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A Macanudo Vintage, a La Gloria Cubana and Some Cigar News

A few weeks ago I was in my local cigar shop and I noticed the box of Macanudo Vintage 1997 with two robustos left in it.  I remember seeing the boxes being made when I toured General Cigar’s box factory, and I wanted it.  So I bought the last two sticks and was given the box.  Surprisingly, they were something like $6.99 each, certainly a reasonable price.  After getting in trouble with my wife for bringing home another cigar box, I put it on my night stand to unclutter some of the random electronics that accumulate: cameras, adapters, you know how it is. I put the cigars in the humidor, but those big metal bands they have, as cool as they are, interrupt the orderly flow of the humidor (this is my CDO showing, CDO=OCD in the correct alphabetical order).  The surrounding cigars just don’t seem to lay right around that band! Stupid, I know, but it gave me a god excuse to smoke one of these Monday night and see how they are.  They are good.  Nice and tasty, not too strong, but full of flavor.  This is right up my alley, and the 15 year old broadleaf wrapper held up very well. The band made it a little awkward in the hand, but it was different, and different is good. How do you expect a Macanudo to burn?  Perfect, right?  This one burned perfectly as one would expect.  I waited until it burned down until attempting to remove the band, which was pretty tight and I didn’t want to damage the wrapper more than necessary.  Now I need to figure out what to do with the band.  I gave it to my wife.  It didn’t fit.  Maybe I need to find some tiny napkins to roll up and use for a tiny, fancy place setting?  That’s just silly, I threw it in my band vase and it sunk about half way in.  Still pretty cool, and the cigar was very enjoyable.

 

Tuesday night’s walk was accompanied by a La Gloria Cubana Serie R Maduro No.5.  I’ve enjoyed these since they came out in 1999, but the last two I’ve smoked seemed really mild to me.  Yes, milder than the aforementioned Macanudo.  I thought the last one was a fluke, but this one was on the mild side too.  I bought a five pack of these at Famous’ store in Easton last December when I visited, remembering a stronger La Gloria, not a milder one.  Am I disappointed? A little.  I can’t help but think I’m just smoking these at the wrong time.  The flavor is great when I get it, perhaps a cool, breezy evening isn’t the best time, I’ll try one again on a nice warm summer evening.  I’ve long admired the La Gloria Cubana line, and certainly won’t let a couple cigars that underwhelm me get in the way of that!

 

News

In local news, my Eastern PA fellow cigar lovers will be interested in the following item from the Reading Eagle, which is the Reading PA local paper:

Supervisors approve plans for cigar store, lounge

The Tilden Township supervisors have approved final plans for the building of a cigar store and lounge on one of Cabela’s four commercial parcels just west of Route 61.

Township Manager Cheryl A. Haus said the approval is conditioned on completion of storm water and improvement agreements.

The parcel between Cabela’s and the Red Robin restaurant previously had been purchased for a Holiday Inn Express Hotel, but plans for that failed to materialize, she said.

The new owner is Cigars International of Bethlehem, which Haus said has two stores in the Lehigh Valley.

Haus said the company wants to build a smoking lounge and is trying to get a liquor license for it.

Cigars International moving closer to home, and next to a Cabella’s to boot!  Makes me want to grunt…can’t you just smell the testosterone?

 

In More News

Head on over to wwws.whitehouse.gov and sign the petition.  Don’t worry about having to sign up, do you think they don’t know how to find you? 🙂   We need to keep making noise about this to our elected officials.  I know I sent my umpteenth letter to my member of the House, Jim Gerlach this week, and I signed this petition today.   Of course, the IPCPR and Cigar Rights of America sites have great tools to easily write to the appropriate people.

