The Week In Cigars: Macanudo, Oja, Chateau Real, Toraño, CAO, etc.

Sunday I had a couple projects to do around the house that involved replacing screens in a sliding door and a window.  In an attempt to minimize the profanities generally involved in such an exercise, I employed a Macanudo 1968 Robusto.  I recently received some samples of these from General Cigar in conjunction with their recent announcement that they were lowering the price across the board on this line extension.  I have enjoyed this cigar in the past, although in liberal quantities, largely due to the price.  I have to say that if they re-blended this (and I don’t know that they did) to lower the price, they did a fine job.  Although it was a little loose in the draw (I wish I had punched this one, but who knew?), it smoked very well and the only time I swore was when the cigar went out on me!

Next up was an Oja Connecticut Torpedo.I’m not going to say too much about this one just yet, other than I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor of this cigar. Oja is a new boutique brand from Luis Garcia, whom I had the pleasure of meeting while in Nicaragua.  I want to smoke some more of these before really delving into the specifics, but keep an eye out for this brand. Luis is a very cool guy.

I grabbed a Chateau Real Gran Cru Perfecto Maduro, which is a favorite.  Oddly, I really think these are better in the fall and winter for some reason.  It was a good cigar, don’t get me wrong, but think I enjoy the flavor more when the air is crisp and the humidity is low.  Maybe it was just that it was humid…not sure.  Anyway, the place I usually rest my cigar when I go into the convenience store is the corner of the ice machine.  Well, some clueless lady got ice and I walked out to find my cigar on the ground!  The Ground!!  Not one bit happy about that, and neither was the cigar. It took a while for the cigar to recover from the trauma. It did, however, and changed my mind about the seasonality of this cigar.  It just has full, rich flavor that I never tire of.  It’s unfortunate that Drew Estate has stopped making the maduro version of this cigar, although the Shade wrapped version is a very nice cigar as well.

Somewhere around Thursday I was in a lancero kind of mood, so I grabbed one of the two Carlos Toraño Casa Toraño maduro lanceros that I had picked up at an event at Cigars International some time ago (actually, it was December of ’09, one of the advantages of logging my cigar adventures!).  These have been calling to me over the last year and a half, I had two, which fit nicely in a very narrow two finger case I have, so I’ve had them on hand at times, but never found the occasion.  I finally broke down and had to fire one up.  This is an excellent maduro cigar to my tastes, it had everything I wanted.  It burned a nice long time. What looked like it was going to be a thunderstorm was rolling in at about the half way point, but it just got a little dark and blustery, no rain to speak of, and not enough to make me abandon this fine cigar.  If I remember correctly, these were in the $5 range, which really is pretty good for what you get.  As long as you take this cigar slow, as you should with any narrow ring cigar, it burns cool and smooth!

Jumping to the other end of the spectrum, somewhere through a very hectic Friday at work I got it into my head that the only thing that would satisfy me would be something enormous and heavy duty.  I knew I had an IPCPR sample of a CAO Lx2 Gordo 6″ x 60, which to date is not listed on their website (but I did find it listed on plenty of merchant and blog sites).  I’ve smoked a bunch of the Lx2, many have bothered me in a cold sweat, nicotine poisoning kind of way, but this one was really nice.  I don’t know if it is the tremendous girth or a little bit of age that tempered the power of this, but it definitely served it’s intended purpose and made me forget the rigors of the day.  I must admit that I’ve been developing a fondness for these large ring smoked for some reason.  My wife reminded me of the time that we met up with Jon Huber and she pointed out that some of the details on the secondary band (which Jon designed) looked like parts the female anatomy…tht Jon and his naughty mind!

On a related note, I WAS going to pass on going to Vegas for the IPCPR trade show.  The organization very recently release their application and guidelines for a new “Internet Media Membership”.   I was initially excited, because, honestly, I wouldn’t mind spending the $150 on membership, I figure it would legitimize me as someone who takes this blog nonsense seriously, and would give me some additional credibility.  When I started looking at airfares is when I got the sticker shock.  I’ve been to Vegas many times and I don’t think I ever paid more than $250 for a round trip fare, but I’ve always had the luxury of planning way in advance.  This caught me off guard, and the cheap bastard in me said “Ya know ,ya cheap bastard, you already had one BIG cigar trip this year, maybe wait until next year to go back to the show”. Then my wife, whom I love very, very much, told me that I really need to be there.  So I sucked it up and booked a package that will have me in Vegas for the show.  Look for updates on future developments!

Also, I’ve added a new site to my Links: Cigars.FindTheBest.Com.  This looks like it could be a useful resource and I’ll dig deeper into it as time allows.  I do notice that the Liga Privada No.9 is very close to the top in both the Nicaraguan and *All* categories, which is good.  Take a look at the site and play around with the sorting functions, it’s pretty slick.

That’s it for now.  I’m off to meet up with a couple guys I played with in a band in 1982 or ’83 and see if we can bang out a few notes!  Haven’t seen either of them in nearly 30 years, so it will be interesting!

Until the next time,

CigarCraig