Tag Archives: macanudo

by Craig Vanderslice | November 3, 2024 · 9:29 am

A Special Blackbird Cigar and Some New Macanudos

I had the opportunity to purchase some cigars a few weeks in advance of their release thanks to Tyler Caldwell at Smokingpipes.com. I met Tyler a few years ago at the Stillwell Star release event at Low Country Pipe & Cigars in South Carolina. I hung out with him again at the last PCA show I attended, super nice dude. He had a hand in blending the new Blackbird Cigars Flamingo, which is a Smokingpipes.com exclusive. You may recall that Smokingpipes.com (Low Country is their retail outlet) is owned by Laudisi Enterprises, and recently acquired Caldwell Cigars (Tyler Caldwell/Caldwell Cigars? No relation, but it’s a bit funny!). They have a great shop if you find yourself in the Myrtle Beach area. Anyway, the cigar is called the Flamingo, has a pink band and a really nice hat if you’re a hat guy. I might have to become a hat guy, they are piling up over here. It’s a 7″ x 38 lancero format, has an Ecuador Habano wrapper, Connecticut Broadleaf binder, and Broadleaf, Nicaraguan and Dominican in the filler. That’s a lot going on in a Lancero! It’s made in Jonas Santana’s Blackbird factory in the DR. I like Jonas, I like his cigars, this should be a treat. If I had a complaint, it would be that it’s too short! This is a delicious cigar, it’s bold, has some warm, savory spices, and some light floral notes in the background. I smoked a couple of these and really enjoyed them. Smoking time was around an hour and fifteen nimues, and I was careful not to oversmoke it, but it was so darned tasty I might have smoked faster than usual (puffs per hour, not overdrawing). Jump on these when they become available later this month, all parties involved did a great job. Thanks to Tyler for allowing me to purchase cigars early!

I recently received some new Macanudo cigars from the folks at General Cigar Co., and I was excited to try them. The first one that jumped out at me was the Macanudo Emissary España Limited Edition Torpedo. I really thought the Emissary España in the robusto was a great cigar, not at all what one expects from a Macanudo. This cigar has a U.S. Connecticut Broadleaf Claro wrapper, aged 5 years, a Nicaraguan Condega binder, aged 6 years, with Dominican Piloto (aged 5 years), Colombian (aged 5 years), Nicaraguan ASP (aged 6 years), and Havana seed tobacco grown in Riolobos, Spain (aged 10 years). The wrapper is described as Claro, but I thought it was pretty dark, not maduro dark, but not light). The torpedo is 6″ x 52. The Broadleaf is apparent, it’s loaded with cocoa, and I get a citrus tang. It’s a heavy cigar, recommended unless you’re expecting a Macanudo Legacy or Inspirado experience. If you don’t go stronger than than an Inspirado White, this one might be troublesome. Great cigar, I really like it, and want to try it in a Churchill.

The Macanudo Estate Reserve Flint Knoll series has eluded me until the No. 3, which means they didn’t send me No.s 1 and 2. I wouldn’t have gone looking for these, being a non-drinker I don’t hunt down cigar with any liquor associations. I will try them when they are presented to me, but I certainly have no frame of reference for anything alcohol related. These aren’t flavored, of course, but have tobacco that is aged in French Oak barrels that was used for Flint Knoll’s 2021 Royal Appointment Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s offered in a beefy 7″ x 52 double corona they call a “Churchill”. The blend is Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, US Broadleaf binder and Brazilian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Dominican fillers. I only smoked one sample so far, I had a strange time with it. Flavors were delightful, it had some sweet wood and baking spices. Perhaps this needed to be a little bit dryer, is alternated between producing rich mouthfuls of smoke, to requiring double/triple puffs to get anything. very strange. At some point I’ll dry one down a little and give it a try, from what I could tell it was a delicious, sophisticated, medium bodied cigar. Folks with better palates than I rave about it.

That’s all for today. I have some cool plans for this coming weekend, involving hockey, cigars, a cigar factory and a farm. Guesses can go in the comments, maybe I’ll have a giveaway for a correct answer! Next Sunday’s post may be a little late. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Blackbird, Blackbird Cigar Co., cigar, cigars, Emissary, España, Estate Reserve, Flamingo, Flint Knoll, Low Country Pipe and Cigar, macanudo, SmokingPipes.com

by Craig Vanderslice | September 24, 2023 · 10:36 am

E.P. Carillo, Cavalier Geneve, Macanudo Vintage and Punch Golden Era Cigars

I split up the work week this week with a day trip to Atlantic City to sit on the beach one last time, do you know they don’t allow smoking on the beach in New Jersey? That sucks! Having a cigar is about the one thing I enjoy about going to the beach! The stupid thing about the smoking ban is that we all know it’s really another litter law, because a certain group of smokers can’t seem to pick up after themselves! There’s already litter laws, how about enforcing them! Anyway, I had picked up a few new to me cigars last week and smoked them this week! The first one was the E.P.Carrillo Allegiance in the Confidant size. This is a 6″ x 52 toro with a box press, and has a pretty Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and fillers which all come from, and is manufactured by, Oliva Cigars. It’s kinda funny that when Ernesto started his factory, I think he was more interested in making cigars for other people, then he had success with his own brand (again), and now he’s having other people make his brand! I’ve loved Ernesto’s cigars since the mid ’90s anyway. This one was a surprise, or maybe not. I got a large dose of the cane sugar sweetness I often get from Sumatra, and it stuck around through the cigar. I liked it a lot, it was a nice change. I definitely want to smoke this again, I’d like to smoke this with a friend to compare notes, I think that would be interesting. Great smoke in my opinion.

Next up was another cigar I picked up on the same shopping foray, a Cavalier Geneve Inner Circle Toro. This is made at the company’s factory in Honduras, Fábrica Centroamericana de Tabaco S.A., and does not have the signature gold leaf diamond applied to the wrapper. The wrapper is Nicaraguan Habano, Honduran Habano binder and fillers from Dominican Republic, Honduras , Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. Considering the blend, especially the presence of Pennsylvania leaf in the filler blend, I was surprised that this was as mild as it was. Oddly, I got a hint of white sugar on this one, maybe I have a sweet tooth lately. It was very nice, mellow, with subtle sweet tobacco notes throughout, some light coffee perhaps. Whenever I see PA tobacco in the blend I buckle my seatbelt, not needed in this case. I couldn’t have been happier with the gracefulness of this cigar, it was a delight.

A few weeks ago I mentioned picking up a Captain America Invicta case to repurpose as a travel humidor, and this week I put some foam trays in it. I bought a pack of 12″ x 12″ acoustic foam “tiles” from Temu for a little over $10 delivered. I cut four of them to fit the case, and, if I’m being anal retentive, can put 24 large cigars in the case. Of course, it’ll fit way more than that if I cram cigars in. So if you picked up a case at Harbor Freight, or a Pelican case if your well off, or got your hands on one of these Invicta watch cases, and were wondering where to get foam trays to lovingly cradle your precious cigars for safe travel, here’s your solution! I chose red because I thought it looked cool with the case, they have other colors. I suppose now I’m going to be expected to show up toting this case with me whenever I go to events now…

I had a few cigars from General Cigar Co. left to smoke that I had been saving for the right time, and yesterday was the time. I say that because they are robustos, and I often like to take longer to smoke than a robusto will give me. I know, it’s a hard problem to have. I took the afternoon yesterday, since it was rainy, to work on starting to winterize my porch, which is my smoking lounge. This was a great time to light up a Macanudo Vintage Maduro 2013 Robusto. I’ve always liked the Macanudo Vintage Maduro offerings, this one was a surprise. The wrapper is a ten year old Connecticut Broadleaf, the binder is Honduran Olancho San Agustin, and the fillers are Dominican Piloto Cubano (two different primings), Nicaraguan Jalapa and Brazilian Mata Fina. This was a very bold cigar, surprisingly so for a Macanudo. A pleasant surprise, for someone who can be frustrated by a mild cigar. The cigar started with a shot of espresso, and didn’t let off too much from there. It had loads of roch coffee and cocoa with some spice and we really quite heavy. It frequently distracted me from my project, and reduced the profanity level significantly. I may remove the cedar from a few of these for long term aging, I’d hate to see these become too woody. That reminds me, I have a side by side experiment with some Diesel Esteli Puros I need to do one of these days.

Finally, a cigar I’ve been looking forward to trying is the Punch Golden Era. Like the EPC Allegiance, this is another partnership, this time General Cigar worked with Justo and Julio Eiroa and made this cigar at Fabrica Puros de Aladino SA in Honduras. You know the Punch Rare Corojo that doesn’t actually have any Corojo in the blend? This cigar does actually have Corojo, and it’s Corojo from the undisputed masters of Corojo. Funny enough, this and the Macanudo were switched for me, where I expected this to be a powerhouse and the Macanudo to be milder, this was the mild cigar. The Punch Golden era was bready, creamy and maybe a little nutty, not at all what I expected. It wasn’t anything like an Aladino, or an old Camacho, or any Punch I can think of. It was quite nice, but very surprising for an all Corojo cigar. If you like Corojo, and you want a different (in my opinion) take on it, give this a try. If you like smooth, creamy, elegant cigars, also give this a try! It’s certainly a tasty cigar, but challenged my expectations.

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Allegiance, Cavalier, Cavalier Geneve, cigar, cigars, E.P. Carrillo, Golden Era, Inner CIrcle, macanudo, Macanudo Vintage 2013, punch

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

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Tagged as ATL, cigar, cigars, Foreign Affair, Gold Nugget, iMordecai, Luciano, macanudo, Macanudo Gold, Marvin Samel, Red, West Tampa Red, West Tampa Tobacco Co., Wise Blood

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 | September 18, 2022 · 9:56 am

El Baton Cigars and a Macanudo Inspirado Jamao

I’m, once again, writing from the back porch while I enjoy a new Macanudo cigar. I’m desperately hanging on to summer! It’s technically the last weekend of summer, cigars are one of the coping mechanisms I have to avoid slipping into depression. I’ll stop whining about this eventually! I had a few cigars this week, one that I planned to feature today, but burned so badly it was a pain in the ass and I decided to see if I can get another to try. It’s a shame too, because I really was looking forward to the cigar. I did smoke two cigars last night that I wanted to talk about. J.C. Newman Cigars was kind enough to share a couple of the new El Baton Belicosos with me. This is a cigar that’s been around for a while, so I dug out one of the old ones and smoked both to compare. The Belicoso is 5″ x 56, with an Ecuador “Havana” wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. These are supposed to retail in the $8-9 range, I want to say that they were more of a budget brand in previous iterations, but maybe this is the new budget range? I won’t begrudge them the price, as this new offering is really quite good. It has a pleasing flavor, not too mild, nor too strong, with some nice sweet wood and spice. I followed it with an older robusto. I can’t recall how long I’ve had this cigar, but it has to be close to 7 or 8 years. The old version was nowhere near as refined as the new. There were similarities, but, even after years in the humidor, there were rough edges. I might even say there were some “off” flavors, but it’s so hard to really judge a cigar when it’s the second cigar of the evening. It seems to me that the new version is far superior, and well worth the money.

I’m smoking the Macadudo Inspirado Jamao as I type. Clearly I’m not writing with the cigar, as another writer pointed out on my Instagram post. It was semantics, and I’m anti-semantic. This is something like the sixth cigar in the Inspirado line. I really like the White, Black, and Red, with the Green being pretty good and I never took a shine to the Orange. There’s another Connecticut in the lineup too, the Brazilian Shade, with was pretty good. This Jamao is pretty good, especially first thing in the morning. The wrapper is the interesting part, being a hybrid of Handuran (Jamatran) and Dominican (Mao) tobacco, a Habano varietal. It’s very good, but to my very basic palate, isn’t every distinctive. It’s a good tasting cigar, on my ranking of Inspirados it’s right above the Orange. I feel like the should have put “Jamao” on the band somewhere. Good smoke, don’t avoid trying it! Inspirados are generally reasonably priced. As I sit here smoking it, it’s definitely good way to start a Sunday.