 

That’s about it for this installment, until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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A Tortuga, a Berger and Argenti, a Little Rant and a Macanudo

Sunday afternoon I grabbed a Tortuga 1948 Connecticut Torpedo that Victor Vitale had sent me a couple months ago.  This is a 6½ x 52 torpedo with a flawless Connecticut shade wrapper rolled in the Dominican Republic.  This might have been one of the best shade wrapped cigars I’ve smoked.  There’s a trend toward stronger blends with an Ecuador wrapper, and it’s becoming a little cliche, in my opinion,  that everyone states that theirs is not like the rest of the mild Connecticut cigars out there.  Anyway, I don’t have anything against the cigars, I always enjoyed the flavor of a nice Connecticut wrapper, USA, Ecuador or whatever.  The Tortuga is an extremely smooth and flavorful cigar.  I had trouble putting it down and smoked it to about a half an inch nub, burned my fingers, it was that good. After smoking the 1950 Maduro, and this 1948 Connecticut, I can’t wait to smoke the  Edicion Limitada.

 

Monday night I lit up a Berger and Argenti Entubar v32 Rogue Rothschild.  I’ve enjoyed many of the cigars in the Berger and Argenti line, so I had an expectation that I’d like this one too.  I was expecting a super strong cigar, but this one wasn’t, it was very much a medium bodies cigar with a great flavor.  This 5 5/8″ x 54 cigar has the same little tube of ligero protruding from the foot that the regular Entubar line has, and the same warning band cautioning you to toast the entire foot, not just the ligero part.  It’s also a good idea to remove that band before lighting, which I almost forgot to do.  It’s a fun cigar to smoke, and tasty and well behaved.  I have a couple of the Khilla Korona size that Al Argenti sent me to try to, I’m sure they will be just as good.

 

The Rant

I had to take a little detour on the way home from work tonight and it took me past a cigar shop that I don’t get to very often. My wife had instructed me not to stop in but I defied her instructions and stopped in to see if they had the new Ortega line. This shop is a “premier” smoke shop, and is supposed to be the flagship store of the five store chain. I asked the young guy if they had the new Ortega line and he said “oh yeah, the Omar Ortega is over here” and I said ” no, that’s Omar Ortez. I’m looking for Ortega, you know, Eddie Ortega? 601? Murcielago?”.  Blank stare.  I say “they are distributed by Rocky Patel”. He says “the only Rocky Patel we have is the Edge, right here”. I thanked him and left. OK, I know I’m a cigar geek, and probably know more than the average person about cigars, but don’t you think if you worked in a cigar shop you’d keep up on what’s going on in the industry? It’s just hard for me to wrap my head around! I guess the owner doesn’t really worry about the new stuff and this is one of the reasons I don’t go to this shop too often. The moral of the story is that I should have listened to my wife!

 

Tonight I smoked the new 6″ x 60 size of the regular Macanudo Cafe line.  I was pretty impressed with the flavor of this classic Connecticut cigar.  I’ve smoked dozens of this cigar in various sizes and I forgot that they aren’t necessarily the bland, tasteless cigar everyone thinks they are.  Smooth and flavorful, if you like that sort of thing, I guess!  The first premium cigar I ever smoked was a Macanudo and I was underwhelmed, but I’ve come to appreciate the flavors of a really broad range of cigars.

 

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Macanudo, Partagas and CAO Cigars – Maduro Week

A few weeks ago I received some samples from General Cigar Co, including the new Macanudo and Macanudo Maduro Gigantes, measuring 6″x60. I’ve become a fan of the Macanudo maduros, sure they are a mild cigar, but they have a load of flavors that I like. When I was visiting the factory in Santiago last fall, by the 3rd day I had smoked so many cigars, and I lit up a Macanudo maduro and first, I could taste it, and second, it tasted good. I probably smoked nothing but the Mac Maduros for the rest of the day. So, I was excited to try the 6″x 60 Gigante. Many say that this format waters down the blends, but I haven’t really found that to be the case.  I admit to really enjoying the 60 ring cigars, I feel like it’s a guilty pleasure, but I haven’t really had a bad 60 ring cigar.  I’ve mentioned before that 50 ring feels puny now, a robusto feels like a quick smoke.  The Macanudo was a very tasty cigar that was good to the last drop and had the exceptional construction one would expect.

 

I sometimes get in a bit of a rut, and smoke a few related cigars in a row, and this was one of those weeks.  Monday’s cigar was a Partagas Black Label Magnifico.  This a jet black 6″x54 toro that I revisited in the DR, and remembered how much I enjoyed them.  The dark, Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper is oily and beautiful.  It is a bit stronger than the Macanudo, of course, but packed with flavor.  Of course it was perfectly made, as I witnessed first hand at the factory, they can’t seem to make a bad cigar there.  Partagas Black Label=yummy smoke!

 

Last night I was in the mood for something a little smaller, so I once again dug into the General Cigar Co. samples and picked out a CAO La Traviata Maduro Luminoso.  This is a newly released size in the Maduro line, measuring 4.5″ x 50.  I’ve smoked the La Traviata Maduro before and was quite unimpressed.  It was one of those cigars that everyone raved about, but I just didn’t get.  It seems like I had a dud (I think it was a trade show sample from a couple years ago), because this Rothschild was delicious.   It was just about the perfect size for my one-plus mile walk and held the ash for almost half of the cigar.  Another Connecticut Broadleaf, I know….I love that wrapper leaf, and combined with a Cameroon binder it was very surprising to me that I didn’t like the first ones I smoked.  This one’s back on my radar and one I’ll pick up the next time I see them.  I do have a complaint about the CAO website though.  It’s really slick, but one thing it lacks is a listing of the sizes of the cigars in each line.  If you want to know where the events are, it’s great, but if you’re looking for the sizes and names of the various cigars, one should be able to find it without having to go to retailers sites.  It’s a surprising omission, Rick? Ed?  Please feel free to comment on this and set me straight!

 

News

Once again, from the pages of history, this newspaper clipping appears in the October 18, 1838 Philadelphia Inquirer. It seems to be a mouthpiece for a cigar with a cotton filter.  Pretty cool to go back 175 years and see the new inventions of the times!  Obviously this modern development caught on in other areas of tobacco consumption, but when was the last time you saw a cigar holder or mouthpiece, let alone a filter?

 

That’s all I got!  Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Punch vs. Hoyo de Monterrey – A Debate Finally Settled

You will find that my cigar smoking habits may be a little different than most of my contemporaries. I certainly do smoke a lot of different, new and unusual smokes, but I don’t generally go out of my way to get the newest and rarest. Much of this has to do with my frugal nature, I’m a cheap bastard. The thing is, I have always had a healthy regard for the big brands, as often seeing a “yellow box” Partagas is as much of a treat as something like a Tatuaje (which I have not smoked many of, save for the La Casita Criolla) or something of that ilk. I honestly enjoy the heck out of a plain old Macanudo Maduro, and lets face it, while Macanudo and Partagas are not outrageously priced, they aren’t cheap, and I know first hand that they have the same care and passion put into them as any other cigar. The same can be said for Romeo y Julieta and Montecristo, both are made by an enormous company, in massive quantities, but the quality of materials and construction cannot be disputed. Anyway, that’s a little bit off of today’s subject, but gives some background and basis for the subject of this article.

 

A few posts back, MoBarbq left a comment referring to the Punch London Club Maduro in comparison to the Hoyo de Monterrey Sabroso. These two cigars are made in the same factory in Honduras (HATSA), and are the same size. It brought to mind a seemingly endless discussion back in the 90s (and to this day) about the Punch and Hoyo lines. There was a conspiracy theory that the Rothschilds were the same cigars, just packaged in the different boxes (at the time the Rothschilds were un-banded). Both lines were available in natural, maduro and double maduro (oscuro or maduro maduro), were priced the same and were close enough in flavor to fuel this suspicion. Also, if you look at the two lines, there are quite a few parallels in sizes, the Sabroso and London Club being another. Just recently as I was shopping for some Punch and Hoyo examples, my local tobacconist told me that he witnessed with his own eyes Punch and Hoyo cigars being taking from the same rolling tables in the factory. The info from the CigarWorld.com website would make you think that there is some truth to this:

 

Hoyo de Monterrey

Wrapper: Ecuadoran Sumatra  (Natural) and Connecticut Broadleaf (Maduro)

Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan, Dominican (Piloto Cubano)

Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf

Country: Honduras

Factory: Honduras American Tabaco S. A., Cofradia, Honduras

 

Punch

Wrapper: Ecuadoran Sumatra  (Natural) and Connecticut Broadleaf (Maduro)

Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan, Dominican (Piloto Cubano)

Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf

Country: Honduras

Factory: Honduras American Tabaco S. A., Cofradia, Honduras

 

I’m on a constant quest for cigar knowledge, so, I will finally find an answer to the age old debate.

  • This controversy goes back at least to a 1984 article in Connoisseur Magazine where Frank Llaneza is quoted as saying, when asked about the difference: “The filler is pretty much the same, but we try to use binder leaf from the upper primings for Punch; they’re stronger-tasting. Hoyo uses the lower to middle leaf as binder. It is mellower and more aromatic.”
  • In a 1995 interview with Dan Blumenthal, Marvin Shanken asked the question “C.A.: How would you describe the difference in blend or style or taste between Hoyo and Punch?  Blumenthal: I think that Punch is a little heavier cigar than the Hoyo. There’s a little more flavor, to me, than in the Hoyo de Monterrey. There is a difference. The blends are made by Frank Llaneza”.
  • So, I inquired of Victoria McKee Jaworski, the Public Relations Director at General Cigar, about these two references and she got me some updated information. She said “they have different ratios of tobacco, so the blends are different. Punch is slightly fuller-bodied and uses more ligero. Its wrapper is closer to a Colorado color. And for Hoyo, the wrapper is a lighter shade of Ecuadoran Sumatra”. In the case of the maduro, Agustin Garcia, production manager at HATSA, the man responsible for tobacco processing and cigar production, tells us: “The wrapper for Punch Maduro and HDM Maduro is Connecticut Broadleaf for both of them. For Punch we use a darker color and little heavier wrapper than HdM”.

So there we have it. While the materials used in both lines of cigars are similar, and in some cases the same, there are differences. The Punch is blended to be a little more powerful and the Hoyo is supposed to be a little more refined. That puts that controversy to bed once and for all, and I can go back to my local shop and argue with them that they do not, in fact, take cigars from the same rolling table and box them in Punch or Hoyo boxes (of course, they go from the rolling tables into the aging rooms long before they are banded, wrapped and boxed!).

 

Since I’ve been smoking my way through a box of Hoyo Sabroso Maduro for the last year, and managed to get my hands on a box of Punch London Club Maduros, I figured I’d see for myself what the difference is.  I’m half way through the box Hoyo Sabrosos and I’ve really been enjoying them. They have the reasonably heavy,  dark maduro flavors I look for in the colder months.  Every one has been well made and most have been smoked down to a tiny nub.  I bought this box last year and it has been in my humidor ever since.  I just received a box of the Punch London Club Maduros this week, so they haven’t had the benefit of a year’s rest, but I smoked a couple of them anyway!  The cigars appear to have a darker, oilier wrapper than the Hoyos, they are gorgeous. To me, the Punch is a little stronger in flavor, consistent with all of the evidence provided above, so I have no reason to doubt that each line has it’s own distinctive blend, even if that difference is a matter of primings, leaf selections or proportions.  As far as I’m concerned, both are outstanding little smokes, although, admittedly, comparing year old cigars to new ones isn’t a very scientific way to do it!  I also managed to smoke an old favorite, the Punch Rothschild Maduro Maduro this week, and boy, was it good!  Savory and lush flavors and a long finish…another yummy smoke!

 

That’s it for now, until the next time,

CigarCraig

 

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Some Thoughts on Taste and A Tortuga 1950

My wife and I took the train into Philly yesterday to go to the Reading Terminal Market.  We have both lived in this area pretty much our whole lives, and had never been there.  This is a huge, indoor farmers market with produce, meats, fish, ethnic food, just about everything one would want.  One of the first stalls we came across was a candy counter.  I’m a nut for black licorice, so I purchased a mixed bag of “salty” licorice.  I had never had salty licorice and was curious.  Some of it wasn’t bad, some of it had a distinct ammonia flavor, which I can’t say that I enjoyed, I mean….who would?    It seems that this is a common treat in Nordic countries and Northern Germany, and is flavored with ammonium chloride, which explains the ammonia flavor I got.  This all got me to thinking of the way everyone’s tastes are different and how that translates to cigars.  This is no great revelation, we all know that we have different tastes, that’s one of the things that makes life interesting, but it reinforced the point to me when I thought ” who in thier right mind would enjoy this flavor?”  It seems that somebody does, and the same is true with cigars.  I’ve smoked some cigars that I consider to be vile, nasty tasting cigars that I can’t imagine anyone would want to smoke.  Obviously, the guy who makes the cigar likes it, and, let’s face it, considering all of the work that goes into making a cigar, who’s going to waste all that time and energy making a crappy cigar?  I know that as someone who apparently has a voice in the industry, it’s my responsibility when I talk about a cigar, to not denigrate a cigar just because it isn’t to my taste, and to allow for the myriad of variables in construction and storage that could cause a less than ideal cigar experience.  That same candy counter did have some chocolate cigars!  I passed since I can get a real cigar for the same price and have an hour or so of pleasure instead of the few minutes the candy variety would give me.  This bag of unusual licorice will last me a lot longer than a similar bag of sweet licorice would, as I can’t stop eating it once I start.   It’s one of my many failings…

 

Upon my return, I selected a Tortuga 1950 torpedo for an afternoon smoke.  This lovely dark cigar was sent to me by Victor Vitale, cigar maker, importer & distributor, along with a 1948 Connecticut and an Edicion Limitada 2011 in the same vitola.  There isn’t a lot of specifics on the website, but I assume that this is made in Nicaragua, based upon the “America Central” on the band.  According to information that I received with the samples, the cigar has a Mexican broadleaf wrapper, Nicaraguan,  Honduran and organic grown wild “jungle” filler leaf exclusive to this cigar.  The wrapper on this is beautiful, deep, dark brown, like dark chocolate, and the seems were virtually invisible and the veins were very fine.  The flavors appealed to me quite a bit.  They were dark and decadent, lush and satisfying.  There was an underlying flavor that intrigued me that I can’t put a finger on.  It was different from many maduros that I like, but really kept my attention down to a finger burning nub.  I’m really looking forward to the  other two in this line now, as this was a terrific smoke.  Besides the lack of details on the make-up of this cigar on the website, they also do not list a torpedo, so your mileage may vary when shopping for these.  Certainly a cigar I’d like to smoke more of. The Short at 4½” x 44 looks like a great winter cigar walk size.  I’ve been underwhelmed with Victor’s other cigars, but that’s just me, and, as I said above, taste is a subjective thing and no two palates ate the same.

 

I smoked some other cigars this week, notably a Macanudo 1968, a J.  Fuego Sangre de Toro Original, and a Gurkha Seduction.  All cigars I’d talked about before, and the only thing that bears repeating is how much I like the Gurkha Seduction.  I’ve been seeing a ton of reviews on this brick and mortar exclusive cigar.  I think Mike at MikesStogies.com is currently having a contest featuring these cigars, so check out his review.  I’ll feature these in a contest at a later date assuming I can keep my grubby little mitts off of them long enough!  I also noticed that the Seduction is Doc Stogiefresh‘s cigar of the week for his podcast episode 303.  Also of note was a La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Tabaqueros with Sumatra and Broadleaf that I got from my visit to Famous Smoke Shop.  Delicious cigar, if you have an opportunity to go to a La Gloria Cubana Retro event and meet Michael Giannini you will be in for a double treat as these cigars are special and Michael is a heck of a guy!

 

One last thing:  Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the site.  I’ve had some feedback that there are still some glitches and some operating systems or browsers, or some connections speeds still have problems.  I want everyone to be able to see the site the way I do, so please let me know if there’s a problem or complaint.

 

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

CigarCraig

 

 

 

 

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