Tag Archives: Golden Era

A Djeep Lighter, New La Gloria Cubana, Punch and Los Statos Deluxe Cigars

Welcome to the “last weekend  of summer”.  My birthday and Labor Day always get me down as they indicate the coming of cooler, and eventually cold, weather, which I dislike.  I like summer.  I like stepping outside in the morning and feeling warm.  I like not having to bundle up.  I know some people like autumn, but it just depresses me.  I’m already looking forward to spring! Anyway, I was going through the checkout line at Walmart this week and my eye usually looks at the selection of lighters, and I saw something I hadn’t seen before, a Djeep Turbo Lighter.  I figured for $5 it was worth a try. I broke a couple torches lately, although I still have plenty, but one more won’t hurt.  It comes full of butane, ready to go, and really works well. It brings to mind the classic Blazer PB207, as it has a cap secured with a chain. It, thankfully, doesn’t have a switch to lock the flame on, which I always thought was a liability. The flame is adjustable and it’s refillable. I’ll use the heck out of it and see how it holds up, but initially I’m impressed.  Djeep is a good name in lighters, the soft flame disposable has always done well, I think I had one Macanudo branded many years ago.  There are probably cheaper torches that work just fine, but this is a brand name and is easily accessible. The link is to Amazon where they sell a six pack and is an affiliate link. If twenty of you buy these it might pay for the one I bought! 

 

I received some new releases from Forged Cigars and General cigars a couple weeks back, and was disappointed to receive the press release, but not the cigars,  for a new La Gloria Cubana, a long time favorite brand.  Fortunately, my friend Phil of Comedy-Cigars-Music shared a couple of his with me.  The La Gloria Cubana Gran Legado is a large figurado, 7¾” x 62, with a Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper over Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers.  Each cigar has a secondary band with a signature of one of the team who created it, and they only use rollers with 15 or more years of experience.  I had a busy week at the day job, and was ready to sit down and relax with a cigar Friday, and I chose this large cigar to do it with.  This was a really good smoke.  I’ve had some issues with some of the La Gloria releases lately, but this ain’t one of them.  It’s huge, so it smoked for about two and a half hours, and had some nice cocoa flavors with some spice through the nose.  Mid way through there was some interesting savory flavors, a cigar this large needs some transitions to keep it interesting.  I really enjoyed this cigar, I think it’s very fairly priced at $15, and I really appreciate Phil sharing his with me.  

 

Next up from Forged was the latest Matt Booth/Justin Andrews colab in the Los Statos Deluxe line, the Connecticut. I’ll be honest, I thought the other “LSD” offerings were OK, but I really like this one, and it’s really hard to get me excited about shade wrapped cigars.  This one has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, Esteli, Jalapa, Nicaraguan Habano, and PA Broadleaf fillers, and, get this, it’s made at the Joya de Nicaragua factory!  No wonder I liked it.  Before I read where it was made, I was thinking that this was a really good budget alternative to a Sobremesa Brulee, and now I know why!  This is on a par with the Antaño CT and the Brulee as far as I’m concerned. I’ve smoked a couple of these and really enjoyed them, it’s a smooth, creamy cigar, with some cane sugar sweetness and an appropriate amount of spice.  I need to find some of the other sizes, the Churchill especially.  Look for the purple packaging, because you can’t see the wrapper to know what you’re getting!

 

Moving from the Forged division of STG to the General Cigar Co. side,  I smoked the new Punch Golden Era in Lancero.  Nearly a year ago I wrote about the robusto in this collaboration with Julio and Justo Eiroa of JRE Cigars.  I remember getting the Golden Era along with the Macanudo Vintage Maduro 2013 and being confused by the fact that the Macanudo was the stronger cigar. Like I mentioned last year, unlike the Punch Rare Corojo, this Golden Era actually has Corojo in the blend, Honduran Corojo wrapper with Honduran Corojo and Habano fillers.  This is a nice cigar with some bread and caramel notes.  The press release incorrectly states that this is the only Punch lancero, unless the 7″ x 37 Chop Suey doesn’t count because it was limited.  I think the lancero was better than the robusto, I planned to smoke one while writing this, but a persisting migraine made me scrap that idea. I’ll have one later.  

