Tag Archives: Jacoub’s

by Craig Vanderslice | May 31, 2020 · 10:46 am

Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure Seleccion, Tarazona and Jacoubs Cigars

I’ve been a fan of Hoyo de Monterrey cigars for just about as long as I’ve been a fan of cigars. I used to splurge on a huge $5 Excalibur No. 1 from time to time, and have smoked tons of Rothschilds and Sabrosos over he years. I’ve enjoyed a great many of the recent iterations of the Hoyos from the AJ Fernandez collaboration as well. I finally got around to smoking the newest Hoyo de Monterrey, made at the HATSA factory in Honduras, the Epicure Selección. I smoked the No. 1, which is a corona gorda, 5 5/8″ x 46, a size I really enjoy. They also make a No.2 (4.9″ x 50) and a Toro Especiale (6″x50). Certainly I’ll be seeking out the Toro at some point. This was a really good smoke. Very bold and straight forward Honduran heavy, dark tobacco. It was rich and earthy with some spice. I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t find it to be complex, and it lacked any subtlety whatsoever, which is what I liked about it. It screamed “cigar” and was unapologetic. I dug it. I think Frank Llaneza would be pleased. Once again, neither the Hoyo, nor the new CigarWorld sites are updated with information about this cigar.

I ran into Eddie Tarazona at the TPE show and I hadn’t seen Eddie in a few years. I think I met Eddie in 2011 or ’12 at one of the Delaware Cigar Festivals that were held at Delaware Park racetrack. At the TPE he gave me a couple cigars, one of which was a Tarazona Guerilla 305 El Jefe Flaco. This is a 6 ½” x 42 lonsdale-ish sized cigar, with a H2000 wrapper grown in Ecuador, Sumatra binder and Piloto Viso, Criollo 98, Corojo Seco, Connecticut Broadleaf fillers. One does not often see Broadleaf in the filler blend. H2000 wrapper has come a long way. When it was developed in 2000 it didn’t burn. It was better suited for wrapping electrical wires or making jumpsuits for Indy car drivers than cigar wrappers. If those analogies need further explanation, the stuff was flame retardant, it didn’t burn. In the last twenty years the pre-industry tobacco folks have figured out how to ferment the stuff and now it works like cigar wrappers should work, and it tastes pretty yummy too. Platinum Nova Cigars uses it on a lot of their cigars and they are quite expensive and pretty darned good. Something makes me thing Saka used it one of his special editions, although I can’t bring it to mind, and I could be wrong. Anyway, the El Jefe Flaco was a nice smoke, it burned perfectly, and I was careful not to over-smoke it lest it heat up and get bitter. It was smooth and had a great flavor, medium bodied and nutty, with some sweetness, no doubt from the Broadleaf in the filler. It was a good smoke. Eddie’s a good dude, and he puts out some good cigars. I have another he gave me that I can’t wait to sample.

My last cigar was a one-off that probably doesn’t even warrant discussion, because I don’t even know if it’s available and I don’t know much about it. I was rummaging around the humidor as I’ve been doing lately, just sort of selecting oddities to smoke that have been around a while, or things that I don’t need to write about, or are just random one-offs. This torpedo came from my first visit to a shop in Ridley Park, PA, which is about 5 miles from the Philadelphia International Airport, called Jacoubs. It’s a nice little shop with a lounge, take some change for the on street parking meters, it’s better than the airports cell-phone lot to wait for an airport pick up. It’s owned by a guy named, now get this: Jacoub. Weird, huh? This torpedo came from my first visit to this shop which was in the spring of 2016, so it somehow got buried for the last 4 years. I had the good sense to put a post-it on it with “Jacoubs” on it, so at least I had some idea of it’s provenance. Sadly, it was an exceptional cigar. I say “sadly” of course, because I’ll not have the chance to smoke it again. It’s not that big of a deal really, because, while it was a really great cigar, it wasn’t one that was particularly distinctive or different, know what I mean? It was a cigar that, while smoking one thinks “that’s a really good” smoke, but there’s no point where you think, “gee, there’s a flavor I’ve never had in a cigar before, that’s really unique”. So it was a good, well aged, well made torpedo, obviously made with good materials. I suppose the next time I’m down that way I’ll ask Jacoub about it.

