The 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) Despite global economic turmoil and a reduction in cigarette consumption, cigar smoking increased significantly in the last decade, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control. Between 2000 and 2011, “large cigar” consumption rose 233% (and pipe smoking increased 482%), compared to a 27.5% reduction among all tobacco products over the same time period. This rise in cigar smoking came against major headwinds like drastic increases in federal tobacco taxes (remember SCHIP?) and the further spread of smoking bans. Expect anti-tobacco zealots to use this report as justification for even higher taxes and dangerous regulatory measures from the FDA.

2) Woodford Reserve is celebrating 200 years of bourbon distilling with a series of events at its distillery in Versailles, Kentucky. Included are tours, picnics, an “1812 Bourbon Feast” with dishes from surrounding farms, and a special 200th anniversary bottle. Click here to check out the events.

3) Cigar Giveaway Result: We have a winner in our latest Stogie Guys contest. We selected Chris from Illinois at random from about 100 entrants, all of which we appreciate. Chris is a fan of Nicaraguan cigars whose favorite brands are Tatuaje and Liga Privada. He says he’s been smoking cigars for six years and is a newcomer to StogieGuys.com. He’ll receive the special three-pack of cigars from Don Pepin Garcia in a signed box. Again, congrats Chris.

4) Upcoming Cigar Gievaway: Macanudo is holding the Ultimate Round Contest to give one winner and three friends a trip to the 2013 Masters, including round-trip airfare and spending money (and we bet plenty of cigars). In that spirit, they’ve given us a golf-themed prize (a Callaway golf towel, club head cover, and a box of Macanudos) to giveaway to a reader. To be eligible to win, you need to be subscribed to our free email newsletter. We’ll announce the winner in an upcoming newsletter. (Fine print here.)

5) Deal of the Week: Lovers of large ring gauge cigars (and even those who normally prefer smaller ring gauges) may want to try the new Inch by E.P. Carrillo. Emerson’s is one of the first to have them in stock, and if you’re not sure if you’re ready for a whole box, check out the four-cigar sampler that includes both the Maduro and Sumatra blends.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

When I first ran across this line a few months back, I was impressed by a single Presto. Now, I’ve been able to smoke quite a few of the Mezzo (6 x 54). If anything, I like it even more.

My shorthand description is that smoking this cigar is akin to lighting up a spice rack. Not the hot, peppery spices that burn, but the exotic tastes that light briefly on your tongue. By no means, though, is that all this limited-run cigar offers. Devote care and attention to it and you will find yourself rewarded with all sorts of flavors, from light, sugary caramel to thick wood and many others.

It’s a fairly fat stick, not a ring gauge I’d usually select. But the additional size adds to the complexity and variety of the cigar, making for an even more satisfying experience. I paid around $8 for an individual purchase.

For me, it’s hard to believe this is an all-Dominican cigar, though many blenders such as Litto Gomez and the Fuentes have shown it’s a mistake to pigeonhole Dominican tobacco. Still, the Aging Room’s punch and pop do make me stop and think. Strength is in the middle range, with virtually no nicotine bite in the well-aged tobacco.  There’s lots of thick, rich smoke, and the draw is excellent.

I have experienced burn problems with a couple I’ve smoked. They weren’t major, mostly just an occasional wrapper going a tad off kilter.

I would recommend this cigar to almost any smoker, from newcomer to veteran. There are some, though, who I think should definitely give it a try. If you’re attempting to expand your palate and see if you can find more flavors, a trip to the Aging Room should be just the sort of graduate school assignment you’re looking for. Or if you’re someone who has gone over the deep end for strong cigars, take a break and try an Aging Room M356. See if you aren’t pleased at what you find.

Speaking of finding, that isn’t always easy with this line. Designated “small batch,” Oliveros (which has recently be renamed Boutique Blends Cigars) says production is limited by the tobacco available, and when it’s all used, it’s over. At the IPCPR Trade Show they told me that while they are introducing two new sizes of this blend, the tobacco stock to make these is dwindling. There are two new Aging Room blends coming and we can only hope they are as tasty.

