I mentioned the Cohiba Blue in a recent post, and received some samples to try on Monday. I broke my usual rule to let thing sit, because General Cigar Co. made the announcement today that they have hired a new brand manager to represent the Cohiba brand, 
and that person is none other than my friend Sean Williams of El Primer Mundo fame. I recall hearing him interviewed on a recent Smooth Draws show and he mentioned something big in the works, along with talking about his brand and the fact that he had partnered in a factory to produce El Primer Mundo and Larceny (an offshoot project he did a couple of years ago with Eddie Ortega). Sean’s El Primer Mundo brand pre-dated the FDA predicate date, I want to say, off the top of my head, he debuted the brand in 2006. here is part of General Cigar Co.s press release, in case you missed it on other sites:
GENERAL CIGAR APPOINTS COHIBA BRAND AMBASSADOR
May 1, 2017 — General Cigar announced today that the company has appointed Sean Williams as a full-time brand ambassador for Cohiba. Williams is former owner of El Primer Mundo Cigar Company, a boutique collection of highly-rated cigars made in the Dominican Republic.
“We have brought Sean on board as part of the continued expansion of our experiential platforms,” said General Cigar President Régis Broersma. “Our focus is on deepening retailer and consumer engagement around this pivotal brand in our portfolio. With Sean, we are gaining a passionate cigar maker who is also a connoisseur of the finer things in life. We are confident he will make great strides in further aligning Cohiba with luxury lifestyle activations.”
Sean will bring the Cohiba brand to life at in-store events held at premier cigar shops across the U.S, and will activate the brand at an array of luxury venues across the country. He begins his new role today. Sean joins the company’s expanding team of brand ambassadors featuring Rick Rodriguez (CAO), Jack Toraño (Toraño) and Justin Andrews (Foundry Tobacco Company).
Sean will report to Gus Martinez, director of marketing, and will be based in Atlanta.
As his first order of business, Sean will spend several weeks at General Cigar Dominicana, working closely with the artisans who handcraft Cohiba to become fully immersed in the brand.
Prior to joining General Cigar, Sean founded El Primer Mundo Cigar Company in 2006 and successfully grew his brand internationally with distribution in the U.S., Southeast Asia, Australia and Russia. His commitment to creating superior cigars has resulted in numerous 90+ ratings spanning the cigar industry’s most respected publications.
I first met Sean at the 2011 IPCPR show, and have been a fan since. I look forward to seeing him at an event in the near future, if you are going to CI’s Cigar Fest this weekend look him up and tell him I said hello (as well as Rick Rodriguez and Jack Toraño)!
I mentioned that I broke my rule about letting samples sit for a while before smoking by lighting up a new Cohiba Blue in the 5½” x 50 Robusto size. This new Cohiba uses the Honduran OSA (Olancho San Augustin) wrapper, which we saw on the CAO OSA Sol, and more recently on the Partagas Heritage. The binder is also the OSA and there’s Honduran Jamastran, Nicaraguan Ometepe and Dominican Piloto Cubana in the filler. This cigar smoked well for the first two-thirds, then it got funky and needs some more humidor time. It had a sweet leathery kind of flavor that has promise with some more time to settle. I thought it was a nice smoke, and I will revisit this in a few weeks.
Monday night I smoked a Sancho Panza Triple Añejo that I had bought last year at a shop I visited called Jacoubs in Ridley Park, PA. I’m used to Sancho Panza being a very reasonably priced good smoke, and smoked a bunch of the Extra Fuerte back about 15 years ago. This one was $9, bujt it had a deliciously dark wrapper, and the make-up sounded like something I’d like. It has a high-priming Nicaraguan Jalapa Sun Grown wrapper and Ecuadorian Sumatra, US Broadleaf, and Brazilian Arapiraca long-fillers. I’m thinking if this had been a little dryer it would have burned better and given me a better experience, but who’d have thought it would be any different from the many, many cigars smoked from the same humidor? Once again, I could see where this would be a great cigar, the flavor I got was good, but it was too much trouble and burned on the steamy side. I though maybe my palate was shop, but a Rosalones 460 I smoked last night was a treat! I probably won’t buy another at $9, but the better priced Sancho Panza Double Maduro and Extra Fuerte are keepers.
Quiz
Our friends at Best Cigar Prices are at it again with another quiz! This one was a real challenge, I took it and only scored 80%, I’m embarrassed to say. Two of the ones I got wrong were careless mistakes. Take it and let us know in the comments how you fared!
https://www.bestcigarprices.com/blog/cigar-history-quiz/
That’s all for now. I should have had this done an hour ago but some connectivity problems gave me some fits. It’s all good now, so until the next time,
CigarCraig
Sunday I talked about the new Sancho Panza “The Original” cigar, newly reimagined with the help of Matt Booth. I mentioned that I had bought a box of Extra Fuerte a while ago, and I looked it up and it was 2006. That box is long gone, but I remember it fondly, I admit I was a little concerned with the new branding, It’s growing on me, I guess. I was interested in trying the other two new cigars in the line. I chose the Sancho Panza Double Maduro first. The wrapper is a dark Ecuadoran Sumatra, with a Nicaraguan Esteli binder and fillers from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Brazil. I assume it’s “double” maduro because of the oscuro color of the wrapper, there’s no indication that any of the other components are fermented to a maduro. Of course, I could be wrong. I expected a sweet maduro, but I was quite wrong. This was a savory, maybe mushroomy, maduro, and I’m not a huge fan of mushrooms! It wasn’t an off-putting flavor, but not what I was expecting, or prefer. The cigar burned right, and wan’t unenjoyable. 
The Sancho Panza Extra Fuerte was next. Like I said, I liked this cigar a lot it it’s previous iteration. This one has an Ecuadoran wrapper, Honduran Jamastran binder and Dominican Mao, Nicaraguan Esteli fillers. I’ve been to General’s farm in Mao, beautiful place, at least it was in 2011. When I was there there wasn’t any cigar tobacco growing, but it was still pretty cool. I wrote about it HERE. The Extra Fuerte was my favorite of the three, with The Original coming in second. This had some sweet spice that I like, and was very enjoyable. It wasn’t as “furete” as I thought it would be, maybe the Double Maduro seemed stronger to me. All three I smoked were in the Robusto size, I’ll give them a try one day in a toro. I think the ones I had years ago were coronas. Considering these are priced reasonably, hopefully they finally have the success that the brand deserves. 
