The Stogie Guys

It’s hard to beat Angostura 1919 if you’re looking for a light sipping rum with a soothing, rounded heat. As I wrote in my review back in September, perhaps no other spirit is quite as relaxing or as complementary to a medium-bodied smoke. For those of us who also enjoy stronger and more flavorful stogies, though, sometimes the 1919 blend just doesn’t pack enough punch. That’s where the older and more expensive Angostura 1824 comes in.

This highly esteemed rum honors the year Angostura got its start as a maker of concentrated food and beverage flavorings. The Trinidad & Tobago-based company’s beginnings can be traced back to 1824 when a surgeon general in Simón Bolívar’s Venezuelan army sought to improve the appetite and digestive well-being of the soldiers.

It wasn’t until 1947 that Angostura began to ferment, distill, age, blend, and bottle rum in Laventille, Trinidad. Today Angostura produces over 600,000 cases of rum each year, most of which is shipped to America, Great Britain, and other Caribbean islands.

The 1824 blend, which sells for around $55 per 750 ml. bottle (40% alcohol by volume), is Angostura’s flagship rum. It is made from “the finest mature rums, hand-picked by the master blender from select casks.” Aged in charred American oak bourbon barrels for at least 12 years, the rum is hand-blended and re-casked until it reaches its “optimum maturity” before it is hand-drawn.

Each individually numbered bottle of Angostura 1824 is decked out with a gold ornamental medallion and a wax-encased cork. Dark with a brilliant reddish hue, it pours with a pungent nose of sweet, smoky notes that include fruity orange and raisin and creamy honey and vanilla.

I find the taste—which others have described as similar to toffee, spice, butterscotch, and nuts—is best compared to charred molasses and caramel. That smoky sensation from the nose carries over well to the palate. The finish is nearly everlasting, warm, and highlighted by a clinging spice.

With this array of flavorful complexity, Angostura 1824 isn’t difficult to pair with a cigar. You’ll have to find your own perfect match through trial and error, but the LFD Double Ligero Chisel, Hoyo Petit Robusto, and the Montecristo Cabinet Selección Belicoso are good places to start.

If this bold blend sounds like your cup of tea, and if you don’t mind paying top dollar for top-quality rum, go ahead and make an investment in a bottle. That decision will pay big dividends neat or on the rocks.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

While you might not of heard of it, there’s a good chance a few of your favorite cigars are distributed by Miami Cigar & Company.  The outfit distributes such acclaimed brands as La Aurora, Nestor Miranda Special Selection, Don Lino, León Jimenes, 601, Cubao, and Mi Barrio, among others.

And to celebrate it’s 20th anniversary, Miami Cigar & Company is putting out a special cigar under its Nestor Miranda Special Selection line, which is named after Miami Cigar & Company’s founder Nestor Miranda. The celebratory cigar is blended by Don Pepin Garcia’s son, Jaime, and made in Pepin’s Nicaraguan Tabacalera Cubana factory.

According to a recent interview, Miranda has been looking to have Pepin make a cigar for the line for some time, but the last time he approached Pepin he was busy setting up his new Nicaraguan factory. So when it came time to create a new cigar for the anniversary line, there was little doubt that it would be made by the Pepins.

The cigar is a very limited release. Only 2,000 boxes of 20 cigars have been made, 1,000 with a Habano Rosado wrapper (the subject of a future StogieGuys.com review), and 1,000 with a Habano Oscuro wrapper. Both versions come in only one size, an immense (7 x 56) smoke called the “Danno.”

The Nicaraguan oscuro wrapper is a bit rustic, with plenty of small veins and a nice shine. The wrapper has been aged three to four years before being rolled around a Nicaraguan binder and filler from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The firm cigar is accented by a pigtail cap.

Once I began smoking, the Danno produces full-bodied earth and bread flavors and an understated peppery core. Beneath those initial flavors is a subtle combination of complexity that includes coffee beans, oak, and cocoa. The finish is long, dry, and toasty.

I was amazed by the copious amount of smoke that this thick cigar produces from its easy draw. It gives off a rich aroma that’s reminiscent of freshly brewed espresso. The even burn and ash, which holds for well over an inch, cap off the cigar’s impressive construction.

The Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversarios have an MSRP of $9 apiece, a reasonable price considering its pedigree and when compared to many of the limited release cigars being put out these days. If I had my way, the 56 ring guage might be reduced slightly, as I personally find such girth to be larger than I prefer. But that’s a small complaint against what is  an excellent, interesting, complex, and well-constructed smoke.

All of which is to say that you’re going to be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend $9 and two hours. That’s why the Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversario Oscuro earns an impressive 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