Haven’t had the opportunity to talk about any of the cigars I’ve smoked recently, so here’s a little rundown of the past couple week’s highlights.
Back on the first night of our vacation in New Orleans I went to the hotel pool with my sons and fired up a Flor de Gonzales 90 Miles Robusto. I’ve enjoyed the 5 pack I won on MyCigarAshes.com several months ago. They are a nice, smooth tasty cigar that is well made. If the Flor de Gonzales sandwich cigars are good, and I think they are, (especially for around $2.00 for a large torpedo or Churchill), these are even better. Recommended.
The next night, as I had mentioned in my previous article, we found ourselves at Tobacco Exchange where I picked up a couple Tabacos Baez Robustos. Tabacos Baez Serie Sf cigars are made at Pepin Garcia’s My Father tabacalera in Nicaragua, they are 70% long filler and 30% short filler. It was one of the more reasonable priced cigars in the shop at $3.75 each. I found it to be a well made cigar that was mild to medium bodied. I enjoyed mine, but my eldest son felt that it didn’t have enough flavor. He’s still learning, and has been smoking the occasional Acid and was particularly impressed with a Liga Privada T52, so I really wasn’t surprised by his impression. I found it to be an acceptable cigar that fit the situation for me, which was standing outside in New Orleans on a hot and muggy evening enjoying The Tobacco Exchange’s block party.
We went out to dinner with our old friends, the Sakas, as well as half the cigar store owners in the state of New Hampshire (2 of them at least, how many people can there be in New Hampshire anyway? :->), but oddly didn’t manage to smoke any cigars. Steve did pass around a box of Dirty Rats, the first I’d seen with Liga Privada bands and box. The Dirty Rat box was unique in that it had a notched strip at the head of the cigars to protect the pigtail cap and held 10 or 12 cigars (memory fail…). I still have a handful of the pre-production Rats floating around the humidor someplace, these are really beautiful cigars. The restaurant was not smoke friendly, but the food was very good, I had a hanger steak which melted in my mouth.
Monday night my boys and I took a wander on Bourbon Street where I smoked a Partagas Petit Coronas Especiale which was just fantastic. I really enjoy these cigars from Germany. While we were wandering around we stopped for a while at the Cigar Factory of New Orleans little shop and watched a gentleman bunch cigars and load up molds. He was a very skilled torcedor and it was educational for my sons. I had a nice chat with the shop keeper about their cigars, even though I had gotten the whole story before at the main store. I always enjoy hearing someone speak passionately about his product. I am looking forward to smoking the three cigars from Cigar Factory New Orleans in the near future.
Tuesday morning before we left I stopped in the IPCPR show I introduced myself to Pete Johnson and he very generously gave me an El Triunfador which must have been a No.2, if I remember the size correctly. I smoked it while I walked around the show floor and found it to be a solid smoke. It was satisfying without being overwhelming, which was a good thing for the early hour. Pete was a very nice guy, and I haven’t smoked s many of his cigars as I would like to have, so I was grateful for the gift.
After getting home it was back to business as usual. I have been pretty lazy and have been avoiding some of the new cigars I received at the show and stuck to cigars I could smoke without worrying too much about them. Smoked my last Vegas de Santiago Secretos de Maestro 4″ x 60, which was nice, but not as good as I remembered. I had a really nice Chateau Real Maduro Gran Templar, which is a 6″ x 52 Toro. The Chateau Real line is among my current favorites as far as flavor and consistency goes. Smooth, low maintenance cigars that always seem to deliver for me. I like them in both wrappers, but prefer the maduro. I also smoked a Puros Indios Vieja corona which was OK, and a Maria Mancini Robusto Larga, which was better that the Puros Indios, but the PI wasn’t bad for a $1.00 cigar. I have to say that the Maria Mancini was better than twice as good as the PI, despite being twice the price at $2.00. The worst cigar I had over the last 2 weeks was a Vegas de Santiago Chaman Panatela Extra. These just don’t do it for me, but are well made and certainly a quality cigar. Not sure what it is that I don’t like about them, maybe a grassy profile or something.
That’s the catch-up for this week. I have some interesting new cigars from the show that I’ll be getting to in the very near future. I am really no good at reviewing cigars, but I do know a good cigar from a bad one, and I know what I like. Hopefully folks can pick out some value from my brief impressions.
Until the next time,
CigarCraig
It’s snowing here in South-East PA and I wanted to smoke something to celebrate the fact that I booked my son Corey and myself on a Drew Estate Cigar Safari in March. Considering the snowy weather, I was hesitant to dip into my meager supply of Liga Privadas, I didn’t want to squander a Dirty Rat or a Flying Pig. I couldn’t see smoking a No. 9 or a T52 in the cold and wet. Chateau Real Maduros hold up nicely in the slop, but I’ve been smoking a 
bunch of them recently and I didn’t want to bore you more than normal. I came across a La Vieja Habana Cuban Corojo Rothschild Luxo that I received at the booth at the IPCPR show last July. I’ve always enjoyed the La Viejas for what they are, which is a mixed filler, budget cigar, certainly a good value cigar at somewhere around $50 a box. Anyway, the cigar was quite enjoyable and burned well. It was spicy enough to stand up to the brisk evening.
rew Estate
