It’s been a difficult week for me for some reason, physically and mentally. Among other things, our coffee maker crapped out, then the replacement arrived broken, so that added to the general malaise I’ve been feeling. This time of year bugs me. Fortunately, through the kindness of a dear reader, I have been provided with some solace in the form of some new-to-me cigars for me to enjoy and write about. I need to refrain from mentioning that I’m 
running out of material, it reeks of mooching. Mitch was very generous and shared some of his favorites with me, it’s not the first time I’ve been the recipient of his generosity, he was my Secret Santa last year (do we want to do that again this year?), and went over the top. There were a few cigars that were on a list I had made of cigars I wanted to try, first among them was this year’s Powstanie War Bear, or Wojtek, in a 5¾” x 46 box pressed corona gorda shape. The War Bear is a Habano/San Andrés barber pole wrapped cigar, although both wrappers are on the dark side and it’s hard to tell it’s a dos capos cigar without really looking closely at it. It’s made at Nica Sueno, which will be a theme of today’s post. This starts off with a kick, and settled into a chocolaty spice. I’ve had previous Warbears, I think it was a perfecto, and I didn’t like it as much as I liked this one, it was really good.
The next one that was on my to-try list was the RoMaCraft Intemperance Volstead VO 1920 in the Noble Experiment size. This is another box press, this time a 5″ x 56 robusto. Oddly, I’m a big fan of the Intemperance EC XVIII, I’ve smoked a ton of the Virtue size. The Volstead is interesting in that it uses an Ecuador Sumatra wrapper that is genetically similar to a Cameroon leaf, which is different, over a San Andrés binder and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers. I’m going to just say “wow” about this cigar. It’s a really tasty cigar. I got some creamy coffee, a little nuttiness and cinnamon, and around the halfway point there were some neat exotic spice flavors that I couldn’t put a finger on. This was a fascinating cigar, and will be a buy the next time I see them in a shop. While I’m thinking about this, please do me a favor, if you happen to shop at JRs or Cigars.com, please click through the links on the left side of my page when you make a purchase. Someone was kind enough to make a large purchase, but it’s $.05 under the amount needed to cash out the commission! Don’t go out of your way or anything, but it would help me out! Anyway, the Volstead is probably the best new cigar I’ve smoked in a long time, it was really good.
Yesterday I should have gone to Best Cigar Pub to meet up with the folks from The Cigar Hacks podcast and Mike Weinstein, but it was another one of those situations where I couldn’t mentally or physically handle driving an hour and a half each way, I just wanted to sit at home and spent time alone. It was 80 degrees on the last weekend in October here, and while I regret missing the opportunity to Visit BCP and see the Hacks and finally meet Mike face to face, I’ll get around to it when I break out of my funk. The Intemperance BA XXI Contempt I smoked while watching a Flyers losing effort helped. This is another corona gorda, I believe it was from the 2022 El Catador de Las Gran Coronas, and is 5¾” x 46. I call it a Corona Gorda, they call it a Gran Corona, I think the difference is an eighth of an inch. Either are a great size, one of my favorites behind the Toro and Churchill. Earlier when I said I was a big fan of the Intemperance EC XVIII, that happened a bit by accident. I had my sights set on a box of the BA Avarice size and the box was damaged, so I grabbed another box blindly and when I got home I realized it was the EC. Not at all disappointed, although I would have been happy either way. The BA stands for Brazilian Arapiraca, which is the wrapper, of course, and I’m pretty sure the rest is Nicaraguan. This is a chocolaty cigar with a hint of a citrus tang. It was super-good even though the game, and my mood, were not.
My last cigar of the day yesterday was a Neanderthal HoxD, which is a cigar I’ve had before, but is always a treat. I got to this later than usual, so a small cigar fit in nicely, this is 4″ x 46 with a flat cap. These give me a chance to use my Adorini punch, with a 13mm punch that makes a large opening. This blend has all my favorites, a San Andrés wrapper, Broadleaf binder and Dominican, Nicaraguan and Pennsylvania fillers. Mitch tells me that this is his favorite morning with coffee cigar, which gives me an insight into his psyche. I can immediately tell he’s someone who craves flavor, perhaps enjoys a good hot sauce, probably on everything. No judgement. This 4″ cigar burned for an hour. This is a nutty/leathery cigar with some sweet earth and coffee. It’s delicious, and it’s strong. I taste the Pennsylvania ligero, but I’m born and raised here in PA. I’m not going to say it contributed to my having a restless night sleep, but it might have. Great cigar, and a big thank you to Mitch for sharing these four cigars with me. Look forward to seeing what else he shared next week.
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
