Tag Archives: Trinitas

A Trinitas, a Couple of Southern Draw and a Couple of Joya de Nicaragua Cigars

I had had some plans this week that didn’t come together, more on that later, but I wanted to highlight a few cigars I smoked during the week, as I normally do on Sundays. First one that was really the standout of the week was the Providencia Trinitas Corona. This is a new size, adding to the 6″ x 52 perfecto (read about it here), with the same San Andrés wrapper, Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan Ligero fillers. In my February 2018 post I pointed out that they misspelled “lijero” twice in the description, and they still haven’t fixed it, I’m insulted that they don’t read ?.  Anyway, of course I’m a sucker for the San Andrés wrapper, and I’m not afraid of ligero, however it’s spelled, and despite my love of the toro, there’s something about a corona gorda that always appeals to me. I believe this one might be a little shy of a corona gorda, and a little more than a corona, listed at 5¾” x 44, it falls squarely in between the two. I actually find coronas to be too small for my liking, so this was outstanding, 46 ring would be perfection. Anyway, we’ve established that I approve of the size, wrapper and perceived strength profile. The flavor did not disappoint. Since it’s a smaller ring gauge, one has to smoke it slower or it overheats and has a sharper flavor, so I smoked it slowly and savored the spice, earthiness and cocoa/coffee flavors I like in this type of cigar. Despite the “tripple ligero” designation on the band, it wasn’t overly strong, just about the right amount of strength when smoked  at the right pace. Awesome cigar, just like it’s perfecto sibling. The folks at Providencia Cigars produce some darned tasty cigars! 

 

I revisited a few Southern Draw favorites this week.  I had every intention of heading out to Colmar, PA to the CigarCigars store there on Thursday for the Southern Draw event with Robert Holt, as I hate when he’s in the area and I don’t get to say hello, but a wicked toothache ruined my day, and I didn’t feel like going anywhere. I managed to get a dentist appointment and I had some interviews the following day I wanted to be prepared for, so I decided to stay home. I had pregamed with a delicious Southern Draw Rose Of Sharon Desert Rose the night before. This is a really tasty shade cigar, with what they describe as an Ecuador Cloud Grown Claro wrapper, which is probably a more accurate description of Ecuador Connecticut. It has Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan Ligero and Dominican Piloto Cubano in the filler as well, in a 5½ x 52 box pressed belicoso shape. It’s a stunning cigar in every way.  As great as the regular Rose of Sharon line is, the Desert Rose steps it up a notch in strength and body I think. It’s no mild Connecticut cigar, that’s for sure, it’s loaded with rich, creamy flavor, and is really a delightful smoke. When I decided not to go to Colmar (to be honest, my tooth hurt so bad, if I hit a bump in the car it hurt), I grabbed a Southern Draw Kudzu Lustrum. I figured at least I could be there in spirit. The Lustrum is the company’s five year anniversary cigar, made with some very special materials. The wrapper is a Nicaraguan Habano, but it’s the Media Tiempo priming, which is a notch above Ligero, and is rare, especially large enough to produce wrapper leaves. The binder is from Ometepe in Nicaragua and the fillers are undisclosed, although one might assume they are some variation on the Kudzu blend of Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania (if I remember correctly). This is made in a the same mold as the Rose of Sharon, a box pressed 5½ x 52 belicoso. This is another lovely cigar, for a whole different set of reasons. It’s got some spice and some coffee/cocoa and savoriness and I love it. The Kudzu is really good, this is a special Kudzu. Like all of the Southern Draw portfolio, these are both made at the A.J. Fernandez factory, and I can’t recall ever having a SD cigar with anything but perfect construction. I’m sorry I missed seeing Robert, he’s a super-nice dude.

 

Joya de Nicaragua has been dropping some goodies on me lately, and I love everything about JdN. They had announced the release of the Joya Copper, an addition to their Joya line (Red, Black, Cabinetta, Silver), exclusive to Cigars International. It was one of those press releases I didn’t share because a ton of other sites had posted about it by the time I saw it, and it wasn’t a wide enough distribution really. Raise your hands, how many people heard about the Joya Copper?  Anyway, long story short, the Copper Joya Copper comes in 4 vitolas: 4 ½ x 52 Consul (MSRP $6.60), 5 x 46 Corona Gorda (MSRP $6.30), 5 ½ x 52 Robusto (MSRP $7.10) and 6 x 50 Toro (MSRP $7.80). All come in boxes of 20.  I copy/pasted that part. It’s a Nicaraguan puro, with no other details about the blend. These will be sold in the CI stores only through the end of the year, and they will be available online after the first of 2020. I’m not sure why, but the packaging and band give me a golf vibe, with the dimpled background. So far, I’ve only smoked the Consul, the 4½” x 52 robusto size. It fit into the time I had available. I’m hoping these age well because it was a good cigar, but I found it to be unremarkable, and I suppose I expect to be more pleased with a Joya. Now, I’ve not had good luck wrapping my head around the Black and the Red, fine cigars, just haven’t tripped my trigger, so there’s that. I have the other three sizes yet to smoke, and these had only been in the humidor for a week, so let’s not jump to any conclusions yet. It was properly humidified, as I checked it with the Cigarmedics Humidimeter. Back in 2013 when I went to Cigar Safari with a bunch of bloggers, we discovered a cigar that, at that time, was only being sold in the Spanish market called Rosalones. We smoked a bunch of them and some of us were taken with them. They must have listened to us, or it was a coincidence (probably the later), but Rosalones showed up after that in the catalogs. At some point I bought a ten count box of them in the Gran Consul size, with is a 4¾” x 60 figurado that Joya de Nicaragua has used on their Antaño 1970 line, and Saka used on the Todos Las Dias Double Wide Belicoso. I don’t know that this size is even around any more and I only have a few left, but boy is this a good smoke! For an inexpensive cigar, these deliver the goods. Medium bodied, classic Nicaraguan richness. I’d have to see what’s out there now and sample them, but these have aged well and are just dandy smokes. 

 

Well, that’s more than enough for today, until the next time, 

 

CigarCraig

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Murcialago, Providencia Trinitas and Cornelius Lonsdale Cigars

Murcialago_RobustoLast week one of the cigars I picked up at Cigars International’s Espinosa event was the new Murcialago. I remember when this came out int the EO Brands days, it was Eddie Ortega’s go-to, made at the My Father Factory with a rich, dark San Andrés wrapper. These had a red bat-shaped band, appropriate since murcialago is Spanish for bat.  Seems like a long word for bat, but that’s neither here nor there. I remember the original release being sometime in the 2011 area. In the Ortega/Espinosa amicable divorce, Erik got custody of the Murcialago brand, and it hibernated for a few years. Recently the brand has re-emerged, and I grabbed a few of the red banded robustos, as well as a silver banded Churchill. I know the latest release, with the silver band, is being made at AJ Fernandez’ new San Lotano factory in Ocotal, Nicaragua, but I’m not sure if the red banded cigars were made there or La Zona. I suppose it would have been prudent of me to ask that question of Erik while I was talking to him.  The Robusto is a box pressed 5″ x 54, and, given my recent avoidance of robustos, I’m surprised I didn’t get the toro instead, perhaps they were out.  The cigar smoked as one would expect it would, perfect burn and draw, dark, rich flavors of espresso and some spice. I recall really liking the old version, but it’s been so long since I smoked one I can’t really draw a direct comparison, but it was good and I liked it.

 

Providencia_The TrinitasYesterday afternoon I decided to give the Trinitas from Providencia Cigars a try. These cigars are made in Honduras with Honduran and Nicaraguan tobacco. This cigar came to mind because I know two of the company principles are from the Philadelphia area and are big Eagles fans. Apparently the Eagles won a big game, and were recognized with a parade in Philly last week, and I’m sure Ray and Jim wish they had been there. All this Eagles stuff in the news made me think of Providencia cigars for some reason, so I pulled out the Trinitas to give it a try. This is a beautiful 6½” x 52 perfecto with a box press, and has “Triple Ligero” on the band.  Curiously, their website notes that it has Lijero, whether this is a typo or linguistic difference, I don’t know. I give them points for keeping their site up to date, so I give them a pass.  This Trinitas was only recently released, and is a small batch cigar, and is offered in boxes of ten or bundles of 11.  I was expecting a much stronger cigar, given the triple ligero descriptor, but what I got was a medium bodied, very refined and well-balanced cigar that was really very good.  It had some sweetness, and earthy/nutty flavors that were quite enjoyable on a rainy Saturday on the porch watching the Olympics.  These are not widely distributed, but I’ve had very good experiences now with all three of their lines, the El Padre and El Santo are also excellent. Even though they aren’t in a lot of shops, they do offer their cigars for sale on their site. These cigars are worthy of sampling, in my opinion.

 

CorneliusandAnthony_Cornelius_LonsdaleLast night I came across my last IPCPR sample of the Cornelius and Anthony Cornelius Lonsdale. I received a couple new samples last week, and I’m sure it’s common knowledge that this brand, is on the top of my list recently. I cracked a box of Señor Esugars toros earlier in the week and am really going to have trouble not smoking them all up real fast, the cigar was awesome. I’ll smoke another one soon and give it more attention here. For me, in all six Cornelius and Anthony lines, the toro is the size that does it for me. That being said, this year’s release of the Cornelius in the Lonsdale size intrigued me. I recapped my IPCPR visit along with a video with Steven Bailey back in August, you can check that out here. My initial impression of the cigar remains the same as the first smoking, the 6½” x 42 Lonsdale may seem a little stronger than the Toro largely because a narrower ring cigar is going to burn a bit hotter, making the flavors sharper. People always think there’s some magic wrapper to filler ratio that makes smaller ring cigars taste different, but it’s the heat. Certainly the blend proportions have to change across a range of ring gauges, but if proportions were exactly the same, the thinner cigars would still have a sharper flavor, easily confused with more flavor, because it inherently burns hotter. It’s a fact. This Lonsdale presents all the elegance and subtlety of the Toro, but with a little more oomph, making it a similar, but different experience.  I like it, I like it a lot.

 

I’ve been slacking on my midweek posts over the last couple weeks, winter blues, I guess, but, if you watch my Instagram feed, I’m still enjoying a daily cigar, although I’ve been quite hedonistic in my choices lately. I get home from a long day at work and want to relax with a cigar and just enjoy it without worrying about thinking of something to write about it. I’ve always been pretty open about the fact that I’m in this for the enjoyment, when smoking cigars, or writing this blog, feel like work, it’s not fun anymore!  Anyway, it’s time to get on with my day, until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

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