This Weeks Cigar Re-cap, Liga Privada, Rocky Patel, Etc.

I have to re-wind a little bit to last Sunday, when I enjoyed a fine Liga Privada No. 9 Parejo on Mother’s day. It was one I had picked up in November of 2009 and was a superlative smoke. If you’ve seen the Drew Estate ads with the ash with the Liga band (there’s one on my “cigarcraigslist” page), or the mural on the wall inside the Gran Fabrica in Esteli, that’s what the ash reminded me of, I taped it off to avoid incident, but it was solid as a rock. It was a fine tasting cigar too, lots of flavor and not too heavy on the nicotine. Very satisfying cigar that is a pleasure to smoke, and I smoked it to a very small nub.

Later in the week I pulled out a cigar from a gifted batch from Tommy Berry, my frequent “Take A Cigar For A Walk” contributing correspondent. This cigar has two red bands, the larger said “Maduro” and the secondary band said “by Rocky Patel“. A little research showed this to be a Thompson’s exclusive. The cigar was a large pyramid that had a jet black wrapper that to my taste was San Andreas leaf, but I was unable to find any information to verify that. The cigar was pretty good, although the thick wrapper leaf needed some corrections from time to time. I took this cigar for a 3 mile walk and it fit that time interval very well. Nice, fairly heavy dark flavors consistent with what I expect from a maduro cigar. Many thanks to Tommy for sending an unnecessary gift. I look forward to his future guest reviews!

Tonight I decided to smoke a cigar that was given to me by Dave Mayer, the owner of The Wooden Indian Tobacco Shop in Havertown, PA. I was talking with Dave about our Cigar Safari experiences when I visited the shop a couple weeks ago. He had taken a group down a few weeks before we went, and I was telling him how much I enjoyed the cigar I blended. He took me to his office to show me his blending sheet as his blend was similar to my own, with the exception of the wrapper, which was an Ecuador Connecticut Shade. He gave me one out of his humidor, a gesture I very much appreciated. He had said that his cigar didn’t turn out very good, so I decided to fire it up and see for myself. His version was a fat toro, easily 6″ x 54, with the a fore mentioned beautiful shade wrapper. He mentioned using the Brazilian Mata Fina filler and, I think, the San Andreas binder. I can understand why he felt it was out of balance a bit. The sweetness of the Mata Fina competed a little bit with the dry sweetness of the wrapper. It burned in the typically perfect manner I’ve come to expect from Drew Estate in general, and the Liga Privada rollers in particular. All in all is waas a nice cigar, certainly different, but not at all offensive. I’m thrilled to have had the privilege of smoking this cigar, I know that the cigars I brought back from Cigar Safari are precious to me, and I appreciate Dave sharing his with me.

That’s all I have for now, thanks again to Tommy and Dave for the gifted cigars. Somehow gifted cigars always taste better, and it’s a part of the whole cigar culture that I enjoy the most, that is, gifting cigars, but being on the receiving end once in a while doesn’t suck!).

Until the next time,

CigarCraig