Tag Archives: Humidour

by Craig Vanderslice | August 22, 2021 · 11:07 am

Asylum 13 Medulla Oblongata at the Humidour on the Hill

Yesterday I found myself in Cockeysville, Maryland so I stopped in the Humidour Cigar Shoppe on the Hill for a cigar or two. This is not my first visit, I was there six years ago and spent an afternoon there. As a matter of fact, last night when I got home, I smoked a Zorba corona that I had gotten there six years ago. They have three exclusive cigars that are made by Rocky Patel, the Zorba, the Zeus and the Bella Carmella. The Zorba was a nice smoke that kicked in nicely in the second half. Speaking of Zorba, the store recently rebranded their members lounge to the Zorba Lounge. I’m to deduce that “Zorba” is the nickname of the owner, Finnie Helmuth’s father, who apparently founded the shop. I managed a tour of the members lounge, which is very nice. First you need to know that the store is a large house, so the Zorba lounge is what might have been the parlor or living room and dining room of the house, with the foyer leading upstairs to a large room with the lockers and a wet bar area. Memberships include discounts and almost half the annual fee back in the form of a giftcard to the store as well as exclusive events. Like the public lounge, it’s very warm and inviting, like sitting in your living room, and some of us deny ourselves that luxury. I had hopes of smoking the Zeus I picked up while I wrote this over coffee this morning, but, alas, a weather induced migraine put the kibosh on that. I wondered about the Zeus, because SMōKE Manyunk had a Zeus cigar. It turns out that Chris Helmuth, one of the owners, and Kosta (who owns SMōKE) are buddies and conspired together in some way to bring this to the Humidour. It looks good, which is why I bought it. I passed on the Bella Carmella because it’s a Connecticut Shade and I have plenty of those in the humidor that I never get around to smoking. So, if you happen to be in the Cockeysville, MD area, stop in Humidour Cigar Shoppe on the Hill, buy some cigars and hang out for a bit. If your local to the area, check out the members lounge!

Before I move on to the cigars, the folks at The Humidour are involved with the Premium Cigar Retailers Association of Maryland, who fight against tax laws and whatever other ridiculous restrictions their governments try to throw at them to put them out of business. They are having an auction ending September 19 with bidding opening August 30th. It looks like they will have a lot of good stuff, so if you enjoy the excitement of auctions, and you like helping out good organizations, give this a look. Information can be found here.

I was looking through the Humidour’s humidor, which is large and well stocked, and decided on the Asylum 13 Medulla and Oblongata Maduro in the 6″ x 60, as I hadn’t smoked any of those to date. I actually would have gotten the toro size, but they were out of one or the other of them, I think the Medulla. After smoking both, this makes perfect sense to me. Because of my borderline CDO (which welve established over and over is OCD in alphabetical order as is proper), I was compelled to smoke the Medulla first, because it’s Medulla Oblongata, not the other way around, right? The Medulla is round and the Oblongata is box pressed, both have the same blend, I believe they have a San Andrés wrapper around authentic Corojo fillers made in Honduras. I smoked them one after the other, and was a little surprised that the Medulla was much richer in flavor than the Oblongata. First, the flavor was unique, there was a flavor that reminded me of Australian licorice. This is deeper and richer than say, Twizzlers (mass market licorice). It was very different from other maduros I have smoked. I’ll definitely get some more of these. The box press seemed to lack the richness and density of smoke, perhaps whatever leaf the removed from the blend to press it was the key. I would have smoked the box press first based on preference, and if they were named opposite, I certainly would have. I wonder how I would have perceived the difference. I wonder if my palate was fatigued. Now I need to get more and smoke them separately. More experimentation is needed. I love cigar research!

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Asylum, Asylum 13, cigar, cigar store, cigars, Humidour, Medulla, Oblongata, Zorba

by CigarCraig | November 15, 2015 · 9:46 am

Zorba, Undercrown and some Alec Bradley Cigars

As you can probably tell, I am not at the Big Smoke in Las Vegas this weekend. I should probably go to one once, just to experience it, or to reinforce my feeling that it’s not the kind of event I enjoy attending! Too many people crammed into to small a space for my tastes. I’m sure it’s a good time, and a great way to get a wide variety of cigars, but for me, I prefer smaller events where one can actually talk to the cigar makers and brand owners instead of waving on the way through the line. Complaining about it like this is probably a good way to not get invited ever…

I have to go back to last Sunday for the first cigar I’m talking about this week. The La Gloria and Sobremesa I smoked on Tuesday and Wednesday distracted me, but I was quite impressed with this house brand from The Humidour on the Hill in Cockeysville, MD, the Zorba. I visited the store in September, it was a nice walk from the hotel I was staying in. It wasn’t really that nice a walk, kinda scary in a couple of places, but probably better than driving. Anyway, I walked out of the shop with a robusto and a corona in their Zorba line, and set flame to the Robusto on Sunday with a bottle of Reeds Ginger Brew. The Zorba is made by Rocky Patel, it has a nice looking Habana 2000 wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder, and a blend of Nicaraguan fillers. It’s got a good bit of spice and strength, which is what led me to grab the ginger beer to go with it. I love ginger beer, but some of them can overpower a cigar, and it has to be the right cigar. Anyway, this line is available in four sizes, the corona and robusto, as well as 6″ x 62 and 8″ x 60 Gordos, and I’m told the corona has a bit more punch than the robusto. If you find yourself in what I would guess is the northern Baltimore suburbs, pay the Humidour a visit, it’s a great place to sit and enjoy a cigar.

Thursday evening I grabbed an Undercrown Shade in the robusto size. This was an IPCPR sample, but I’ve recently received a couple more from Drew Estate. I’ve previously smoked the Gran Toro size and enjoyed it quite a bit, and this 5″ x 54 robusto was just as enjoyable, the only real difference to my mind is the 1″ shorter length. This cigar was blended by Willie Herrera, and Willie isn’t a fan of Connecticut Shade (Ecuador or otherwise), so this was a major thing for him. It was also his first blend that wasn’t under the Herrera Esteli line. It isn’t the Undercrown blend with a different wrapper, it’s a completely new blend. It’s rich and creamy, full of flavor, and a very nice take on a shade wrapped cigar with some oomph. I might like this better than the Undercrown, but I can’t really say that as they are such different cigars, perfectly suited for different occasions. Well done, Willie!
Friday the CigarCigars shop closest to home was having an Alec Bradley event. I generally find myself at AB events, our local rep, Jon is a good guy, and there are several cigars in their lines that I like. I felt compelled to stop by this event because they usually have events at this location at times where I am at work, times like noon to three on a Thursday. The shop is less than two miles from my house, very easy to stop in on may way home from work, although if I went home first and tried to get there at rush hour I’d get there quicker walking. This shop is in what used to be a convenience store many years ago, so it’s not a huge building, but it was jam-packed with customers. I bought a handful of Alec Bradley’s new release, the Post Embargo, and it’s worth noting that Cigar Cigars chain of stores (soon to open their 11th store up the road from where I used to live in Downingtown, PA) held the official launch of this new line. Stopping on my way home from work, I wanted to get home and eat dinner before lighting up my evening cigar, so chatted with the folks there for a bit then made my way home, where I lit up a Lancero for my walk. This is a limited edition, only 500 boxes were made and it’s 7½” x 41, slightly fatter than a traditional Lancero. This was a good cigar, savory flavors with some nuts and wood. I picked up some toros and robustos and I kind of wished I had smoked on of those yesterday instead of the Sanctum Gordo I picked, jus to be able to compare the larger ring gauge to the smaller. Not that there was anything wrong with the Sanctum, it just turned out to be the wrong cigar for the circumstance. That cigar has a Honduran Corojo wrapper that seems very fragile, and a windy fall afternoon wasn’t particularly kind to it. It’s a bit milder than I prefer under those conditions as well. It is still a great tasting cigar, I like what the Colombian tobacco brings to the table, as is the Post Embargo. Since I find myself going to so many Alec Bradley events, I seem to have amassed a pretty good selection of (mostly) robustos from them. I still think the Nica Puro is my favorite cigar from them, but I happily smoke them all.

That’s about it from me, Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Alec Bradley, cigar, cigar store, CigarCigars, cigars, drew estate, Humidour, undercrown, Zorba

by CigarCraig | September 20, 2015 · 10:34 am

The Humidour and Davidus, Henry Clay, Tatuaje, Senoral and Lord Baltimore Cigars

We took one last little trip of the summer this past week, down to the Baltimore Maryland area so my wife could sell some books at the North Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, which is a “Con” like many others, complete with quite a collection of odd people, on both sides of the tables (my wife being an obvious exception to this, there were some “normal” people there). There were some celebrities there, Lee Majors and Lindsey Wagner from the 70s TV “bionic” franchise, as well as some slightly less famous people. I saw some unique things, a guy walking around with an autographed toaster, for instance, and a few different Dr. Who’s. These things aren’t generally my cup of tea, but I suppose some people would argue that going to cigar events isn’t particularly normal either. I do like getting away with my wife for a few days though. I managed to visit a couple cigar shops while I was in the area though, and smoked some great cigars.

The Humidour in Cockeysville, MD was within walking distance for me, and I had a great parking place at the hotel I didn’t want to give up. A mile and three quarters on a beautiful day isn’t too bad. The store is in an older house sitting on a hill, and has a retail area with all the usual stuff, humidors, pipes and pipe tobacco, as well as a large walk in humidor which is generously stocked. There are also a couple rooms which comprise the public lounge, and several rooms both upstairs and downstairs that make up the private club space. There are several fireplaces, and I can’t say if they ever get used or not as I didn’t ask, and it has a very homey feel. there are a couple outdoor patio areas too. I picked up a couple of the new Henry Clay Tattoo cigars as well as the new Tatuaje TAA 2015 cigars and settled into a leather chair and proceeded to watch golf. I have fond memories of the Henry Clay cigars that Pete Johnson had in mind when he blended this cigar. They were tied in bundles within the box, and it was apparent that they were bundled wet, because they came in all kinds of crazy shapes. These weren’t box pressed like the Henry Clay Tattoo, some were trapezoidal, triangular, not necessarily straight, they were a rugged man’s cigar, very rustic and laden with testosterone. I heard reports that they burned underwater. The Tattoo does a good job of capturing the spirit of the HC of old, although it’s far prettier, more symmetrical, and better behaved. Of course, it’s triple the cost of the old HC Brevas I remember too. It had that great sweet broadleaf flavor, loads of dark roast coffee flavor and, unlike it’s predecessors, burned really well.

I lit up the Tatuaje TAA 2015 next, and I love the Tatuaje cigars, but I don’t have a great deal of experience with them. I bought a couple because I never see any TAA stores in my area, and I figured what the heck, I probably wouldn’t have a chance to smoke these again. I enjoyed the heck out of the cigar, it is another Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper, with a closed foot so oine really gets a blast of the wrapper flavor on the light. I find myself skipping the toasting part of the lighting ritual with the closed foot cigars so I don’t miss that wrapper blast. Anyway, much like the previous cigar, the TAA is loaded with dark cocoa and espresso flavor and the 5 5/8″ x 54 box press size is quite comfortable and satisfying. I really should smoke more Tatuaje cigars, but there’s so many limited editions and special stuff that I won’t chase after them, and they are usually priced outside my comfort zone. The “Tats” I’ve smoked have always been to my liking, and I’m glad I picked up two so I can revisit this in a few months. My visit to The Humidour was a good one, and I’m glad it was so close, it’s quite a nice place.

My Saturday stop was at a Davidus shop in Ellicott City, MD. This was chosen as a half way point to meet up with a long time reader and friend, Mark and his friend David. There’s few things more enjoyable than meeting face to face with someone you’ve interacted with digitally over the last five years or so, and doing it in a nice lounge over some fine cigars is the best way to spend an afternoon. I got there early and perused the large humidor, which separates the front of the shop from the lounge area with Sam, the gentleman working there. I picked up a couple of new releases, the Enclave from AJ Fernandez which I have smoked and enjoyed, and the Señorial from Las Cumbres tobacco, which I have a sample in my humidor, but I saw it there and wanted to smoke it, so I got a few more. I also picked up a couple of the Lord Baltimore and Sea Knight, which are brands owned by the Castro brothers who own the 11 store Davidus chain. I promptly lit up the Señoreal Maduro and promptly enjoyed the heck out of it with a cup of black coffee. I found it to be a great, refined and sophisticated maduro cigar with loads of flavor, and who would expect anything else from Jose Blanco.

I followed the Señoreal with a Lord Baltimore The Ark, a 6 ¾” x 38 short lancero which probably would have been better going first. It’s a Connecticut Shade wrapped cigar made by Altadis, I was told. Lord Baltimore is a very old brand that the Castro Brothers recently resurrected. It took a few minutes for my palate to adjust to the milder cigar, but I really enjoyed the smooth rich flavor and perfect burn that this cigar had. The presentation was quite nice too, with a paper sleeve from the band to the foot, and a second band under the first, so when you slid the outer paper off, it was still banded (so I don’ forget what I am smoking!). I picked up one of these in the corona size too, I’m sure it will be a tasty an experience as the lancero was. It was another great afternoon, meeting old friends for the first time, and relaxing in a comfortable lounge with a nice selection and an attentive staff. Thanks to Mark and David for spending the afternoon with me! We covered a hundred topics from cigars to family to careers. It wrapped up a pretty nice couple of days.