PAsha | CigarCraig's Blog

My wife gave me a great idea for the end of the year which involves the cigar of the year and a contest, but I’m going to save that for Wednesday’s post. Today I want to talk about a few cigars that treated me right this week! the first of which was a Tabernacle Lancero from Foundation Cigar Co.. This was an older example, easily a few years old, probably from the initial run. I likely bought this at an event with Nick at the Wooden Indian. I also have an El Güegüense Lancero from the same event. It’s funny that the Tabernacle Lancero is 7” x 40 while the El Güegüense Lancero is 7 ½” x 40. I guess one factory has one mold and one has another. Neither, by the way, are 38 ring gauge, a slight nit to pic. The Tabernacle is Broadleaf wrapped, San Andrès bound, and Esteli Jalapa/Jamastran filled, and is delicious. I think the larger ring cigars in this line are richer, of course, but the Lancero is special. When smoked slowly, as one needs to do with small ring cigars, the combination of sweetness, spice and earth really makes for a great tasting smoke. It may actually have been my last Tabernacle, a situation I soon need to remedy.

Yesterday was an uncharacteristically warm November day, so I took a walk with a La Palina Family Series Miami Pasha. I don’t think this is even part of their current portfolio, or how old it was. I have two that are in coffins, and this one was in cello, perhaps an IPCPR sample from 2016? This is a 7” x 50 Churchill with a shaggy foot, made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami. I was looking for American made cigars yesterday, and this was one I came up with. Besides being made in the US, the brand has American roots, and I was feeling patriotic. This has a wrapper and binder from Ecuador and fillers from Nicaragua. I have learned to be careful with shaggy footed cigars, they seem designed to burn shirts. This one did not, and, like many, it was relatively bland until the wrapper and binder started burning. This was a nice tasting cigar. It was subtle, not overpowering with strong flavors, largely woody and leathery with some honey sweetness here and there. It was a very nice cigar, although I wonder now if the coffin variety will be far more cedary after years of storage.

In keeping with the theme of the day, I finished my Saturday with an El Titan de Bronze Redemption Maduro Corona (actually a Corona Gorda) from a Sampler I bought there when we visited a year ago last September. Why I haven’t smoked this yet, I have no clue. Their corona is 5 ½” x 48, which is even bigger than a Corona Gorda actually. It’s a really nice size in my opinion. This came in a five cigar sampler that they sell in the factory on Calle Ocho for $45 and is a really nice way to sample their line. This cigars has a San Andrés wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. It’s a nice tasting, medium bodied Maduro cigar. It has the flavors one expects to get from a cigar of this make-up, Espresso, some pepper spice, with excellent construction. Considering that it’s made in the U.S., it’s not priced out of line for the quality that you get! I can think of a bunch of cigars made at this factory and I can’t think of any that aren’t really good. A definite e destination if you find yourself in Miami.