Tag Archives: habana

by | April 13, 2011 · 7:10 pm

Take a Cigar for a Walk – Partagas Serie D No. 4

I took a half a vacation day today (the second half!) to go to a doctor appointment, and have a nice late lunch with my wife. I also had to drop the scooter off at the shop for some service, and when I got home I decided to take a cigar for a walk to burn off some of my lunch. It was a rainy day, temps in the high 40s, so I struggled with what cigar to choose. The weather reminded me a little of what English weather might be, so, beneath my umbrella, I lit up a gifted Partagas Serie D No. 4 for my walk. I know what your thinking: Why choose an amazing Cuban cigar to take a walk in the rain? Well, what better occasion to treat ones self for taking a walk in the rain! And what a treat it was!   I have a small assortment of Havana cigars that I smoke sparingly, some with some age on them, others without so much age.  This particular robusto was one of the more recent visitors in the humidor, a gift from a friend and reader.  The cigar was fairly light in color and heft, and had a bit of a ragged burn, but the flavor was a delight, I barely noticed the foul weather.  I think the current cigars coming from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Honduras, and, to a lesser extent, Costa Rica, have been of such exceptional quality in the last few years that the cigars from Cuba have taken a back seat to them, at least to me.  That being said, there’s a flavor in Havana cigars that hasn’t been replicated.  The construction isn’t always the best, but the little zing that they have is something special.  Many thanks to DB for the opportunity to smoke this classic Habano, and I’ve never met a Partagas I didn’t love.

This gets me thinking ahead.  Last August when my birthday rolled around, I started a personal tradition of smoking a cigar with a ring gauge to match my age.  I went with a Havana Punch Churchill with a 47 ring gauge.  This year I need to find a 48 ring gauge cigar.  It occurs to me that the Hermosos vitola fits that requirement, so I need to go through my humidor and see if I have any of those.  This tradition will get harder to continue when I get past 50 in a few years.

That’s all I have for now.  I hope to have another guest post from Tommy soon, he’s busy with the daunting task of home buying.  While I’m thinking about it, it seems that cardiologists don’t necessarily condone “Take a Cigar for a Walk”, but the one I talked to did understand that taking a long walk with a cigar was better than a short walk or no walk at all!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | February 5, 2011 · 9:07 am

This Weeks Cigars: Nub, Tabacos Baez, Punch, Partagas – Saturday February 5, 2011

I’m making every attempt to get into shape before going to Nicaragua, despite the terrible weather, which has been less than ideal for outdoor smoking.  I’ve kicked up the evening walk routine which I used two years ago to lose 23 pounds. Walking makes the cold bearable.  I need to build up my stamina so I can handle the physical rigors of travel as well as the anticipated non-stop cigar consumption.

I started the week with a Nub Cameroon 358.  I picked up a few of these at an event last year and felt like smoking one.  I enjoy these cigars quite a bit despite my initial feeling that they were gimmicky.  I like the Cameroon wrapper over the Habano, but have yet to try the Connecticut or Maduro.  These have that delicious Camerooniness that I enjoy, especially in the winter.  My only complaint is that these are too short, which I know is the point, but I’d like it to last a little longer. They are also tricky to finish while wearing gloves.

Next up was a Tabacos Baez Serie SF Robusto which I picked up in New Orleans.  This is a budget priced, mixed filler cigar that is purported to be 75% long filler and 25% short.  I’ve smoked a few of these and never noticed anything that would indicate it was different from a long filler cigar.  Tasty cigar, on the milder side of medium in strength and body, a very nice cigar for any time of day.

Wednesday brought freezing rain and ice, which canceled work for the day, and gave me an opportunity to take an early walk and enjoy an Upper Cut by Punch Robusto.  This cigar was in a sampler that I received last year from General Cigar.  This cigar features filler tobacco from Ometepe, Nicaragua as well as Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco.  In truth, I chose poorly when I selected this cigar, as it turned out to be a little colder and windier than I anticipated.  This would have been better saved for a warm spring evening on the front porch, but it was still an enjoyable cigar which burned well and had a pleasing flavor.  This has a foot band, and I hate those, but I’ll pick up a few more of these in the future anyway.

I wound up the week with an old favorite, the Havana Partagas Petit Coronas Especiales.  These are a perfect sized cigar for me at 5.2″ x 42 and a really nice, fairly priced Havana.  They have that little something that only Cuban cigars have and I really enjoy.  It burned well and was very satisfying on my evening walk.  I’ve had these for almost a year and they keep getting better. I hope I can hold on to the rest of the box for a few more years to see how they age.

That’s about it for the week, it’ll be interesting to see what the next week has in store.  There is talk of more winter weather in our future, I’ll be very happy when spring is here!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | December 28, 2010 · 10:48 pm

A Couple of Cigars With an Old Friend – Tuesday December 27, 2010

In the midst of the Holiday hubbub I had the opportunity to sit down for a few cigars with an old high school friend who lives close by, but we never seem to get the time to hang out and smoke some cigars.  I caught up with Greg about a year and a half ago after 25 years or so and was delighted to find that we lived a couple miles apart, and that he shared a love of fine cigars.  We’ve gotten together a few times over the last 18 months, but this is the fist time we’ve had the chance to just sit an catch up over cigars. We met at our local cigar shop, JM Cigars in Exton, PA.  JM’s is one of the best shops in the area in my opinion.  Although the selection is fairly “classic”, the pricing is reasonable (for instance, a Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur No. 1 is under $6 last I looked).  You won’t find Tatuaje’s or Illusione or a lot of  Pepin Garcia cigars, but he did have a wide selection of Lito Gomez cigars and Cains, as well as quite a few Fuente lines.  I grabbed a couple of the Jesus Fuego 777 maduro coronas that I have enjoyed in the past and met Greg in the lounge and parked my ass in a oversized leather chair for the afternoon.  As Greg’s birthday was coming up I provided some of what I thought of as special cigars to mark the occasion.

