For those of you who haven’t yet been lucky enough to meet him, Mike Copperman is a cigar god amongst men. This pleasant and approachable tobacconist at Bethesda Tobacco has more passion and knowledge about stogies in his little finger than I have in my entire body. On Saturday morning, he was generous enough to invite Patrick and me to his store for a private Davidoff tasting.

As expected, we got some wonderful cigars and tons of invaluable knowledge out of the experience…But we also got so much more.

After four cups of coffee, one bagel, and a sixty minute commute, Patrick and I rolled into Bethesda Tobacco at 10:30 AM on Saturday. The building is a tiny, two-story dwelling that is as unassuming as it is charismatic. The front patio is dotted with deck furniture sitting in the shade of tropical banana trees. A lone neon sign glowing through the main window simply reads, “Cigars”.

Mike welcomed us with a smile and led us to a lounge on the second floor. This small stogie haven – complete with leather chairs, a television, a huge humidor, and jaded windows fogged by decades of smoke – would be our refuge for the next two hours.

The session consisted of us tasting three different Davidoff cigars, each one comprised entirely of one tobacco blend – Olor, San Vicente, and Piloto Cubano. After each sampling, Patrick and I gave the cigar a rating based on sweetness, saltiness, acidity, and bitterness. With a lot of help from Mike, and a trusty palate diagram of the human tongue, we correctly identified the Olor blend as mostly salty (removes saliva from the mouth), the San Vicente blend as mostly acidic (adds saliva to the mouth), and the Piloto Cubano blend as bitter and sweet.

It’s amazing how refined your palate can be if you (1) pay attention to the geography of your tongue, (2) smoke through the nose (no, it’s not inhaling, Stogie Tip forthcoming), and (3) have a human cigar encyclopedia at your disposal.

Next, Mike presented us with the fourth cigar – the highly acclaimed Davidoff Gran Cru No. 3. This robust smoke is a special blend of the three aforementioned stogies we had just sampled. The five inch by 43 ring gauge smoke is a noble cigar: smooth and well-refined with a wonderful flavor curve that balances evenly amongst the palate.

While we smoked, Mike was nice enough to share some fantastic tips with us. For example, did you know that in order to get maximum flavor out of each cigar you should only take about two puffs per minute?

You see, tobacco leaves are harvested to create starch so the leaf can produce sugar. When you smoke a cigar, the sugar is caramelized. Much like a master chef cooks a soufflé, you must “cook” the cigar at the right temperature. Taking about two puffs a minute will keep the foot at 494° F, the optimum temperature for experiencing maximum flavors.

But the best tip Mike shared with us is much less technical. He explained that the greatest sense one needs in order to enjoy cigars is not on the tongue or in the nose…It’s between the ears. In other words, the more you know about tobacco and cigar composition, the better tools you have with which to appreciate each smoke.

Overall, the whole tasting was a tremendous experience. I will remember the morning of Saturday, July 29 for many years to come.

I highly recommend Stogie Guys in the DC area make the trip to Bethesda when they can (a Thursday, August 3 Ashton BBQ would be a great introductory event). Take some time to peruse their selection, mingle with friendly regulars (who always come out in good numbers), and – of course – meet Mike Copperman.

Also, for those DC Stogie Guys who are interested in setting up a private tasting of your own with Mike, visit Bethesda Tobacco online and contact Mike.

-Patrick A

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and reader-friendly as possible, each Friday we’ll post a sampler of quick cigar news and stogie-related snippets to tide you over for the weekend. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) Over the past few months, we’ve been getting emails inquiring about the long-awaited release of the Ashton Estate Sun Grown, or ESG. Well, the wait is over. We have received word that a 7 inches by 49 ring gauge parejo called the Ashton ESG 20 Year Salute is hitting retailers near you today. With a suggested retail price of $18, this line is the first in a series of ESGs that will be released over the course of the next five years – culminating in Ashton’s 25th anniversary in 2010.

2) We don’t really like politicians, but any candidate who makes this entrance gets some serious respect from the Stogie Guys:

[Kinky Friedman] digs into his vest pocket, which is stuffed with Cuban cigars—fat Montecristo No. 2’s, the same kind Fidel used to smoke. “It’s gonna be a long day, so I came prepared,” Friedman declares and lights up, oblivious to the barrage of no smoking signs plastered on the nearby fuel tanks.

3) Thanks to it’s well-aged 1977 Cameroon wrapper, you may recall the release of Partagas 150 ten years ago. I don’t – I was 13. But I will remember this: In August, Partagas is releasing its 160 line. Made from the same batch of wrappers (now 29 years old), the cigars will sell for $18 to $30 each.

4) Finally, you can chalk one up for the good guys! It may be Fitchburg, Wisconsin (you haven’t heard of it either?), but it’s still good to see that common sense prevailed. The city council overwhelmingly sent a proposed smoking ban up in smoke.

-The Stogie Guys

Over the past few months, I’ve provided you with tips on how to properly cut and light your cigars, I’ve discussed good cigar etiquette, and we even lent our advice on spotting counterfeits and golf. Now it’s time to learn how to harness that ever-elusive hygrometer.

Even the most amateur Stogie Guy knows that cigars need humidity for proper storage. Since they are hydroscopic in nature, stogies will – over time – dry out in an arid climate or absorb moisture in a humid one. Dry cigars yield high combustion temperatures, leaving the smoke hot and acrid on the palate. And wet cigars tend to fend off lighting, burn improperly, and split their wrappers.

What we need then, Goldilocks, is a happy medium between too dry and too damp. For the most enjoyable smoke, this equates to 12 to 14 percent of the cigar’s total weight in moisture (or about 60 to 70 percent relative humidity). If you have a humidor – which you should – your hygrometer measures relative humidity. That should make creating a cigar-friendly environment easy to monitor, right? Wrong.

Hygrometers, whether mechanical or electronic, can be grossly imprecise and may require adjustment or replacement. The simplest way to verify the accuracy of your hygrometer is to perform a simple salt calibration test.

Let me begin by mentioning that my BA in political science does not exactly qualify me to discuss the intricacies of chemistry. In fact, I have no clue why the salt calibration test works…it just does. You’ll have to take my word on that.

So here’s what you’ll need to perform this simple experiment:
(1) Distilled water (purchased from any grocery store)
(2) Coffee stirrer (or other thin, clean object with which to stir)
(3) Bottle cap (Snapple bottle caps work perfectly)
(4) Empty wide-mouth jar with lid (like an old mayonnaise jar)
(5) Tablespoon of plain table salt (I suggest Mortons – it’s made in Chicago)
(6) Your hygrometer (duh)

Place the tablespoon of salt within the bottle cap and slowly add distilled water to the salt while stirring with the coffee stirrer. Only add just enough water to moisten the salt so that it becomes a thick paste. Do not add enough water to dissolve the salt!

Place the bottle cap with salt gently into your wide-mouth jar and add your hygrometer. Make certain the sensor is exposed and is not blocked by the sides of the jar. Seal the jar so there are no leaks and put it in a place out of direct sunlight and with a stable, cool temperature (like your closet).

Leave the setup undisturbed for a minimum of eight hours. After that, check the reading on the hygrometer through the glass jar – it should read on or near 75 percent relative humidity.

Due to the salt paste reacting with the confined air, the ambient relative humidity within the jar will be exactly 75 percent. Most inexpensive hygrometers are only accurate to within 3 percent, so do not be surprised if yours reads 72 or 78 percent. Whatever it reads plus or minus our 75 percent benchmark is the amount of error of your hygrometer.

If your hygrometer has an adjustment potentiometer then, by all means, try to tweak it to exactly 75 percent relative humidity. You should repeat the salt calibration test after making any adjustments. If your hygrometer can’t be adjusted but the reading is close, then my advice is to not worry about it; just remember that your hygrometer is X percent off – either high or low. If the reading is grossly in error and you are unable to adjust it, you need to replace it.

Once you confirm your hygrometer’s accuracy and maintain a relative humidity of about 65 percent in your humidor, your cigars will age properly and be in peak condition when you’re ready to partake in their delicious flavors. Happy smoking!

-Patrick A

In our last Friday Sampler we told you about a deal that included eight name-brand cigars and a humidor for just $15. Never ones to talk the talk without walking the walk, today’s Stogie Review is the Gurkha Gurkha Connecticut Reserve Robusto #4, one of the eight cigars included in that heavily discounted deal.

Having never had a Gurkha before, I was looking forward to this review based on the excellent reputation that Gurkha has built up. Unfortunately I would be a little disappointed by this toro shaped “robusto” (6″ x 50 ring gauge).

The cigar had an attractive Connecticut wrapper, except for two strange black blemishes. I clipped it with the double guillotine and gave it a proper light with some wooden matches.

After a few nice puffs I decided that, given I was smoking on my front porch, I saw no need for the band, which would only get in the way once I got to the very end of the cigar. (For more on removing the band see here.) This proved to be a big mistake.

Almost instantly after removing the band, this thin shade grown Connecticut wrapper curled up exposing the grayish-brown binder. I repaired the wrapper as best I could using the magical glue-like powers of saliva, but the result was very crude: Part of the wrapper had fallen off completely while other parts were out of place, leaving binder exposed. Likely due to these construction issues, multiple touch-ups were required.

Aside from these major problems, I very much enjoyed the cigar. It had a mild to medium creamy caramel flavor with slight nutty tastes. It reminded me a little of the Romeo y Julieta Vintage (a stogie that’s rated very highly). The flavor was consistent all the way through, and the Gurkha had a nice easy draw.

Unfortunately, the awful construction cast a dark shadow over all of this cigar’s positive characteristics. (I’m hopeful that the other one of these that I have in my humidor proves this poor construction is an abberation.) Had the cigar held together it could have been a three and 1/2 or even a four stogie cigar. Instead, it only gets two out of five stogies.

[Attention DC Area Stogie Guys: Bethesda Tobacco is having a La Flor Dominicana event today from 5-9. We won't might will be in attendance, but so feel free to let us know how the event was join us. Also, we've confirmed what Jerry from Stogie Review told us, that free BBQ and drinks will be provided, and there is a buy three get one free special!]

-Patrick S

As any Stogie Guy should know, when it comes to cigars, thicker isn’t necessarily better. Each year, nonetheless, stogies get fatter and fatter…and this alarming trend towards quantity from quality is taking root in the cigar world with lightning speed.

Not a decade ago, a 60 ring gauge cigar (that’s 60/64 of an inch in diameter) was a tobacconist’s anomaly. Up until the cigar boom of the 1990s, America’s most popular size was the manageable and elegant 42 ring gauge lonsdale (or vitola). Wrote Jordan Russin of Cigar Aficionado in 2002:

American smokers moved away from traditionally popular sizes in search of thicker cigars with more complexity and cooler smoke. By the early 1990s, the robusto was the country’s most popular size, and thinner cigars had begun to be relegated to the back of the cigar-smoking consciousness.

Today, thick cigars are even more popular. Cigar Aficionado’s RTDA Blog Day 3 reports that this year’s convention is inundated with fat sticks. The Maxx by Alec Bradley has a new 60 ring smoke called The Freak. And CAO has one of the thickest ever made – a 96 ring Brazilia-Italia (they cut it down from a 137 ring gauge). That’s just obscene! Couple these introductions with Lars Tetens’ new 60 ring Gorilla Fingers, and you could argue 60 is the new 54.

But before we jump headfirst on the thicker-is-better bandwagon, let’s not forget some oft-overlooked vital facts. Fat cigars are awkward in the hand and tragically uncomfortable in the mouth. And these mammoths tend to burn so cool they are often difficult to keep lit. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, their behemoth size actually tempers most of their flavors.

Case in point: Remember that the best tobacco on any cigar is the wrapper. By choosing thinner cigars (like the 40-46 ring gauged coronas, lonsdales, and Cuban corona gordas), you get more wrapper in relation to filler. While these cigars typically burn a bit hotter than their fat counterparts, you get richer, fuller, and more pronounced flavors. Simply put, a smaller smoke can deliver a taste experience that is often lost in the girth of larger cigars. Also, thin cigars peak much quicker, delivering their flavor without the long wait that many thick stogies require.

So while the entire cigar world plunges into a trendy fascination with fatness, I’m encouraging Stogie Guys Nation to plunge with caution. Like Pogs, it’s only a phase. Much like women, thick ones can be a lot of fun from time to time, but let’s not forget how flavorful and classically-beautiful a thin one can be.

-Patrick A

Tags: cigars

In last Wednesday’s post, I mentioned that on July 15 I was up in Baltimore at Grumpy’s bar having some cigars with a few buddies. One of those friends – Shaka Smith, a law student at George Mason University – wrote a review for StogieGuys.com at my request. Here’s a picture of us (inebriated) that evening. As an infrequent cigar smoker, he brings a unique perspective to site. Enjoy.

There is nothing like the surprise of a good cigar on a nice night out on the patio of one of Baltimore’s raging bars, and that’s just what I got this past weekend. I am no cigar aficionado (though I have picked up the magazine once in a vain attempt to understand) but I have had a few over the years – at least enough to come to appreciate them. So please bear in mind this brief exposition may lack the technical and/or nuanced terms you may be used to.

Well there I was enjoying a drink, when none other than Mr. Ashby pulls out two cigars to my delight. After explaining I tend to enjoy a throatier cigar, he offered me one – dark in color, and veiny in its leaf. The JR Alternative of the Hoyo Corona may not be expensive ($20.95 for a box of 20), but it smoked like a gem.

On this hot and humid night, it was the perfect compliment to my gin and tonic. The cigar had an oak flavor with hints of spice – almost as if there were mild peppers rolled in the tobacco. This 5 and 5/8 by 46 ring gauge stogie is a thinking man’s cigar, so rich in its flavor your mind can’t help but ponder the intricacies of the world. Seriously, I wanted to taste more and more of it as subtle earthy flavors were seemingly introduced with each puff. If you like a darker cigar, this one is it.

All I can say is that I highly recommend this stogie. Simply put, this quality cigar offers an enjoyable experience.

Want to share your thoughts on a cigar with the Stogie Guys Nation? Contact us to submit your own guest review today.

-Patrick A

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and reader-friendly as possible, each Friday we’ll post a sampler of quick cigar news and stogie-related snippets to tide you over for the weekend. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) We’re not so sure about spending $195 on a shirt, but if you want to drop that kind of bank on a button-down why not get one made to carry your stogies? Thomas Pink is introducing a shirt with a split front pocket for a cigar: “The smaller section features an immaculate box pleat that can expand to hold cigars in a variety of lengths and girths. However, when empty, the cigar pocket sits perfectly flat to the chest. The secondary pocket can also be used for lighters or cutters.”

2) Habanos S.A., the international marketing and distribution arm for Cuban stogies in Havana, recently announced Cohibas will be available next year in a maduro wrapper. Strangely enough, the company stresses that Cohiba maduro wrappers will be produced through a natural fermentation process – and that most other maduro wrappers are developed artificially (which is false). Someone should tell Habanos they don’t need to lie to get Stogie Guys interested in new Cohiba products.

3) Following a hospitality industry trend set by Westin and Disney, all Marriott hotels in the U.S. and Canada will be smoke-free by September. The new policy covers all Marriott brands, including the Ritz-Carlton, Fairfield Inn, Courtyard, and Residence Inn.

4) Once again we found a special unadvertised deal that we feel obliged to pass on to our readers. This time for a mere $15 (that’s $180 less than the cigar shirt) you get eight premium cigars AND a 20-cigar humidor. Here’s the link.

-The Stogie Guys