That’s all for today. Don’t forget to go back to Wednesday’s post and enter the contest if you haven’t already. If you have, good luck, don’t enter again! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, Epicure Selección, Guerilla 305, hoyo de monterrey, Jacoub's, Tarazona

by CigarCraig | February 17, 2019 · 8:45 am

A Rant, A Gurkha Ghost and A Room101 Uncle Lee Cigar

It’s been a long week and it’ll be Thursday before I get another day off. This will be a short one as I have to work today. Tuesday was my last day off, and I had to pick my son up at Philly airport, so I decided I should kill some time at a cigar shop close to there, but I decided too late (it was snowing/raining and took longer than I thought to get there), so I just stopped in Jacoubs Cigar Shop in Ridley Park and picked up a few cigars. This place is four miles from PHL, so a little better planning in the future is in order. Had I thought of this an hour earlier I would have easily been able to have a relaxing smoke in the spacious lounge at the shop after selecting a cigar from the walk-in humidor. Jacoub, the owner, is a welcoming gent, and gave me a dime for the parking meter (bring change, the rates are fair). He said that the Gurkha Ghosts sold well for him, so I bought a couple of the Phantom and Spook sizes, because they are newer and I like perfectos and hadn’t smoked them yet. I smoked a Phantom later and really enjoyed it. The Phantom is a 5″ x 58 perfecto with a curly bun on the cap which pinches off easily, but a snip with a cutter opens it up better. The Brazillian Arapiraca wrapper is dark and oily and has a nice look, and has the dark cocoa flavor I like. In truth, when these first came out five or so years ago, it took me a while to warm to the blend, there was something I didn’t like a about the first several I smoked, and I wanted to like this cigar. Now I like it, and it’s one of my favorites in the Gurkha range. The prismy band is pretty spiffy too.

Which kinda leads into my rant, only because Gurkha seems to be a frequent target of this topic. Too often I see people on social media, and to a lesser extent in shops, stating as fact, that cigar X is “crap”, “garbage”, or some other word that states definitively that the cigars is sub-standard and unworthy of the title of cigar, as if that person was an expert on such things. This irritates me to no end. This is actually why I don’t review cigars per se, and don’t use a rating scale on my site, even though it would probably benefit me as manufacturers like ratings and would publicize my site more if I were to go that route. Here’s the thing: taste is subjective. Sure, there are objective qualities of cigars, construction, draw, combustion, but there are very few cigars that make it far with long-term problems in these areas. If a cigar tastes bad to me, that’s my problem, not the cigar’s problem, so the cigar isn’t a bad cigar. An example I like to use is this: I don’t like Lima beans, the flavor is disgusting to me, I can’t imagine how anyone would put sometime so vile in their mouths, but people eat them, and, presumably, like them! By that logic, obviously, Lima beans aren’t crap, they just aren’t for me. Let’s apply that to cigars, if we have a cigar and the flavor doesn’t appeal to us, let’s not go on social media and declare that brand Y, which, by the way, may have a huge, loyal following and has been in business for 20 years, is “crap”, but accept that maybe their cigars aren’t for us and move to the hundreds of other brands out there that may suit us better!

Now that I got that off my chest, which is a little congested this morning, lets circle back to a few nights past, when I cracked open a ten-count box of Room 101 Uncle Lees that I almost forgot I had and came across while rummaging around the humidor. Not complaining, misplacing a box of cigars in the humidor isn’t a bad problem to have. I bought this box after smoking an Uncle Lee at one of Matt Booth’s last events before he left Davidoff, so it’s been a few years. This cigar is presented in the 6½” x 50 Ranfla perfecto size, wrapped in tissue paper with a paper sleeve, much like the Chief Cool arrow and Johnny Tabacconaut series were. I love this blend, it has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, but is has a flavor unlike any other cigar I’ve smoked. There’s an almost floral flavor that’s light and refreshing. It’s an interesting change of pace, and if I thought I would ever be able to replace these cigars, I’d probably smoke the other 9 cigars in the box pretty quick. I’ll ration them out as it is. Uncle Lee should be proud.

That’s all for this Sunday, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Editorial, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Ghost, Gurkha, Jacoub's, Room101, Uncle Lee

by CigarCraig | June 5, 2016 · 10:17 am

Nomad, Capo de Mundo, El Centurian, Neya and Torano Cigars and a Contest Winner

It’s been a long week for me, we had a holiday weekend, then four days of trying to wrap up a thirteen year career at my day job, and prepare people to take care of all the stuff I did. Now I’m between jobs, I start the new one next week, don’t you know I manage to break a couple molars Thursday?! Who knows what the dentist will say when I get there Tuesday, there might be a smoking hiatus in my future…but I’m hopeful that they can be saved. Anyway, I have a bunch of cigars worth talking about today, so let’s get on with it. Monday I managed an early cigar, so I chose a Nomad Therapy Connecticut. The Therapy line comes in three blends, two sizes each (Toro and Robusto) and goes to retailers in refillable trays. This isn’t a bundle cigar though, it’s a really nice, high quality smoke. This one had an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper, San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan filers. I enjoyed this for a milder, very smooth, yet quite flavorful shade cigar. It burned well, drew well, and tasted good. Another very nice cigar from Fred Rewey, and I’m looking forward to trying his new SA-17.

Tuesday I smoked a cigar bought on a visit to a shop in Ridley Park, PA a few months ago. We were in the area for another event and ran across Jacoub’s Cigars, a nice little cigar and hookah shop with a lounge and a well appointed walk-in humidor. I picked a few cigars up that I hadn’t tried yet, including some of Jacoub’s own brand, Capo de Mundo. I bought robustos in the maduro and Corojo, but they also have a Connecticut version. As one would expect, I smoked the maduro first. The Capo de Mundo was a good smoke, it had what one would expect from a maduro cigar, cocoa/coffee and a little bit of sweetness, all things I like. I don’t know that $9 is an appropriate price point though, I get that it’s a small production, that certainly plays in to the price, but I didn’t find that it had enough going for it to warrant the price. This would be a great $5 cigar for me, but there are many other cigars from $5 up to the $9 range that excite me more. I’m afraid this was unremarkable, not a bad cigar at all, just not different from a hundred other maduros. I look forward to seeing what the Corojo brings to the table. This, my friends, is about as close to a negative review you will get from me.

Friday evening my wife wanted to get out, so we went to the King of Prussia Mall, which is probably the largest shopping mall on the east coast. One of the very nice things about this mall is that it has a cigar shop which my wife refers to as “Husband Day Care”, something she borrowed from Dave Garofalo at Two Guys in New Hampshire. Anyway, it’s certainly nice to stop in for a cigar instead of wondering through racks of ladies clothes in various stores. International Tobacco has a nicely stocked walk in humidor (is a Davidoff retailer) and a bar with coffee and soda available. I bought a handful of My Father El Centurian H-2K-CT in the Corona size, which is closer to a robusto at 5½” x 48, not that I’m complaining, that’s a near perfect size as far as I’m concerned. This cigar has a hybrid Habano 2000 wrapper grown in Connecticut, wrapped around components grown and processed by the Garcias in Nicaragua. This was a terrific smoke, with that typical My Father spice in the beginning then some nice sweet, savory flavor throughout. It turns out that this size was perfect for the time it took my wife get tired of shopping, after 30 years I have a good idea how long it takes. I’m glad I bought a few, I love the size and it’s a tasty and interesting cigar. It was nice to be able to relax with a nice cigar, baseball on the TV and pleasant conversation with other patrons and Tom, the owner. If I could afford it, I’d send my wife shopping more often :-).

Yesterday was a two cigar day, after getting some things done around the yard and house, I sat down with a Duran Premium Cigars Neya F8 Big Jack. I really like the flavor of the F8 line, I’ve only smoked this size and the 6 x 60 Yankee, and they come in a bunch of sizes, some of which are quite close to one another (5 x 52 Patriot, 5 x 58 Gringo, 6 x 56 Toro, 6 x 60 Yankee,6½ x 54 Loyalist and 7 x 70 Big Jack). One can assume that this range might be trimmed in the coming years if the FDA requires mega-bucks approvals for each size. Anyway, the line features an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and smoked really well. It’s sweet and smooth and quite good to my palate. the “Big Jack” is a 7″ x 70, named after the very recently former marketing and sales manager Jack Toraño, who has just left the company to join General Cigars as the face of the Toraño brand, a wonderful move in my opinion. Having an actual Toraño on board for the centennial of the brand is certainly key, and Jack is well known and loved in the industry. Anyway, the Big Jack was a tasty cigar and took me well over two hours to smoke. My only gripe with the cigar (and I’m sure Jack never tires of hearing this), is it’s just too damn big! I’ll happily smoke any size in this line, but 70 ring gauge is ridiculous. Great cigar though, even down to the last inch and a half, and after sitting id down and running an errand. I’m sure Jack’s talents will be missed at Duran Premium Cigars, but I’m glad to see him “home” with his family brand.

After dinner, I dug deep and found a Toraño toro with a Cigar Rights of America band, which came either when I joined CRA in 2009, or renewed the year after. I have no idea what the blend on this toro was, it had the burgundy Toraño band like on the Casa Toraño line along with the CRA secondary band. I have a bunch of the CRA cigars in the humidor from renewing every year, I’ve yet to get a CRA Opus or Liga yet though. This cigar was just fine. Good, savory flavors, and a razor sharp burn with a flat ember. The ash fell off by itself a couple times, no big deal as I was out walking, had it done that on my new patio carpet I might have been annoyed. Certainly you can’t run out and buy these, so my opinion means nothing really, except to go join the CRA if you haven’t already and maybe you’ll get one of these, or some other good cigars. Which is a good segue to the final paragraph of this post!

Contest

Last week I offered a T-shirt (which I purchased from Smoke Inn) and a handful of cigars from my humidor, including a few that I threw in over the course of the week that weren’t pictured. I honestly thought the turnout would be better than it was. Maybe I didn’t include enough great cigars, or maybe it’s a commentary on the over-all apathy among the cigar smoking public, I don’t know. It’s good for the folks who entered, as it increases the odds. Trust me, when these FDA regulations take effect, it’s going to be much harder for me to have giveaways! Anyway, thanks to all that entered, and thanks for Abe dropping by and commenting and for his dedication to the cause. He certainly won’t be able to offer his Micro-Blend series with the regulations as they are. So, the winner of the T-shirt and cigars from CigarCraig’s humidors is…..KOPTim. Tim, please send your contact info so I can get this stuff to you, or, better yet, if I remember correctly, you’re in the area, lets meet up for a smoke and hand-off! Thanks for all who entered and shared, you can still go to https://www.smokeinn.com/FDA/ and buy a shirt or two to support the cause.

That’s more than enough for today! Look for a single cigar focused mid-week post or two as I have a bunch of interesting samples to get to and I’ve been rather selfishly smoking for myself this week! I also want to get a few posts in the bank, so to speak, in case there’s some dental interruption (fingers crossed). Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review, Stores

Tagged as Capo de Mundo, cigar, cigar rights, cigars, Contest, Duran, El Centurian, general cigars, H-2K-CT, Jacoub's, My Father, Naya, Nomad, Therapy, Toraño