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.”

This Nicaraguan puro opened with a knife-like spice that gradually dialed back as the cigar’s strength increased. It was a smooth, pleasing smoke priced at about $8. Draw was near perfect, the ash tight, and smoke production thick and full. Burn was OK, though a bit wavy at times. La Hacienda, rolled for Warped by Casa Fernandez using its hallmark Aganorsa leaf, comes in two vitolas: Gran Robusto (5.5 x 52) and Superiores (5.6 x 46).

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

photo credit: N/A

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.”

The oily Brazilian Maduro wrapper on this over-sized Robusto (5.5 x 54) makes a nice first impression. Unfortunately, I didn’t find smoking the cigar as impressive. While there was the typical Maduro coffee and sweetness, the spice too often was harsh, while there was also an off-putting grassy flavor. The GC Signature Series has a varied blend of tobaccos: Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Dominican filler with a Honduran binder. Burn, smoke output, and draw were excellent. Not a bad cigar, just not a particularly memorable one, either.

Verdict = Hold.

–George E

photo credit: N/A

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) Cigar makers, brand owners, blenders, and factories have been frantically scrambling to meet the August 8 deadline set forth by the FDA. Perhaps no single individual, however, has been as busy (at least not publicly) as Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust. “It has been an incredibly grueling 90 days,” he wrote on Facebook yesterday. “I have finalized five marca designs and over 15 ligas between 46 vitolas. Thankfully, I had been buying leaf and working on all of these blends over the past year. While there are some packaging tweaks required, none of any of these cigars are half-baked. I must express my sincere thanks to my partners at both the NACSA (pictured above) and Joya de Nicaragua factories. The demands I put upon both, in particular Joya, have been beyond reasonable.” What do we know so far about Saka’s forthcoming cigars? We know there will be a new Broadleaf-wrapped line called Mi Querida, a Nicaraguan puro line that will be made at Joya and retail in the $6-9 range, a line called Muestra de Saka, and new Sobremesa Elegante en Cedros and Short Churchill ligas that are tweaked to be a bit stronger.

2) This week it was announced Miami Cigar & Co. will be the exclusive distributor of The Upsetters, the second line from Nicholas Melillo’s Foundation Cigar Company. The Upsetters will debut shortly. It follows El Güegüense (“The Wise Man”), which was Melillo’s first solo cigar brand after leaving Drew Estate (where he worked alongside Steve Saka). “The Upsetters is possibly my most exciting and thought-out product to date,” said Melillo in a press release. “By using both Jamaican and Nicaraguan filler leaf, the brand pays deference to the ancient historic relationship between Jamaica and Nicaragua when the two were geologically connected by a land bridge known as the Nicaraguan Rise.” The Upsetters brand will be offered in eight sizes and retail for $5-$12. Each size will either have a Claro, Maduro, or Candela wrapper.

3) In other major news, last Friday brought the public confirmation of the long-rumored purchase of the Oliva Cigar Co. The buyer is J. Cortés Cigars N.V., a private business out of Belgium known for its machine-made cigars. The resulting company will have annual revenues of over $100 million. According to reports, José Oliva will stay on as the chief executive officer of Oliva. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, though Oliva reportedly turned down a higher offer from General Cigar before agreeing to be purchased by J. Cortés.

4) From the Archives: Cigar reviews frequently refer to a cigar’s texture without explaining the meaning of the term. In 2012, we took an in-depth look at the different things people refer to when they speak of a cigar’s texture. “As consumers of cigars, you and I mostly talk about texture in the way a cigar hits our palate. Some of the best cigar producers, on the other hand, are referring to the physical attributes of individual leaves before they become cigars… The distinction is important to understand in our education of the world of cigars.”

6) Deal of the Week: Want to fill your humidor with some high-quality cigars on the cheap? This Secure Server Sampler features ten cigars that will normally run you over $60 for just $29.95. Move quickly as these deals tend to sell out.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Facebook

The partnership between Warped Cigars and Casa Fernandez has produced some excellent cigars, including the Warped Futuro Selección Supremas, which impressed be enough to earn our first five out of five rating of 2016. Today, I look at another Warped/Casa Fernandez joint production: Flor del Valle.

The line was the first Warped cigar produced at the TABSA factory in Nicaragua (Futuro came later), where it is made alongside cigars for Illusione, Casa Fernandez, Foundation Cigar Co. (El Güegüense), and others. It was first introduced in 2014, with the petit robusto-sized Las Brumas (4.5 x 48), the subject of today’s review, added the following year.

Las Brumas retails for $9.45 ($236.25 for a box of 25), but shop around and you should be able to find a box for around $200. The the five cigars I smoked for this review came from is dated January 2016.

