Tag Archives: general cigars

by | October 7, 2012 · 11:29 am

Some New Cigar Offerings From General Cigar Co. – Foundry, Macanudo and CAO

For the end of the week I decided to base my cigar selections on a theme, and I had some lovely samples from General Cigar Company that have been taunting me from the humidors.  I started off on Thursday evening with the new brand that debuted at the IPCPR show, the Foundry.  The example I smoked was the 5″x60 Talbot.  This is the brainchild of Michael Giannini, the Marketing Director/New Product Developer/Evil Genius at General Cigar.  I’m not entirely sure what his current job title is, but he’s a heck of a guy with a brilliant imagination.  His fascination with the “Steampunk” art movement inspired him to create this cigar which doesn’t use any tobacco from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua or Honduras.  The cigar was an amazing smoke for me.  It was mild, but loaded with interesting flavors that captured my attention for the entire length of the smoke.  I realized that 60 ring gauge cigars hardly phase me anymore, which is odd from someone who would sooner pick up a 42 ring cigar (or a lancero).  I’ve enjoyed quite a few cigars with a 60 ring gauge lately, and I think I liked this particular blend better in the larger format than the 6½x54 Lovelace that I had smoked before.  There were so many unique and interesting flavors, and I’m not one for nuance, that I found it to be a refreshing change, very clean and bright.  This is a winner in my book!

 

Friday evening I went with the New Macanudo Vintage 2006. This cigar has a flawless Connecticut shade wrapper from the 2006 crop, which was reported to be grown under ideal conditions.  I really loved the Vintage 1997, which had a delicious maduro wrapper and was quite fairly priced at around $7 a stick all things considered.  The 2007 is completely different, of course.  The boxes and the shiny metal bands are similar, but the cigar is lighter, with the bit of grassiness you’d expect from the Connecticut wrapper. This cigar brought back memories of some Macanudo panatela seconds I had bought back in the ’90s, maybe it was the firm draw,  or feeling the need to draw harder to get a satisfying mouthful of smoke, I don’t know, by that’s just what went through my head.  I enjoyed the cigar, it was certainly well made and pleasant enough, but my palate enjoys the maduro in this blend the most.  I love the Vintage ’97, and really enjoy the regular old Macanudo Maduro line quite a bit.  This Vintage 2006 will likely be a terrific smoke after year or two in the humidor.

 

Saturday I decided to finish the Trifecta with a CAO Concert Roadie.  This is the latest release in the CAO line, following up the OSA Sol from last year.  Where the OSA Sol was bright, the Concert is a little heavier in body.  The Habano Rosado wrapper is rich and beautiful, and the band is guitar pick shaped, flanked by guitars with the necks wrapping around the cigar.  The boxes are in the style of a Marshall amp, and they even have humidors in the same style, only with working speakers and a jack for an MP3 player (and a volume knob that goes to 11).  The line is a tribute to Nashville, where the CAO brand was headquartered originally.  The cigar was extremely well made, surviving an unfortunate fumble by me resulting in a 3 foot drop to the pavement.  The cigar suffered no ill effects, save for a wrapper split which never really caused a problem.  I think the broadleaf binder added that little something special to the smoke.  It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.  Rick Rodriguez will be going “on tour” to promote this new release, so check out the schedule and try to get to an event.  Rick is a cool guy, definitely fun to hang out with.  I hope to catch up with him when he visits here in November.

 

Editorial

 

Yesterday (Saturday 10/6/2012) I made an appearance on Kiss My Ash Radio, Abe from Smoke Inn in Florida’s weekly radio show.  It was my second appearance on the show, and I was honored to be asked back.  The “Bloggers Corner” segment features a cigar review by the featured blogger.  Regular readers will understand that this isn’t exactly in my wheelhouse, I’m not one to write flowery, loon-winded third-by-third cigar reviews.  Yesterday I actually had prepared a better review, actually it was included in last Wednesday’s post.  Unfortunately, I started to go on a tangent about how appearance is important to me when I’m smoking , but it kind of got derailed and really sounded like I just took a complete left turn.  The point I was trying to make (doing a play on words on the “blind review” phrase) was that I like to look at a cigar while I’m smoking it, and smoking in the dark, as I’ve found myself doing lately, takes away from the experience.  I just wanted to get that off my chest for anyone that may have heard it and thought I was a yammering idiot.

 

That’s it for today, I still have a couple of the new La Gloria Cubana Trunk Show samples to smoke, but they are pretty big cigar and I have to find the right time to devote to them.  I also need to figure out which ones are which, since they didn’t have samples with the unique tobacco paper bands on them. So, until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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by | August 2, 2012 · 8:41 am

A Stop on the Road to IPCPR Show and a Contest Winner Announcement!

I’m on the road, mooching internet connectivity where I can, so this will be a short one!  Here’s a video from the road.  Please see the end where the winner of the final Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros contests is revealed.

 

 

FF184, please send your address, I’ll ship your cigars when I return from Florida!  Again, thanks to the folks at General Cigar for sponsoring this contest!

 

Stay tuned for more to come over the next few days!

 

CigarCraig

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by | July 25, 2012 · 7:35 pm

Some Cigar History and the Hoyo de Monterrey Contest No.4 Winner

I’ve been smoking some great cigars this week, but all are cigars I’ve mentioned before here.  I enjoyed the heck out of a Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ on Sunday, although I personally wish it was a happier occasion to smoke this cigar (for those who don’t know why, pay a visit to StogieReview.com).  I also had a really nice Monte Pascoal robusto, perhaps my favorite in the line, as well as a Room 101 Namakubi Papi Chulo,  which was awesome.

 

So to break things up a little, my research department tracked down some goodies from the New York Times for me.  Here is an ad from December 10, 1938.  Note that there was a “National Commission for Propaganda and Defense of Havana Tobacco”!  How ironic does that sound?

 

 

Next we have this ad from December 11, 1939 for Macy’s Havana Humidor.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could walk into a Macy’s and buy a fine cigar? Talk about a miracle on 34th Street!

You can click on either of these articles to enlarge them.

 

Contest

Today I’ll select the fourth winner in the month-long Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros contest.  Sunday I will have the final installment in this series, but when I’ll announce the winner will be anyone’s guess!  I’ll be driving toward Orlando and the IPCPR show and updates will be dependent upon Internet availability.  Please bear with me, I’ll get a winner announced as soon as possible.  This weeks winner of six excellent Hoyo Reposado en Cedros cigars, as selected by the random number generator at Random.org, is comment number 7, which corresponds to smoke770.  Please send me your coordinates so I can get these in the mail to you!  Thanks again to General Cigar Co. and to everyone who entered! There’s still time to enter the Box-a-Day contest at hoyodemonterreycigar.com!

 

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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by | July 22, 2012 · 9:18 am

A New Cigar: Ezra Zion Inception and Hoyo de Monterrey Contest No. 4

This week I was presented with a unique opportunity, to try a new cigar from the guys at Cigar Federation, the Ezra Zion.  Kudos to them for dreaming of producing a cigar line and doing it, it’s not nearly as easy as it sounds!  There isn’t a lot of information on their site, and the promotional info they sent doesn’t say anything about the blend either, but these are apparently made at the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras TABSA factory in Esteli Nicaragua (note: I jumped to the conclusion that they were made in the Raices Cubana factory because I was told it was made in the factory that made Illusione, Viaje, Casa Magna and I ASSumed that these were made in Honduras.Mea Culpa) .   The cigar was a  6.125″ x 50(?) box pressed toro. It could have been 52 ring gauge, but the box press prevented me from checking, and I was too lazy to get a string out and measure it that way.  I honestly don’t believe it really matters!  The band was large, black and silver, with some angels flanking an “EZ” in the center.  It’s nice looking and, most importantly, comes off cleanly and easily.  The foot band, simply says “Inception” and “Primera Edicion” and was also easily removed, a good thing because foot bands make a cigar taste funny when you first light it up (that’s a joke there, I usually take them off before lighting).  The bands and the box press looked good.  The wrapper was a dark Colorado with maybe a tinge of a reddish hue, slightly veiny, almost rustic in appearance.  So it looks good, looks like a cigar I’d like.

 

My usual routine is to grab a cigar, light it and smoke it.  When someone offers me the chance to try their baby before just about anyone else, I take a little more care in my routine.  I smelled this cigar pre-light.  It smelled of rich, properly processed tobacco.  I lit it up, careful to get it properly lit.  The draw was perfect, loads of smoke on the easy draw.  So far I enjoy the flavor, I get a little Honduran vibe along with the richness of Nicaraguan tobacco.  There’s a bite that could be attributed to it’s relative youth.  I’m not saying that it isn’t ready to go, just that a few months or a year in a humidor might smooth this part out a little.  I’ll have to try to get my hands on a few more at some point and test this theory.  The sacrifices I make for science…sheesh.  Anyway, the cigar burned perfectly and continued to smoke well.  Strength-wise I put it on the fuller end of medium.  As I got down to the last inch, I began to feel some of the effects of the nicotine, and decided it was time to let it go, at least an hour and a half after lighting it up.   The flavor was savory and rich and it was a satisfying smoke, things I look for in a cigar.  It certainly compares favorably with many of my favorites, a Cain F or an Emilio AF2, for example.  Not that it tastes like them, particularly, but the experience was equally satisfying.  When I can smoke a cigar and think “hey, I look forward to smoking another one of those”  it works for me.  So many cigars underwhelm me, but this one certainly did not.  It was tasty, relaxing and trouble free!

So, bottom line, unless this is a $10+ cigar, and it certainly could be, I’ll try to get my hands on more of these. Keep an eye on Chris, Kyle and the Don from Cigar Federation, I look forward to what else they come up with.  With any luck I’ll run into them at the IPCPR show, I’d love to meet these guys.

