The Stogie Guys

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and informative as possible, each Friday we’ll post a mixed bag of quick cigar news and other snippets of interest. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) Atlantic City was poised to enact a smoking ban next week, but city officials backed off when casinos and union bosses protested. Their newfound argument? The worsening economic condition has both groups fearing “deep losses and significant layoffs if smokers take their money elsewhere.”

2) DC’s Teatro Goldini restaurant now has a stogie-inspired appetizer. Chef Enzo Fargione’s carpaccio branzino features fish, onions, peas, and mushrooms served in a smoky cigar box.

3) Boston’s cigar bars may be doomed as bureaucrats threaten to revoke their exemption from the smoking ban. According to the Boston Globe, “Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the city’s Public Health Commission, said she doesn’t want any more young people to pick up deadly habits. She said she wants to ‘de-normalize’ smoking.”

4) Inside the Industry: The latest version of Altadis’ Playboy Cigars was recently launched at the P&L Club in Central Hong Kong. With the help of Altadis, a Ft. Lauderdale cigar shop owner has been convicted of selling counterfeit cigars. Flor de Copan won European Cigar Cult Journal‘s “Best Brand from Honduras” award.

5) Around the Blogs: The Box Press smokes the Sabor Cubano. Stogie Review reviews a Puros Indios Viejo. Cigar Jack lights up a Dunhill Aged Dominican. Keepers of the Flame checks out a Fundación Ancestral.

6) Deal of the Week: This “Ten Most Wanted” sampler features ten of the biggest names in stogies at less than $3 per stick. Included are cigars by Rocky Patel, CAO, Alec Bradley, Cohiba, Toraño, and Gurkha. Get yours here.

– The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

A few days ago, I received an email requesting a review of the generously-proportioned Battalion Maduro from Rocky’s Edge line of cigars. I never seem to have exactly what readers want in my stash, but I did find a handful of Toros and—with a promise to track down a few Battalions in the foreseeable future—embarked upon this review.

The Edge line was launched in 2004 to great fanfare. Aside from its reasonable price and creative marketing scheme (The slogan, even for Corojos: “Professional Smokers Only. Smoke While Sitting Down.”), I’d bet much of the success was due to Rocky’s decision to sell the blend naked. In 2006, though, he added thin bands across the bottom of each stick, perhaps a result of his claim that The Edge is “the most imitated” cigar on the market.

I found a lot of conflicting information about the blend’s makeup. What I do know, according to Rocky’s website, is the binder is Nicaraguan and the filler is “secret.” Rocky quips, “I guarantee you we have tobacco in that cigar from a special country that nobody [else] uses.” What nation could it be? Finland? Anyways, our friends at KOTF note that The Edge is produced in conjunction with the Plasencia family in Danli, Honduras.

At six inches in length with a ring gauge of 52, the Toro’s maduro wrapper is firm, oily, and dark with few veins and carefully applied seams. The cream-colored band across the tightly-wrapped foot is unique and attention-grabbing, almost drawing you in to the mouth-watering prelight notes of espresso.

The cigar is advertised as a full-bodied, make-you-weak-in-the-knees experience, and the first few inches certainly deliver. I found lots of peppercorn and what can be described as a bitter black coffee flavor. The thick smoke has lots of texture with a hearty, biting aftertaste.

The last four inches are very similar in taste, if not a bit more mellow. It took me an average of about 100 minutes each to smoke three Toros, and I found even burns, clear draws, and solid gray ashes across the board.

Whether or not this cigar lives up to its laughable warning—many reviews claim it doesn’t, but what cigar could?—is not all that important. The bottom line is it delivers tons of enjoyable, albeit predictable, flavor with good physical properties. Plus, the price is sub-$5 whether you buy by the bundle or by the rustic wooden cabinet of 100.

My advice? If you’re into powerful smokes, go ahead and pick up a stash of your own. Just remember to smoke them on a full stomach. I give the Rocky Patel Edge Toro Maduro four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

This massive cigar with a silly name from Alec Bradley aptly fills the niche for those who want a large stick. Its 60 ring gauge is nearly an inch in diameter and it runs 6 and 3/8 inches from head to foot (even larger than The Fix I reviewed back in March).

I picked one up when I went to a shop recently to watch a little football. It wasn’t a particularly good choice. On the plus side, The Freak burned well, had a good draw, and produced a lot of smoke.

The $5.75 price tag also seemed most reasonable. But a single negative outweighed those points: The cigar is one-dimensional and lasts so long it became boring.

That was somewhat surprising because the filler is a four-country mix of tobacco from Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Honduras, with a Costa Rican binder and a Nicaraguan Habano wrapper. I’d rate it as medium in strength with a flavor mostly of tobacco with a hint of leather and earthiness—over and over and over.

This cigar is obviously for those who are into the current trend for big cigars. If that appeals to you and you’re just looking for something to puff for a couple of hours, then The Freak could be your stick. Personally, if I’m going to be so distracted that I assume I’ll barely notice the cigar I’m smoking, I’d rather not smoke.

I certainly wouldn’t call this a bad cigar; it’s just not a cigar I’m particularly interested in smoking again. Putting everything in perspective, I rate the Alec Bradley Maxx The Freak three out of five stogies.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Chances are, if you enjoy a drink from time to time, you’ve had one made by the Diageo. The largest spirits company in the world owns such varied brands as Guinness, Smirnoff, Ketel One, Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal, Bushmills, Cuervo, Goldshlager, and Baileys. And their Scotches include single malts and blends from every scotch-producing region of Scotland, including Johnnie Walker.

