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.

After a fantastic dinner of steak and lobster, I wanted an equally fine post-dinner cigar. This robusto-sized (5.5x 50) Padrón Anniversary was up to the task. With smooth, flavorful earth notes of roast coffee and bittersweet chocolate, it was delightful with a few fingers of Johnnie Walker Gold Label. Like most Padrón Anniversary cigars, the burn was even, the ash sturdy, and the draw firm but flawless.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: 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.

“Isla de Cuba has a real hit with this new cigar.” That’s what my colleague said of this 5.5 inch by 50 ring gauge stogie in his September review. Given the full-flavored yet smooth taste of nuts and coffee, the impressive physical properties, and the uncanny resemblance to an upscale Padrón, I can’t disagree. For about $7 a pop, this is a good reminder of why Isla de Cuba is one of my favorite boutique manufacturers.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: 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) A branch of the American Medical Association is fuming over the prevalence of smoking in movies. After noticing that “teen-oriented summer blockbusters, including Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Dark Knight, featured cigar smoking,” the group concluded approximately half of all G, PG, or PG-13 movies feature smoking.

2) Many thanks to our readers for making October our busiest month ever! StogieGuys.com received over 200,000 page views as a record number of readers stopped by.

3) Inside the Industry: Miami Cigar & Co. is now the sole distributor of all United Tobacco products, including the highly popular 601 and Cubao lines. General Cigar President and CEO Daniel Núñez will be stepping down in April with Dan Carr replacing the veteran cigar maker. Villiger is introducing its first handmade cigar, the Villiger 1888.

4) Around the Blogs: Keepers of the Flame lights up a Fuente Don Carlos Presidente. Velvet Cigar smokes a Perdomo Champagne 10th Anniversary. Cigar Jack reviews an Oliva Serie O. Matt tries the 601 Oscuro. Cigar Spy observes the Rocky Patel Sun Grown.

5) Deal of the Week: This “Eight Horsemen Sampler” features eight torpedoes for the bargain price of $19.99. Included are pricey smokes such as the Graycliff 1666, the Padilla Obsidian, Rocky Patel Connecticut, and CAO Black—any three of which could easily cost more than the entire sampler. Pick yours up today here.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Stkarnick

Nearly two years ago my colleague gave the Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 Torpedo a stellar five stogie rating. Since I’ve smoked and enjoyed many Vintage 1992s over the years, this rating came as no surprise.

But among the many Vintage ’92 cigars I’ve enjoyed, I can’t recall smoking any Petit Coronas until the three I had for this review. At 4.5 inches with a 44 ring gauge, it’s a great vitola for cold weather, which just happens to be hitting the Washington, DC area.

The dark, oily, and slightly splotchy ten-year-old Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper surrounds a Honduran broadleaf binder and Dominican and Nicaraguan filler that, according to Rocky Patel, has been accumulating flavor and character for seven years.

Just a note on the wrapper: The “1992” on the band seems to confuse many people. It’s a reference to the year the wrapper was first produced in 2002, at which time the wrapper was ten years old. Since then, the wrappers have continued to be 10 years old, meaning not from a crop of wrapper tobacco from 1992. This has led critics,  including JR Cigar’s Lew Rothman, to criticize Rocky Patel’s Vintage lines as misleading marketing.

The sharply box-pressed cigar is extra firm to the touch, but the draw is perfect. The one construction problem is that even when I use the sharpest Xikar cutter, one of the three petit coronas had some slight cracking near the head.

As for flavor, I noticed the same rich, dark coffee taste with hints of chocolate, roasted almond, and subtle pepper that I’ve noticed in larger formats of the Vintage 1992. What I didn’t find was variation or evolution of the flavors from the first puff to the last. That’s a common feature for cigars as small as this, as the size makes complexity even more challenging.

As noted above, the draw is particularly impressive given how tightly packed this little cigar is. The burn is a bit uneven at times, but never requiring step two of our fix that uneven burn tip. The ash was study, even if it didn’t hold all that long.

The Petit Corona runs around $6 apiece, or even less online or by the box. You might not call is a great bargain, but it is a fair price for a little stick that packs a big flavor punch and will last 30-40 minutes.

All told, this is a very impressive cigar. Compared to the five stogie-rated Torpedo, it may lose a little for lack of complexity and slight construction flaws, but that still leaves it with a solid rating of four and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Call me what you will, but last night, as I watched the political pundits attempt to analyze the election results with their fancy maps and roundtables of “expert” commentators, I could think of no better activity than drinking whiskey. And since the whole election experience had me craving something strong and reliable, I turned to the trusted brand that bears my middle name.

Founded in 1780 by John Jameson in Dublin, this is a very popular whiskey that probably needs no introduction. Jameson has been crowned the fastest growing international whiskey in the world, with sales reaching 2.6 million cases in June.

Jameson is made exclusively from Irish barley, both malted and un-malted, all grown around the company’s modern distillery in the southern Ireland city of Cork. Kiln-fired then triple distilled, the “grain to glass” strategy is meticulously executed with the goal of balance. This helps the original blend remain “true to the pot still whiskey tradition laid down by John Jameson in the 18th century. The current Master Distiller, Barry Crocket, continues this great distilling tradition by ensuring that John Jameson’s high standards are upheld.”

The original blend‘s pour is amber-gold with a brilliant clarity. Swirl the glass to notice the great “legs” (i.e., high viscosity) and the rich aromas of malt and wood. If you pay closer attention, you’ll be rewarded with more delicate notes of honey, grass, and oak. But don’t breathe in too deeply; the smell of the alcohol will overpower the whiskey’s aromatic subtleties.

Fortunately, you won’t find much alcohol in the flavor profile. Jameson is extremely smooth with a gentle sweetness and an enjoyable interplay between wood and nuts. The warm finish is long enough to chew.

Full-bodied stogies would drown out this spirit’s subtle balance of flavors, and I think most mild cigars are better suited for beer or wine. So, for pairings, look to the medium-bodied spectrum. My recommendations include the Isla de Cuba Classic, Bolivar Royal Corona, Gran Habano #3, Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill, and Cuesta-Rey Centro Fino. Any of these will make excellent companions for this fine whiskey, which retails for $25-35 per 750 ml. bottle (40% alcohol).

No matter what cigar you pair it with or how you drink it, I think you’ll agree that Jameson is an excellent way to get top-notch, reliable whiskey for a reasonable price. Heck, if it’s good enough for my middle name, it’s good enough for your liquor cabinet.

–Patrick A

photo credits: Stogie Guys

It seems that Dominican puros have been all the rage of late. Certainly the trend can be traced back to the introduction of the Fuente Opus X in the mid-90’s, which busted the commonly held notion that top-quality wrappers couldn’t be grown in the Dominican Republic.

Recently a host of Dominican puros (cigars with Dominican wrappers, binders, and fillers) have come to market, including cigars by La Flor Dominicana, Davidoff, and Cuvee. This year at the IPCPR trade show, the two largest premium cigar makers—Altadis and General Cigars—introduced their first Dominican puros, the Mi Dominicana and the Cohiba Puro Dominicana, respectively.

The Cohiba Puro Dominicana is the fourth line in General’s “Red Dot” Cohiba brand whose name has been the subject of much litigation. The blend comes in four sizes: Corona, Churchill, Toro, and the 5.5 inch by 50 ring gauge Robusto that’s the subject of this review.

The cigar features a Colorado brown wrapper with dark, almost black veins that’s grown in General’s own fields. According to the cigar’s promotional materials, the “tobaccos have been aged in tercios and charcoaled wooden barrels to enhance their natural flavor.”

Pre-light, I find a unique blend of musty earth, sweet molasses, and pepper. It is very firm to the touch, the same as most of General Cigar’s Dominican-made smokes. One feature I’ve found in all of the Dominican Cohibas, including this one, is a head that is noticeably rounded for a parejo.

Once lit, I find a burst of full flavor with lots of chewy leather and spice on the lips. Soon the spice fades and the cigar becomes more toasty and medium-bodied. From time to time, some bitterness works into an otherwise smooth flavor profile.

The draw is noticably tight, but only occasionally difficult to draw from. The burn is even and the ash steady for half an inch.

Overall, the Cohiba Dominican Puro is a nice smoke, but hardly sensational. Given that the robusto sells for $17 each, I would hope for better. At half that price, I would give it a strong recommendation, but considering the host of tremendous cigars available for considerably less, I have a hard time believing that this will be a regular smoke for most people.

Between generally pleasant flavors, average construction, and an overly high price, the Cohiba Puro Dominicana Robusto earns a rating of three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

As we wrote way back in August 2006, every stogie enthusiast will run into an uneven burn from time to time. This phenomenon can be much more than annoying; it can adversely and significantly affect the performance of an otherwise delightful cigar.

The following tips should help everyone from tobacco neophytes to seasoned stogie veterans fix an uneven burn—also called a canoe—especially if the problem stems not from the actual makeup of the cigar but from some outside interference.

Without question, the best strategy is to avoid an uneven burn in the first place. A proper light is a good way to start every cigar. From there, if you notice the mascara (the black line between the ash and the tobacco) begin to meander, rotate the cigar so the slow burning part is at the bottom. Fire, after all, needs oxygen to burn, and the bottom of the cigar will burn faster than the top because it has more access to oxygen. This is also why you should rotate your cigar as you smoke.

Second, if placing the long end on the bottom doesn’t work, we recommend touching up the fast burning part of the wrapper by applying moisture to the wrapper to slow down the burn. Usually saliva will get the job done, but remember you just want to add a little moisture to the wrapper; you don’t want a wet stogie.

If the aforementioned two techniques don’t work, feel free to grab your lighter or matches and gently burn off the section that’s burning too fast. Don’t rush to quickly take a puff afterwards, however, as the ash is likely unstable. Wait until the burnt wrapper turns black and burns off completely.

While it’s always best to smoke each cigar as its blender intended—slowly from beginning to end in one sitting—we understand that not everyone has the time or the inclination. In order to re-establish an even burn after the foot has extinguished, tap the remaining ash and blow through the cigar before toasting the foot again. This practice will help diminish the sour, bitter flavor that’s often associated with re-lit cigars, and it should clear the way for a second shot at an even burn.

Finally, if you’ve uncovered your own unique methodology to fix an uneven burn, please share it with StogieGuys.com readers by leaving a comment below.

–Patrick A & Patrick S

photo credit: Club Stogie