 

On a related note, I smoked another Emilio AF Suave corona this week.  I found that one of the ones I had picked up last weekend has a crack at the head, probably from me sticking the bag in my pocket and being careless.  I can’t abide cracked sticks in my humidor, they aren’t going to heal or anything, so they must be smoked ASAP.  Stellar smoke.  Helpful factoid: wrapper cracks only effect the draw if the binder is cracked too.  They my cause some burn problems, but this one didn’t, it just looked crappy.  Of course, looks are important too, so I tried to stay out of the public eye while I smoked this one!  Also, I had picked up a few of the Tatuaje La Casita Criolla Short Churchills a couple weeks ago and smoked one of those. Another terrific smoke, loaded with Broadleaf goodness!

 

Also, a card fell out of my CI catalog advertising a 5 pack of Alec Bradley Tempus for $20 with proceeds going to Cigar Rights of America.  This is another good way to put some nice smokes in your humidor and throw a couple bucks toward preserving out ability to smoke premium cigars!  Just a public service announcement from me.

 

Contest

It’s time for the fourth installment of the Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros giveaway. Hoyo de Monterrey is giving away a box every day on their site, and, once again, I have a pair of three-packs which will be awarded to a randomly selected reader who leaves a comment on this post.  Wednesday I asked what you wanted to know from the IPCPR show, so feel free to continue to give suggestions. I’ll select a winner again on Wednesday.  Once again, my thanks to the folks at General Cigar for providing the prizes in this series of contests!

 

That’s about it for now, until Wednesday,

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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by | July 18, 2012 · 7:20 pm

A La Gloria Cubana, a Brun del Re, a La Palina and a Hoyo de Monterrey Contest Winner!

I think the combination of the outrageously high heat and humidity and the air conditioning being on in the house has wreaked havoc with a couple cigars this week.  I’ve been taking the cigar out of the humidor, getting ready to take it outside, sometimes it hangs out unprotected in the dry air conditioning for 10 minutes or so, then I drag it out into the hot and humid out of doors.  I fail to see how these short periods of time have any effect, but I’ve had a few cigars that seem to smoke “wet”, as if they dried out a little inside, then soaked up a big drink of water upon going outside!  I know this is unreasonable, but I can’t think of anything else.  Other cigars from the same humidor are fine.  Certainly some tobaccos burn differently at various humidities, or maybe I just got a couple duds!  The first cigar to give me a little trouble was the La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros retro tour edition, the one with the Sumatra and Broadleaf, as opposed to the Connecticut and Sumatra configuration that’s in regular production.  I have had a couple of these in the Robusto size and absolutely loved them.  It took some work getting the smoke out, having to double and triple draw for the first half to get at that deliciousness.  Once it got to the half way point it started working a little better.  In my experience, this is a terrific smoke, once you hit the broadleaf wrapper those nice, dark flavors really take off.  If you ever get a chance to get to a La Gloria Cubana event and mooch one of these, do it, they are tasty as all get out!

 

Mondays can sometimes be “experimental” cigar days.  I chose a Brun del Re Don Corazza robusto from the couple of cigars left over rom last year’s IPCPR show.  I had smoked this cigar in a 4″ x 60 format and was less than impressed, which is one of the reasons I’ve passed over the robusto in my humidor.   I figured after a year of age I’d give it another shot.  I’m a strong believer in the idea that every cigar is someone’s baby, so this Don Corazza guy must love this cigar.  It smoked pretty well, with a little hint of the “smoking wet” feeling I got with the La Gloria.  I did enjoy the cigar past the band, it burned evenly and had a pleasing flavor.  It may not be something that’s necessarily up my alley, but it’s still a nice smoke.  I think I have a Brun del Re Premium Connecticut floating around someplace that I’ll have to try soon.

 

Tuesday, for some reason, I decided on a La Palina El Diaro Torpedo for my usual walk.  This one had been sitting in my Griffin’s humidor for about six months or so, and it was one of those situations where I thought of that cigar for some reason during the day.  I felt compelled to smoke it and I don’t know why.  I’m glad I did because it was a terrific smoke! This line is one of those that I can’t put a name to any flavors, but I just know I like them and that they are always a high quality smoking experience.  The construction is spectacular and they are smooth and rich and tasty.  I am so looking forward to the maduro version, you know how much I love the San Andreas maduro wrappers!

 

Contest!

 

It’s time to select a winner for the third week of our Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros contests!  If you haven’t already, make sure you enter Hoyo’s Box-a-Day contest at HoyodeMonterrey.com.  I consulted the random number generator at Random.org once again, and it spit out the number 7.  By my figuring, foozer69 left the 7th comment so he’s the winner!  Send me your contact info so I can send you cigars.  Sunday will be another contest, so you’ll have another chance to win a six-pack of cigars. Many thanks to the fine folks at General Cigar Co. for sponsoring this series of contests!

 

Finally, as long as you’re leaving comments on Sunday (or on this post), do me a favor and tell me what you’d like me to ask manufacturers and brand owners at the IPCPR show.  I’d like to come back with information that you, the readers, want to hear, so I figured it would be easiest to ask!  So let me know!

 

That’s more than enough for today, until Sunday,

CigarCraig

 

 

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