The Stogie Guys

One of the common themes on forums, blogs, and podcasts these days is dissatisfaction with the seemingly endless number of limited and special edition cigars. “I’m through chasing them,” is a typical complaint.

Tiring it may be, but don’t expect the trend to go away anytime soon (barring, of course, some U.S. Food and Drug Administration intervention). Ongoing changes in the cigar industry—from sales to buying habits—are likely to lead to more small releases.

I’m no industry insider, and I have no special knowledge. My conclusions are drawn from conversations with a few manufacturers and retailers, as well as keeping up with and observing the industry for quite a few years.

Consider:

— The premium cigar industry is not growing much, if at all, in terms of sales. Imports for 2014 were essentially the same as for the previous year. At least some manufacturers don’t anticipate 2015 to be much different.

— Much of the growth comes from new smokers, who are apt to be younger and not nearly as tied to a brand as are many older smokers. Retailers of yesteryear can tell you of the many, many customers who’d stop by once a week or month and pick up a box or two of the same cigar like clockwork. These days, customers are much more likely to be looking for what’s new and their repeat box purchases occur far less frequently, if at all.

— Events are driving a higher and higher chunk of sales. Whether a single store/brand affair or massive productions like Big Smoke or Smoke Inn’s Great Smoke, customers expect to be entertained and enticed, as well as given a bargain. Without something new to offer, vendors can find themselves at a disadvantage.

— The growing cigar production industry, especially in Nicaragua, has created bigger factories and more trained workers, both resulting in increased capacity. Those who want to create their own brand can find tobacco and facilities to do it.

Of course, none of this means every company’s success is dependent on novelty or constantly introducing new cigars. Dominant brands such as Padrón and Arturo Fuente continue to be industry leaders and seem virtually unaffected by trends or fads.

But for smaller, newer brands it becomes tougher to break out of the pack and that leads to efforts to distinguish yourself, whether that’s a massive ring gauge, a shop exclusive, a limited run, outrageous packaging, or something else.

I can’t say what lies ahead. But I wouldn’t look for the rate of releases to slow down anytime soon.

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

In this edition of Random Thoughts from the Humidor, I ponder what is meant by “flavored” cigars, keeping the palate fresh with milder smokes, and using cigars as currency for wagers.

Food for Thought on Flavoring

On Saturday I published a Quick Smoke of the Drew Estate MUWAT Kentucky Fire Cured (KFC) in the Just a Friend size. As I understand it, KFC is crafted at Joya de Nicaragua using tobaccos that are cured in a barn under fires of hickory and maple. The smoke from these fires imparts (in the case of Just a Friend, according to my palate) notes of barbeque sauce, chewy meat, hickory, leather, sweet tobacco, and peat. It’s an interesting product and process, though the cigars aren’t my cup of tea. In any event, some readers got me thinking with their comments. I hadn’t previously considered KFC to be flavored. Regarding cigars, I take “flavored” to mean infused with artificial flavors that are not naturally inherent in the tobacco leaves as a result of growing, cultivation, curing, fermentation, etc. So, in my eyes, fire-curing tobaccos—or barrel-aging them, for instance—does not make them flavored. I still think of these cigars as differentiated from, say, Flavours by CAO or Acid by Drew Estate. Perhaps the distinction is not important and this is simply a matter of semantics. Perhaps, though, as the government gets more and more involved in the regulation of premium cigars, this will become an important issue. Recall that a previous FDA proposal stated that under its option for a premium cigar exemption, a cigar would only qualify if it “does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco.” Would using fire-cured tobacco or tobacco aged in rum barrels be a violation? What about aging a finished cigar in cedar? To date, the FDA has not provided answers. And, in a particularly troubling development, we’ve learned it may not matter; an unauthenticated draft of the FDA’s deeming rules submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was recently leaked, and the draft shows no exemption for premium cigars. But ultimately, if OMB reinstates an exemption for premium cigars, the notion of “flavored” may become very important.

Mixing Up the Rotation

I’m guessing most cigar smokers started smoking milder cigars, graduated to medium-bodied sticks somewhere along the way, and these days tend to focus on smokes with full body and strength. These seasoned cigar veterans may avoid mild cigars entirely, or they may relegate them to that occasional morning smoke as an accompaniment to a cup of coffee. (I’m basing these broad generalizations off anecdotal evidence, hundreds of conversations, and observations from the ever-expanding world of social media.) To these brothers of the leaf I say this: Don’t be afraid to mix up your rotation with a milder cigar now and then. Not only are these cigars highly enjoyable, but they often provide subtler, more delicate flavors that are harder to find in Nicaraguan powerbombs. Think almond, cream, hay, etc. As an added bonus, you may find your full-bodied favorites taste even better when you sprinkle in a Connecticut Shade smoke from time to time.

Cigars for Friendly Bets

I’m a lifelong Cubs fan and my colleague, Patrick S, is a diehard follower of the Mets (nobody’s perfect, right?). This year, our teams squared up in the National League Championship Series. Before play started—and long before the Mets were eventually vanquished by the Kansas City Royals—we each agreed to send the winner a five-pack of local cigars as a friendly wager. If the Cubs won, he was going to send me hard-to-find smokes from the PG Boutique near his home in Virginia. If the Mets won (as they did), I’d send a sampler of house blends from Tesa here in Chicago. Maybe it’s just me, but for friendly wagers—especially those that are sports-related—cigars just seem to be a more fitting form of payment than money, not to mention a chance to acquire smokes that can’t easily be bought locally.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Drew Estate

The Tatuaje TAA 2015 (5.6 x 54) is a cigar with an impressive pedigree. The box-pressed smoke is a re-release of the Tatuaje TAA 2011, the first Tatuaje made exclusively for members of the Tobacconists Association of America (TAA). (The 2015 Tatuaje TAA is one of    fifteen cigar offerings for 2015 made exclusively for TAA members.)

That original Tatuaje TAA release itself was based on one of my all-time favorite Tatuaje cigars, the Barclay Rex 100th Anniversary, which was the first in Tatuaje’s Exclusive Series. (The blend for Barclay Rex, in turn, was based on the Pork Tenderloin cigar, which was made for Gloucester Street Cigars in Boston.)

All of those cigars feature a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper around Nicaraguan binder and filler. The wrapper is particularly enticing. It’s deep dark brown in color with a sprinkling of shiny crystals that show under the light.

Once lit, there is a burst of wood spice from the closed foot. Soon, the cigar settles into a medium- to full-bodied combination of oak, earth, bread, and char. There’s also some slight red pepper spice along with chewy dried fruit and leather notes.

It’s a complex smoke with lots going on, a roller coaster that starts off spicy before settling in to a more rounded combination of bread and cream.

Construction was good on two of the samples I smoked. Two others, though, suffered from a slightly tight draw that required multiple relights; nothing catastrophic, but it was a slight inconvenience.

Ultimately, while the 2015 Tatuaje TAA might not be quite as outstanding as the Barclay Rex it was based on, it is still an excellent smoke. With plenty of complexity, richness, and balance, the Tatuaje Tobacconists Association of America 2015 earns a rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Cuban-born Rafael Nodal—who emigrated in 1980 via the Mariel boatlift—says La Bohème brings together three passions: cigars, Cuba, and music. The blend is rooted in Cuban heritage with artwork from a nineteenth century Cuban cigar. The name is a tribute to the opera by Giacomo Puccini. And Nodal calls it “my take on the golden era of Cuban cigars.”

La Bohème came out in 2014 with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper around Dominican binder and filler tobaccos. This February, my colleague reviewed the small Mimi size (3.5 x 46), finding it to be “another virtuoso performance for Boutique Blends,” which is a partnership between Nodal, Hank Bischoff, and Nodal’s wife, Dr. Alina Cordoves Nodal.

This summer, Nodal introduced a La Bohème extension called Encantador (Spanish for “enchanted”). It uses a darker, higher priming of the Ecuadorian Habano capa than the original La Bohème, which comes from José “Jochi” Blanco’s stash of limited tobaccos.

La Bohème Encantador is made at Tabacalera Palma in the Dominican Republic. Three sizes are available in the $10.25 to $12.24 range: Turin (5 x 46), Fenice (6 x 52), and La Scala (5.75 x 54). Only 400,000 total cigars will be made before the line is discontinued due to tobacco availability.

Encantador is easily distinguished from the original La Bohème via its secondary band, as well as the background color on the main band (La Bohème has a cream-colored base to match its lighter wrapper, whereas Encantador is black). Turin sports a sharp box-press with a rustic, dark, mottled exterior that’s oily and traversed by a network of thin veins. The pre-light notes are sweet and chocolaty. A careful punch cut is all that’s needed to reveal an easy cold draw.

Once lit, the profile is a medium- to full-bodied combination of cayenne spice, black pepper, garlic powder, and coffee grounds. The finish exhibits a sharp spice on the tip of the tongue, and the aromatic resting smoke is a beautiful mixture of roasted nuts and coffee. Later on, hints of dark chocolate, cream, and dried fruit make appearances.

Turin—which is named for the northern Italian city where Puccini’s opera debuted in 1896—is a slow-burning cigar with moderate smoke production, a solid gray ash, and a burn that tends to meander a bit.

Any slight shortcomings in the construction department, though, are made up for by a unique, well-balanced flavor that jumps from savory to sweet, fruity to leathery, and creamy to salty. The Boutique Blends mantra centers on small batch production from limited tobaccos for discerning cigar smokers. Whatever the method, the output—in this case La Bohème Encantador Turin—works. And the smaller format seems to suit this blend particularly well, packing a lot of condensed punch into a distinctive, interesting cigar that’s worthy of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

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.

Yesterday being Halloween and all, I decided to light up a Halloween-themed cigar: the Pudgy Monsters sampler version of Tatuaje’s Mummy (5.75 x 47). (As an aside, I should point out that although the holiday-themed limited edition cigars were novel and fun when they started, they’ve definitely gotten a little out of control.) The Nicaraguan puro features an attractive sun-grown criollo leaf which extends to a closed foot. The cigar has lots of woodsy notes, cocoa, and just a bit of cinnamon spice, resulting in a medium to full body. A slightly uneven burn self corrected relatively quickly and otherwise construction and combustion was flawless. Between the size and the flavors, this remains one of my favorite cigars from the Pudgy Monsters collection.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys