Tag Archives: Orchant

by Craig Vanderslice | July 19, 2020 · 9:08 am

Avo Classic, Regius Orchant Seleccion and Perdomo Habano Barrel Aged Cigars

Another week has passed with some progress made around the house, some applications submitted, and several cigars smoked. I came across a couple Avo Classics while scavenging around the humidors, and it occurred to me that I had never actually smoked and Avo Classic. Sure, I’ve smoked the newer Avos, the Ritmo, Syncro, the odd XO here and there, but never smoked the Classic. Well, it was about time I remedied this situation, I suppose, and I had two Classic No. 2s sitting right here, and the’ve been here for quite a few years! I’m not even sure where they came from! This is a 6″ x 50 toro with a sun-grown Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and DOminican binder and fillers. I’m not sure what I was expecting, perhaps I was expecting a mild, Connecticut shade style cigar, but I was surprised to find that it was a very rich tasting, sweet tobacco flavorful cigar. Naturally, the construction was perfect, it’s a Davidoff product, after all, and solidly medium bodied. This was a great cigar that I regret missing out on all these years. It was loaded with sweet, creamy flavor and quite enjoyable!

Regius Cigars is a brand that’s been around for a decade, but doesn’t have a huge footprint in the US. They are carried by a lot of the bigger retailers, and they are made by Placencia, so they aren’t small potatoes by any stretch. I was introduced to Akhil Kapacee. the principle of the company, several years ago at the IPCPR show by Mitchell Orchant, who, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve known for over 20 years. Mitchell owns C.Gars Ltd in the UK, one of the more prominent retailers of Havana cigars on the planet. Last January at the TPE show I ran into my old friend Ann, who is with Sutliff Distribution Group (who was with Villiger for a long time), who, in addition to distributing Platinum Nova Cigars and introducing me to them, mentioned that they were also distributing Regius. So I went to their booth to say hello to Akhil, and he gave me a Regius Orchant Seleccion robusto, since Mitchell never gave me one ;-). (Note: There’s a Drew Estate Seleccion Orchant that I’d love to sample, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more). Regius cigars I’ve sampled in the past have been exceptional, and this one was no different. I found it to be extremely smooth, with a very clean finish, I’d almost say refreshing. It had a nice sweetness, that is a quality I like, and burned perfectly. As a company with UK roots, and a cigar that made for a UK retailer, I can see how this would appeal to a palate that’s used to Havana cigars, although I think it has more complexity, at least to my palate that’s used to a more diverse flavor wheel. It was very good, highly recommended.

Finally, as I’m typing this, I’m having a cup of black coffee and enjoying a Perdomo Habano Bourbon Barrel-Aged Connecticut Robusto. It’s infrequent that I light up a cigar at 7:30, however for some reason I was up super early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got an early start and decided to sit on the porch and write. As long as I’m on the porch, I might as well have a cigar. The selection process for me wasn’t easy. Sometimes I choose a coffee infused cigar, last week it was a Macanudo M. I had a Tabac Especialle in my hand, then I figured I’d look for a milder Connecticut robusto just to thin the herd of cigars that seem to get passed over more often. I might have had other cigars that would be milder, but this Perdomo stood out to me. You have to admit the bands on these are pretty eye-catching. The wrapper is a 6 year old Bourbon Barrel-Aged Ecuador Connecticut and the Binder and fillers are Nicaraguan. I’m three for three here on good smokes, although I generally don’t write about the sub-par cigars I smoke, and I try not to smoke that many sub-par smokes to begin with! To be honest, some of my choices that I decided against were the Don Juan Calavera Connecticut and the La Sirena LT, both Honduran, both excellent Connecticut cigars that I love, but I passed on them because I only have them in Toro sizes and I wanted a robusto. Considering this Robusto is 5″ x 54, it might have been a wash, but I always consider length to be more of a determining factor when it comes to time than girth anyway. This cigar is not without body, it’s no mild cigar. It has plenty of flavor, rich, creamy, nutty flavors with a little bit of spice. Nice smoke. I still favor the maduros in the Perdomo line, but this is probably my favorite Connecticut in their range. Not bad at all.

For my local golfing friends, come out to Goose’s Golf Even for a great day of eating, smoking, golfing and all that goes with it. I’ve been to many of Goose’s events and they are always top notch. You can’t beat the food, cigars and golf offered with this deal! You can download the registration form here. I plan to be there to offer encouragement and smoke along with the golfers!

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

CigarCraig

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Tagged as Avo, cigar, cigars, Goose's, Orchant, Perdomo, Regius

by CigarCraig | April 12, 2015 · 12:55 pm

Orchant Seleccion, My Father Cigars and a Cain F Lancero

For the first time in several years I went through the week without worrying about a mid-week post. Do you know what I did? I worried about it…this is going to take some getting used to! So Wednesday, instead of writing a post, I smoked a Orchant Seleccion by Oliva Shorty, a 5″ x 50 robusto which is only available in the UK through C.Gars Ltd., and is alleged to be based on the Oliva Serie V blend. I have now smoked all three vitolas in this line, and I think my favorite is the 4″ x 60 Chubby. I think this is ironic, in that it’s probably the least “British” size , but for me it was the most flavorful of the bunch. Now, one caveat: I’ve had something going on where I’m getting a bit of an odd metallic flavor no matter what cigar I seem to pick up, and It may well have something to do with trying a new toothpaste (it should be called “teethpaste”, shouldn’t it? there’s a joke in there somewhere, but I don’t want to offend my readers in West Virgina). This might have caused the problem, and I’ve had similar things happen before. Fortunately, I understand that the problem is with me, and not the cigars. Back to the Orchant Seleccion by Oliva, these are tasty, and if you’re in the UK and can get to one of Mitchell Orchant’s retail locations (I hear they deliver in London too), give these a try. These are a great “new world” option for those looking for a change of pace from the typical UK diet of Havana cigars. Thanks to Mitchell for sharing these tasty buggers with me.

Thursday evening my wife and I went to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to take in one of the last Flyers games of the season. We got some great lower level seats for a good price, and watched another loss against a team that was also out of the play off race. Hoe a team can dominate teams that are above them in the standings, and suck against teams below is a mystery I suppose we will never have an answer to. Anyway, as you’ve read here before, the Wells Fargo Center has a cigar bar where we watched the last 5 minutes of the game in a nice leather chair and a My Father Le Bijou 1922 Petite Robusto. On these occasions, I like to select a cigar that is just about long enough for the traffic to exit the parking lot, but not so long as to run into the traffic exiting the Phillies game traffic from the adjoining venue. This was just such a cigar, my first of this line, and I look forward to smoking it again. The Habano Oscuro wrapper was dark and oily and quite tasty. The cigar started with the signature Pepin Garcia spice and smoothed out into a rich, yet full strength smoke. Of course, as always, I stopped on the way out to say hello to the great Bernie Parent, a fixture in the cigar bar there during home games. He was smoking his BSB by Rocky Patel, of course, and was joking around with fans like he normally does. Great cigar, nice time in the lounge, kind of a lack-luster game, but lots of fun.

Saturday we had the memorial service for my father, which was held at the church where he had been the choir director for 33 years. He had also been a high school vocal music director and adviser for 30 years, so he had a significant impact on the community. It was humbling to hear the outpouring of appreciation for his efforts. I can only hope to accomplish a fraction of what he accomplished in his lifetime during mine. It was nice to see family that I haven’t seen in many years, it’s a shame that it takes occasions such as these to bring people together. When I got home, Macha and I took a nice long walk with a favorite cigar of mine, the Cain F Tubed Lancero. Frequently ligero is left out of the lancero vitola, it’s a thicker leaf, it burns slower than other primings, and causes more problems in that narrow format. In the Cain F case, the cigar is mostly ligero, and for some reason it’s just about the smoothest, most well-balanced Cain cigar I’ve come across. the burn was perfect, the draw was perfect, and it is very flavorful, and switching teethpaste helped considerably as the flavors were what I expected with only a little of the metallic twinge that I was dealing with all week. These are hard to find, but generally well priced at between $6 and $7 each, and are well worth it. One small gripe about the Oliva website, they seem to ignore the Can and Nub lines on the main site, not even linking to the Studio Tobac site where the Cain and Nub info resides. Again, companies make it hard to find info, where they could very easily make it simple. I happen to really like the Cain line-up, but this Lancero is the best of the bunch.

Please take a moment to visit some of our new (and not so new) site supporters by clicking on their graphics on the right and left sides of the page. Our latest additions are GetTheSmokeOut.com, GlobalCornerCafe.com, ItalianSmokes.com and ThompsonCigar.com. Of course I’d like to thank these latest supporters, as well as the rest of my loyal and long-time supporters. All of these companies help me do what I do, and I appreciate their confidence and assistance. I make it point of only advertising for companies I like and respect, so they all have my stamp of approval for whatever that’s worth!

It’s a beautiful day, finally, so I need to go try to get some things done in the yard that I’ve been unable to do due to the weather, so I’ll keep an eye out for something interesting to fill the mid-week void. Feel free to follow me on Instagram, Twitter of Facebook to catch my daily smoking ritual. Until the next time,

CigarCraig

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Tagged as c-gars ltd, cain, cigar, cigars, Flyers, My Father Cigars, oliva, Orchant

by CigarCraig | June 5, 2011 · 11:22 am

Cigar Adventures: NYC, an Alec Bradley New York, a Partagas, a Fuente and a Contest!

Last Tuesday was a day we had been looking forward to for some time. We, once again, had the honor and privilege of being on the guest list for a New York City Dinner Cruise hosted by our friend Mitchell Orchant of C-Gars Ltd. Mitchell is an old friend. We first “met” through an e-mail and continued through the alt.smokers.cigars usenet group back in the ’90s. We met face to face at a little herf in Vegas in 1999 known amongst those in the usenet world as “Boondoggle III“, which was held at the MGM Grand over a 3 day span. This event comprised about 300 people who only knew one another through the wild west of the internet, an oddity at the time! Anyway, we’ve been to Mitchell and his wife’s wedding in London, we’ve taken them sight-seeing in NYC, and been friends for a long time. Mitchell has taken to hosting this dinner cruise every year, which I reported on last year, which spends a couple hours cruising around Manhattan, with beautiful views of the skyline, the bridges, and the Statue of Liberty. I thought it would be appropriate to enjoy an Alec Bradley New York Robusto, which I had picked up at De La Concha on my last visit to the city. This is a very nice cigar! This was created for the ridiculously highly taxed New York State shops, designed to give the local tobacconists a little more margins in hopes that they can stay open!! Anyway, it’s a good cigar, pick some up if you see them in New York and support the oppressed businesses in the state.

Back to the event. In attendance were Marc Aub and Mike DaVersa of Brothers of the Leaf, LLC, makers of Palio cutters and Esencia cigars, whom I had met last year and seen at the IPCPR show last July. Always a pleasure to chat with Marc, who’s as passionate as they come about his products. Mitchell is the UK distributor for Palio Cutters, and just became the UK distributor for Arturo Fuente cigars, so, in addition to the fine Bolivar Belicoso Finos in the goody bag, there was a Fuente Hemingway Signature as well. These happen to be 2 of my all time favorite cigars that I rarely get to enjoy.We also got to catch up with some other old friends, Karen from Albany, George from South Jersey and even Barry from California. I finished the night off with a Partagas Petit Coronas Expeciale from a box I had been waiting to arrive at cruise time last year. I’ve really been digging these cigars and hope that the exchange rate comes down a little in the future so that I can get another box one day! I was even able to gift Mitchell a cigar, something that’s pretty rare as he always declines. I had an extra Partagas Serie P No.2 that I got at his wedding coming up on 5 years ago. The Hunters and Frankau rep was handing these out at the reception, and Mitchell’s dad insisted I get an extra to take home. I figured this would be a fitting “thank you” for the nice things he does for us. At the end of the night Mitchell opened a box of Opus X Perfecxion X and passed it around, to cap off the evening.

Contest!

One of the neat items in the goody bags, was a ring gauge guide. I managed to score a couple spares and will send one to a random reader who leaves a comment. Heck, these will be cheap to mail, make that two! So leave a comment to enter and see the rules on the winners and rules page, and I’ll make this one a short one and announce a winner on Wednesday if all goes to plan. Give Mitchell’s site a visit when you get a chance and see all the neat stuff he’s got. Also look for a mention of his book in the latest Smoke Magazine!

LAst night I selected a Fuente Anejo 50 that had been kicking around the box for a while now, maybe 4 years. It was the first of this line that I’ve smoked and boy was it tasty. It started a little slow, but it built into just the kind of cigar I like. It had the nice, dark flavors I like and just the right level of nicotine. Goes with out saying that it was well made, as it’s a Fuente. I know these are pricey and availability is spotty, but if you have the chance, smoke one, I don’t think you’ll have any regrets. I selected this in honor of Mitchell’s a fore mentioned acquisition of the Fuente distributorship in the UK.

That’s it for now! We have an update from Tommy Berry coming up next time, so until then,

CigarCraig