Henderson (I had Jon Anderson on the brain for some reason…). I’ll write a more indepth post this week about the event, but in the meantime, here is the video: