After receiving a wonderful package from the folks at Gurkha last week, I decided to dig into some of the samples from the last IPCPR show. As always, the folks at Gurkha have an enormous booth and always have some exciting offerings. I’m the first to admit that I’m intimidated by the huge array of products in the Gurkha portfolio. I haven’t smoked a tenth of the lines they produce, but the ones I have smoked have been pretty darned good! One of my recent favorites was my Friday, end of the week treat smokes, the new Cellar Reserve Maduro. This cigar replaces the Criollo 98 wrapper with Brazilian Arapiraca, and it’s a terrific smoke loaded with black coffee and cocoa. I was hoping to watch the lunar eclipse while smoking this, however I either missed it or it was far too subtle for my eye. The cigar, however, wasn’t a disappointment. I was sorry when it was finished. I’ll have to get my hands on more. I’ve enjoyed the heck out of the Gurkha Seduction (and one I had last week didn’t wow me like before, maybe they’ve aged out after only 2 years?), this Cellar Reserve Maduro (or it may be called the Limitada) may pass the Seduction as my favorite in the line.
Saturday I decided to plunge into Gurkha’s East India Trading Company‘s new offerings, first off, the Rogue Ruthless, which is a box pressed 6″ x 54 cigar with an Ecuador Habano wrapper. This was a loosely rolled cigar, and burned faster than I would have expected. It had some rich and peppery flavors and certainly held my attention. My biggest complaint is that the bands were so hard to get off! Other than that, the bands are fine and are quite eye catching. Nice cigar, I’d smoke it again for sure.
After dinner I selected the final cigar of the day, the Prize Fighter, also from Gurkha’s East India Trading Company. This is a budget offering packaged in Fresh-lock pouches. The cigar had a Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and was loosely rolled like it’s Rouge sibling. This is a mixed filler cigar as evidenced by the scraps of tobacco I had to keep picking out of my mouth. This, to me, is forgivable in a cigar that retails under $2. For a cigar in that price range, it was very tasty and mild. It had the grassyness you’d expect but pleasantly smooth. My example did have a significant tunnel at the midway point, but after it burned passed the void it was fine. I’ve definitely smoked more expensive cigars that I enjoyed less!
Here’s a few pictures of the booth from last July’s IPCPR show:
Contest!
On an related note, I’ve got some goodies laying around that I want to share with a lucky reader. This will probably be the last contest before things get crazy in December. Here’s the story: last week I received a very nice package from the folks at Gurkha. The package contained this really cool “can” containing one of their leatherette roll up pouches with five cigars, and a folding cigar scissors. This was a gift to me, but 
I have been the beneficiary of their generosity on too many occasions and I want to share this with my readers. I’d gladly smoke the cigars, trust me! If this wasn’t enough, I happen to have another of the roll up pouches from last summer’s trade show, as well as one from the 2012 show, both of which have been resting in my humidors. So there’s 15 very nice Gurkha cigars, and the really cool scissors (I’ve been really digging the Xikar MTX I got recently, this is a handy tool!). Just leave a comment here and I’ll select a winner at random on Wednesday. Usual contest rules apply. Thanks to Bianca at Gurkha for the gift and for allowing me to share it with my readers!
That’s it for today! Until the next time,
CigarCraig
