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.”

I’ve been hanging on to a handful of Rosado Dannos (7 x 56) since I obtained a box in June 2009. While I remember this $9 cigar being creamier and a little less salty, these days it still has a medium-bodied profile of hazelnut, coffee, and spice with above average construction. Is this limited release past its peak? Only time will tell. For now, it’s still a fine cigar, even though I’m happy I enjoyed the bulk of my Dannos when they were first released.

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) The 13th annual Habanos Festival concludes today, wrapping up a week-long extravaganza of Cuban cigars, factory tours, seminars, tastings, and plantation visits. This year’s event pays special homage to Montecristo, Partagas, and H. Upmann, with each brand debuting new cigars. Forthcoming releases include the Montecristo No. 2 Gran Reserva, Partagas Serie E No. 2 and Serie D No. 5, and H. Upmann Half Corona. Habanos SA is hoping these sizes boost sales in 2011 and continue the Cuban cigar industry’s rebound after tough years in 2008 and 2009. But there is still cause for concern. “Although Cuba’s cigar industry is cautiously optimistic about the future, officials are worried by developments in their biggest market: Spain,” reports The Telegraph. “In the grip of a financial crisis, Spanish cigar smokers are cutting back on Cuban cigars to save money, while a recently introduced ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces has also hit sales.”

2) Last Saturday, Patrick A was a featured guest at The Cigar Authority, a live internet show that’s simulcast on several New England radio stations. Click here to check out the video (Patrick’s segment starts around 1:09 and ends around 1:30, but the whole show is worth checking out). And be sure to tune in to The Cigar Authority every Saturday from noon to 2pm eastern.

3) Inside the Industry: Jon Huber, formerly the marketing manager and all around public personality for CAO Cigars, has joined forces with three other former CAO employees to start up Crowned Heads Cigars, which will be based in CAO’s former home of Nashville (details of Huber’s final days at CAO can be found here). Altadis USA launched a new website as part of their restructuring that splits off their premium handmade cigars from their domestic machine-made cigars. Davidoff of New York is the home of a new limited edition Torpedo (5.5 x 52) from My Father Cigars. The 2011 Avo limited edition will be a Dominican puro in a perfecto shape.

4) Around the Blogs: Tiki Bar smokes La Sirena The Prince. Smoking Stogie fires up the Federal Cigar 90th Anniversary 109 Rosado. Stogie Review reviews the My Father Le Bijou. Cigar Fan lights up the Alec Bradley Sun Grown. Nice Tight Ash checks out the Zino Embassy 2010. Raleigh Cigars enjoys the Liga Privada T-52. Cigar Inspector inspects the Viaje Satori. The top cigar on YourCigarRatings.com is the Tatuaje Monster Series The Frank.

5) Deal of the Week: Our friends at Citizen Cigar are offering $5 off any box under $75 and $10 off any box over $75. Signing up for the Citizen Cigar newsletter gets you an additional 10% off, so make your purchase today.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Habanos Festival

Perhaps inspired by the art deco of South Beach not far from the offices of Miami Cigar & Co., this cigar line is tricked out in the style popularized in the 1920s and ’30s. The foil band’s design and colors would be at home on the hood of a Packard or Cord, and the metal container, with 21 sticks, carries the theme along.

I couldn’t find the cigar on Miami’s website, so I am relying on info from retailers and the company’s release announcement in 2010. This cigar is a Pepin Garcia creation that is a mixture of 60% Nicaraguan and 40% Dominican filler, as opposed to his more common all-Nicaraguan blends. The wrapper is a corojo ’06 leaf from Nicaragua and the dual binder pairs Dominican criollo ’98 and Nicaraguan habano ’00 tobacco.

I’ve smoked several of the Robusto Grande, which is 5.5 inches long with a ring gauge of 54. All were good looking cigars, the wrapper dark and the cap nicely applied. Construction was also first-rate, the draw consistently even and the ash tight. The price is a bit over $7.

So, now you know there’s a “but” coming, right? And you’re correct. Perhaps I was expecting too much, because overall I think this is a fine cigar. I just wasn’t bowled over by the taste or complexity. While it isn’t as full-powered as many of Pepin’s sticks, it is no wimp. I’d rank it as medium in strength.

Flavors are certainly pleasant. I found rich tobacco, leather, wood, and a little pepper. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this cigar, especially to someone who’s looking to expand the palate. However, for those seeking a new startling Pepin cigar, I don’t think this is it. For all its positive attributes, I give the Art Deco Robusto Grande three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Cigar maker Rolando Reyes, Sr. is known throughout the industry for his dedication to quality control. Prior to his retirement in 2007, at the age of 83, his work habits included toiling at his Honduran factory long after hours and inspecting individual cigars up to seven times before they shipped.

Today his grandson, Carlos E. Diez, is president of Reyes Family Cigars (formerly Cuba Aliados). He oversees production of all the brands in the company’s portfolio, including Cuba Aliados, Cienfuegos, and Puros Indios.

The latter is a seven-viotla blend that sports an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper and binder around filler tobaccos from Ecuador, Brazil, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Affordably priced in the $2-4 range, the Rothschild (5 x 50) is mottled and somewhat spongy with pre-light notes of honey and spice off the foot. The exterior leaf is papery in both appearance and feel, and the well-applied cap clips easily to reveal an easy draw.

After toasting the foot and establishing an even burn, a flavor of dry wood, roast coffee, and peat emerges. At times I also detect a vegetal taste, particularly on the finish. The balance is notable for a cigar in this price range and the smoke is aromatic, cool, and slightly sweet. Nothing too spectacular or complex, but nice for the price.

This profile is a major departure from my previous experiences with this blend. In the past, I’ve found other Puros Indios vitolas to be harsh and salty with sour, disagreeable flavors. But the two Rothschilds I smoked for this review were much, much better.

Perhaps the blend is simply best suited to this format. While that may be the case, I rarely find the performance of blends varies so drastically by size. No, I’m guessing there’s another variable at work: time. Before I lit them up, my Rothschilds had been in my possession for at least two years. My previous experiences with this blend were with much younger cigars.

This is just a hypothesis, mind you. If you decide to pick up a box of Puros Indios cigars in any size, however, I would highly recommend letting them age for a year or more if you find the first specimen to be lacking. Your patience will reward you with a satisfying, albeit straightforward, value cigar with good combustion qualities—one that’s worthy of a rating of three stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Visiting a tobacconist to smoke a cigar is almost always an enjoyable occasion. What could be better than lighting up and relaxing, perhaps enjoying a beverage, good company, or a televised sporting event?

We hear and read a lot about what store owners need to do to maintain a great shop, but I think we patrons have some responsibilities as well. I need to say first that the following are my own three pet peeves. No shop owner suggested any of them to me, nor did I run them by anyone. They’re just a few things I’ve noticed that I would love to see come to an end.

First and foremost, don’t bring cigars you bought elsewhere into the shop to smoke. Why anyone would even consider doing this is beyond my comprehension. Would you go into a bar and pull out your own bottle of Old Overholt? Or hoist your car on the lift in an auto shop and proceed to work on it? A cigar shop is a business. Selling cigars is the major part of that business. A lounge in which to smoke them is a perk for paying customers.

Now, I’ll grant two possible exceptions. If you pay to belong to a “club” within the shop and it includes a cigar locker, then I’d say you’re free to stock it as you see fit unless there’s a prohibition to which you agreed upon joining. But I’d also say you should remove the band when you’re smoking something the shop doesn’t carry. The second exception would be when a shop has a “cutting fee” for smoking outside cigars. Pay the tab and light up.

Second, don’t pocket the cutters or lighters supplied by the shop for customers to use. Let’s face it, putting the five-finger discount on these is stealing, plain and simple. It also hurts all the customers because the owners, faced with frequent replacements, will invariably begin to put out cheaper, and fewer, implements.

Finally, don’t talk loudly about how much higher the prices are at the shop than you can find on the internet. While this is really just common courtesy, like taking your cell phone calls outside, I think it’s particularly tasteless. Instead, why not send an email to your favorite online cigar retailer complaining about how you can’t smoke there?

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

[Editors’ Note: The following is a guest review authored by Chris Verhoeven, a friend of StogieGuys.com who is a cigar enthusiast extraordinaire.]

When I think of candela cigars, I usually think of sweet grass and caramel flavors with a dry bitterness. But that’s not what you get with the Illusione 88 Candela.

Apparently, when Dion Giolito was making his limited release Illusione Maduro cigars, he decided to make an even smaller batch of candelas to prove that it’s possible to make a good one. The Illusione Candela 88 and hl are the result. I was intrigued by the idea and picked up a 5-pack of the 88 (reputedly the better of the two) to see if he had succeeded. Being exceedingly rare, I went to my go-to rare cigar hookup at Uptown Cigar and purchased them for $8.50 per stick.

Visually, this is a stunning cigar. This robusto-sized smoke (5 x 52) features the standard white Illusione band which plays nicely off its deep olive wrapper. The veins, compared to the delicate wrapper, are rugged and give an otherwise smooth cigar some character. The head is finished in a beautifully executed triple cap.

The cigar bolts out of the gate with a strong spice—not a typical black pepper spice, but something new and difficult to explain. This quickly takes a backseat and becomes a tingle on the palette. The rest of the first third is dominated by a creamy taste with undertones of peanut.

As it progresses into the second third, the creamy profile remains but the distinct peanut flavor regresses into a less recognizable, but still enjoyable, general nuttiness. The tingling on the palette almost disappears at this point.

The final third brings hay flavors with a mild sweetness that seems familiar from the early parts of the 88 Candela, as if they had always been there, hiding in the background. Although the cigar has some of the dryness I’ve come to expect from other candelas, this dryness is in no way overpowering or unpleasant.

Despite its composition, the cigar has a respectable medium body and produces bountiful smoke, which holds my interest for the full hour it takes to smoke the stick. All the while the burn doesn’t waver much and the ash holds firm.

It seems Dion Giolito has proved it’s possible to make a whole-heartedly enjoyable candela cigar, and I hope he considers releasing more of them in the future. My only complaint comes in the form of the final third of the cigar, where the profile loses some of its complexity. Despite that fault, I’m confidently awarding the Illusione 88 Candela four stogies out of five and announcing that this cigar is well worth the effort to track it down.

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

–Chris Verhoeven

photo credit: 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.”

I enjoyed this robusto when it came out early last summer, enough to go pick up a box before they were gone. Eight months of age hasn’t made this cigar markedly better, but it certainly hasn’t made it any worse. I still found the same sweet honey and graham cracker flavors. And it still has excellent balance, a long toasty finish, and flawless construction. These cigars have been sold out for some time now, but if you’re offered one I wouldn’t recommend passing on the opportunity.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys