The Stogie Guys

Caldwell Cigar Co. was launched in 2014 by Robert Caldwell with a lineup of Dominican blends. The company seemingly came out of nowhere; its cigars debuted only about eight months after Caldwell walked away from Wynwood Cigars, a co-venture with Christian Eiroa, formerly of Camacho. Most people will tell you eight months isn’t nearly enough time to create and execute a vision for a new brand, but Robert Caldwell isn’t most people.

The following year, in 2015, in an effort to reach segments of the market that don’t typically seek Dominican smokes, Caldwell introduced Blind Man’s Bluff. The line is crafted at Agroindustrias Laepe S.A. in Danlí, Honduras—best known as the factory that produces Camacho—using a “their kitchen, our chef” approach. Caldwell says the intention was to make a “Caldwell-eqsue” cigar from tobaccos to which he didn’t previously have access.

Then, in 2016, Caldwell introduced Eastern Standard Midnight Express. Unlike the Dominican Corojo-wrapped Eastern Standard line, which is billed as mild- to medium-bodied, Eastern Standard Midnight Express is marketed as medium- to full-bodied. Its recipe calls for a Connecticut Arapiraca Maduro wrapper, a Habana Dominicano binder, and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua (Habano) and the Dominican Republic (Criollo ’98 and Corojo).

The Caldwell website lists four Eastern Standard Midnight Express sizes—Corona, Robusto, Piramide, and Toro—but, at my local tobacconist, I found a Lancero (7.5 x 42), which cost me $11.85 (not including insane Chicago taxes).

The Lancero is a handsome, firm, moderately oily, Colorado Maduro-colored cigar with a dark band of black and gold and a ring at the foot that denotes “Midnight Express.” While a pigtail cap may have been the intention, the result (likely from packaging and shipping) is more of a twisted tail that’s flattened to the cap’s surface. The foot exhibits faint pre-light notes of honey and dry wood.

A single wooden match is all that’s need to establish an even light. On the palate, the Lancero is moist and woody with notes of oak, damp earth, leather, and some cayenne heat on the finish. There’s also a background sweetness that reminds me of cherry and dried fruit.

There are some changes to the flavor as the cigar progresses. For starters, the spice amps up a bit after an inch or so. Notably, this is a cinnamon spice, not black pepper. Here, I’d classify the body as solidly medium. Then, at the midway point, there’s a heavy dose of charred meat, salt, and black coffee. The meatiness—a taste of which I’m not particularly fond—tends to play  a greater and greater role as the Lancero progresses.

Construction is good throughout. Expect a slow, straight burn, a moderate draw, solid smoke production, and a gray ash that holds pretty well off the foot.

For me, the Eastern Standard Midnight Express Lancero starts complex and promising, only to become overly meaty and salty in the second half. Smoking with a deliberately slowed pace doesn’t seem to noticeably offset this trend. That’s ultimately why I’m settling on a score of two and a half 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 verdict on a single cigar of “buy,” “hold,” or “sell.”

Each year I look forward to receiving the Tatuaje Saints & Sinners member exclusive smoke kit. Details on the blends are limited, but 2017’s “Blend 4” is a robusto with a Broadleaf wrapper. It’s a powerhouse of a cigar with damp earth, dark roast coffee, and pepper. Construction of the full-flavored cigar was flawless, and it’s one of the best cigars I’ve smoked this year.

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.”

There’s no telling exactly how long this cigar had been patiently resting in one of my humidors before I lit it up recently. I am sure the time would be better measured in years, not months. Whatever the case, some age seems to have done the Corojo Tubo (5 x 54) well. I found a well-balanced profile of red pepper sweetness, cedar, coffee, and cream. Construction was excellent. I would absolutely pick up this La Aurora again.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

As we have since July 2006, each Friday we’ll post our sampling of cigar news and other items of interest from the week. Below is our latest, which is the 573rd in the series.

1) On the heels of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announcing its intent to seek comments about reconsidering existing regulations of premium cigars, the cigar industry is now seeking to eliminate FDA warning label requirements, which are scheduled to go in effect on August 10. The Cigar Association of America, Cigar Rights of America, and International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association have asked U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta (pictured at right) to delay the new warning label rules while the FDA reconsiders its position. The trade groups are hopeful Judge Mehta will be consistent with his statement from December hearings in this case when he said, “I guess I just have a real problem, it seems to me, with a government agency telling an entire industry [to] spend millions of dollars to satisfy a regulation that we’re not sure is going to be on the books a year from now or two years from now.” At issue are larger warning labels on cigar boxes, and rules about where these labels would need to be placed. As we wrote last week, simply considering a premium cigar exemption, of course, doesn’t guarantee that the FDA will ultimately adopt one. The FDA notably considered and rejected such an exemption in its original regulation of cigars. However, the willingness of the new FDA leadership to spend time and resources considering rolling back its regulations is a good sign for those who make, sell, and enjoy cigars.

2) Cigar consumers and retailers in New York can breathe a sigh of relief. The final version of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2019 budget does not include a proposed cigar tax hike. “While the original version of the budget did not raise the tax percentage of cigars, which is currently 75 percent of the wholesale price, it removed an ‘industry standard adjustment ratio’ clause that allows retailers to charge a much lower rate of 28.5 percent,” reports Cigar Aficionado. “The section of the original 2018–2019 Executive Budget proposal that pertained to wholesale tobacco prices was intentionally omitted from a subsequent version published on March 13 and did not reappear in what would become the final version…”

3) Kentucky recently passed HB400, a law which, for the first time, and in certain circumstances, allows the state’s famous bourbon distilleries, along with state wineries, to ship bourbon directly to consumers outside the state.  The law allows those who visit the state’s distilleries in person to ship whiskey to their home state, depending on their local laws.

