This week I chose a couple of cigars from a selection of cigars that are exclusive to CDM Cigars, the online home of Chicago’s Casa de Montecristo store. You may recall that I visited this amazing store a couple of years ago. CDMCigars.com is a fairly recent addition and is the online arm of the retail store. I smoked their Quesada Sons of Freedom line, the maduro torpedo and the Connecticut robusto, both made by Quesada. The bands on this line remind me of a lighter I picked up a very long time ago, believe it or not it was bundled 
with a 2 pack of Camel cigarettes. I smoked cigarettes up until February of 2007, at which time I kicked that habit just hours before having sinus surgery. When people ask how I quit I generally say I used Vicodin. I still have a couple of these lighters which are not really a torch, but not a soft flame either, but are better than no lighter at all. I had to dig to find one for this picture as I had forgotten about it until I saw the bands. I’ve gotten away from the point. I’m not sure where the name Sons of Freedom comes from, but I’m 99% certain it isn’t from the 80’s Canadian alternative rock band.
I started out, as I am want to do, with the Quesada Sons of Freedom Maduro which was provided in the 6″ x 52 torpedo format. Sadly, there is little blend information about this on the site, besides that it is made by the Quesadas in the Dominican republic, and it’s got a maduro wrapper. I suppose I should be happy knowing that it’s a pretty darned nice cigar, and it carries a very reasonable $5.50 price tag. I wouldn’t expect it to be that inexpensive in the Chicago store, as their taxes are pretty ridiculous, but on their site it’s priced right. It burned well, requiring little or no attention. It had a pleasant flavor, a little of the cocoa one finds in a maduro, but some of the bready flavors I seem to find in a lot of Quesada cigars. That’s probably just me, and I have pretty limited experience with the Quesada’s cigars. All in all a good smoke.
Tonight I tackled the Quesada Sons of Freedom Connecticut Robusto, a 5″ x 52 with a Connecticut shade wrapper. Again, this is a reasonably priced cigar, listed at $4.50 on the website. Again, the blend info is sparse, stating only that it’s made in the DR with a Connecticut wrapper. I would guess that it’s an Ecuador Connecticut, based on the price point and the flavor. This was another well made cigar with a picture perfect burn and draw. I think I liked this more than the maduro, which is odd for me, but the Connecticut wrapper added a nice creamy, nutty flavor, and there was a bit of a gingerbread spice again (I have been hitting the ginger ale and ginger beer rather hard lately). This was a really good smoke which I was hesitant to go to after a steak dinner, but it held up.
These were both enjoyable and trouble-free cigars, and I wish to thank Craig Wingbermuehle, the manager at CDMCigars.com, for sending these along as well as having a very good first name. If I may offer a small bit of advice on the website, it would be to include some more blend information on the cigars so geeks like myself can pass that info along. You’d be surprised how many people appreciate seeing that kind of detail. A little back story about this particular brand would be interesting to me as well. Otherwise it’s a good site with good prices, and I’ll be smoking a few more of their shop exclusive cigars in the coming weeks.
That’s all for now, until the next time,
CigarCraig
