Tag Archives: Surrogates

by CigarCraig | October 30, 2016 · 10:32 am

Davidoff, Tatuaje, and Surrogates Cigars and an Event

To start of today I have to rewind to last Sunday, when I wrapped up a nice day in the city with a Davidoff Nicaragua Box Pressed Robusto, one of the new cigars in the line this year. If I was impressed with the toro, I was really impressed with the robusto! This one measures 5″ x 48, which feels even smaller with the box press. It features tobaccos from four growing regions in Nicaragua: Condega, Jalapa, Ometepe and Esteli, with the ligero coming from Esteli. As with the Toro, it burned perfectly as one would expect (or, dare I say, demand!), with a great draw, tons of rich, tasty smoke and a firm ash. This is a special cigar, right up my alley in terms of flavor and strength, but priced outside my personal comfort range, but for special cigars, my price threshold has been expanding recently. I would certainty recommend this cigar as a special occasion smoke. As I said of the toro, it’s yummy.

Fast forward to Saturday, when I went back to one of my favorite shops, the Wooden Indian, where they were having a Halloween party of sorts, along with a combined My Father, Tatuaje, L’Atellier, Surogates event with KC Johnson on hand. I introduced myself to KC, apologizing for not having met him before, I saw him at the IPCPR show and I suppose he was with someone at the time or something, I just felt weird for not having met him before. He’s a super nice guy, friendly and knowledgeable and a good fit for the cigar business. While I was there I smoked the Tatuaje Reserva Miami K222, new this year, and an homage to Pete Johnson’s dog Kona, who lost his battle with cancer last year after losing a leg to the disease. I have a soft spot in my heart for three-legged dogs, and offered words of encouragement to Pete when Kona was losing his leg. In our dog’s case, when lost her leg to a bad break, not cancer, but it’s amazing how animals adapt, within days they are getting around fine. Anyway, I felt compelled to smoke the K222, and it’s a fantastic smoke. Take the afore-mentioned Davidoff, kick the strength up a notch, and the sophistication and subtlety down a notch, and you have the Tatuaje. If that sounds like a dig, it’s not, it a different experience but no less satisfying. The K222 is 5 7/8″ x 52 with an Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers and is made in the El Rey de los Habanos factory in Doral, Florida. Obviously the “K” stands for Kona, Pete’s Rottweiler, who passed away at 2:22 on April 22, hence the 222 in the name. It’s yet another great cigar from the Tatuaje line.

While I was at the Wooden Indian, I kind gave Dave, the owner, a little grief about the inappropriateness of his Native American costume, with cultural appropriation being currently out of fashion. PC BS, nobody was insulted back in my childhood when we dressed as hobos, old ladies or banditos, I was even a mafioso once Halloween with a toy machine gun, offensive on several levels in today’s world. I guess if Dave had been standing outside his store with a bundle of cigars in his hand I would have gotten it, but I was slow on the uptake and only “got it” this morning. Anyway, I bought a Tatuaje Monster Series The Krueger, and I’m wondering if I should smoke it tomorrow evening, Halloween, or put it away for a while? What do you all think? I also picked up a couple of the Surrogates Animal Cracker AC550, as I’ve enjoyed several cigars in that line and hadn’t tried this one yet. I set one on fire last night and it’s a powerful, full flavored cigar. I loved the closed foot, it feels like it’s plugged on the Cold Draw (one of my favorite podcasts currently, BTW, an unsolicited plug), but upon setting fire to the foot it opens up and is perfect. This one has an Ecuador Habano Oscuro wrapper, burns well, produces lots of smoke and is a great cigar if one likes strong cigars (or needs a little help and doesn’t like taking laxatives, TMI?). So far I’ve tried and liked the Broadleaf wrapped Skull Breaker and Bone Crusher, so I guess the Tramp Stamp and Crystal Baller are next on my to try list. These are made at the My Father factory in Esteli, and blended by Pete Johnson and the L’Atelier team. These aren’t subtle, the are aggressive, as the names might suggest, but are worth trying f you have a strong constitution!

That’s enough for now, I have a busy week, I’ve got a Prime Living Article deadline coming up, a weekend getaway that I need to write and schedule a post for, and various other preparations to make. since I was lazy last week and put off my usual Wednesday post for Friday, I’m going to make every effort to get back on track this week and not be a slug. So, until the next time,

CigarCraig

1 Comment

Filed under Events, Review

Tagged as Animal Cracker, cigar, cigar store, cigars, davidoff, K222, L'Atelier, My Father, Surrogates, tatuaje, wooden indian

by CigarCraig | June 25, 2014 · 9:22 pm

Tatuaje Tattoo, Surrogates Bone Crusher and a Six-Zero Cigar

I don’t know if it’s the change of seasons or what, but I’ve been having some cigar troubles lately. I had some cigars that should have been great, but were underwhelming to me. This is frustrating, because I only have a limited amount of time each day to enjoy a cigar, so It annoys me when I get a dud. It could be that I’ve been munching on licorice for the last week or two, as my boys both gave me some nice black licorice for Father’s Day.

I had to test my palate, so I went to a cigar I’ve smoked several of recently and really enjoyed. The Six-Zero line is a proprietary brand from Best Cigar Prices made by Boutique Blends in The Dominican Republic. The Robolo is a 4½” x 60, and Best Cigar Prices had a whole range of “house blends” in this size. Oddly, I find the size rather appealing. This is also a very inexpensive cigar, coming in around $3 each or less. I love the San Andrés wrapper on this cigar and it burns perfectly. This was the first really satisfying cigar I’ve smoked in a few days, the whole experience, from burn to the flavor, was very good. I’ve only smoked this size in the line, but I like it a lot. This confirmed to me that my palate isn’t that far off.

Monday evening I selected a Tattoo Caballero, the new line from Tatuaje. I picked up a few of these last week and they are in the $5 range, making this a budget line in the brand. These are made by Pepin Garcia, not in the My Father factory, but his TACUBA factory in Esteli. It’s got a pretty Ecuador Habano wrapper and Nicaraguan fillers. It starts with a nice dose of pepper, as you might expect. Mine had a bit of a crooked burn which required some touch ups, but was a very nice smoke. I judge it to be medium bodied. I’ll be interested to see how this smoked after a longer rest in the humidor.

Another cigar I picked up last week was the Surrogates Bone Crusher. I had a really good experience with its sibling the Skull Breaker, so I wanted to give this chunky 5¼”x 55 robusto a try. Maybe my palate is fatigued a little, because it seems like I’m finding the stronger cigars more fulfilling. This is a strong cigar, but well balanced. It was loaded with dark flavors, no doubt attributed to the Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper. I’m sure this has a slightly different blend than the Skull Breaker, but I found it to be very entertaining. I was wishing it was a longer cigar by the time I was finished, and maybe left a half inch nub in the ashtray. If you like strong cigars, this line is worth a look. I’ve been quite impressed with everything from the L’Atelier line that I’ve smoked, which is admittedly few.

Editorial

I listen to a lot of cigar podcasts, and I recently ran across a very entertaining bunch this week. First, give The Cigar Authority a listen, the latest episode features Victor Vitale, whom I had the good fortune to spend some time with last week. Of course, Dave and Mr. Jonathan are friends too, and I’ve been entertained by their brand of entertainment for some time. I even had the pleasure to be a guest on the show once. Next up was Kiss My Ash Radio, hosted by another major retailer, Abe of Smoke Inn. This week’s installment featured several short vignettes with Matt Booth of Room 101 reciting poetry. I laughed out loud at each one. Last, but not least, and on a serious note, The Stogie Geeks this week featured by buddy Will Cooper interviewing Glynn Loope, the executive director of Cigar Rights of America about the pending FDA regulation. I’ve heard Glynn on several other shows, but this one concentrated on the issue at hand for a good hour or more, and was very in depth. Give this a listen as I found it very educational. Broken record time, support the CRA, make sure you follow the links on their site and comment on the FDA site following their recommendations. It’s quite important that we convince the FDA to leave hand made, premium cigars alone. There have been some positives in the last few days, such as an extension of the comment period and The White House’s Office of Management and Budget acknowledging that there would be a major economic impact if the FDA has their way. Educate yourselves and make your voice heard, or this glorious industry will cease to exist as we know it.

I almost forgot, my son spent the last two days making a cigar box guitar out of a La Gloria Cubana Retro Especiale box.

