The Stogie Guys

Considering the many well-regarded cigars made by Fuente, the fact that they call their Don Carlos line the “Pride of the Fuente Family” says much about this special cigar. So does the storied history of the Don Carlos, as recounted by Keepers of the Flame:

The Arturo Fuente Don Carlos was originally released in 1976, taken off the market when the Fuentes lost everything to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and re-introduced in 1986 for the European market. Rolling with 1984 crop tobacco, through spring of 1997 it was only available in two sizes (Robusto and Reserva No. 3, which was a corona extra). In an interview with Matt Matalamaki late in 1997, Carlos Fuente Jr. informed us that as of early 1997 they began using tobacco from 1986 crops and would release the Presidente, Double Robusto, Reserva No. 2, and Reserva No. 4 by summer or fall of 1998.

The Don Carlos No. 2 is a six inch by 55 ring gauge torpedo. It features a Cameroon wrapper and Dominican filler and binder tobaccos. As Cameroon wrappers go, this cigar is a beauty with a relatively small number of thin veins and a lovely, deep, reddish-brown color.

In both our tasting notes, the word “subtle” came up often. The Don Carlos is certainly a subtle cigar, beginning with the pre-light aroma. It is not overpowering, but it is, literally, a mouth-watering Cameroon mixture of sweetness and spice.

The stick begins with a quintessential Cameroon wrapper sweetness and a smooth spice. Flavors were plentiful, though sometimes fleeting. Leather, cedar, barnyard, cocoa, caramel, and something akin to cinnamon all made appearances, making for an extraordinarily complex cigar.

Therefore, you need to choose your accompanying drink very carefully. Water is probably the safest choice, but coffee also works well. (On the other hand, rum and diet coke – with its sweet and chemically aspartame flavors – should definitely be avoided.)

In the many samples we smoked, the draw was always easy and the smoke was thick and creamy. We did experience multiple wrapper splits near the end and uneven burns – particularly when smoked outdoors even in a light breeze – though these can be attributed more to the delicate nature of Cameroon tobacco than to problems with the construction.

Near the end, many of the Don Carlos sticks we smoked got bitter and unpleasant, with the smooth, rich finish sharply turning tart. A clear signal that although you may not want the experience not to end, the time has come for the Don Carlos to be laid down.

It’s easy to see why Tom Selleck told Cigar Aficionado that his favorite smoke is the Don Carlos. If you can afford the $10 plus price, this is a cigar you could easily smoke several times a week.

While the Don Carlos does lose points for occasional wrapper-related construction issues and a bitter ending, this is still a fantastic cigar. With a remarkable bouquet of flavor, the Don Carlos earns an impressive rating of four and 1/2 out of five stogies.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here. Cigars for this review were provided by CigarsDirect.com, and can be purchased here.]

–Patrick S and George E

Tags: cigars

With a reputation as “one of the strongest cigars in the world,” Camacho Corojo has a lot to live up to. In my experience, unfortunately, the hype over strength and quality isn’t justified.

Grown at Ranchos Jamastran in Danli, Honduras, the tobacco used in this blend is supposedly descended from rare seeds that were smuggled out of Cuba after the embargo took effect. That sounds pretty interesting, so I hope it’s true.

The Churchill is a slender seven inch by 48 ring gauge cigar that retails for around $6. It has a slightly disheveled, rustic look, mostly due to the wrapper’s sandy texture and some random lumps. The surface reminds me of childhood trips to Lake Michigan’s dunes.

Adding to its unique character is the fact that the stogie is faintly crooked. If you look closely at the picture you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about.

For all these so-called “flaws” in appearance, however, pre-light I’m still not concerned. After all, some of my favorite sticks aren’t classically beautiful (Alonso Menendez and Dona Flor come to mind); what I’m most interested in is taste and smoking performance.

After establishing an even burn, the first thing I notice is a flavor that isn’t nearly as strong as I had expected. The warm, natural tobacco taste is pleasant and earthy, but certainly not what I’d call full-bodied.

From there, a subtle spice continuously builds as the smoke progresses and – at the midway point – sweet chocolate notes join in to add some complexity. The flavor profile remains this way until the very end, which left me a bit bored.

The construction isn’t great either with a burn that won’t keep lit, a gray ash that falls off all too often, a tight draw, and a wrapper that is frail and easily torn.

Notwithstanding the fact that this cigar isn’t the full-bodied masterpiece it’s made out to be, overall I’m left fairly disappointed. The appearance is sub-par, the flavor isn’t exciting, and the physical properties leave much to be desired. Your $6 would be better spent on another stick, and that’s why I’m giving the Camacho Corojo Churchill two and ½ out of five stogies.

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

–Patrick A

A few weeks ago I was reading a story in the New York Times about the difficulty smokers face trying to light up at airports, not unlike what Patrick A experienced this summer in Charlotte. Near the end I came across this quote from Matthew McKenna, director of the Center for Disease Control’s office on smoking and health: “There’s no level of secondhand smoke exposure that can be declared to be safe.”

Now, like you, I had seen similar statements before. This time, though, I started wondering exactly what it meant. I seem to recall from covering the anthrax attack on Capitol Hill, dirty bomb scares, and other terrorism-related reporting that the government had established acceptable levels of exposure for all sorts of deadly substances. Could secondhand smoke be any worse?

I thought, of course, about the seemingly ubiquitous presence of lead paint on children’s toys. The government permits 600 parts per million. According to the New York Times’ David Leonhardt, studies have shown that at that level it can lower a child’s IQ by five points; the American Academy of Pediatrics wants a standard of 40 parts per million. And Leonhardt quoted a university psychologist that “no one has ever found any evidence of a threshold below which lead has no effect.”

Sounds pretty similar, doesn’t it? I’m glad the government took immediate action at the first instance of thousands of lead-tainted toys coming to U.S. store shelves from China. At least we never have to worry about that again. Oh, wait, I guess maybe that didn’t happen…

I found the good doctor’s email address on the CDC’s site and wrote to him. I asked whether there were any other elements or substances that “the government has declared to have no safe level of exposure?”

I was pleased to receive a reply, but disappointed to see that Dr. McKenna had passed my inquiry off to a flack. He repeated information from a 2006 report on the dangers of secondhand smoke but completely dodged my question. I tried again.

This time he said it wasn’t possible to compare secondhand smoke to other substances or elements. OK, I don’t really buy that, but I kept my mule plowing ahead. I refined my question, now asking whether secondhand smoke was “the only smoke for which the government position is that there is no level of exposure that can be declared safe?” I pointed out that I had read EPA estimates that a fireplace burning ten pounds of wood in an hour would generate 4,300 times more carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than 30 cigarettes.

Maybe you’re old enough to remember when people used to burn logs in their fireplaces at home. I’m glad the government finally moved to eliminate that widespread cancer-causing activity. Oh, wait, I guess…

The CDC reply this time more or less blew me off and referred me to the EPA.

Getting Closer to an Answer

That’s where I went. I asked again whether secondhand smoke was the only smoke for which the government position is that there is no level of safe exposure.

Guess what? I got a very reasoned, thorough reply from someone in the EPA’s Health and Environmental Impacts Division. He pointed out a couple of things, including the fact that the EPA doesn’t really have anything to do with tobacco smoke, since it doesn’t have an industrial source.

He also noted that he wasn’t sure what Dr. McKenna meant, though it was true that “no level of secondhand smoke exposure could be considered ‘risk-free,’ or correspond to ‘zero risk’…because it is considered to be a ‘linear carcinogen,’ meaning that each incremental breath of exposure adds to one’s lifetime risk of contracting cancer…”

But he added that if a non-smoker who lives in a virtually smoke-free environment were “to increase their exposure to secondhand smoke by, say, spending an hour or a day or even a week in the home of a smoker breathing their secondhand smoke, this would not likely result in any significant increase in their lifetime probability of contracting cancer. It would definitely increase their risk (above zero), but it would probably not increase it enough that the EPA would consider it ‘unsafe’ by our usual interpretation.”

He also patiently explained that the EPA regulates 187 different hazardous air pollutants, “many of which are considered to be ‘linear carcinogens’” like secondhand smoke. To do that, he explained, the agency assesses the increased cancer risk for those who breathe the emissions.

When they “are exposed to increased cancer risks less than 1 in a million, EPA considers those to be negligible and will not pursue any further regulation…” He also pointed out that “‘negligible risk’ does not equal ‘zero risk’…”

The Bottom Line

So, while I still don’t have an answer to my original question, I do have a little more insight into the statement that started all this and the context in which it is presented: The fact that the risk is not zero means there is risk. If there is risk, then it is accurate to say that there is no safe level of exposure.

We just won’t mention the fact that there are hundreds, probably thousands, of other elements, substances, smokes, etc., about which the same can be said. In fact, for many of them, we’ll even set a government standard for exposure, despite the likelihood that it will mislead at least some people into believing exposure at that level is “safe” or “zero risk” when that isn’t at all true.

Sounds a little like a smokescreen, doesn’t it?

–George E

Tags: cigars

If there was ever a cigar with an interesting background story it’s the Series ’68 by Padilla. Well-respected stogie manufacturer Ernetso Padilla gave the line its unique name to commemorate the year his father, Heberto, was arrested for publishing a collection of poetry that was critical of Castro’s oppressive communist regime.

With a storied dedication like that, it’s no surprise that Ernesto took great care in composing the blend. He chose to pair a Cuban-seed corojo wrapper with Cuban-seed long filler, both grown in the Jalapa and Condega regions of Nicaragua. The result, according to retailers, is an earthy smoke with flavors of cedar, coffee, and sugar.

The robusto comes in traditional dimensions: five inches with a 50 ring gauge. It sells for about $6 and sports an attractive maroon and gold band and a smooth wrapper with a reddish hue.

Innocent-looking enough, but this stick really gets off to a fast start with full, spicy flavors of black pepper and clove. The aroma of the smoke is much sweeter and earthier than the actual taste.

After an inch or so the spice mellows to make room for pleasing notes of coffee and molasses. That flavor is steady and consistent until the very end, which is just fine with me.

What I’m not fine with are a few under-performing physical characteristics. Most notably, the burn is neither reliable nor even. Random touch-ups are absolutely necessary, so keep some wooden matches handy. The ash is also on the flakey side.

Despite these issues, I was fairly happy with the cigar. The medium-bodied flavor is on the verge of outstanding, especially for the price.

That’s why I’d love to rate it higher. But, given its sub-par construction, the Padilla Series ’68 Robusto will have to settle for a respectable three and ½ out of five stogies.

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

–Patrick A

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

This five inch by 50 ring gauge Robusto sports some of the best physical properties I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy. The burn is geometrically sharp, the draw is true, and the ash holds firm for several inches. On top of that, the flawless Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper – coupled with Dominican binder and filler tobaccos – yields a mild and creamy flavor of almond and vanilla. This Arganese is well worth the $6 you can expect to pay for a single stick.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

Tags: cigars

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

I’ve mentioned before how Gurkha seems to be very hit or miss. This particular blend is a hit. With rich woody flavors and a long smooth finish, the Legend pairs perfectly with either a mojito or a hearty beer. Despite the fact that, by the end, the burn was persistently uneven, I can still recommend this six and 1/2 inch by 53 ring gauge torpedo.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

Tags: cigars

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) Cigar Aficionado reports that Eric M. Newman of the J.C. Newman Cigar Company was recently voted the new chairman of the Cigar Association of America. The organization, which apparently lobbies for stogie smokers’ rights, certainly has its work cut out. We’re hoping Mr. Newman can get the industry back on track.

2) If you’re considering a trip to the Tampa area, you might want to arrange your schedule for Nov. 17 to enjoy Ybor City’s ninth annual Cigar Heritage Festival. Admission is free with suggested donations earmarked for the Ybor City Museum Society. The event, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will feature representatives from Fuente, Rocky Patel, Thompson, Camacho, 601, and others. Festivities also include a beer garden, dominoes, entertainment, and cigar rollings.

3) Add a horrifically invasive smoking ban to the list of reasons never to visit Oakland, California. Thanks to a Draconian city council, it is now illegal to smoke in ATM lines, parks, bus stops, and – get this – municipal golf courses. Is this supposed to be a joke? Who do these bans protect?

4) While presidential frontrunners Hillary and Rudy both support the failed Cuban embargo, constitutionalist candidate Ron Paul is coming down hard on the 45-year-old policy. In a recent column, Dr. Paul wrote that “it is Americans who live in a free country, and as free people we should choose who to buy from or where to travel, not our government.”

5) Around the Blogs: Cigar Command has a Padrón 1964. Matt smokes a Fuente Don Carlos No. 4. Velvet Cigar tries a Coronado by La Flor. Brian smokes a Hemingway Classic. Cigar Jack reviews a La Flor Double Ligero. Keepers of the Flame lights up a La Aurora Preferidos.

6) Deal of the Week: If you’re as impressed by Don “Pepin” Garcia’s cigars as we are, then you’ll want to try his latest creation: the Troya Classico XVIII. Tinderbox.com has five-packs for just $29.95 that usually run $45. Grab yours here (and you might also want to check out their eight-Pack Sampler).

–The Stogie Guys