The Stogie Guys

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) Three weeks ago we reported that a “public safety committee” in Houston was pushing to expand the city’s smoking ban to stand-alone bars. Well, on Wednesday the Space City fascists got their way. According to the Houston Chronicle this morning, the law does include an array of exemptions for places such as tobacco shops, cigar bars, and hotel rooms – exemptions SmokeFree Educational Services, the zealous do-gooders who pushed for the ban, would like to clear up with, you guessed it, more government regulation.

2) Altadis introduced the world’s most expensive cigar yesterday in Spain. The “Behike” – a limited edition of the Cuban Cohiba – will retail for $420 each in commemoration of the brand’s 40th anniversary. Fun fact of the day: Behike means sorcerer or doctor to the pre-Columbian Tiano tribe (but you knew that already). Only 4,000 were made, each at the hands of veteran Norma Fernandez at the famed El Laguito factory in Havana. So how do they taste? Nobody outside of Cohiba’s pre-launch tasting panel has had the balls to light one up yet. Contact us if you want to do a guest review. Of course, you’ll have to buy the stick yourself.

3) There’s a couple of special deals over at Thompson Cigar that I’d like to call your attention to. In one (which is absolutely free), you can register to win a dinner at the restaurant of your choice (value of $2,500) and a cigar and humidor package that retails for $2,500. If I win, I’m going to get a six-month supply of Sliders at White Castle. Thompson also has a pretty sweet High Roller sampler (featuring, among others, Macanudo and Cohiba) and a 125-cout humidor with 100 cigars for only $125. You can find all of these deals under “Popular Items” on Thompson’s homepage.

–The Stogie Guys

While the Internet certainly helps disseminate tips, reviews, and news about stogies to interested parties – and there are a number of great websites (including this one) that do so – cigars are still a convoluted topic for your average Joe. This is unacceptable.

I say this because I know (and I’m guessing you do too) many people who enjoy cigars but have very little knowledge about their makeup, construction, and qualities. They prefer certain brands or types or sizes to others, but can’t put into words why.

In a lot of ways, this naiveté is OK. Smoking is about personal enjoyment and, as long as you’re enjoying yourself, more power to you. But I have a feeling more people would take pleasure in cigars more often if they had the capacity to appreciate them better.

I believe cigar manufacturers and enthusiasts both have a vested interest in an educated stogie populace. On the supply side, the more people know about cigars, the more they are likely to appreciate and purchase them – generating bigger revenue for cigar companies and more jobs in the Third World countries that produce cigars.

For consumers, while this increased demand does result in higher prices, it also breeds better quality, as manufacturers seek to satisfy the public’s thirst for better tobacco, and more choice, as manufacturers implement creative product and marketing strategies to increase their share of the market.

True, the cigar boom of the 1990s resulted in higher prices and decreased quality (because new manufacturers were rushing bad products to market to meet high demand), but almost all of those operations were short-lived. As my colleague mentioned in last Wednesday’s post:

It doesn’t take an economist to figure out that consumers are going to be turned off by a combination of declining product quality coupled with increased prices. So by 1999, cigar consumption dropped almost by half. Thankfully, this meant that many of the fly-by-night operations responsible for the worst cigars of the cigar boom closed their doors.

Most importantly, increased knowledge of cigars allows individuals to find the best cigar for them at the best price. In fact, that’s the main reason we started StogieGuys.com in the first place.

So, since you’re into cigars (if you’ve read this far you pretty much have to be), get your hands on the best information available and absorb as much as possible. And encourage your friends to do the same. We’ll all be better off.

–Patrick A

I’ll be honest: I love Punch. While I certainly try to maintain an impartial perspective on all cigar reviews, journalistic integrity requires me to mention that Punch is one of my favorite brands. And loyal readers will recall they’ve tested quite well here at StogieGuys.com. So with high (yet unbiased) expectations and a Cuba Libre in toe, I set out to try a Punch Grand Cru Robusto, the first I’ve smoked in the line.

This five and ¼ inches by 50 ring gauge cigar had a very smooth, almost veinless Connecticut Shade wrapper. An attractive red, gold, and black band adorned the expertly-rolled stick.

With care, I used my fingernails to pierce the cap and expose the filler, a mixture of Dominican, Honduran, and Nicaraguan tobaccos. Pre-light, the cigar had a sweet caramel aroma, fitting for its appearance. The first puffs produced a toasted graham and spice flavor that reminded me of pumpkin pie – very interesting and enjoyable.

Like most smokes, this one got spicier and spicier with each puff, but it was not obtrusive because the flavor was more acidic than salty, more sweet than bitter – just how I like it.

Unfortunately, the burn required a bit of work in order to maintain evenness, but – despite a few periods of inactivity – the stogie never went out. No complaints on the draw.

Some Punch fanatics who’ve grown to love the brand’s powerful smokes may be disappointed by the Grand Cru line’s subtlety and smoothness, but this enthusiast relished every puff. Moreover, the cigar passed the ultimate test: I smoked until I burnt my fingers.

At only $5.50 apiece, it’s hard to find better bang for the buck. For unique, complex flavors and great value, I give the Punch Grand Cru Robusto four and ½ out of five stogies.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick A

Back in May, we reported that Florida-based Altadis U.S.A. – the country’s largest manufacturer of cigars – declared war on the counterfeit stogie trade and how a subsequent crackdown of law enforcement officials in Miami seized over $20 million in fake cigars, wrappers, and packaging. What we didn’t tell you (because we didn’t know) is that Altadis funded, at least in part, the investigation that led to the seizure.

The Miami Herald recently reported that Altadis “paid tens of thousands of dollars to fund part of an undercover Miami-Dade Police probe of five suspects charged with trafficking in counterfeit cigars.” According to court records, the company – which manufactures, among others, the Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo, and H. Upmann brands – footed a $17,750 bill for undercover “buys,” hired an informant, and also paid for hauling and storage costs leading up to trial.

Because police departments traditionally fund their own investigations, this revelation calls into question the legitimacy of Altadis’ allegations against the alleged fake counterfeiters. But, given the nature of the case, it also challenges the legitimacy of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

In court papers, Altadis claims it holds the exclusive license for the U.S. trademarks for the famous Cuban cigar brands Montecristo, H. Upmann, Por Larranaga, Romeo y Julieta, Saint Luis Rey, and Trinidad. Altadis holds those rights because its parent company, based in Spain, bought them from Cuba’s exiled cigar-baron families decades after Castro’s revolution in 1959.

StogieGuys.com will be watching this case closely, and we’ll keep you updated on all major developments and their implications for the cigar world. Until then, it wouldn’t hurt to revisit our post on spotting a fake.

–Patrick A

I have a friend who often goes to bars and orders their “most economical single-malt scotch.” For some reason that keeps coming to mind as I review the Curly Head Deluxe Maduro – perhaps because I envisioned asking a friendly cigar shop employee for their “most economical Fuente.”

In the budget spirit, I paired this cigar with a Chilean Merlot I purchased from Trader Joes for an affordable $5.99. [Impromptu Stogie Tip: Trader Joes is a great place for decent, reasonably-priced wine.] This particular wine was not as dry as many Merlots and featured strong black currant flavors.

Combined with the $1.85 I paid for the cigar, this is certainly an economical wine and cigar pairing. And with the Fuente name that we’ve rated so highly in the past, I had high hopes for the cigar. Unfortunately, sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

This was not an attractive cigar. The Maduro wrapper was dry and veiny. It featured the largest vein I’ve ever seen in a cigar wrapper that ran two thirds of the way down from the head of this 6 and 1/2 inches by 44 ring gauge stick. The vein caused the head to be quite asymmetrical and a bit awkward in the mouth. Also, rather than have a clean cut foot, the wrapper extended beyond the filler tobacco and was bent inward so it covered much of the foot – sort of like a poor man’s perfecto.

Pre-light this cigar gave off licorice flavors. Lighting it with a single wooden match was easy, facilitated by the unfinished foot. Once lit the burn was mostly even as long as I kept the slow burning edge facing down. Because this cigar uses medium filler – as opposed to long filler which runs the length of a cigar – I had the unfortunate experience of finding bits of the tobacco in my mouth after each draw.

At first this cigar had black pepper notes and overwhelming “dirt” flavors. Near the middle of the cigar, the pepper faded out and the earthy dirt weakened, leaving bitter notes. Additionally, the draw became tight and difficult. Had I not been reviewing this cigar, I would have put it down, as the experience was not at all enjoyable. (The things we do for our readers!)

Finally, near the end the cigar began to improve a little, as the bitterness dulled allowing some licorice to come through the strong earthy flavors. Also, the draw improved near the end. Throughout the smoke, the cigar produced cracked gray and black ash.

Overall, this was a disappointing cigar. Visual imperfections are to be expected from a budget cigar – even one with a Fuente band – but coupled with a taste that was harsh and unpleasant at worst and barely tolerable at best, this cigar proved unsmokable.

Maybe in a few years I’ll bravely pick up another Curley Head Deluxe, but until then stick with Fuente’s mid and premium smokes that offer the quality we’ve come to expect from Fuente stogies. The Arturo Fuente Curley Head Deluxe Maduro receives a poor rating of one and ½ out of five stogies.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.]

–Patrick S

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) Habanos announced the 2006 Limitada line is hitting stores across the globe (except in the US). This year the annual limited release includes Cohiba Piramides (6 1/8 inches by 52 ring), Montecristo Robustos (4 7/8 inches by 50 ring) and Partagas No.3’s (5 5/8 inches by 46 ring).

2) We’ve mentioned California’s odious Prop 86 before – and we’ll have more as election day gets closer – but for now you should check in with California Association of Liberty and Choice (Wow, we really like that name!), a group of associated cigar companies who are cooperating to stop the proposed 135 percent tax increase on cigars.

3) Meanwhile, across the pond, Great Britain is considering allowing localities to ban smoking in all public places, including on the street! Proponents of this new ban feel it is necessary because – get this – smokers forced outside by the indoor smoking bans are “potentially noisy, abusive, or anti-social.” Wait, we thought these bans were about protecting the health of non smokers? In a telling quote, one councilman in favor of the new ban accidentally spilled the beans when he said, “This is the only sensible solution to the problem besides removing the draconian ban.” Just so we’re clear, in that one sentence he admits that the indoor ban is “draconian” and acknowledges that removing it is a “sensible solution.” Well, get to work!

4) Finally, on a sad note, the cigar community lost another family member this week when Alfons Mayer passed away at 79 following a battle with brain cancer. Mayer was a longtime tobacco buyer for General Cigar who worked his way from the fields of Cuba to having his own line of cigars.

–The Stogie Guys

Our many loyal readers will notice some minor changes to StogieGuys.com today. For instance, there are a few (well, to be exact, four) small advertisements on our front page, and another ad scattered elsewhere throughout the site.

This is not a hallucination. Do not be alarmed, and do not adjust your monitors.

It’s just that the two guys who bring you the daily news, reviews, and commentary from the world of cigars you’ve come to love have decided it’s about time to start breaking even.

You see, October marks the six month anniversary of StogieGuys.com. And, looking back, we have much to be proud of: We sent a proposal to the Washington Nationals to create a cigar-friendly seating section; published tips ranging from lighting a cigar to proper etiquette; harped on the evils of senseless smoking bans; sent a lucky reader to Cigar Artisans 2006 in Tampa; and have reviewed dozens of cigars – just to name a few accomplishments.

Above all, I am most proud of the fact that we have published something new every single weekday for the past six months, and our content has never suffered. For our countless hours of work, our loyal readers have rewarded us with exponential growth in traffic, and I can’t express how grateful I am to you for that.

But I believe we’ve reached a point where it’s appropriate to start reaping some tangible rewards from the hard work, time, and money that goes into a great daily website – especially since there are planned improvements that will cost money.

That’s why I’m encouraging you to please click on our ads for all of your online cigar, coffee, and (coming soon) wine needs.

If, for some reason, you’re not currently in the market, there are other ways you can support the site, such as: purchasing gear from the Official Stogie Guys Store (we now have a cigar journal for sale); buying items from our Amazon store; or, if you prefer, direct donations (please click the button below).

Uh oh…Did I come off too needy? No worries – the best way to support the site is still to read it.

Please leave comments if you have any questions, concerns, or complaints. StogieGuys.com always values your input, and we look forward to bringing you more great daily content for years to come.

–Patrick A