Nice job! I sounds pretty good too

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

Cigar Craig

5 Comments

Filed under Editorial, News, Review

Tagged as cigar, cigar rights, cigars, L'Atelier, podcast, Six Zero, Surrogates, Tatoo, tatuaje

by CigarCraig | May 4, 2014 · 10:09 am

A Rodrigo Lancero, a Leccia Luchador and a Surrogates Skull Breaker

Lots going on this week, between weather and migraines, I’ve been a bit off my game. I still managed to smoke some great cigars though. It wasn’t easy, but it has to be done! Before I get into the cigars, I’d like to point you to another great article regarding FDA regulation, and implore you to make your feelings known on the Regulations.gov page so we can save our hobby, our passion from being disrupted unnecessarily. Patrick Semmens wrote an excellent article last week: Commentary: Why the FDA’s $10 Exemption Proposal is More Dangerous than You Realize. Great stuff!

Thursday evening I selected a Rodrigo Habano Classico Lancero for my evening smoke. I didn’t get to take my walk as I had to sit in on a conference call, but the cigar was stellar. Rodrigo comes from a Pittsburgh guy, George Rodriguez, and is distributed by The House of Emilio. This is a 7″ x 38 lancero with a Ecuadorian Habano/Sumatra Hybrid wrapper and Dominican fillers and binder, made in the Dominican Republic. It’s a very nice medium bodied cigar with good balance. It’s got a sweet, nutty flavor and is good to the last puff. I probably ave had these in the humidor for a couple years, I think George sent these to me before he was involved with House of Emilio, so these had some time to settle. I have enjoyed what I’ve smoked from Rodrigo, great boutique cigars. Score: 98

Friday. It’s the end of the week, it’s time to celebrate. I was the fortunate recipient of a package from Jack Toraño this week, included within were a couple of Sam Leccia‘s new Luchador cigar, due for release tomorrow, May 5th, or Cinco de Mayo. Sam has put together a 5 country blend with Honduras and Pennsylvania Ligero and Nicaraguan Ometepe in the filler, Ecuador Habano Binder and my favorite Mexican San Andrés wrapper. Of course, my expectations were high for several reasons. First, obviously the wrapper is my favorite, and second, it’s Sam Leccia, and he has the Midas touch when it comes to cigars. The cigar I smoked was the El Hombre, a 5″ x 54 Robusto with a pointed cap. I carefully snipped this off with the Xikar scissors, and lit it up. Love affair right off the bat. Great strong espresso flavors, almost Cuban coffee with the sweetness. It was desert like, with some spice to go along with it, really tasty. My biggest complaint was that it was too short! I really wanted it to last another half hour. I don’t know how this is going to age, I suspect it will do OK, but it’s ready to go now. Great balance, great burn and draw. A top notch smoke that’s right the heck up my alley. Thanks to Sam and Jack for letting me smoke this before it hits the streets. Great, another cigar I’ll have to keep on hand. Score: 99

Saturday my wife and I stopped in to Cigar Mojo on our way home from our granddaughter’s third birthday party to check out their Kentucky Derby party. They had a pretty good crowd, and were having some raffles and contests. I picked up a few cigars, including the Surrogates Skull Breaker, a line I haven’t sampled before. This cigar had it’s origin at New Havana Cigars as a partnership between owner Dan Welsh and Pete Johnson and they are now under the L’Atelier Imports portfolio. I picked up this dark belicoso, I think it was priced around $7.50. A few years ago I wouldn’t have bought a cigar that expensive, but since visiting cigar country a few times, I have a much better appreciation for the value of a cigar, it’s a miracle they can be produced so reasonably. I still have trouble with the $10+ price point, but I will loosen the purse stings (figuratively) now and then and pick one up. I digress. I had a migraine coming on, so I figured a cigar called “Skull Breaker” couldn’t hurt anything. It’s a strong cigar, have no doubt. It’s got great flavor from the Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrappper and Nicaraguan fillers and binder. I loved dark chocolate and pepper this cigar had, and it was another cigar that burned perfectly, straight from the retail humidor. When you have a cigar lounge, it’s pretty important for the cigars you sell to be ready to smoke, and the guys at Cigar Mojo have that covered. If you find yourself in King of Prussia, PA (or the Philly area), stop in and ask them where the heck my CigarCraig.com magnet went??? Good race, good smoke, couldn’t wait to get home and take a pill for the headache and sleep it off. Score: 98