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by Craig Vanderslice | December 24, 2023 · 9:16 am

Mule Kick, Metropolitan, Maria Lucia and the Contest Winner!

It only just occurred to me that that the last three cigars I smoked started with M, must be fore Merry Christmas! Of course, today is Christmas Eve, so it’s time to start your Christmas Shopping guys! It’s also the day I’m announcing the winner of the contest sponsored by Cigars.com, but I’ll get to that later! In the spirit of the season, I smoked some gifted cigars this week, the first of which was from Steve from Tampa, who was up visiting on business a few weeks ago. He gifted me a Crowned Heads Four Kicks 2023 Mule Kick LE, a 5 7/8″ x 52. Funny, I thought it was a toro, but I was off by an eighth of an inch. This one has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper over a Dominican binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, and is made in the Tabacalara La Alianza factory by Ernesto Carillo. I think this is the seventh iteration of the Mule Kick, and probably the first I’ve had, the Crowned Heads stuff isn’t ever really on my radar, I don’t see them in the stores near me that often. This was a great smoke, loaded with dark chocolate and spices. Ernesto has been a master of Sumatra for as long as I can remember, which, in this case, is a long time (my memory is suspect, short-term and names is terrible, long term isn’t so bad). Many thanks to Steve for the opportunity to smoke this, I look forward to your next visit, who knows, I may get to your neck of the woods before you get back here!

Next up were a couple of selections from my Secret Santa this year. Quick bit of housekeeping: If you participated in the CigarCraig Secret Santa (The CCSS moving forward), and have not fulfilled your obligation, please do so. I know of one package that’s in transit. Everyone that’s been involved has done it multiple times, so I don’t worry, and I try to be hands off and just a participant. Feel free to let me know if you have comments of concerns. My CCSS was a fellow Craig and in my area, so much so that I ran into him while out shopping Friday! So I selected the Nat Sherman Metropolitan Host Maduro Hampton, a 7″ x 50 cigar. You might be saying, “Craig, Metropolitan is a Ferio Tego brand now” and I’d say you are correct. You also might not know that Nat Sherman closed their doors in 2021 and Michael Herklots bought the rights to the names and kept the brands alive. This particular cigar is one of the older ones, purchased at the Nat Sherman Townhouse in NYC. I believe it has a Broadleaf wrapper, over Honduran fillers, made by the Eiroas if I’m not mistaken. This was milder than I imagined it would be, but it was loaded with sweet cocoa flavor and very tasty. Perhaps any strength it had was tempered by time, but it was very good. I enjoyed the crap out of this and it’s one that I’ll likely never see again. Thanks for the opportunity Craig!

Another cigar in Craig’s CCSS pack was the Luciano Cigars Maria Lucia, another Broadleaf wrapped cigar. This is a tribute to Luciano Meirelles’ mother, who passed when he was twelve, and has the artwork of his daughter on the band. The cigar is 5¼” x 54 with the Broadleaf wrapper, double binder of Ecuadorian Sumatra and Ecuadorian Habano 92 tobaccos, and a fillers from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Peru. This is going to sound strange, especially given the source, but the flavor was bready to me, like a dark bread, a pumpernickel or the brown bread that comes in a can. It was on the heavy side, which I liked, even though I smoked it before dinner (after a nap). I have met Luciano a couple times, and have enjoyed his cigars. I would like to explore more of his work, I think. Good stuff.

Let’s give some stuff away! You might recall, Cigars.com has provided me with a really nice Montecristo travel humidor, along with a RoMEo cap and a Romeo y Julieta can cozy. I am going to add some cigars to the humidor before I ship it, they will be Cigars.com exclusives from my humidor, more or less. The sponsor doesn’t know I’m doing this, but I can’t send out a package without cigars! Anyway, I’ve consulted the Google Random Number Generator and Tim McCabe is the winner! Please send me your address so that I can get this stuff out to you! Remember if you buy from Cigars.com, or JRCigars.com, please use the affiliate links on the left sidebar, I could use the cash!

