This week I smoked some cigars I bought on recent forays into some of my local cigar spots. All were new to me, although not necessarily new to the market. This happens, I don’t always jump right on the new stuff, and sometimes I miss out! Thursday evening I met up with my fellow Craig, and recent contest winner, at Cigar Mojo – The Grove, to hand deliver his prize. Shipping is always less expensive than visiting a cigar shop! I 
picked up a few cigars, and lit up a My Father The Judge in the 656 Toro size. This has been around for a while, I just never got around to it. Since Mojo carries a lot of My Father cigars I see myself catching up on them. I’ll grab something I haven’t tried whenever I stop in. This is a 6″ x 56 cigar, oddly they call their 6″ x 52 a Toro Fino, which seems like a toro to me. Maybe the 6″ x 56 should be a Toro Gordo and the 52 should just be the Toro? Not my circus…anyway, this has an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder and fillers, with a nice box press. This got off to a slow start, good, although fairly mediocre. It built up some sweetness, which I like, of course, and worked out to be a very enjoyable cigar, one I’ll smoke again. Naturally, the company was exceptional, I always enjoy time with my fellow Craig. We’ll definitely have another Craig cigar summit soon.
Friday evening had us attending a middle school theatrical production that one of the granddaughters was in, so I got a late start. I was going to skip a cigar altogether, but I had picked up a Foundation Metapa Corona Gorda at Mojo and it wasn’t that big, so I figured I’d light it up. Sometimes having a cigar too late gives me sleep issues, not the case this time, although I did get to bed a lot later than usual! I wanted to smoke a Metapa because these are being rebranded to Aksum, I guess to keep in line with the Tabernacle/Menelik/Ark of the Covenant theme. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this cigar, and maybe it’s the Maduro vs. Claro? I only had the maduro to chose rom, so that’s what I got, as if anyone would be surprised at that. This is a nice 5½” x 48 with a coil pigtail cap (I know there’s a name for it, just can’t remember it!). This was the best cigar I had all week. It started a bit heavy, cloying like licorice, which worried me. It settled in to a really nice, dense dark chocolate, not much sweetness, the kind with a high cacao percentage. I found this to be quite enjoyable, whatever the name, and I might have to see if I can find the claro version (although I still need to try the Olmec Claro!). It’s hard for me not to like Foundation Cigars, there seems to be something for everyone.
Last week I stopped in The Wooden Indian looking for some new cigars, and picked up some Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicures in Sungrown and Maduro. These come with a lot of hype, and my expectations were high. I’m a big fan of the 20th Anniversary Maduro, probably my favorite Perdomo. I thought the 10th Anniversary Sungrown was my favorite of that line, which, oddly, only really came out a couple years ago. The 30th aren’t priced bad, I could see companies asking a higher price for their anniversary cigars, but Perdomo does things right in this respect. I admire them for keeping their cigars pried within reason. I decided that yesterday was going to be Perdomo day, so I started with the Sungrown. I chose the 6″ x 54 Epicure size because, well, that’s the size I like. This has a 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Sun Grown wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers, and has a nice box press. I think this one had a patch near the cap on the underside of the cigar, which I find to be unacceptable on a cigar like this, regardless of price. This, of course, came off and I had to do some wrapper surgery because I don’t care for the mouth feel of a flappy wrapper. Other than that, the burn and draw were very good, and the cigar had a sweet spice that was nice. Not blown away, I’ll stick with the 10th Sungrown.
I had high hopes for the Perdomo 30th Anniversary Epicure Maduro. This has the same 15-year-old bourbon barrel-aged Cuban-seed Nicaraguan wrapper processed to a maduro, not overly dark, but dark enough, with a nice oil. This is a nice looking cigar, again, lods of hype, best Perdomo cigar ever, yada yada…It was a good cigar. It had rich dark roast coffee and cocoa and was very nice. For me, I find that the 20th Maduro to have more that I enjoy, to be honest. I suppose I was expecting a more refined experience, and maybe my palate just isn’t acute enough to appreciate the subtleties of these cigars. I’m told that the 30th Connecticut is something special. Given I was never a fan of the Champagne, I actually disliked it ( a rarity), I always pass on the Perdomo Connecticuts. Perhaps I’ll give this one a try, for science.
The folks at Best Cigar Prices posted a bunch of pictures of the cigarlebrities that will be at their Smoke-onos event in May, but they didn’t ask for my picture. If you’re there, hunt me down! Also, keep an eye out for upcoming details about a multi-vendor event at Goose’s Montecristo Lounge in Limerick, PA which will be in the beginning of May. That’s more than enough for today, until the next time.
CigarCraig
Friday evening I Â chose an old favorite, the 
