The Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

An excellent cigar. A complexity of flavors that ranges from woody to herbal, peppery to warm tobacco. Lots of smoke. The Churchill is a 7 inch by 48 ring gauge beauty with a classic, simple band. Camacho claims this Honduran Corojo puro line initiated the trend toward strong cigars when it was introduced in 2000. I don’t know about that, but it’s one you should definitely try if you enjoy full-flavored smokes. Camacho lists the Churchill at $5.60 per stick and $112 a box.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

Tags: cigars

Patrick A and Patrick S are too busy drinking to post a Quick Smoke today. So we suggest you grab some green beer – and maybe even a green cigar – and go celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in style.

–The Stogie Guys

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

1) New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson this week signed into law a statewide smoking ban over the “Land of Enchantment.” The Democrat, a long-shot presidential candidate in 2008, occasionally smokes cigars, but apparently doesn’t think the adult citizens of his state are smart enough to make their own decisions. The prohibition – which goes into effect on June 15 – bans smoking in restaurants, bars, most workplaces, and even near the entrances of buildings. In order to justify this draconian legislation, Richardson cited a bunch of inflated statistics from self-serving groups like the AFL-CIO and the American Cancer Society.

2) Handmade cigars are a pleasure with hundreds of years of tradition. But that doesn’t mean a little high technology can’t make them even better. That’s what BLH Industries is doing. By using identical plastic molds, as opposed to the traditional wodden molds that get worn down with time, they make it easier for cigar manufacturers to create perfectly constructed cigars every time.

3) Over at BlogCritics.org (where we are regular contributors) JJ sings the praises of cigar bars: “They are havens for cigars. Ashton Classics can go where everybody knows their name. Cigar bars are ideal places for both cigars and cigar lovers.”

4) Finally, here’s our deal of the week: Over at Thompson they’ve still got their “Ultimate Cigar Sampler” deal going – which includes 12 premium cigars (Rocky Patel, La Gloria Cubana, Gurkha, Hoyo, and too many more to name), a cigar case, and a hat for just $29.95. We don’t know how much longer this “holiday special” will run, so you may want to act quickly.

–The Stogie Guys

Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy a cigar.

In many parts of the country, the weather is turning nice. For others, the change is only weeks away.

And if you are a sports fan, these are terrific times – from NCAA basketball to NASCAR, from an extra hour of daylight on the golf course to the joy of spring training. Fishing, boating, swimming, and baseball’s Opening Day aren’t far off. All of these activities can be enhanced with a nice stogie.

Of course, a good cigar also adds to the enjoyment of a beautiful sunset or the simple evening sounds of nature.

And if it’s been awhile since you’ve stopped at your local tobacco shop to have a smoke in pleasant company, drop by and see what’s new and enticing in the humidor.

With so many smoking bans and restrictions being considered and enacted, you can be forgiven for feeling that cigar smoking – and yourself – are under siege. On the other hand, with spring on the horizon, it’s also time for optimism.

What an incredible array of great sticks are available, with new ones entering the market seemingly every week. Not the slapped together junk from the boom days, but high-quality cigars crafted by excellent, knowledgeable blenders and rollers.

You can choose from any number of marvelous cigars at pretty reasonable prices, especially when you consider that you’re getting a hand-made product created despite the vagaries of weather and international trade.

I can’t think of anything else that can create so much pleasure for so little cost. So please, take my advice: Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy a cigar.

–George E

Tags: cigars

Frustrating. I found so much conflicting information on the web about Puros Indios – too mild or too strong, loved it or hated it – that I really didn’t know what to think before lighting up a Piramide No. 3.

Thus, for what it’s worth, I really went into reviewing it with a completely open mind.

For starters, this five inch by 50 ring gauge cigar has been a pleasure to look at for the past six months or so. That is, after all, why I kept it directly under the glass top of my humidor. The Ecuadorian sungrown wrapper provides a nice oily sheen, and I think the irregular figurado shape makes it a bit more interesting.

Before I toasted the foot or took the first puff, I expected this stogie to be light and sweet. That’s what the subtle hay and honey notes led me to believe, anyways.

But once lit, I found those aromas were mere sirens calling my ship to a rocky shore. My preconceived notion of mildness was replaced by the harsh reality of a cruel black pepper spice and burning wood flavors. Not pleasant, even for a guy who enjoys full-bodied smokes.

To its credit, the stogie does mellow out a bit after the first third, but I still found this blend of Dominican, Brazilian, and Nicaraguan tobaccos to be too harsh for my liking.

Unfortunately, the stogie is plagued by some physical flaws as well. For one, it’s very cumbersome to establish an even burn (that may or may not be a side-effect of its irregular shape). Second, on multiple sticks, I found the wrapper has a tendency to tear when the band is removed. Finally, while the ash may hold firm for up to an inch or more, the edges often flake away, which makes an awful mess.

For all these reasons – and despite its friendly price of about $4 per stick – I give the Puros Indios Piramide No. 3 a substandard two out of five stogies.

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

–Patrick A

Wanna have some fun and go up against fellow StogieGuys.com readers in an NCAA March Madness pool? Wanna win some free cigars? If you answered is “Yes” and “Hell yeah!” then the 2007 Stogie Guys NCAA Final Four Challenge is for you.

The winner gets a “Final Four” pack of premium and super-premium smokes that will include a Montecristo Classic, a Cohiba (Dominican), a Gurkha Regent, and a mystery cigar to be named at a later date.

To sign up for free, click this link and select “Join a Group” (you’ll need a Yahoo ID). Our league number is 112474, and the password is “stogie.” Also, be sure not to hide your email so we can contact you if you win.

Contest fine print: To be eligible to win the cigars, you must be 21 or older and must live in the Continental U.S. (sorry Hawaii, Alaska, and foreigners). Proof of age may be required. One entry per person, not per email. The winner will be contacted via email the week following the Championship game. Scoring is determined by Yahoo.

Sign up is closed by Yahoo just before the first game starts on Thursday, so get your entry in ASAP.

Feel free to discuss your Final Four picks below. And for some information on Basketball’s greatest cigar smoker, see this article on the passing of “Red” Auerbach, the inventor of the victory cigar.

–The Stogie Guys

Tags: cigars

It’s been over two months since the draconian smoking ban went into effect in DC, and strange things are already happening. (Just two months in and it’s hard to remember that Washington was once a thriving cigar town.)

And while average smokers are forced out of bars and restaurants and into the streets, the city’s political elites are crossing party lines just to enjoy a smoke indoors. Most recently, House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner has even started hanging out at the National Democratic Club:

His own party’s club won’t let him light up, so House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been sneaking over to the National Democratic Club to smoke. Ironic, and a tad scandalous — considering Boehner sits on the board of the Capitol Hill Club, where Republican members of Congress do their boozing and schmoozing.

But the Capitol Hill Club, unlike the Democratic Club, never got an exemption to get around the District’s new smoking ban. And Boehner and other members are no longer allowed to smoke in the House Speaker’s Lobby, thanks to Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) new rules. So what else is a Republican to do when he’s jonesing for a smoke?

Boehner, who’s hooked on Barclays, has popped into the Democratic Club — a sad sack of a joint (compared to the tonier GOP club), which is frequented by union lobbyists — on several occasions. Most recently on Wednesday night, when he was puffing and chatting with Democratic Reps. Allen Boyd (Fla.), Dennis Cardoza (Calif.) and Jim Costa (Calif.).

The minority leader was a such a hit that one of Boyd’s constituents who was in the club grabbed a menu and asked Boehner to sign it. Boyd told the Sleuth that “while I worry about Mr. Boehner’s health, I’m always a fan of Democrats and Republicans being in the same room, even if it has to be a smoky one.” And he joked: “A Dem Club menu with the Minority Leader’s signature…now that’s probably rare enough to be really worth something!”

For those of us in the DC area who can’t joke around in the exclusive smoke-filled clubs occupied by America’s pork-spending, log-rolling politicians, at least we can still have a cigar in Shelly’s Backroom, Ozio, or bars in Northern Virginia.

–Patrick S

Tags: cigars