Tag Archives: Preferidos

Todos Las Dias, Farce and Truth and La Aurora at the Track

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there, I know later today I’ll be digging out my traditional father’s day cigar for the 19th or 20th year (I’ve lost track…the cigars came out in 1998, but I think it was 1999 by the time I bought a box, can’t remember). I refer, of course, to the obscure Esperanza Para los Niños, which was made by Christian Eiroa when he owned Camacho as a charity project to help children orphaned by hurricane Mitch. The cigars have held up extremely well, and it’s through the kindness of several friends that I’ve been able to continue the tradition of smoking one on Father’s Day every year this long, and I might be good until 2020 when the last toro from the box I bought will go down.  Until cigar time rolls around, I got some typing to do, so lets recap some notable smokes I had this week!  I smoked another Todos las Dias from Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust this week. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the brand, everything Steve has produced has been a win for my palate, but this liga TodosLaDias_DoubleWideBelicosohas been a slow starter for me. Maybe it’s because the first three examples I smoked didn’t draw well enough (moisture…ironic given Steve was checking internal humidity of each sample at the trade show, video here, and they came from multiple sources, they just have to be kept dryer, I guess). To recap, the Todos las Dias Double Wide Belicoso is a 4.75″x 60 figurado identical in size to the Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Gran Consul and the Rosalones 460, using the same molds and made in the same factory. It’s a Nicaraguan puro, with a sungrown Nicaraguan wrapper, and fillers from Esteli and Jalapa. This blend is growing on e finally, I’m starting to get the cocoa and a hint of the chili spice reported, and the cigar was great to the last drop. This is a cool shape, I still think I’m reaching for the TlD fourth in line in the regular DTT production, but it’s good, I like it.

 

CigarCigars_Room101_EventFriday was a special day in the small village of Frazer, PA. The CigarCigars store, just 1.7 miles from my home, was host to a cigar event featuring Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars, and, as is their custom at this shop, the event was from noon to 3.  Normally this would cause me problems, life has Room101_Farce_Toronot been normal in recent months.  So I was able to be present for this auspicious event and hang out with Mr. Booth, although, culturally, Frazer, PA is pretty much polar opposite of what Mr Booth is used to…it’s not Amish country, but it’s not the Sunset Strip either…anyway, I had occasion to smoke the new Farce. This is important, and I can’t stress this enough, it’s Farce, not THE Farce…just Farce.  Very important to note. Farce is made in the Ventura factory in the DR, it’s a full flavored, complex and sophisticated blend and was Room101_T_Torovery nice.  I liked it, I picked up a couple and will smoke another very soon in a non-event environment. I also smoked The T, not Mr. T, it the Toro size. I had previously smoked an IPCPR sample of this collaboration between Booth, Caldwell and AJ Fernandez made in Nicaragua and really liked it, and this one was no different. It’s dark and rich and heavy and right up my alley. My biggest regret was setting it in an ashtray with a couple of inches left and Steve, the CigarCigars_Room101_Event2manager cleaning up after the event thinking I was done with it, which I was not…my bad. Watch for the next CigarCraig podcast in the next few days, by the way.  I highly recommend attending an event featuring Mr. Booth if you have the opportunity, he’s a gentleman and a scholar, and one who’s earned every one of his eccentricities.

 

Another annual family tradition which may seem odd to some is celebrating our granddaughters birthdays at the horse races.  There is a track that’s reasonably convenient to both sides of the family free to park and get in, had a family friendly picnic grove with tables and bounce houses and slides and playgrounds for the kids, of course, horse races, and is cigar friendly!  We try to get there early to get a good spot and have a cigar before everyone LaAurora_PreferidosEcuador_Coronagets there. I lit up a La Aurora Preferidos Emerald Ecuador Corona, and there’s a reason I usually light up something from La Aurora at family events. My daughter’s name is  Aurora, and I figure she’s not going to get upset at me for smoking a cigar if it’s got her name on it. Clever, eh? She’s a great kid, got me cigar related coffee for  Father’s day!  Anyway, I really was enjoying the crap out of that corona, what flavor and balance!  Nice tobacco sweetness I didn’t want to put down, and I felt bad standing off to the side after people started showing up. I wanted to join the party, eat lunch, but I wanted to enjoy the cigar too, it was one of the few times I wished I had chosen an even smaller cigar!  We stuck it out until the Ninth  (last) race, because Smoke En Fire was running, and we put $5 on it to win, which it did, and paid $9.50!  It was a beautiful day with family at a great horse park. I don’t know if Delaware Cigars still has their cigar festival there in the fall or not, but the coupe times I attended that event it was a good time!

 

That’s all for today. Time to get some stuff done!  Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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Finishing Up the La Aurora Preferido Coronas and Bernie Parent at Goose’s

imageThursday evening I smoked the Ecuador (Sumatra) La Aurora Preferidos corona.  While this was an exceptional cigar, it had a hint of bitterness that put it in fourth place flavor-wise among the ones I’ve smoked thus far in comparison.  That’s not to say it wasn’t better than many cigars out there, it just didn’t hit my palate as favorably as the others. The construction was perfect and no oozing tar! I’ve got the Maduro (Brazil) and the Broadleaf coming up, I hope I didn’t set the bar too high and set myself up for disappointment.

 

Friday night I took a break from the La Aurora’s to visit Goose’s Tobacco Outlet and Cafe in Limerick, PA. Goose was hosting an event in his Montecristo Lounge featuring Bernie Parent and his BSB No.1 Cigars by Rocky Patel.  You may recall I had the good fortune to have been present at the launch of this line back in photo 1December of 2012 (here, and RIP Luca who hosted that event) and have had the pleasure of smoking cigars with Bernie on numerous occasions.  I’m not saying we’re buddies or anything, but he pretends to know me when we meet.  Rocky Patel account exec Mark Weisenberger was also on hand, taking grief from Bernie for being a Rangers fan.  One of the coolest things about this event was that the great Bernie Parent, with his ’74 and ’75 Flyers Stanley Cup rings, the goalie who “Only the Lord Saves More” than, was hanging out, smoking cigars, answering questions and telling stories.  I picked up one each of the three 40th Anniversary cigars, which come in a numbered box with an autographed puck, and four each of the Broadleaf wrapped Conn Smythe, the Habano wrapped Vezina, and the box pressed, Sumatra Lord Stanley, all in the toro size, and all named after trophies Bernie has won (all three back to back, which has never been repeated, not even by Wayne Gretzky).  I smoked the Conn Smythe as I was in the mood for a nice, sweet broadleaf and the cigar was exceptional. Sweet, cocoa and black coffee flavors and it burned well, although perhaps a bit on the moist side. I ended up buying the box at my wife’s suggestion, which allowed me to enter to win special luxury box tickets to the Flyers/Rangers game with Bernie and Mark. I fully intend to win this, by the way! Goose’s put on a great event, I came home with a ton of great cigars and a lighter wallet, and some great memories. Photos from the event below.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_MaduroYesterday I wrapped up the La Aurora Preferidos Corona project, smoking the Maduro in the afternoon, then the Broadleaf later in the evening.  The Maduro is a Brazilian wrapper which corresponds to the Ruby in the Preferidos line. I found this to be a nice, smooth cocoa maduro with no rough edges. I did get the bit of tar build up that I got with the Corojo, but I clipped it off and everything was dandy after that.  I did have a couple occasions where I had to relight it, but that wasn’t the fault of the cigar, I had a couple distractions while smoking that led me to ignore it long enough for it to go out.  Like it’s brethren, another great corona.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_BroadleafAfter dinner, and before the Flyers game, I tackled the final, and most anticipated, La Aurora Preferidos corona, the Broadleaf, or Diamond. I find it curious that they chose to name these differently from the line of perfectos. Instead of putting Diamond, Ruby, et cetera, on the bands, they used the actual wrapper name.  Nothing that bothers me too much, and perhaps they wanted to distinguish the coronas from perfectos.  I kinda like it from a cigar nerd stand point. The broadleaf was very different from any of the rest of the examples in the line. The wrapper gave this cigar a very pungent, almost cloying flavor, and I was torn between loving it and being annoyed by it. I ended up loving it.  It was also very different from the BSB Broadleaf from the night before. It had a palate coating quality much like licorice, not the flavor, but the texture. Very interesting and entertaining cigar to smoke, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

 

imageSumming up the experience of smoking the six La Aurora Preferidos Coronas, and thanks to Jason Wood and Gabriel Piñeres for getting these to me, if I were asked to put these in order of preference, I’d have to go, from top to bottom, Broadleaf, Connecticut, Cameroon, Maduro, Corojo and Ecuador, and that doesn’t mean the ones on the bottom of the list aren’t great, it’s just a combination of how they hit my palate and based solely on one sample of each. The experience was great, the size, 5½ x 42, was very nice, especially in the colder weather (which, no doubt, lead to the couple of tar issues I had). I believe these can be purchased via mail order, in addition to in the northeast region, I’ve seen that at Atlantic Cigars, with whom I have no affiliation, for around $43. Not a bad deal.