We started the afternoon with a pair of La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros 650s that were sent to me some time ago by General Cigar.  These are a “dos capas” cigar that start with a Connecticut Shade wrapper for the first couple inches, then moved to a darker Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper.  This is really a nice cigar, very rich in flavor and perfectly constructed.  The transition from one wrapper to the other is subtle but noticeable. All in all I cigar I will happily smoke again.

Next cigars up were some Ramon Allones Specially Selected Havanas that had been kicking around the humidor for quite a few years.  I honestly don’t remember where these came from or exactly how old they were, but they were at least 5 years old and probably older.  These particular cigars were nice, firm cigars that were well packed.  They burned dead even and tasted fantastic.  Greg commented that there was a flavor that he couldn’t put a finger on, and I suggested that my guess was that it was that trademark Cuban flavor that makes Havana cigars distinctly different.  These were fantastic examples of the Cuban cigar rollers art and are a benchmark robusto that is a must try if you ever have the opportunity.

It was a great afternoon that was over too soon.  It’s always nice to catch up with an old friend over a cigar or two in a comfortable environment.

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | December 12, 2010 · 8:50 pm

Weekend Cigar: Xikar HC Habana Colorado – Sunday December 12, 2010

As the holiday season is in full swing, the opportunities to have a cigar become few and far between. Between the weather and the season it’s been busy in a non-cigar way.   Friday evening provided an opportunity for my son and I to attend a Xikar event at Old Havana Cigar Co. outside of West Chester, PA.  I had not tried the HC cigars prior and it seemed like a good time.  I picked up one of each of the robustos, a Connecticut, a Criollo and a Habana Colorado.  For purchasing three, I got one free, so I went with the Habana Colorado and smoked it there.  We all know that I’m not exactly a free spender when it comes to cigars, so it will surprise nobody to hear me say that I think the $8.25 price tag for these is too high, even with the free cigar I had some buyers remorse.  That’s not to say that the Habano Colorado wasn’t a fine cigar, it was, I just didn’t find it $8.25 good.  There are a lot of cigars that are just as good for less. Anyway, the cigar burned very well and lasted well over an hour, and was smooth and flavorful, and on the stronger side of medium.  I am looking forward to smoking the others in the near future, as they are well made and nicely blended cigars, but I don’t think I would purchase them again.  As far as the shop goes, the lounge is spacious and comfortable and the humidor was very well stocked.  It’s a little out of my way so I don’t get to this shop often, and only really ever go there when there’s an event that interests me.  I prefer JM Cigars in Exton,  PA as far as price, selection and friendliness, I just wish Jeff would have more manufacture events.

Don’t forget to enter the current contest, win some Joya de Nicaragua cigars and stuff.   Deadline for entry is close of business Saturday, December 18 (midnight).  Also, the folks at Thompson have some deals going on that they asked me to pass on, see http://www.thompsoncigarcoupons.com/ for more information.

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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by | November 14, 2010 · 7:33 pm

Weekend Cigars: RyJ Short Churchills – Sunday November 14, 2010

To set the stage:  A month or so ago I did a very small favor for one of my readers who wanted to order some merchandise from a company that wouldn’t ship to an APO.  Since I have no problem using USPS.com to ship to one of our members of the military serving his country abroad, I asked him to have the package shipped to me so I could get it to him.  Naturally, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to include a couple cigars for him to enjoy, ones from my regular rotation that I wanted to share, and one of the Hamiltons House cigars from the box I purchased after interviewing George Hamilton.  Well, a week or two after he received his box in good order, the same box shows up on my doorstep with return fire.  He took a beautiful Casa Magna box and included several FINE cigars, as well as a note on his stationary and a really cool medallion.  I am humbled by the gift, and am most thankful, these are cigars that I very rarely have the opportunity to sample.  One of these cigars is the subject of this post.

The Romeo y Julieta Short Churchills is a relatively new cigar from Habanos S.A., launched in 2006.  It’s a Robusto measuring 4 7/8″ x 50 and has a nice light colored wrapper.  If this cigar had a box press, it had regained it’s roundness by the time it got into my hands.  As stated in my last post, I have laid off of cigars for the last week and a half or so due to a sinus infection, so I figured it would be as good a time as any to spark up a special cigar.  It was a beautiful autumn day here in south-east PA and I was due to take my Saturday walk to the local convenience store.  I have had he good fortune to smoke it’s namesake, the Churchill on several occasions and have never really been “wow”ed, good cigar, but I was expecting so much more from an iconic cigar.  On the other hand, I bought a box of RyJ Coronita en Cedro, which are a very inexpensive  petit corona that I passed out at my daughter’s wedding a few years back and enjoyed them VERY much.  So I entered into this cigar with moderate expectations, but high hopes that my first cigar in over a week wouldn’t disappoint.   Of course, it didn’t disappoint.  It was a nice, mellow cigar, but had that tell-tale Cuban “twang” that you just don’t taste in non-Cuban cigars. It burned as well as a Havana cigar can be expected to burn, however I did have to re-light it once after setting it down for a few minutes.  Upon re-light it was as good as new, with fairly mellow and woodsy flavors.   I liked it, I would smoke it again in a heartbeat.  I greatly appreciate the gift.

That’s about as close to a cigar review as you can expect from me, until I fire up one of the other cigars in that package.  I’m still working on that contest, and am planning another blockbuster celeb interview for the very near future so stay tuned!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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