An excellent cigar, the Aging Room M356 Mezzo is close to the storied five-stogie mark, though burn problems knocked it down just a shade to four and a half stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

When it comes to choosing a sipping rum, I almost always prefer a gold rum, which obtains its color from barrel aging. Some of my favorite gold rums include Plantation, Ron Zacapa, El Dorado, and Zaya. These exemplary spirits always seem to strike the right chord when prepared neat or on the rocks as a cigar companion.

These days I rarely reach for spiced rums, which usually have gold rums as bases but add in extra spices for flavor. Perhaps because of the most prevalent rum in the category, Captain Morgan, I don’t think of spiced rums as sipping rums. Instead, I think of them as components of cocktails, like rum punch or Cuba libre.

The folks over at The Lash are aiming to change that. Dubbed “the reinvention of spiced rum” (a tagline I can’t help but compare to Drew Estate’s “the rebirth of cigars”), The Lash is comprised of a 70-proof, 4-year-old rum from Trinidad and Tobago that’s aged in oak and finished in The Netherlands by adding a proprietary mix of spices. Unlike most other spiced rums, so I’m told, The Lash doesn’t add artificial colors or liquid flavorings to the recipe. A bottle sells in the affordable $25-30 range.

After popping the synthetic cork and pouring the dark, viscous rum into a glass, the thickness of the spirit is immediately apparent, as is a nose of vanilla, burnt sugar, mulled spice, and nutmeg. Since the spices aren’t distilled (they’re mixed into the rum with hot water), you may see some sediment in the bottom of the bottle or in the glass, but I hardly noticed this.

Once sipped, the taste is intense, syrupy, and characterized by cinnamon, vanilla, oak, and licorice. At the risk of having my palate called into question, the finish reminds me a little of Jägermeister, which isn’t a spirit I’m particularly fond of. That said, this is a dark, spicy rum with a ton going on in the flavor department. I can see this being a hit with people who are looking for a rum with a forceful mixture of spices.

Despite the intentions of The Lash’s creators, for me this rum is better suited to cocktails than sipping neat or on the rocks. I found it to produce a unique taste with Diet Coke and a little lime—one that’s predictably more spice-forward than, say, Captain Morgan. I can also see it making an interesting cable car, or maybe even using it as a replacement for bourbon in a Stonewall Jackson during the winter months.

–Patrick A

photo credit: The Lash

The 80th annual International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers (IPCPR) Association Trade Show may have ended earlier this month, but there’s a lot of info I collected there that didn’t make it into our three days of live coverage (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3). Because there is so much more than I had time to report on from Orlando, today is part two (see part one here) in series of updates from the convention:

A.J. Fernandez Cigars

Last year A.J. Fernandez, known as a protégé of the late and highly revered Alejandro Robaina, released Oval. He expanded the line with a Maduro offering this spring. But the newest cigar, introduced at the Trade Show, is Pinolero. It features a light sun-grown wrapper and Nicaraguan binder and filler. It should be shipping any day now. Also of note from A.J. Fernandez was the news that his new factory in Estelí should be opening in November. The new facility will double capacity to 18 million cigars a year.

Boutique Blends Cigars

Boutique Blends Cigars is the new name for the company known as Oliveros Cigars. Following up on some high ratings in 2011, this seems to be a company on the rise. While they don’t do much to advertise it, the SWAG Puro Dominicana cigar is made entirely with tobacco from La Canela, which is better known as the source of some of the best tobacco used by Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana. A new SWAG SoBe (South Beach) cigar was also introduced using 100% Dominican tobacco. Two new sizes were introduced in the original Aging Room line, a parejo (6 x 46) and a perfecto. Also new is the Aging Room Havao line, made with a Connecticut wrapper, and the Aging Room Quattro, a box-pressed cigar featuring a rarely used Indonesian wrapper. Particularly interesting is the Boutique Blends/Oliveros’ shift from a company that a decade ago primarily made flavored cigars to a company that now makes overwhelmingly traditional, non-flavored smokes.

Lou Rodriguez Cigars

Lou Rodriguez, the only doctor I know who makes cigars, says he’s focused on growing his brand but not adding new lines at every Trade Show. That means no new releases this year. The brand is growing, however, and was in roughly 100 stores across the country before the convention started. Still, the Lou Rodriguez Edición Premiere is a must-try for those who like earthy, full-bodied Nicaraguans.

Miami Cigar & Co.

Always busy with plenty of new releases, 2012 was no exception for Miami Cigars, which also distributes for its partner La Aurora, the oldest Dominican cigar company. Fernando León is a new cigar by La Aurora that was the personal cigar of family patriarch Fernando León. The 100% Dominican Cien Años returns 10 years after it originally debuted. Merlion, made by La Aurora for Miami’s La Sirena line (Ecuadorian corojo wrapper over a Brazilian binder with filler from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil) also debuted. On the Miami Cigar side, the Nestor Miranda Collection now features a third wrapper style, with a milder Connecticut blend being added to the Rosado and Oscuro. Another new cigar is the Añoranzas (pictured above) which has a Nicaraguan Habano oscuro wrapper with Nicaraguan binder and fillers. (To keep track of all their new releases, including some we didn’t mention, you should check out the Miami Cigars blog here and here.)

–Patrick S

photo credits: Stogie Guys

I read, or at least flip through, a lot of magazines. Good ones. Bad ones. Those devoted to topics about which I have much interest, and those exploring areas I care little about.

Invariably, I find something of note. It may be a stunning photograph in Birds & Blooms, a fascinating tale of accomplishment in This Old House, or a thought-provoking review in Stereophile.

One thing I’m struck by is how often what I’m reading seems to relate to cigars. (You were wondering when we were going to get to that, weren’t you?) Like the other day when I was perusing the September issue of Men’s Health.

There are few people farther from the magazine’s target demographic than I: old, balding, overweight, arthritic, exercise-averse. But there’s usually something to catch my eye. In this case, it was an article about the power of money in our lives and ways in which we can exert control over it.

The article cited a fascinating study that revealed much about how little we understand our sense of enjoyment. Asked whether they preferred a massage with or without interruptions, 73% said without. “Yet those who then received an interrupted massage valued it twice as much,” according to the article.

Why, you ask. Well, the researcher, NYU professor Tom Meyvis, explained that the key is savoring. Experience too much and you adapt to the experience, failing to appreciate it. Break it up, though, and “you reduce adaptation and increase sensitivity,” Meyvis said, adding in the article, “I’d also suggest that instead of buying one big thing make little purchases over time to repeat that initial enjoyment effect.”

So, back to cigars. The implication seems pretty obvious to me: when you find a cigar you absolutely love, don’t buy a box. That would lead you to smoke them more regularly, become accustomed to them, and reduce your enjoyment of them. Instead, buy singles and you’ll have the pleasure of anticipating the purchase, smoking the cigar, and thinking about when you’ll smoke it again.

And with that I offer a doff of the chapeau to the good professor. I have no idea whether he’s a cigar smoker, but I plan to email him a copy of this commentary and see if he has any thoughts to offer. If he does, I’ll be sure to pass them along.

In the meantime, savor your cigars. Think, and grow, happy.

–George E

photo credit: Men’s Health

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.”

With a soft box-press and an old school band, this Nicaraguan puro (introduced at the recent IPCPR Trade Show) has an invitingly dark, oily wrapper. The BV 560 (one of three sizes) is 5.5 inches with a 56 ring gauge, but the box-press makes it seem smaller. It’s smooth, well-balanced, and complex, even though it has very little of the spice characteristic of many Nicaraguan puros. Chocolate, cocoa, chalk, and wood. Medium-bodied. Excellent construction in all aspects. At $5-6 each, it’s a definite buy.

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 verdict on a single cigar of “buy,” “hold,” or “sell.”

My picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but believe me when I say you’d be hard-pressed to find a prettier, more noble-looking cigar than the 100 Años Preferidos by La Aurora. This Dominican puro has a beautifully executed perfecto format (6 x 58) and a silky, caramel-colored corojo wrapper. It starts with a ton of dry cedar and then transitions to a creamier profile with plenty of corojo spice. Only 300,000 of these cigars were made, and not many are left. If you find one, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pick it up, even though the price tag is north of $15.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys