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
Well, I have been so busy getting ready to close on a new home for my family that I had put the walking to the back burner…but boy do I need to be walking! So, last night I did just that! I set out on my walk with a very simple cigar, a Don Elias. I had picked up a bunch of these awhile back for little to nothing. These cigars don’t look like much and their bands make them look even less. But, myself and a few other friends have fallen in love with these cigars. They are quiet mild, but burn perfectly, as this one did on my walk…and the flavor is great! My walk went really well. The weather was nice, especially since it has been very windy around here lately. However, I had absolutely no issues with the burn, it burned evenly throughout the entire 60 minute walk. I would highly recommend that you try at least one of these cigars. You will want to get your hands on one…then let it rest in a good humidor for many months…and then I think you will be pleased. Again, this is a mild cigar, but even for me…a more full body smoker…I really enjoy this stick on occasion.
On my health, I have not been walking as I should and I am paying for it! I cannot wait until this move is out of my way so I can stop making excuses and move on with the walks. I did do one thing for myself this weekend…I signed up for a former Marine ran Boot Camp that I will be joining in a few weeks! Now, a lot of folks think that these “exercise” Boot Camps are just for girls…no, they are for us all! I am looking forward to being able to get started…and hopefully be whipped back into shape soon. I am looking forward to the military aspect of it, as I know that I need someone in my face making me go further and pushing me to places that currently, I don’t think I can go to. This will be a good eye opener for me. Health is important, and I have put this on the back burner for way too long. With this, this should give me more time with taking a cigar for a walk as I will be required to exercise daily and give feedback to my sergeant. I will keep you all posted as I get closer to the starting date.
As for me, I took a special cigar for a walk last night, a God of Fire from Prometheus, generously gifted to me by my favorite USAF Lt. Colonel, DB. This was a torpedo with the secondary band identifying it as a Carlito 2006, which isn’t listed on the webpage. The webpage doesn’t list too much information about these, but it does indicate that they are pricey as all get out. I usually don’t pay too much attention to cold draws, but this one tasted just like milk chocolate! It lit and burned very nicely, and had a nice flavor. I’d call this medium myself, but others may lean more toward full. Overall it was a very nice cigar on a very nice spring evening and it was a great accompaniment for my walk, a special treat I never would have otherwise had the chance to smoke. Thank you very much DB, you sent me some extremely nice cigars for the very small favor I did for you. Totally over the top! I think I’ve mentioned before that DB sent a few cigars in a very nice Casa Magna box which I’ve since pressed into service in the coolerdor holding the prized cigars I brought back from Cigar Safari! I hope to one day have the pleasure of meeting you and sharing a cigar. Tonight I grabbed an old standby as I had limited time, a Partagas Petit Coronas Especiales. I broke into the bottom layer of the box and these just keep getting better and better. Another fine way to get a little exercise on a beautiful evening.