The Flor del Valle blend uses 100% Aganorsa tobacco with a Jalapa Corojo ’99 wrapper, is bound in a dual binder, and has fillers made up of of Corojo ’99 and Criollo ’98 tobaccos. Las Brumas (translated as “the mist”) is one of three sizes, with an additional “Sky Flower” size using a tweaked blend with the addition of higher priming tobaccos.

Las Brumas’ wrapper is medium brown with some dark splotches. Once lit, the cigar features rich wood (oak and cedar), cafe-au-lait, and dry cinnamon spice.

Pre-light, there were a few notably spongy spots, but none of the cigars I smoked showed any ill-effects related to their combustion qualities, which produced an easy but not airy draw, and an even, solid ash.

Though not as interesting or complex as Futuro, Flor del Valle is still an excellent medium- to full-bodied cigar with a flavor profile that is very identifiably Nicaraguan. The Warped Flor del Valle Las Brumas earns a rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–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.”

Made at La Aurora in the Dominican Republic, Viva Republica’s Rapture features an Ecuadorian wrapper, Dominican binder, and filler from Brazil,  the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Peru. This robusto-sized smoke (4.5 x 50) is well-constructed and mild with sawdust, cedar, and toast. It’s pleasant and balanced, but ultimately a little on the bland side.

Verdict = Hold.

–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.”

This isn’t my favorite cigar from RoMa Craft Tobac—that honor still belongs to the Intemperance BA XXI A.W.S. IV—but it’s damn close. The CroMagnon Cranium (6 x 54) is a heaping pile of rich, full-bodied flavor, yet it also brings ample complexity to the table via well-balanced notes of pepper, coffee, peanut, and chocolate over a base of hickory and leather. Construction is excellent. Something tells me Skip Martin knew what he was doing when he blended this Connecticut Broadleaf Maduro wrapper with a Cameroon binder and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos. At $8.50, the toro-sized Cranium is a steal.

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) Davidoff’s newest cigar will be Yamasá, named for a 21-hectacre “harsh and unforgiving swampland” in the Dominican Republic from which Henke Kelner and his team have been trying to grow tobacco for two decades. “For the Yamasá region to unveil its true potential, Kelner and his team had to first nurture nature,” reads a press release. “They conditioned the soil by adding calcium carbonate, agricultural lime, and slaked lime/dolomitic lime. This they did at intervals of every two months, by hand, and to each and every single tobacco plant, then once a month, before transplanting.” Other painstaking measures were taken in the seed selection and curing processes. The resulting cigar features a so-called Yamasá wrapper (first featured in the now discontinued Davidoff Puro d’Oro), a San Vicente binder from Yamasá, and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Four sizes will hit the market in late July: Petit Churchill (4 x 48, $12.90), Robusto (5 x 50, $19.70), Toro (6 x 52, $22.70), and Piramides (6.1 x 52, $23.00).

2) The Velvet Rat is back. The cigar that was previously released in 2012 in extremely limited quantities will soon be made available via the recently announced Drew Diplomat Event Series, a tour that will culminate on August 6 at the second annual Connecticut Barn Smoker, which takes place at the same Connecticut River Valley farm that produces the wrapper for Liga Privada No. 9 and T52. “In total, 5,000 Velvet Rats were produced in January 2015 and have since been at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate aging in the company’s cold rooms,” reads a press release. The Lonsdale-sized cigar (6.25 x 46) sports a Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, Brazilian Mata Fina binder, and filler tobaccos from Honduras and Nicaragua. It is intended to be a lighter, creamier experience than the famed Liga Privada No. 9. In November 2012, StogieGuys.com awarded the Velvet Rat a rare five-stogie rating.

3) The growth of the Nicaraguan cigar industry has led to overall growth in the U.S. cigar market in recent years, but the deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and Nicaragua has recently become a point of concern, especially for the cigar industry. This week culminated in a State Department warning for travelers to Nicaragua. The alert cites increased scrutiny of U.S. visitors, upcoming Nicaraguan elections, and the proposed Nicaraguan canal as reasons for the heightened security risks.

4) Inside the Industry: Sin City has long been a hot-spot for cigars, including Casa Fuente. Now you can add the new Davidoff of Geneva Cigar Bar (across from the Wynn Casino) as another Las Vegas cigar landmark. The indoor-outdoor space features views of the Strip, a state-of-the-art ventilation system, and a fully-stocked walk-in humidor.

5) From the Archives: Fancy butane touches have their place (especially if you are outdoors and trying to light a cigar in the wind), but don’t overlook wooden matches. As noted in this 2007 article, instead of flash-frying your cigar there are times when a match or three will do the job far better, not to mention basically for free.

6) Deal of the Week: Alec Bradley fans will want to check out this deal from Smoke Inn. Any purchase of a box of Alec Bradley cigars will, for a limited time, include a five-pack of cigars and a travel ashtray. Plus, use the code “Stogie10” at checkout for an extra 10% off any box purchase.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Davidoff