But being owned by a multi-national conglomerate doesn’t mean you can’t produce a fine single malt scotch. Case in point is the Dalwhinnie 15 year, a fine example from the Highland region. According to its website, geography (the distillery is the highest in Scotland) plays a central role in the scotch Dalwhinnie produces:

“The source, Lochan an Doire-Uaine, (Gaelic for ‘lake in the green grove’), lies at 2,000 feet in the Drumochter Hills. From it, all the pure spring water used in distilling Dalwhinnie flows over rich local peat through Allt an t’Sluic, the distillery burn. No other distillery may use the water from this source—therefore no other distillery is able to yield Dalwhinnie’s uniquely clean, accessible, malty-sweet taste, giving way to a smooth and smoky Highland mouthfeel.”

Marketing hype aside, I find this is indeed a sweet accessible single malt. The nose is sweet with some watermelon notes, and the color is a light and golden.

On the palate, the Dalwhinnie 15 has plenty of peat and smoke. There was also malty sweetness with some oak, almond, and spice. The finish is long and sweet with just a touch of heat to remind you that you’re drinking an 86-proof spirit.

Like most fine scotches, this will pair magnificently with cigars. The wood and sweetness of the Dalwhinnie would make a cedary cigar an excellent choice. I paired it with the Cuban Ramón Allones Specially Selected and it worked perfectly.

Other cigars that should go particularly well are the Partagas Spanish Rosado, the Montecristo Petit Edmundo, the EO Cubao, or the Don Pepin Garcia Blue Label. A riskier pairing, but potentially with a high upside, would be a maduro to match the Dalwhinnie’s sweetness.

Ultimately, no matter which cigar you go with, or even if you pass on the cigar all together, the Dalwhinnie 15 Year single malt scotch will be an excellent choice.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Over a year ago, one of my colleagues listed three boutique cigar manufacturers in an effort to “discover new sticks and to play at least a small, direct role in supporting the art of cigar making.” Today I’d like to continue that trend because, in my opinion, these smaller-scale operations turn out some terrific smokes for a fraction of name-brand prices.

Now you might be asking what qualifies a cigar producer to be “boutique.” According to a 1999 feature article in Smoke Magazine, boutique cigars are “brands with a production of less than 1.5 million sticks per year.” (That number would likely have to be upped today to adjust for increased overall cigar production.) Others say boutiques simply mean the firm’s stogies are cultivated in small batches with high attention to individual detail.

For our purposes—and because it’s a lot easier than researching production numbers—I’ll adopt a broad definition: Boutique cigar manufacturers are those with a relatively limited output, name recognition, and niche market. In other words, to borrow a metaphor from Smoke Magazine, they are the micro-breweries of the cigar industry. This definition is certainly subjective, so feel free to disagree with my belief that, despite José Oliva’s assertion, his operation is not boutique.

Either way, I don’t want to get all caught up in semantics. Instead, I’d like to share my three favorite boutiques and encourage you to explore their wonderful creations:

Bucanero Cigars. Founded during the mid-90’s cigar boom, this company uses fine tobaccos from 10 different nations to create 18 signature blends. I particularly appreciate the Don Douglas, Treasure, and Cañon lines. “[Bucanero] was, and continues today to be, built around honesty and friendship,” says President Robert Spoden. “We set out slowly to introduce unique blends.”

Cuban Crafters. This selection should come as no surprise. We write about this Maimi-based, Nicaraguan-growing operation so often, in fact, I worry that readers think we’re on their payroll. (We aren’t but, in the interest of full disclosure, we do participate in their affiliate program.) Cuban Crafters makes many of my everyday favorite brands, including Cupido, J.L. Salazar, Don Kiki (Brown and White), La Carolina, and Cameroon. The company’s latest, most premium creation, the Medina 1959 line (full release TBD), is also an up-and-coming winner. “While difficult to find in many cigar retailers,” says National Sales Director Alberto Noguera, “boutique premium brands are something different from the ordinary mass-produced cigars commonly available in most shops. Their flavor and aroma is unmatched.”

Isla de Cuba. I’ve loved everything I’ve tried from Darryl Lieser’s Tampa-based boutique. The two original blends that launched in February—Classic and Aged Maduro—have a simple beauty to them, and Isla’s new Wango Tango and Blend 376 lines are also impressive.

Feel free to use the comments below to share your favorite boutique cigar manufacturers with other StogieGuys.com readers.

–Patrick A

photo credits: 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.

Last year we gave El Tiante’s original lines—the Natural and the Maduro—high marks. Now I turn to the latest line, the Corojo which was released at the recent IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas. The oily corojo wrapper is similar in color to the Maduro, and I found much of the same fruit and cedar flavors that I’ve noticed from other El Tiante creations, only with some classic corojo spiciness. While it is the spiciest, most full-flavored El Tiante yet, it still slotted in as a medium- to full-flavored smoke. Construction was flawless with an easy draw, even burn, and sturdy ash.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

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

About a year and a half ago, my colleagues reviewed this Thompson house brand and said you could do worse choosing a “satisfactory, golf course-grade” smoke. I’ve smoked a couple Robustos (5 x 50) and agree. They aren’t going to win any beauty contests or raves for complexity, but they also aren’t harsh and don’t taste of poorly cured tobacco. They may even have a little bit of the distinctive Corojo taste. And there’s one incredible price tag: $24.95 for a bundle of 25 in any of five sizes. If you’re looking for a stick to pass around to friends who smoke only when they’re with you, this could be it. Just remove the foil bands first.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys