The Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of “buy,” “hold,” or “sell.”

By the time this is published, I’ll be firmly on the ground in Las Vegas to cover the IPCPR Trade Show for the fourth straight year. But writing (still from Virginia) I figured I’d get a jump on things by smoking a cigar that won’t officially be released until the convention opens Monday morning. I’ve yet to confirm any details about the newest cigar from Sean Williams’ El Primer Mundo, except for the fact that I’m holding this tightly constructed, double-banded robusto in my hands. Epifania (Italian for “epiphany”) features medium-bodied woody flavors and subtle sweet molasses notes. It’s a well-rounded, balanced smoke with significant spice on the finish. It paired well with the spicy notes of an Elijah Craig 18 Year Old bourbon.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credits: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of “buy,” “hold,” or “sell.”

Released in 2008 to commemorate the year Ramón Cifuentes began producing Macanudo, the 1968 line is blended with a dark Havana-seed Honduran wrapper, a Connecticut binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos. The Robusto (5 x 50) commanded a price of about $8.50 when it first debuted, but now it can be found for around $5. That makes this medium-bodied cigar a good buy, especially given its fine combustion and tasty profile of dry wood, licorice, spice, and cashew.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

As we have since July 2006, each Friday we’ll post a mixed bag of quick cigar news and other items of interest. Below is our latest Friday Sampler.

1) Back in 2008, Boston bureaucrats adopted sweeping extensions of the city’s smoking ban, ordering all cigar bars to close by 2018. Before that move, even supporters of the city’s ban, which was four years old at the time, were calling the proposed legislation too severe. “The new regulations go too far,” wrote the Boston Herald. But on Monday, a provision attached to the Massachusetts budget that would have saved Boston’s cigar bars was vetoed by Gov. Deval Patrick.

2) Next week, Patrick S will be in Las Vegas to cover the 78th annual International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers (IPCPR) Association Trade Show—the convention where cigar makers from around the world come to showcase their products and debut new creations. Check back often on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for live updates from the Trade Show floor as we get the skinny on new products. And feel free to leave a comment on this post if you have a question you’d like us to ask a cigar maker.

3) Inside the Industry: In its annual survey of American tobacco retailers, Cigar Insider found that this year’s best selling cigars brands are, in order, Padrón, Arturo Fuente, Rocky Patel, and Davidoff. The “hottest” brands (those most requested by consumers) are Padrón, Tatuaje, Arturo Fuente, and Rocky Patel. The survey also cites that over 67% of shops are reporting higher sales over the previous year, even though consumers remain price-sensitive.

4) Around the Blogs: This week’s “Around the Blogs” segment is dedicated solely to the 4th Annual Smoke a JJ for JJ Day, which is July 22nd (next Friday). Jerry Cruz, co-founder of Stogie Review, friend of this site, and all around good guy, started the tradition to remember his late son JJ who passed away due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Details here.

5) Deal of the Week: With platinum at over $1,700 per ounce and gold at over $1,600, this Platinum and Gold Sampler is the closest you’ll get to a bargain on the precious metals. Just $35 gets you five each of the Montecristo Platinum Vintage 1999 and CAO Gold (both in the robusto size). Grab your sampler while supplies last.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

The other day I spent the afternoon at a local smoke shop. My wife was out, and I was whiling away the time. I lit up an inexpensive La Traviata Intrépido, drank coffee, and read the paper, glancing occasionally at ESPN on the TV.

Nothing special. And that’s really what made the day stand out. Whether you’re looking for company or solitude, relaxation is just a cigar store away. It also got me to thinking about an experience several weeks earlier.

I was on jury duty for a fairly involved, week-long civil trial down the road in Clearwater, Florida. I knew that a shop I’d visited in the past had moved since my last smoke there, but I didn’t know its new location. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to me to check on the address until the third day of the court proceedings.

But better–much better–late than never. Cigar Central is now on Chestnut Street, just a short stroll from the courthouse. So, when we were let out for lunch on Wednesday, I passed up food for a smoke. I picked up an Arturo Fuente Sungrown robusto from the humidor room and settled in. The owner, Ron, was every bit as cordial and welcoming as I remembered. We chatted a bit, I relaxed in a nice chair, and enjoyed the cigar. I finished at just about the time I needed to return and walked back refreshed.

It was hard not to compare that with the previous day, when I had traipsed up the street for some not-so-good pizza and a watery soft drink. I ate perched on one of those uncomfortable high chairs at a tiny table amidst the restaurant din.

So, of course, there was no question about where to go on Thursday. This time I had an HC Series, my first from that line. (An excellent smoke, by the way.) I had a fine lunchtime.

I’m sure it is difficult for those who don’t smoke cigars to appreciate what a wonderful pastime it is. Trying to explain what they’re missing doesn’t seem to do it justice. But perhaps I can help those who do understand and end up in court in downtown Clearwater. Among the forms the clerk asked that we fill out was a request for businesses that should be added to the annotated map supplied to jurors.

I strongly suggested they add Cigar Central. You couldn’t find a better place.

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

Next week the center of the cigar world will be right in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip, as the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) Trade Show returns to the Sands Expo and Convention Center at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. As we have each year since 2008, the last time the show was in Las Vegas, StogieGuys.com will be on the trade show floor providing updates on the many new cigars set to be released.

I’ll be providing live updates starting Monday morning from the middle of the action. But just because the trade show doesn’t open until then, that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to report already. Here are some of the high-profile new releases that we already know about: (more…)

If you do a little research on the Trinidad brand, you’ll find no shortage of inconsistencies. Some claim that Cuban Trinidads were once reserved for foreign diplomats visiting the communist isle. Castro himself refuted this. Others maintain that Trinidad was specifically crafted to appeal to American consumers who illegally purchase Cubans. This assertion remains highly controversial.

Whatever the case, today there are two separate versions of the brand that is named for the city of Trinidad, Cuba: one made by Habanos SA with Cuban tobacco, the other made by Altadis USA in the Dominican Republic. Like so many other cigar brands, the split was a direct result of Fidel Castro’s criminalization of private enterprise and the subsequent embargo. (more…)

Labor disruptions characterized the production of cigars in Tampa during the early 1900s. Many of the disputes between manufacturers and workers turned violent and resembled something you’d see in a Western film. Abductions, shootings, and lynching were just some of the plotlines that graced these production standoffs. One of these battles among the industry’s good, bad, and ugly reached an epic pinnacle in 1901, when a wage dispute between Cuesta-Rey and a local, predominately Cuban cigar workers’ union resulted in a violent strike that crippled the Tampa economy and led to kidnappings and deportations.

Sources can’t agree on the number of men involved, but somewhere between 6 and 16 cigar workers were kidnapped by a group of vigilantes, deported by boat to a deserted beach in Central America, and warned to never be seen in Tampa again. Well, those brave men eventually made it back to Tampa. Their story has been fictionalized in the novel The Cigar Maker, but the tale was most stunningly captured in the memoir of Luis Barcia Guilaber, a Tampa cigar worker who was in his late thirties at the time of his abduction.

Barcia portrays himself as the sincere underdog, a powerless but determined David squirming against the forces of a corporate Goliath. As Barcia says, he was fighting “a bunch of greedy cigar manufacturers…against thousands of underpaid workers who were requesting better wages.” Barcia captures the story of the labor dispute, his kidnapping, and his journey back to Tampa in memoirs written in 1957.

During the labor dispute, rumor grew of a group of men who were clandestinely arresting and deporting suspected leaders of the labor dispute. Hearing this committee of armed citizens was headed for his house, Barcia turned off all lights and waited quietly in silence while men pounded on his back door and eventually entered his home. Barcia was captured, protested to no avail, and thrown in a trolley and taken to a boat with six other cigar workers.

Barcia’s words are straight out of an alligator-country spaghetti western: (more…)