Tag Archives: La Gloria Cubana

by Craig Vanderslice | September 1, 2024 · 9:25 am

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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Filed under Accessories, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Djeep, Eiroa, Forged, General Cigar Co., Golden Era, Gran Legado, joya de nicaragua, JRE, Justin Andrews, La Gloria Cubana, Lighter, Los Statos Deluxe, LSD, Matt Booth, punch, Torch

by Craig Vanderslice | September 3, 2023 · 10:51 am

Rocky Patel Sixty, La Gloria Cubana Serie S, Wooden Indian’s Pig Roast and Crux Cigars

It was a busy week, I celebrated a birthday and my daughter took us all out to a Brazilian Steakhouse for dinner. That was a lot of fun, it was a tremendous parade of meat, and I dined on plenty of steer and swine. I think Evan Darnell of Red Meat Lover’s Club would have been proud. I had a lot of great cigar choices available to celebrate, but my son got me a couple of Rocky Patel Sixty Toros, which was an absolutely appropriate choice to celebrate this particular birthday. This cigar came out two years ago to celebrate Rocky’s 60th, it has a San Andrés wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and is made in Rocky’s Nicaraguan factory. I’m fortunate that Rocky made a cigar for his birthday that exactly aligns with my palate, where a lot of Rocky Patel cigars really don’t. This is a luscious, dark, rich, cigar with heavy espresso and earthiness in the second half. This was a great gift, my son has been to Nicaragua and an IPCPR show with me, so he’s no stranger to the leaf, he did well, although this one was a no-brainer. Recommended regardless of your age (within reason, you know what I mean!).

I smoked a few of the new Maduro cigars over the last couple of weeks, with some trepidation. I was so tremendously underwhelmed with the “natural” version of the Serie S, it just made me wonder how it actually got past the decision makers, I’ll give it another try in the future, maybe it needs age, but I remain dubious. Regular readers will know I’m a big La Gloria fan, it hurts my heart when I don’t like a release. I was hoping the Maduro version would offer some redemption. This was the Robusto Gordo size, 5½” x 56, which is a perfectly acceptable size. It has a San Andrés Maduro wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, made in the El Credito sub-factory within STG’s Santiago factory. This reminds me a little of the Serie N in strength and earthiness. It’s better than it’s natural counterpart, however I don’t know that, for me, it competes favorably with the like of the Serie R Esteli Maduro. Additional samples will be put to rest for later evaluation in the LGC humidor.

Yesterday I stopped by the Wooden Indian Tobacconist in Havertown, PA where they were having their annual Drew Estate Charity Pig Roast. I may have missed dropping by one or two of these over the last decade or so, but I try to stop in, it’s always an amazing event. Dave Mayer and his staff put on a great spread, Pedro Gomez has replaced Marvin Samel as the face of Drew Estate, Matty Rock, and of course several levels of sales staff were on hand. I don’t remember it being on Labor Day weekend in the past, but I could be wrong, but the usual gang of DE loyal weren’t there, although some people came from Maryland and New York to attend. There was a good crowd for the few hours I was there (long enough to enjoy a Blackened M81 Toro, about 2 hours or so), and I enjoyed fellowship with some old and new friends. I assume a significant sum was raised for Operation: Cigars for Warriors. Wooden Indian is amongst the best shops around and they are one of two Liga Privada lounges, and, therefore, one of the only stores that has an exclusive Laga Privada, the Pancetta.

I happened to come by some Crux Epicure Habano cigars this week, in Toro and Robusto, and couldn’t wait to light one up. It’s been years since I had Crux cigar, maybe the only ones I’ve smoked are the Ninfamaniacs going back maybe a decade. They just don’t seem to be present on the shelves around here, or I don’t notice them. The line has somehow avoided my notice one way or the other. This one has a Nicaraguan Habano seco wrapper, over Nicaraguan binder and fillers made at the Plasencia factory in Nicaragua. This is a really nice, well balanced smoke, there’s a sweet spice that makes it a little brighter than the darker cigars I like, making it a pleasant change of pace. I’m actually smoking the Robusto as I type and it’s very nice with coffee, and my wife just set a plate of home fries in front of me…be right back…shit, they are hot, I’ll get back to them. Now I have a problem, because I want to try the Maduro in this blend, going to have to hunt around.

Enjoy the long weekend, if you are so lucky to have one. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Events, Review, Stores

Tagged as cigar, cigars, Crux, drew estate, Epicure Habano, La Gloria Cubana, Rocky Patel Sixty, Serie S, wooden indian

by Craig Vanderslice | July 23, 2023 · 9:22 am

Romeo y Julieta, La Gloria Cubana and Diesel Cigars

Summer is whizzing by way too fast for my liking. I’ve been enjoying a lot more cigars, three of which were just yesterday, which I plan to tell you about! I started the day with a Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Twisted Love Story. This came to me in a sampler of barber pole style cigars I bought from Fox Cigars, I had set this small cigar aside for an appropriate time, and that time came yesterday morning. It was a toss up between this and a Rojas Breakfast Taco Maduro, but I kinda remember the Sumatra Breakfast Taco being a bit of a powerhouse, and I wasn’t feeling like a strong cigar yesterday morning. I wondered in a previous post how Altadis got away with making a cigar this shape with the name “story” attached to it, because it’s very close to the same size as the Hemingway Short Story, although it’s a few ring gauges slimmer at 4″ x 46 as opposed to 49. The Romeo has Ecuadorian Connecticut & Habano wrappers, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. It’s a very pretty little perfecto. It started off with some bitterness for me, until it burned past the “nipple”, then it smoothed out and had some nice butter and spice. It was pretty good, but I liked the toro presentation better. I think it smoked for nearly an hour, which is pretty good for a little cigar.

I had a couple other cigars lined up that I was going to write about, but then I was out running errands and stopped in my nearest cigar store and picked up a few cigars I hadn’t smoked before. This store honestly didn’t have much in the way of new stuff, but they are a TAA store, so I picked up the La Gloria Cubana 2023 TAA Exclusive, a 7½” x 54 double corona. If the size sounds familiar, it’s the same size as the Hoya de Monterrey Excalibur No.1 (and the SakaKahn). You might be saying ” but CigarCraig, La Glorias are made in the DR, and Excaliburs are made in Honduras, what the heck?”, but it seems that this La Gloria was made in the STG Danli factory back in 2019 and have been aging there. Weird, huh? This cigar has a Ecuador Sumatra wrapper with a Honduran Habano binder and Fillers from Honduras and the DR. The wrapper is very dark, verging on maduro. While I didn’t find this cigar very La Gloria like (and with all the various iterations of the brand, I don’t know what that means any more), I really like the cigar, and feel compelled to pick a few more up to add to the La Gloria humidor for later consumption. It had dark dried fruit and espresso tones, bittersweet chocolate, and wasn’t without some strength. It was amongst the better La Glorias I’ve had in recent years.

Another cigar I picked up was another TAA cigar from the Forged portfolio, the Diesel Disciple 2021 TAA Lancero. Considering it wasn’t long ago that Diesel was a catalog brand, it’s interesting that the top of the top (in their eyes, i imagine) retailers are getting a Diesel exclusive. In keeping with the Diesel line, this was pretty fairly priced at $8.99, and is a 7″ x 38 panatela, no pigtail cap. The cigar has a San Andrés wrapper, Ecuador Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan Habano fillers and is made at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez. I’ll state my opinion like I do every time I smoke a Lancero, this wrapper/filler ratio thing is a myth, the reason Lanceros have a sharper, stronger flavor is because the burn hotter due to the smaller ring gauge. Smoke a Lancero slowly, sip the smoke, it’s a very elegant presentation. If it’s drawn upon at the same pressure as one would draw on a rubusto or toro it’s going to burn hot and the flavor is going to seem sharper. I’ve learned this by sitting at the feet of masters. Anyway, I smoked this while watching one of my favorite shows (the Grand Tour on Amazon Prime) on the porch and it was delicious. Dark, strong espresso with some sweet earthiness. The burn and draw was perfect and it was quite enjoyable. I don’t know how many of these are still out in the wild, I know there are still at least nine of them at the store near me, but if you come across them, and you like Diesels and Lanceros, give one a try.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as cigar, cigars, diesel, Disciple, La Gloria Cubana, Reserva Real, romeo y julieta, TAA, Twisted Love Story

by Craig Vanderslice | April 30, 2023 · 9:44 am

Nomad, Cert Maith Bruscar, La Gloria Cubana and Macanudo Cigars

This week was challenging. I had a tooth pulled on Monday, and I’m not altogether sure that one or more of the medications I’m taking isn’t affecting my palate. Let’s start out with my pre-procedure cigar, a Nomad SA-17 Shorty, which is 4″ x 56. I’m unsure of the provenance of these cigars, they were a generous gift from a friend, and I want to say that they are pre-Ezra Zion because they have Fred’s twitter name on the band, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that they were recently purchased. If I recall, these were made at A.J. Fernandez’ factory, and has a San Andrés wrapper over Nicaraguan guts. Perhaps it’s a bit uncool to smoke a cigar right before going to the oral surgeon, like eating Oreos before going in for a cleaning, but it is what it is. I knew I was going to be taking a few days off from cigars, nobody wants dry socket! This is a great cigar, loads of earthy, coffee and cocoa flavors. Burn was perfect, and this little cigar lasts almost an hour. Many thanks to Phil for sharing these with me!

On to some new stuff! Like I said, after a couple days off cigars, and between an antibiotic and a rinse, my palate may be off, or maybe not! I tested this theory by smoking a cigar from Kevin at Trash Panda Cigars, the Cert Maith Bruscar. I hope Kevin made sure this name wasn’t already trademarked before using it! Cert Maith Bruscar is Gaelic for “Real Good Trash”, in keeping with the Trash Panda theme, and is an homage to Kevin’s probably 8th or 9th great grandfather, who came to the US in 1679 from Ireland, around the same time my ancestor came from The Netherlands. This is a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper cigar that has a Cameroon binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and US. I typically like the combination of Broadleaf and Cameroon, this is an interesting blend. The first time I smoked this my wife commented on the aroma, which she characterized as fruity. This is consistent with what I perceived as the dominant flavor, which I called citrus. I struggled to gut much else around the citric tang, it was a good cigar, performed well, and certainly was unique. I smoked a couple of these (before and after dental work) and had the same experience. On paper I’d expect this to be a cigar for me, in practice, while it was a good cigar, I’m just not sure about the dominant citrus flavor. This just might be me, as Kevin said he didn’t get that from this cigar.

New from Forged Cigars is the La Gloria Cubana Corojo de Oro. Last year they had the Criollo de Oro, with a hybrid of Criollo and Pelo de Oro tobaccos. This has a hybrid of Corojo and Pelo de Oro (I think that means “golden hair”, it’s a narrow leaf if I remember correctly from my visit to the Garcia’s farm in 2011). I’m much more a fan of Corojo than Criollo, and I liked the Corojo de Oro much more than the Criollo de Oro. This was a 6″ x 50 toro, with a Ecuador Habano wrapper, the hybrid tobacco as the binder, and Brazilian Mata Fina, Dominican Piloto and Nicaraguan Ometepe in the filler blend. I found this to be a well balanced cigar, with some sweet earth, and some spice. I’m not sure how many La Gloria Cubana marques there are now, I like a lot of them (the Serie S was a miss for me, and I love San Andrés), but it just seems like I don’t see many of them in stores.

Finally, I tried a new Macanudo Inspirado, the Tercio-aged. Tercio refers to the practice of wrapping the bales in palm bark to age as opposed to burlap. In this case, the Dominican Piloto Cubano filler component is aged in Tercio, while (because they mention that specifically and omit the rest), the San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Columbian fillers are aged in burlap bales. For me, this cigar was a great representation of the concept of body vs. strength. The flavors were very interesting, some baking spice, sweet earth (again) and some pepper spice. The smoke was very thin, not a lot of body, but the flavor was there. It was a little strange, and I’ll have to revisit this again. Maybe it was just me. I liked the cigar overall, might me my 4th favorite Inspirado (another line with a lot of extensions!).

That’s more than enough for me today. Next Sunday may be tricky, as we are taking a weekend road trip. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Cert Maich Bruscar, cigar, cigars, Corojo, Inspirado, La Gloria Cubana, macanudo, Nomad, SA-17, Tercio, Trash Panda

by Craig Vanderslice | February 19, 2023 · 9:50 am

Protocol, La Gloria Cubana and Oz Family Cigars

I attempted to do something interesting for today’s post, but that didn’t work out, more on that later. My first cigar today is the Tenure by Protocol Cigars. This was made for the Cigar Dojo‘s tenth anniversary last year. Please note that in September of this year CigarCraig.com will celebrate it’s 14th year. There are a couple of independent blog sites that have been around longer, but not many. Anyway, Dojo has built a community, and has sold a bunch of exclusive cigar brands, and Protocol has been one of their partners on several of them. This sample was generously gifted to me by me Secret Santa, Mitch, who was overly generous and sent all cigar I wouldn’t otherwise have had the opportunity to try. Remember this when Secret Santa comes around next year, it’s a good time! The Tenure is a 6″ x 52 box pressed toro, it has a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan Corojo binder, and Nicaraguan fillers from Estelí and Condega. This was a neat tasting cigar. It had some earth and coffee notes like you’d imagine, along with some tanic sort of flavor. It was quite a good cigar, I liked it, besides yesterday’s Fratello Pennsylvanian, it was the highlight of the week.

I’ve been sampling some new La Gloria Cubana cigars and have made mention of my disappointment with the Serie S, but the La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar was pretty good. This, like the Punch “The People’s Champ” was made with input from the La Gloria Cubana Society, of which I’m a member (no. 631 on my card). I don’t recall being asked for my input, but that’s OK, I admit that I don’t participate in the club. Apparently 2000 members gave input on the cigar, which is a 6¼” x 54 box pressed toro. These are made in the El Credito factory (within the General Cigars factory) in Santiago, DR. Oddly, it’s Honduran puro, with the Olancho San Augustine wrapper, a Jamastran binder and fillers from Jamastran and La Entrada. General must get really good yields on this OSA leaf, because it comes up everywhere. The fist time I saw it was on their first CAO release, the OSA Sol, which was a good cigar (especially in the little torpedo they had), but was a commercial flop, although it was no CAO Concert! I seem to recall seeing the OSA leaf on Partagas, Cohiba and other La Gloria cigars. I find it generally neutral in flavor, but that’s just me. This La Gloria Cubana Society Cigar had some hard candy sweetness, some coffee and nuts, and was quite enjoyable to smoke. It was far superior to the Serie S, which might be the least San Andrés tasting San Andrés wrapped cigar I’ve ever smoked.

Yesterday I tried to go to Tobaccology in Manassas, VA for the launch event for Fratello‘s Vice Versa cigar. I sampled this cigar last May, or should I say, “these” cigars, because one has to try the cigar both ways to understand it. Kevin from Cigar Prop somehow convinced Omar to make this cigar, and Omar spent the better part of two years working with the La Aurora factory to bring this to fruition. Anyway, I left in plenty of time to make the 2½ hour drive, but less than an hour in I hit traffic on I-95 just into Maryland. It turns out a tractor-trailer overturned and blocked all three lanes, and both shoulders, closing the highway (story here). After about 2+ hours I finally got turned around and aborted my mission. I was disappointed, because I wanted to be among the first to buy some of these, and hanging out with Omar is always a good time. I’ll buy some when they become available, I know TrashPandaCigars.com will have them. I “wasted” a good hour of that time smoking a delicious Fratello Pennsylvanian.

I had come across the Oz Family Cigars Pi Synesthesia in a local shop a few weeks ago and picked one up. This one was a 6″ x 52 toro with an Ecuador Connecticut Shade wrapper, an Ecuadorian Habano binder and Nicaraguan fillers, made at the Pichardo factory. I have a few questions. The UPC sticker on the cigar has the Crowned Heads logo on it. I know they have a partnership, but I thought Oz Family cigars was its own thing and not a subsidiary, although Tim Ozgener’s financial involvement in CH has recently been confirmed. The other wildcard here, and one that makes anything I have to say about this particular example moot, is CH’s split from Pichardo. Unless this particular Pi Synesthesia is a one-and-done limited, it will have to find a new factory in which to be made. Whatever, it’s a $15 cigar, but, to me, there wasn’t anything to distinguish it from so many other Ecuador shade wrapped cigars. There are plenty available for less money that are just as good, or better. It was a good smoke, just not too much different or special to me, not that I have a great palate. Standard bread, some nuts, and creamy. I have smoke a lot worse!