 

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

 

CigarCraig

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Another Marcus Daniel Kiev and Some La Aurora Preferidos

MarcusDanielKiev_CG_Gran ParejoSunday afternoon I decided to tackle the Connecticut Shade version of the Marcus Daniel Kiev Gran Parejo, which is a large 6½ x 57 shade wrapped cigar. The cigar is pretty, and it smoked very nicely. It was very mild for the first half, almost to the point of being off-putting, making me wish I had selected something else. It eventually picked up to near medium with a smooth, mellow flavor profile. This is a cigar that needs to be paid attention to, the flavors are there, but they aren’t jumping all over the palate.  Based on the pricing on the website, $1032.75 for a box of 25, I’d definitely take a pass, there’s no way these are $45 cigars, but I’m happy for the opportunity to have sampled them, and it’s my fervent hope that my recently retired friend who brought these back was given them by the store owner and didn’t pay that ridiculous amount for them. I’m admittedly frugal, and there are very few cigars that would get me to open my wallet that far, if any.  If you find yourself in Olde Naples, FL, stop in and check out the store, it sounds like a nice place to have a smoke, and he seems to have a good selection of other boutique cigars and realistic prices.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_ConnecticutI decided this would be a good week to dig into some samples of the La Aurora Preferidos Coronas that are making their ways to shelves in the NorthEast part of the US.  There are six varieties, representing the six wrappers used on the regular Preferidos line.  I wrestled with what order to smoke them, should I do what I usually do and start with the darkest first and go from there? My wife pointed out that that may set me up for disappointment, given my proclivity for the maduro leaf. Then I wondered if I should go alphabetically. I decided to go with the opposite of what I’d normally do and go light to dark. I started with the Connecticut. I’ll preface this by saying these are all 5½” x 42 coronas, a very elegant size as far as I’m concerned. They also all have the wrapper designated on the band, which is handy.  The Connecticut was a terrific example of a smooth and creamy cigar.  It burned perfectly for the better part of and hour and a half, building nicely in strength and flavor.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_CorojoI like a Connecticut shade wrapper, Ecuador or US, but it’s not on my go-to wrapper list, basically above Indonesian and  Criollo in preference, so things are looking very good for me enjoying the rest of the Preferido Corona offerings. Next in line was the Corojo.  Naturally, the Corojo should be a little stronger, and it certainly had a stronger flavor, which was unique and interesting.  Again, the construction was perfect, however I had to wipe some oozing tar of the head at the halfway point as I began to get an off taste. Once the goo was gone, it was back to tasting pretty darned great.  Another winner, although I’ll switch from the punch to a straight cut for the rest of the series.

 

LaAuroraPreferidos_Corona_CameroonTonight I went with the Cameroon corona.  Cameroon is an interesting wrapper with a distinctive flavor, nutty maybe?  The first La Auroras I bought, a box of Bristol Especiales back in 1995, had Cameroon wrappers and I recall they ended up not being great, almost vegetal and they had some construction issues. Granted, I didn’t have the storage experience that I have now, and probably had no business buying a box of anything at that point in my cigar journey. The box was about $40 and my daughter (who’s name is Aurora) may still have the box, that certainly figured into my purchase.  That being said, this Preferidos Cameroon was spectacular. Well balanced and loaded with Camerooniness!  Three for three!  So far the Preferidos Coronas have all been wonderful. Many thanks to Jason Wood of Miami Cigar and Co. and Gabriel Piñeres of Creativas for sending samples as well as sponsoring Day 14 of the 12SDoCG.

 

I’ll continue working through the last three, the Ecuador (Sumatra), Maduro (Brazil) and Broadleaf (Connecticut), taking a break on Friday to head out to Goose’s in Limerick, PA to attend an event featuring the great Bernie Parent and his line of Rocky Patel cigars. Bernie is a legend in Philadelphia sports, he’ll be there with his Stanley Cup rings from ’74 and ’75. He’s a hoot, I’ve been fortunate to enjoy several cigars with him over the last couple years.  With that, I’ll wrap this up and get to watching the Flyers game.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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