Tag Archives: hoyo de monterrey

by CigarCraig | July 1, 2012 · 10:06 am

Some Stronger Cigars: Joya de Nicaragua, Cain, Ortega, a Cusano and a Contest!

I found myself smoking more powerhouse cigars lately for some reason. Maybe it was the need for a satisfying smoking experience, or just the luck of the draw, I don’t know. I do know that Wednesday evening I wanted a sure thing, no gambling on a new cigar, something tried and true. I had actually wanted to drive up to Easton to see Jonathan Drew at the Drew Estate event at Leaf cigar bar, but after a long day at work spending three and a half more hours in the car didn’t appeal to me. I’ll see JD at the IPCPR show. So I went for a Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo El Martillo that I had picked up a few months ago when I visited a little shop in Kutztown, PA. The El Martillo is a 5 ½” x 54 over sized robusto and has a beautiful dark wrapper. This is a strong cigar. I remember smoking one of these in Nicaragua while touring the Joya de Nicaragua factory and having to put it down before the strength of the cigar and the heat and humidity in the factory got the better of me. This one was similar, I really needed some sugar when I was done to offset the nicotine effects. A tremendous cigar, maybe less suitable for sultry weather than some other cigars though!

Thursday was the exception to the rule, I had a Cusano 18 Double Connecticut that a business associate had sent me because he came across it and wanted me to try it, unaware that I have smoked these in the past. Of course, I appreciate the sentiment and I do give him a cigar when he visits from the west coast. These are a nice, mellow, flavorful Connecticut wrapped cigar. They were exceptional when Cusano was privately owned, and are no less exceptional under the wing of Davidoff. Pretty, well made and tasty. Gave me an hour and a half or so of pleasure.

Friday I took the day off to visit Monmouth Park in New Jersey with my wife’s family. My Father-in-Law likes to go there, so we celebrate his birthday at the park every year. I took a pocket full of cigars, and spent a few races outside enjoying the heck out of a Cain F Tubed Lancero. I love the Cain line of cigars, I just usually find them too powerful. The beauty of the Lancero is the format forces one to smoke slowly, which keeps the strength from really being a liability. I love the elegance of the Lancero, and this one was perfectly built, loaded with spicy, deliciousness. Like a fine steak, when you take the last bite you’re sad that it’s gone, this cigar made me forget that every darned horse I bet on, whether he led the whole race or not, came in in the bottom three. I strayed from my usual system at the track, yeah….that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Upon arrival home, I took the dog and an Ortega Series D No. 6 for a walk to the local convenience store to pick up a lottery ticket. I’m starting to sound like a real gambler, no wonder I get offers from poker sites for paid links. I’m really a light weight, 2 dollar bets at the track and a dollar twice a week in the Mega Millions isn’t really too bad. I’ve seen people drop thousands on the tables in Vegas. Back to the cigar. Did I mention that the temps were pushing 100° F yesterday? Hot stuff! The No. 6 is a perfect sized cigar, 4½” x 48 and had a beautiful and oily San Andreas Maduro wrapper. Lately, when I know I want a great smoke, I choose one with this wrapper. It just suits me, what can I say. The Series D has a really smooth, refined flavor. No rough edges at all, you could pop these in your mouth all day long like Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Kisses, so it’s not really strong, but very rich and satisfying. Gotta get me some more of these! Well done Eddie!

Contest!

General Cigar Co. has been having a contest on their HoyoDeMonterreyCigar.com site where they are giving away a box of their Reposado en Cedros cigars every day so head over there and try to win a box! These are really tasty smokes! From the press release:

After being handcrafted by a handpicked team of artisans, each Reposado en Cedros cigar undergoes Inmersión, an innovative method of aging created at HATSA, General Cigar’s Honduran cigar factory. With this technique, each cigar is enveloped in fragrant cedar and left to rest for an extended period of time. The cigar matures to a complex, medium-bodied smoke that has won the brand stellar ratings and praise from the premium cigar category’s most discerning experts.

In honor of that, I will give away two (2) Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros 3-packs courtesy of General CigarCo. to a lucky reader for the next four weeks! Please leave a comment to enter. Usual rules apply, and I’ll stress that if you enter, and are chosen as the winner, please contact me with your mailing address so I can send your winnings! A new contest will start each Sunday and the winner will be announced the following Wednesday. If you’ve tried these, you know how good they are, and if you haven’t, here’s a great opportunity to try them!

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

CigarCraig

31 Comments

Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as Cain F, cigar, cigars, Contest, Cusano, general cigars, Horse Racing, hoyo de monterrey, IPCPR, joya de nicaragua, Ortega, Reposado, Take A Cigar For A Walk

by CigarCraig | June 13, 2012 · 6:49 pm

A Gurkha, An E-Doble, a Romeo and Some More News

Sunday my wife and I decided to take nice long walk before the heat of the day kicked in. We needed to tire out the son’s dog, so she came along. I grabbed a Gurkha Cellar Reserve Churchill since I wanted something reasonably mild for an early cigar, yet big enough to last the entire walk. For some reason I have trouble walking now without a cigar! Anyway, this is a nice enough cigar, it’s pretty big at 7″ x 54, and it’s well made. The dog got a kick out of running into the creek, and we managed a 3 mile walk (through the park with the “no dogs” signs….oops! what’s next, no smoking”) I’m not a huge fan of Criollo wrappers, but I like this one enough for it to hold my interest through out the smoke.

After a day spent doing something other than what we had planned, I finished the day with an E-Doble from Smoke Inn. This is such a beautiful cigar, burned perfectly even, has a terrific flavor, it’s hard to believe it’s a $50 per bundle cigar. I can’t even begin to recall how many cigars I’ve smoked that have cost two or three times the price of this and was dissapointed by them. Eric Espinosa (of EO Brands, 601, Murcialago, etc.) has a winner with this one. I can see myself getting a bundle of these at some point, and I want to turn my brother-in-law on to them as well. This is a cigar that he will enjoy, as will just about anyone especially if you don’t have a lot of cash to drop on cigars. Really, really good. Thanks to Abe at Smoke Inn for sending me samples, I’m super impressed.

Monday evening my hand came out of the humidor holding a Romeo, the new offering from Altadis and Romeo y Julieta. There are a few in the Romeo y Julieta range that I like, but most of them don’t do it for me. This was a good cigar, the ash held for nearly half of it’s 5″ length, which I found to be impressive. I suppose it was stronger than many cigars in the range, it wasn’t unpleasant at all, it just wasn’t really my cup of tea. No fault to the cigar, it’s just me. Technically it held up it’s end of the deal, it burned perfectly, and produced mouthfuls of smoke, and the wrapper was very pretty. Try it if you get the chance, never rely on my tastes, I like Hamburger Helper for crying out loud!

News

Lot’s of news coming out recently! Emilio Cigars had the Draig K leaving the factory at the end of the month. The Draig K is a terrific cigar if you like a good maduro. Gary also has the AF Suave hitting the shelves by the end of this month. I haven’t had the opportunity to smoke this one, but it’s an Ecuadoran Connecticut wrapped cigar reportedly on the milder end of the Emilio range.

General Cigar has the Hoyo Reposado Box a Day Giveaway going on, the CAO Last Stick Standing promotion, as well as a Father’s Day contest on the La Gloria Cubana site. I’ll have more on the Hoyo de Monterrey contest in the near future. Follow the links for information on these promos.

Butthead’s Tobacco Emporium in Connecticut will be hosting what’s belived to be the first Virtual Cigar Workshop with José Blanco of Joya de Nicaragua on Thursday June 21. José does an excellent presentation on cigar blending that’s a real eye opener. He has cigars made with 4 different wrappers so one can taste how the wrapper effects the flavor of a cigar. There’s some video and my impressions on my post from last year’s IPCPR show where I caught his blending session. It’s a pretty cool experience and I recommend it highly. there is info available on the Butthead’s Tobacco Emporium site.

That’s about all I have for now, except to announce that if the winner of this month’s contest doesn’t contact me by Sunday, I may have to select another winner! I e-mailed directly, I shouldn’t have to work this hard to give stuff away! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

4 Comments

Filed under News, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as Butthead's, CAO, cigar, cigars, connecticut, E-Doble, Emilio, Espinosa, general cigars, Gurkha, hoyo de monterrey, IPCPR, joya de nicaragua, La Gloria Cubana, romeo y julieta, Take A Cigar For A Walk

by CigarCraig | May 20, 2012 · 9:12 am

C&C Cigars, Joya De Nicaragua, a Visit with Nish Patel, Xen, Thunder and News

You may recall earlier in the week I was in a quandary: smoke something rare and expensive and risk disappointment or go cheap and reliable. Wednesday I decided to do a little of both and try out another fairly new, inexpensive smoke. I was at my local shop a couple weeks ago and came across a three cigar robusto sampler of the C&C Cigars, from the folks that used to be Cusano. The sampler was $9.95 and contained a Corojo, a Connecticut and a Maduro. As is my normal pattern, I headed straight for the Maduro and I wasn’t disappointed. What a tasty, well made cigar! Burn was perfect, it had a nice balance of smooth, dark flavors and was a pleasure to smoke. It burned very slowly, which was a plus as well. For $3.32 each, this is a real winner. Keep any eye out for my thoughts on the other two, as I don’t see being able to keep my hands off them for too long!

The end of the week called for a sure thing, and what better than a Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo. This particular cigar came from a goodie bag from a blogger party that Drew Estate put on at last years IPCPR show, which probably explains why its a size that isn’t listed in their regular product line. This box pressed cigar measured 6″ x 48 by my figuring (it’s hard to get a good read on a square cigar with a round ring gauge checker. It’s a great cigar size, and had a beautiful dark wrapper. I love this line. I remember smoking one of these in the Joya de Nicaragua factory last year and having to put it down because the combination of heat and humidity in the factory and a strong-ass cigar was conspiring against me. This was a strong-ass cigar also, but burned well and tasted great, one to try if you like them strong. Maybe I’m getting old, or maturing or something, but I’m finding more of an appreciation for the mild-medium cigars recently. I’ll have to keep an eye on that.

In the News

HOYO de MONTERREY KICKS OFF BOX A DAY GIVEAWAY

Richmond, VA—To celebrate the launch of the new Hoyo de Monterrey website, General Cigar is rolling out a “Box a Day Giveaway” to share the unique flavor of the Hoyo Monterrey Reposado en Cedros® brand with cigar lovers across the U.S.

From now through July 31, 2012, consumers of legal smoking age are invited to visit the brand’s website (www.hoyodemonterreycigar.com) to enter to win a box of Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros cigars, which feature a proprietary process called “Inmersión.™”

After being handcrafted by a handpicked team of artisans, each Reposado en Cedros cigar undergoes Inmersión, an innovative method of aging created at HATSA, General Cigar’s Honduran cigar factory. With this technique, each cigar is enveloped in fragrant cedar and left to rest for an extended period of time. The cigar matures to a complex, medium-bodied smoke that has won the brand stellar ratings and praise from the premium cigar category’s most discerning experts.

According to Kendall Rountree, brand manager for Hoyo de Monterrey cigars, “Since its debut, Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros cigars has developed a cult following among serious cigar smokers who are drawn to its uniquely spicy taste. We’re utilizing the launch of the Hoyo de Monterrey website as an opportunity to increase the brand’s legion of fans through the ‘Box a Day Giveaway’ and are confident that cigar lovers will enjoy the brand’s uniquely spicy taste.”

Winners of the Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros “Box a Day Giveaway” will be announced every Monday on the brand’s website, as well as on the brand’s Facebook page and Twitter feed.

About Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros

Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros features three frontmarks, each packed in boxes containing 24 cigars. At 5 ¼” x 54, Sueño is a classic robusto that is available for a suggested retail price of $6.69 per cigar, while the Liso frontmark, a 7” x 49 Churchill carries an SRP of $6.99 per cigar. Marco, a figurado(6 1/4” x 54) rounds out the collection with an SRP of $7.29 per cigar.

The cigars are packed in rustic wooden boxes, protected in canvas, and surrounded by cedar shavings to maintain the flavor and aroma imparted by Inmersión. Each box is truly a work of art, and continues the artisan tradition of the Hoyo de Monterrey brand.

Hoyo de Monterrey en Cedros cigars are produced by General Cigar Co. Inc., which manufactures and markets handcrafted cigars for the premium market. Committed to delivering cigars of the finest quality, General Cigar also produces Macanudo®, Cohiba®, Partagas®, Excalibur®, La Gloria Cubana® and several other leading premium brands. In addition, the company grows its own premium Connecticut Shade wrapper tobacco, as well as natural and candela wrapper in the Dominican Republic. General Cigar also operates Club Macanudo®, a cigar bar in New York City. Based in Richmond, VA, General Cigar sells through tobacconists nationwide. For more information, please visit www.cigarworld.com.

® Hoyo de Monterrey, Reposado en Cedros, Macanudo, Cohiba, Partagas, , Excalibur, La Gloria Cubana and Club Macanudo are registered trademarks of General Cigar Co. Inc.

™ Inmersión is a trademark of General Cigar Co. Inc.

# # #

The Hoyo de Monterrey Reposado en Cedros is a tasty smoke, so make sure you put your name in the hat to win a box!

Saturday afternoon Old Havana Cigars Co. in West Chester, PA had a Rocky Patel event featuring a visit by Nish Patel so I took a ride down to have a cigar. I grabbed a couple of Xen Short Robustos and a couple Thunder by Nimish Robustos and smoked a Xen while I was there. The Xen is unique because it has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper but it’s square pressed. It’s very difficult to make a pressed cigar with a Connecticut wrapper because it’s so thin. They manage this, I believe, using a double binder. I really enjoyed the cigar, it had what Nish refers to as “attitude”. It’s not a mild cigar at all, it’s got a nice little punch to it, along with the flavor from the wrapper. It was a very nice cigar. Later, after dinner, I took a Thunder by Nimish Robusto to the front porch. My son just got a dog, so she sat on the porch with me while I enjoyed this hefty robusto. It has a nice curly pigtail cap and a dark Habano wrapper. It had nice, dark, savory flavors. I think this is a nice cigar for someone who likes strong cigars, and I generally do. Two very different blends, and two very rich, satisfying cigars. Nish is a very nice guy, and it’s always a pleasure seeing Mark, our local Rocky Patel sales rep. Old Havana Cigar Co. always has very busy events and despite it being a beautiful Saturday, they had a ton of traffic.

That’s it for now, and it was a lot! I probably should have held something back for Wednesday when I’ll be looking for material! I suppose I’ll have to smoke some more cigars between now and then…

Until the next time,

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as Antano, C and C, C&C, cigar, cigars, Contest, Dark Corojo, drew estate, general cigars, hoyo de monterrey, IPCPR, joya de nicaragua, maduro, Reposado

by CigarCraig | March 7, 2012 · 8:43 pm

A La Gloria Cubana, a CAO and a Murcielago – Cigar Weather is Returning!

We left off on Sunday having had a nice Camacho Havana with my son and brother-in-law, and it seemed like a 2 cigar day, so I selected a La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros Rothschild that I got last December when I went up to Famous Smoke Shop in Easton, PA to hang out with Michael Giannini. This was the version that starts our with a delicious Connecticut shade wrapper, then transitions to the Ecuador Sumatra wrapper. These are tasty little buggers, and I like them. This is a size that I believe is only available at their events, and it’s a shame, because it’s a great size and fit the time I had available perfectly. This unusual presentation really highlights the effect the wrapper has on the flavor of a cigar. I normally wait to remove the band, but with this one I took it off before I started, since it’s located so close to the foot. Expertly crafted, perfect burn, great smoke!

Monday evening I grabbed a few year old CAO Brazilia Gol. A few years back my wife got me several samplers of CAO cigars, and this is about the last of them. Really nice, dark, oily, sweet Brazilian wrapper surrounding tasty Nicaraguan fillers. There’s a handful of CAO cigars that I have enjoyed over the years, and this is one of them. Smoked this to a finger-burning nub. This one pre-dated the acquisition of CAO by General, but I’m sure that the current offerings are just as tasty, something I will explore the next time I see these in the shop.

Today we had temperatures in the 60s, making for a fine evening to smoke a cigar without gloves, cold toes or shivering. It was a very pleasant night for a walk with a nice, big cigar. A few months back I won a beautiful Griffin’s humidor from a Facebook contest that I either forgot, or didn’t realize I had entered. This is a lovely box, and I recently loaded it up for convenient upstairs storage, mostly with gifts, samples or singles purchases. I had pretty much been smoking out of the coolerdors for the last bunch of years, which are kept in the basement. I’m now fortunate enough to have two gorgeous desktop humidors, the first of which my wife had made for me for our tenth wedding anniversary, and it holds all those “special” cigars and doesn’t get opened very often. I’m rather enjoying going to this new humidor to pick a cigar, and will keep rotating singles out of the coolers for daily smoking. Tonight I selected a Murcielago Toro Grande that was basically a gift from my amigo Barry Stein on the DR trip last October. I had given Barry a Hoyo de Monterrey when he was without a cigar, and he later responded with this cigar. It’s among my favorite maduro cigars. I can’t think of a San Andreas Maduro wrapped cigar I don’t enjoy, and this one has all the components that I enjoy, a little bit of strength, sweet where it needs to be sweet, with a fine balance. Perfectly made, a great cigar. I know this is one of Eddie Ortega‘s favorites, which is the reason I so look forward to trying his new Serie D line. The Murcielago is a cigar well worth sampling.

In the News

Click to Enlarge

Just for fun, here’s another clipping from the archives of the Philadelphia Inquirer. This article is from the June 28, 1835 edition. It’s not easy to read, so click on the image to make it a little bigger. If only this attitude continued today!

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

CigarCraig

7 Comments

Filed under News, Review, Take a Cigar For a Walk

Tagged as brazilia, CAO, cigar, cigars, connecticut, general cigars, hoyo de monterrey, La Gloria Cubana, Murcielago

by CigarCraig | February 19, 2012 · 9:40 am

Punch vs. Hoyo de Monterrey – A Debate Finally Settled

You will find that my cigar smoking habits may be a little different than most of my contemporaries. I certainly do smoke a lot of different, new and unusual smokes, but I don’t generally go out of my way to get the newest and rarest. Much of this has to do with my frugal nature, I’m a cheap bastard. The thing is, I have always had a healthy regard for the big brands, as often seeing a “yellow box” Partagas is as much of a treat as something like a Tatuaje (which I have not smoked many of, save for the La Casita Criolla) or something of that ilk. I honestly enjoy the heck out of a plain old Macanudo Maduro, and lets face it, while Macanudo and Partagas are not outrageously priced, they aren’t cheap, and I know first hand that they have the same care and passion put into them as any other cigar. The same can be said for Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo, both are made by an enormous company, in massive quantities, but the quality of materials and construction cannot be disputed. Anyway, that’s a little bit off of today’s subject, but gives some background and basis for the subject of this article.

A few posts back, MoBarbq left a comment referring to the Punch London Club Maduro in comparison to the Hoyo de Monterrey Sabroso. These two cigars are made in the same factory in Honduras (HATSA), and are the same size. It brought to mind a seemingly endless discussion back in the 90s (and to this day) about the Punch and Hoyo lines. There was a conspiracy theory that the Rothschilds were the same cigars, just packaged in the different boxes (at the time the Rothschilds were un-banded). Both lines were available in natural, maduro and double maduro (oscuro or maduro maduro), were priced the same and were close enough in flavor to fuel this suspicion. Also, if you look at the two lines, there are quite a few parallels in sizes, the Sabroso and London Club being another. Just recently as I was shopping for some Punch and Hoyo examples, my local tobacconist told me that he witnessed with his own eyes Punch and Hoyo cigars being taking from the same rolling tables in the factory. The info from the CigarWorld.com website would make you think that there is some truth to this:

Hoyo de Monterrey

Wrapper: Ecuadoran Sumatra (Natural) and Connecticut Broadleaf (Maduro)

Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan, Dominican (Piloto Cubano)

Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf

Country: Honduras

Factory: Honduras American Tabaco S. A., Cofradia, Honduras

Punch

Wrapper: Ecuadoran Sumatra (Natural) and Connecticut Broadleaf (Maduro)

Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan, Dominican (Piloto Cubano)

Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf

Country: Honduras

Factory: Honduras American Tabaco S. A., Cofradia, Honduras

I’m on a constant quest for cigar knowledge, so, I will finally find an answer to the age old debate.

This controversy goes back at least to a 1984 article in Connoisseur Magazine where Frank Llaneza is quoted as saying, when asked about the difference: “The filler is pretty much the same, but we try to use binder leaf from the upper primings for Punch; they’re stronger-tasting. Hoyo uses the lower to middle leaf as binder. It is mellower and more aromatic.”
In a 1995 interview with Dan Blumenthal, Marvin Shanken asked the question “C.A.: How would you describe the difference in blend or style or taste between Hoyo and Punch? Blumenthal: I think that Punch is a little heavier cigar than the Hoyo. There’s a little more flavor, to me, than in the Hoyo de Monterrey. There is a difference. The blends are made by Frank Llaneza”.
So, I inquired of Victoria McKee Jaworski, the Public Relations Director at General Cigar, about these two references and she got me some updated information. She said “they have different ratios of tobacco, so the blends are different. Punch is slightly fuller-bodied and uses more ligero. Its wrapper is closer to a Colorado color. And for Hoyo, the wrapper is a lighter shade of Ecuadoran Sumatra”. In the case of the maduro, Agustin Garcia, production manager at HATSA, the man responsible for tobacco processing and cigar production, tells us: “The wrapper for Punch Maduro and HDM Maduro is Connecticut Broadleaf for both of them. For Punch we use a darker color and little heavier wrapper than HdM”.

So there we have it. While the materials used in both lines of cigars are similar, and in some cases the same, there are differences. The Punch is blended to be a little more powerful and the Hoyo is supposed to be a little more refined. That puts that controversy to bed once and for all, and I can go back to my local shop and argue with them that they do not, in fact, take cigars from the same rolling table and box them in Punch or Hoyo boxes (of course, they go from the rolling tables into the aging rooms long before they are banded, wrapped and boxed!).

Since I’ve been smoking my way through a box of Hoyo Sabroso Maduro for the last year, and managed to get my hands on a box of Punch London Club Maduros, I figured I’d see for myself what the difference is. I’m half way through the box Hoyo Sabrosos and I’ve really been enjoying them. They have the reasonably heavy, dark maduro flavors I look for in the colder months. Every one has been well made and most have been smoked down to a tiny nub. I bought this box last year and it has been in my humidor ever since. I just received a box of the Punch London Club Maduros this week, so they haven’t had the benefit of a year’s rest, but I smoked a couple of them anyway! The cigars appear to have a darker, oilier wrapper than the Hoyos, they are gorgeous. To me, the Punch is a little stronger in flavor, consistent with all of the evidence provided above, so I have no reason to doubt that each line has it’s own distinctive blend, even if that difference is a matter of primings, leaf selections or proportions. As far as I’m concerned, both are outstanding little smokes, although, admittedly, comparing year old cigars to new ones isn’t a very scientific way to do it! I also managed to smoke an old favorite, the Punch Rothschild Maduro Maduro this week, and boy, was it good! Savory and lush flavors and a long finish…another yummy smoke!