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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E.P. Carillo, Cavalier Geneve, Macanudo Vintage and Punch Golden Era Cigars

I split up the work week this week with a day trip to Atlantic City to sit on the beach one last time, do you know they don’t allow smoking on the beach in New Jersey?  That sucks! Having a cigar is about the one thing I enjoy about going to the beach!  The stupid thing about the smoking ban is that we all know it’s really another litter law, because a certain group of smokers can’t seem to pick up after themselves!  There’s already litter laws, how about enforcing them! Anyway, I had picked up a few new to me cigars last week and smoked them this week!  The first one was the E.P.Carrillo Allegiance in the Confidant size. This is a 6″ x 52 toro with a box press, and has a pretty Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers which all come from, and is manufactured by, Oliva Cigars.  It’s kinda funny that when Ernesto started his factory, I think he was more interested in making cigars for other people, then he had success with his own brand (again), and now he’s having other people make his brand!  I’ve loved Ernesto’s cigars since the mid ’90s anyway.  This one was a surprise, or maybe not.  I got a large dose of the cane sugar sweetness I often get from Sumatra, and it stuck around through the cigar.  I liked it a lot, it was a nice change. I definitely want to smoke this again, I’d like to smoke this with a friend to compare notes, I think that would be interesting.  Great smoke in my opinion.

 

Next up was another cigar I picked up on the same shopping foray, a Cavalier Geneve Inner Circle Toro.  This is made at the company’s factory in Honduras, Fábrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A., and does not have the signature gold leaf diamond applied to the wrapper.  The wrapper is Nicaraguan Habano, Honduran Habano binder and fillers from Dominican Republic, Honduras , Nicaragua  and Pennsylvania. Considering the blend, especially the presence of Pennsylvania leaf in the filler blend, I was surprised that this was as mild as it was. Oddly, I got a hint of white sugar on this one, maybe I have a sweet tooth lately.  It was very nice, mellow, with subtle sweet tobacco notes throughout, some light coffee perhaps.  Whenever I see PA tobacco in the blend I buckle my seatbelt, not needed in this case. I couldn’t have been happier with the gracefulness of this cigar, it was a delight.

 

A few weeks ago I mentioned picking up a Captain America Invicta case to repurpose as a travel humidor, and this week I put some foam trays in it. I bought a pack of 12″ x 12″ acoustic foam “tiles” from Temu for a little over $10 delivered.  I cut four of them to fit the case, and, if I’m being anal retentive, can put 24 large cigars in the case. Of course, it’ll fit way more than that if I cram cigars in.  So if you picked up a case at Harbor Freight, or a Pelican case if your well off, or got your hands on one of these Invicta watch cases, and were wondering where to get foam trays to lovingly cradle your precious cigars for safe travel, here’s your solution! I chose red because I thought it looked cool with the case, they have other colors. I suppose now I’m going to be expected to show up toting this case with me whenever I go to events now…

 

I had a few cigars from General Cigar Co. left to smoke that I had been saving for the right time, and yesterday was the time.  I say that because they are robustos, and I often like to take longer to smoke than a robusto will give me. I know, it’s a hard problem to have. I took the afternoon yesterday, since it was rainy, to work on starting to winterize my porch, which is my smoking lounge. This was a great time to light up a Macanudo Vintage Maduro 2013 Robusto.  I’ve always liked the Macanudo Vintage Maduro offerings, this one was a surprise.  The wrapper is a ten year old Connecticut Broadleaf, the binder is Honduran Olancho San Agustin, and the fillers are Dominican Piloto Cubano (two different primings), Nicaraguan Jalapa and Brazilian Mata Fina.  This was a very bold cigar, surprisingly so for a Macanudo. A pleasant surprise, for someone who can be frustrated by a mild cigar. The cigar started with a shot of espresso, and didn’t let off too much from there. It had loads of roch coffee and cocoa with some spice and we really quite heavy.  It frequently distracted me from my project, and reduced the profanity level significantly.  I may remove the cedar from a few of these for long term aging, I’d hate to see these become too woody. That reminds me, I have a side by side experiment with some Diesel Esteli Puros I need to do one of these days.  

 

Finally, a cigar I’ve been looking forward to trying is the Punch Golden Era.  Like the EPC Allegiance, this is another partnership, this time General Cigar worked with Justo and Julio Eiroa and made this cigar at Fabrica Puros de Aladino SA in Honduras.  You know the Punch Rare Corojo that doesn’t actually have any Corojo in the blend? This cigar does actually have Corojo, and it’s Corojo from the undisputed masters of Corojo.  Funny enough, this and the Macanudo were switched for me, where I expected this to be a powerhouse and the Macanudo to be milder, this was the mild cigar.  The Punch Golden era was bready, creamy and maybe a little nutty, not at all what I expected. It wasn’t anything like an Aladino, or an old Camacho, or any Punch I can think of.  It was quite nice, but very surprising for an all Corojo cigar.  If you like Corojo, and you want a different (in my opinion) take on it, give this a try. If you like smooth, creamy, elegant cigars, also give this a try! It’s certainly a tasty cigar, but challenged my expectations.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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