Tag Archives: Patina

by | July 31, 2022 · 9:21 am

West Tampa Tobacco Cigars, a Street Taco Carnitas and a Patina Sumatra

I’ve started smoking some PCA show samples now that I feel fully recovered from the post-Vegas Covid situation.  I started out revisiting the West Tampa Tobacco Co. Black and White. Rick went out of his way to give me a 6×60 from a bundle, that had never been in a box! This is significant because I told him about an experience I had initially with the cigars I had sourced locally.  This was the first cigar I smoked, and it was very good.  If you refer back to the video interview with Rick (HERE), he explains how the Black and White have the same wrapper, it’s just fermented differently. The Black has nice espresso notes and is up my alley.  The construction was perfect and everything tasted the way it should.  

 

I had another West Tampa Tobacco Co.White Toro that Ricky also gave me, which was also very good, but I find the Black suits my palate more. The White has more of a woody character, with some citrus tang to me.  Rick explained that the White was blended more for the European palate, with the wrapper being highlighted, and the darker wrapper Black highlighting the filler blend. I like them both, but the Black is better for me. I still have to try the robusto. GOod stuff from a very small factory in Esteli.  

 

Thursday evening I had the pleasure of being a guest on the All About Wine Podcast, of all things.  We had a panel of folks talking about cigars. I pre-gamed with a Rojas Cigars Street Taco Carnitas, the Connecticut shade version of the Street Taco.  This has an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I had the 5″ x 50 robusto. Oddly, this comes in a Robusto and Toro, with the 5½” x 46 Short Corona being the closest thing to a small ring gauge in the line. I think of a corona being 5″ x 42, so I’m not sure I understand the name. Regardless, the robusto was very good. It was creamy, with some oomph to it.  There was some spice and it wasn’t a mild Connecticut. Considering that shade wrappers are fairly low on my preference list, this one was very good. 

 

Finally, when I met with Mo Maali at the show, he gave me a Patina Sumatra. This is his new release, which excited me for a few reasons.  First, I’ve enjoyed the Patina line in general, Maduro and Habano, I don’t think I ever had the Connecticut (see above).  They are made in the NACSA factory where Mi Querida cigars are made, as well as several others! I want to say that factory mad the majority of JR’s Alternatives bundle brand, which is millions of cigars. NACSA is one of the largest factories in Nicaragua. The other reason I was looking forward to this is because I really love Sumatra wrapped cigars! This one didn’t disappoint.  It had the sugar cane sweetness that I really like.  It burned perfectly and gave me a great experience.  Check out my video with Mo here. Good stuff!

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | July 15, 2022 · 8:00 am

PCA 2022: Patina Cigars

There are a few people in the cigar industry who crossover into different areas.  Mo Maali is one of those.  In addition to being the  owner of Patina Cigars, he’s also on a podcast called Sultans of Smoke.  Mo is one of the people who are in my ear on a fairly regular basis, so I may know him better than he knows me. There are a few people like this in the industry, I’m doing my best to interview them all. Mo displays his Patina brand in the Sutliff Tobacco booth, along with several other brands. As Mo explains in the video, the distribution arrangement with Sutliff relieves a lot of pain points for a small brand. Enjoy the video!

 

 

Patina cigars are really quite good. I’m looking forward to trying the new one, and I’ve enjoyed the core line quite a bit. I’d have smokied it by now if it wasn’t for this Covid nonsense. I seem to like a lot of cigars made in the NACSA factory. 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | February 6, 2022 · 10:44 am

TPE2022: The Brands of Sutliff Tobacco Distributing, Patina, Emperors Cut, Etc.

No video this time, I should have done some videos in the Suliff booth, but it was the first day when I visited, and it was very busy. On Wednesday, the first day if the show, my plane landed around 11:30 and I got an Uber right to the show, I think I was on the floor by 12:45. I actually wasn’t really planning to get to the show at all on Wednesday, but things worked out better than I expected. I decided it made more sense to go right to the Convention Center than to try to check in the hotel early and goof around with that sort of stuff. It also helped that I ran into Mark Weisenberger, of Box Press Sales and Marketing, on the plane and shared the Uber with him to the show. So I used Wednesday to get my bearings and come up with a plan for the next couple days. Back to the Sutliff booth. I’ve known Anne Dinkins at Sutliff for years, she used to be my contact at Villiger Cigars years ago. I make a point to stop and say hello to her if nothing else. She, in turn, introduces me to the brands that Sutliff distributes. This year there were a few new ones that I didn’t know much about, and a few I had known for a while. 

 

One brand that was there that I really like was Patina Cigars. I was happy to meet Mo Maali, I hear him all the time on his Sultans of Smoke podcast so I feel like I know him. I may have met him before…I feel like he knew who I was. Social media can blur the lines between what’s real and not sometimes. I feel bad that I didn’t spend more time with him, and regret not circling back and doing a video with him. Patina is a great line of cigars. They are made in the same factory that Saka’s Mi Querida cigars are made in, NACSA, so the quality is top notch. I smoked a Patina Habano that I had in my humidor when I got home and it was spectacular. It had that cane sugar sweetness that I love. I know it’s one that I’ll be grabbing at Son’s the next time I get over there (which needs to be soon). Mo handed me a Maduro, which I definitely need to sample. I’m a big fan, I hope he gets out this way for a visit one of these days, I know he works with several stores in the Philadelphia area. 

 

There were several brands in the Sutliff booth that I’ve featured on these pages before that I was able to put faces with names finally, Desiree from Drunk Chicken Cigars and Steve Zengel of Los Caidos Cigars. There were also a few people I’ve known for a long time, like Enrique Seijas of Matilde cigars and Eddie Tarazona of…what was the name of his company? Oh, right, Tarazona Cigars 😁.  I finally met Marcel and Henderson of Adventura Cigars, who might have had the busiest corner of the booth. Henderson gave me a Queens Pearls, which has been getting a lot of buzz, and I smoked it this week and it was OK, I may have to pick up another one to give it a second shot. A friend gifted me a Kings Gold which looks more to my liking. Honestly, it takes a heck of a Connecticut cigar to get my attention. 

 

Anne seemed most anxious to introduce me to Greg Willis of Emperors Cut Cigars. It turns out that Greg had e-mailed me several years ago about advertising and I was, let’s say, diplomatically dismissive. We had a good laugh. I smoked the Natural Pleasure Gan Robusto yesterday.  This was a 5½” x 56 cigar made in Nicaragua, with a Colorado Maduro wrapper, Ecuadoran binder, and fillers from Estelí, Nicaragua. It was an earthy Nicaraguan blend with very little sweetness. It was very different than what I expected. I think it was more on the umami side of the flavor spectrum that what I typically am drawn to. That being said, it certainly performed well and it wasn’t off-putting in any way. I enjoyed it as a change from what I typically enjoy. Make sense? Maybe not, but I look forward to trying the Jazz series cigar Greg gave me. 

 

Sutliff’s booth was very busy when I was there, of course they are also, probably primarily, a pipe tobacco company, so there was a lot of pipe tobacco displayed in the booth as well. As I don’t care about that, I don’t cover it. I always enjoy seeing old friends and meeting new people though! I hope I didn’t miss anyone. Thanks again to Anne for taking time to show me around.

 

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

 

CigarCraig 

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by | August 18, 2021 · 9:30 pm

Patina Habano and Stolen Throne Call To Arms Cigars

Last weekend when I stopped by Son’s Cigar Lounge I picked up a few cigars I hadn’t smoked before. Even though they are still filling the humidor (it turns out my guess of 15% of capacity in Sunday’s post was spot on as confirmed by Vince), they have an impressive selection of boutique cigars. I bought some Patina Habanos, having not had that before, and having recently enjoyed the Maduro. These are made in the same factory that Dunbarton’s Mi Querida and Umbagog are made. This cigar has an Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania fillers. This cigar is another example of a cigar that I enjoy in the Habano over the Maduro. There is a sugary sweetness that that I really enjoyed throughout this cigar. This is definitely an enjoyable cigar that I quite enjoyed.  I’ve been hearing about this line for a while on the Sultans of Smoke podcast, on which the brand owner, Mo Maali is one of the hosts. 

 

Tonight I smoked a Call to Arms Robusto from Stolen Throne Cigars.  I’ve smoked the Crook of the Crown on several occasions, I was always drawn to the San Andrés wrapper on the Crook of the Crown, which is delicious, but I haven’t seen the Call to Arms until I saw it on Saturday. Of course, I picked up a couple robustos. The Call to Arms has a Sumatra wrapper, with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. I like the wrapper slightly closed over the foot of the cigar. I went into this cigar with an idea of what I thought I should be tasting, always a mistake. I didn’t get the sweetness I wanted, but it was a good smoke. It was on the earthy side, I suppose, and it burned perfectly. I have another one to which I will pay more attention, as I was involved in conversation while smoking this one. I certainly didn’t not like it, it was a perfectly good cigar, but I’m leaning toward the Crook as far as personal preference goes. 

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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by | June 20, 2021 · 10:18 am

HVC Hotcakes, Patina Maduro and Hoyo Excalibur Black Cigars

Happy Father’s Day. I find myself in an interesting position. For the last 15 years or so I’ve smoked the same cigar, a special project that Christian Eiroa did with a group of alt.smoker.cigars newsgroup members to help children orphaned by hurricane Mitch in 1998. I had bought. box for Father’s day in ’99, and at some point started smoking them annually on Father’s day. Last year I smoked the last one. I don’t see myself finding one cigar to smoke every year, so I think I’m just going to smoke a special cigar today. I had a good run with the Esperanza Para Los Niños, good memories, and they were very good cigars. I imagine Christian used the blend in something somewhere along the line. Enjoy the day!

 

One of the cigars that had been on my 2020 list of cigars I didn’t smoke was the HVC Hot Cakes, so I bought a couple at the Wooden Indian a few weeks back. I’ve since smoked them. I got the Laguito No. 5 size, a 6″ x 54 toro with a San Andrés wrapper, a double binder of Jalapa Corojo 99 and Esteli Corojo 98 and Corojo 06 Maduro filler, which is interesting. I would have liked for these to have been a little drier, and they seemed like they should have been ready to go by Humidimeter readings, but they smoked like they were a little too moist. Not bad, I just would have liked more smoke output. I’ll get more and drybox them. If the filler is “maduro”, that implies to me a heavier leaf which can hold more moisture which makes sense now. I should have looked at the blend before smoking them, but I rarely do that. It had great flavor, very rich and earthy with some coffee notes. I liked it. I’m working on sampling more Aganorsa product a can acquire it.

 

A few weeks ago when I was at Cigar Mojo, disappointed that I couldn’t buy any Stolen Throne cigars, then disappointed once again by the Mil Dias that I bought instead, I picked up a few Patina Maduro Oxidations, their 6″ x 56 offering. I’ve heard a lot about this line from listening to the Sultans of Smoke podcast, which features Mo Maali, Patina’s owner. Of course, Maduro is my go-to, but I would have picked up the Habanos if they had them as well. If I understand correctly, these are made at the same factory that Saka’s Mi Querida and Umbagog (and Unstolen Valor) are made, so I felt confident in my purchase. I don’t find any blend information on this cigar. The wrapper is a lighter shade of maduro, it’s not dark at all like the Hot Cake, which is maduro but isn’t billed that way, or the next cigar, which is blatantly called “black”. The cigar was nice and smooth, with little bite and was simply a darned tasty cigar. I’m looking forward to smoking the other one, and getting ahold of the Habano. 

 

Finally, I had received some samples of the new Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur Black Toros from General Cigar a few weeks ago and smoked a few of them. Excalibur is one of the brands that goes back to the beginning of my cigar smoking career. The Excalibur No. 1 was one of my splurge cigars when it was about $5 and that was an expensive cigar. It’s nice to see that they are still offering this cigar in that size, which is a whopping 7¼” x 54, normal by today’s standards, but a veritable the baseball bat in 1996. The Toro is 6″ x 52 and has a dark U.S. Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper.  The binder is a Sumatra leaf from Ecuador and the fillers are Ligeros from Nicaragua and Honduras. This cigar has a bit of a punch to it, I made sure this one was on the drier side because of those heavier tobaccos, and it poured smoke. Lots of spice, bitter chocolate and espresso flavors. It was nothing like the Excaliburs I remember, of course they had a Connecticut shade wrapper, and for some reason I rarely smoked the maduros then, my shop may note have had them. I Like a lot of Hoyo’s and this is another one I like! 

 

I still need to hear from the contest winner, before I smoke all the cigars. Mitchell Smith, second notice! Don’t make me track you down!  Anyway, I think one of today’s cigars will be a Julius Caeser, that’s a nice cigar. It’s appropriate too because I’ve got some pain in my back…any way…have a great day, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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