That’s all for now, enjoy the Holidays! I guess I need to scrounge up some goodies for a New Years Giveaway! Stay tuned! Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Filed under Contest, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigars, CIgars.com, Contest, Crowned Heads, Four Kicks, Host, Luciano, Maria Lucia, Metropolitan, Mule Kick, Nat Sherman

by Craig Vanderslice | May 28, 2023 · 9:30 am

ATL and Luciano, Macanudo and West Tampa Tobacco Cigars

The highlight of the week for me was my interview with Marvin Samel (see video at the end of the post, or go back to the Friday post). I really enjoy doing these interviews, hopefully they are enjoyable for you. I didn’t mention it on the video, but I smoked a Liga Privada No. 9, the cigar I smoked for the first time when I met Marvin in 2009. Marvin was smoking a Havana Cohiba from a box he had bought in the Netherlands ten years ago. I guess we should have talked about the cigars, but I thought the behind the scenes movie stuff was really fascinating! Anyway, I smoked some other cigars this week, starting with the Foreign Affair Toro Extra from Luciano Cigars. Luciano debuted this cigar at this year’s TPE show, which I did not attend. This cigar has a Sumatra Ecuador wrapper, Nicaragua & Ecuador binders, and fillers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica & Dominican Republic. One does not see a lot of cigars with Costa Rican fillers. This cigar smoked very well, had a really interesting sweet spice, almost a ginger sort of flavor. I love a Sumatra wrapper, and this one was really nice, and probably accounts for the sweetness. It was very good.

The next cigar shares some traits with the Foreign Affair, in that it’s made in the same factory, since ATL Cigars partnered with Luciano for distribution, and one of ATL’s founders, Peter, has taken on an executive roll with the Luciano company. I found the ATL Magic to be an exceptional cigar, very special. I tried the ATL Wise Blood in the Gordito size, 4″ x 60 and was impressed. This cigar has an Ecuadorian Habano Rosado HVA wrapper, Ecuadorian Connecticut binder, and fillers from three Nicaraguan regions. I happened to take Friday off, and after running some errands and doing some stuff, I smoked this cigar. It had a hint of sourness, kind of the sourdough bread kind, which was interesting in a good way. I’m one of the odd set who doesn’t mind a 60 ring, I think it’s best in the shorter lengths, it’s certainly ridiculous in anything longer than six inches. Good smoke, looking forward to trying other sizes.

Continuing on the short and fat vein, yesterday morning I lit up a new Macanudo Gold size for 2023, the Gold Nugget. This is a 4½” x 60, with the classic Macanudo Connecticut Shade wrapper, Mexican San Andrés binder and Piloto Cubano and Mexican fillers. The wrapper leaves come from early primings, making them smoother and cleaner looking than higher primings because they get less sun exposure. I was trying to reupholster the seat on my scooter, and needed a cigar to reduce profanity. If I can give any advice to someone who wants to try this, it’s to just buy an OEM seat cover and be done with it, it’s worth saving yourself the headache. So, as the scooter waits for it’s seat to come in, I enjoyed this Macanudo Gold. Fun fact, this blend is (or was) the favorite of Victoria Jaworski, the queen of public relations for Scandinavian Tobacco Group. I smoked it early in the day, and it is a milder, creamy smoke, but it’s not without flavor, and delivered a really nice smoking experience for this guy who isn’t a huge fan of the Connecticut shade genre. Like the Macanudo Inspirado White, it’s one I’ll go back to happily, whenever that shade mood hits me.

Finally, I’ve been smoking a bunch of the West Tampa Tobacco Co. Red cigars lately after finding them in stock at my local shop. I grabbed another robusto yesterday afternoon after smoking one earlier in the week. When I talked to Ricky Rodriguez last month (video HERE), we talked about the similarity between the Attic and the Red, they share all the same components, which are Mexican San Andrés Maduro, Condega Nicaragua Binder and Condega Viso, Esteli Viso, Esteli Ligero. The robusto is a powerhouse compared with the Toro and Gordo, it packs a punch! There’s a lot of cocoa and coffee, which I love, and, especially the Robusto, a healthy amount of pepper spice. I think the Red is slightly less refined than the Attic, there must be some priming difference somewhere in the blend. This isn’t a knock, by any stretch, it wouldn’t make sense to have the exact same cigar with different bands and prices (although inside sources tell me that the Attic is sold out at WTCC). I love this Red, and it seems like I’ve been smoking a lot of the Reds and Black’s recently! Great cigars from a great family company.

That’s all for today. It’s Memorial Day Weekend, so take a moment and think of those who perished so that we can relax with a great cigar. Until the next time,

CigarCraig