4) Inside the Industry: RoMa Craft is restarting production of Neanderthal following a shortage of adequately aged Mexican San Andrés Ligero Capa. According to RoMa Craft’s Skip Martin, current back-orders of the line will begin being filled in late 2018.

5) From the Archives: Rarely are there new types of cigar tobacco, but Fuma Em Corda is one. As Ernest Gocaj of General Cigar explained in an interview last year: “Once the tobacco turns brown, the natives make it into a rope and twist it regularly to expel the juices of the tobacco. At this time, ammonia is released and the flavor is softened. In other words, the harshness is removed from the leaf. Everything is done in sunlight. The tobacco becomes very pure and refined through this method.”

6) Deal of the Week: Here are over 80 deals, including cigars from Ashton, Oliva, Tatuaje, Rocky Patel, Padrón, Drew Estate, Davidoff, Cohiba, Crowned Heads, RoMa Craft, and more. Free shipping is included on any purchase. If you really want to stock up, add promo code “GBP20D” at checkout to knock $20 off an order of $150 or more.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

About this time last year I was singing the praises of GlenDronach 15 Revival, “a rich (but not syrupy), balanced combination of figs, raisins, toffee, orange marmalade, and clove.”

Sadly, GlenDronach 15 has been discontinued (or at least put on hiatus). Now the line jumps from the 12 year to the 18 year, and in price from around $60 for the former to $110 or more for the latter.

GlenDronach named its 18 year single malt after John Allardice, founder of the distillery in 1826. Allardice inherited the land where the distillery was built, and named it after the Glendronac Burn, which supplied water for the operation.

GlenDronach is known for its exclusive use of sherry cask-aged single malt in the 12 year and older varieties (more recently, a peated variety, a dual bourbon, and a sherry cask 8 year GlenDronach have been added to the line). Two years ago, the distillery was acquired by American spirits giant Brown-Forman (owner of Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve, Old Forester, and other brands). You might hope this would lead to wider distribution within the U.S. but, so far, anything beyond GlenDronach 12 is still difficult to find.

The 18 year Allardice is matured exclusively in Spanish Oloroso sherry casks and bottled at 46% ABV. It is not chill-filtered and is naturally colored (without the caramel coloring that some scotch whiskies use). The nose is rich with dried fruit, fudge, and caramel.

On the palate, Allardice is subtle, complex, and rich. Dates, prunes, figs, and especially raisins bring classic sherry notes, which combine with orange peel, roast hazelnuts, and pound cake. The finish is long but soft, with fruit cake and caramel.

Price aside, I slightly prefer the 15 year GlenDronach to the 18. But both are excellent, sherry-forward, sophisticated single malts. I’ve touted GlenDronach 18 as similar to Macallan 18 Sherry Oak at half the price; while the cost of both keeps creeping up, this is still true.

This is a single malt that needs a well-balanced cigar pairing, or else you will miss the subtitles. Think a mild- or medium-bodied cigar like the Davidoff Grand Cru, Illusione Epernay, Paul Garmirian Gourmet, or Cuban Cohiba Siglo.

Havana-born Nelson Alfonso is the graphic designer behind Selected Tobacco, an ultra-premium outfit that produces cigars under the Atabey, Byron, and Bandolero brands, among others. Even if you’re unfamiliar with these cigars, you’ve almost certainly appreciated Alfonso’s work; his firm, Golden Age Visual Developers, has contributed to the packaging and design of many iconic Cuban brands, including Behike (which explains why Atabey looks so Behike-esque).

The Byron line is named for Lord Byron, an English poet and a leader of the Romantic movement. It is the revival of an old Cuban brand from the mid-nineteenth century. “Many cigar factories produced numerous brands with Anglo-American names to attract U.K. and U.S. markets, which had tremendous demand for premium cigars at the time,” according to the United Cigar website (United is Selected’s U.S. distributor).

Today, Byron is made in three different blends—Siglo XIX, Siglo XX, and Siglo XXI—to represent “what Cuban cigars were in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.” They are handmade in Costa Rica, stored in an aging room for one year, and then packaged in beautifully ornate porcelain jars or individually humidified tubes.

The Byron Serie Siglo XXI Elegantes (6.1 x 55), introduced in 2016, is squarely in the super-premium category, with a per-cigar price that’s north of $30—even when bought by the box of 25 (the box does double as a humidor, though). For that cost, you should expect a lot.

Fortunately, the cigar’s appearance lives up to the lofty expectations set by the price. This is a remarkably beautiful and well-constructed cigar. Beneath three intricate bands of black, blue, and white with silver and gold accents, you’ll find an incredibly smooth, almost vein-free Colorado-colored Ecuadorian-wrapped cigar with a perfect cap. The cold draw is smooth with just the right amount of resistance. At the foot, I find pre-light notes of dried apricot and marshmallow sweetness.

The profile—which is, in my opinion, consistent from light to nub—is medium-bodied and balanced. Flavors range from bread and honey to cedar spice and dry oak. There’s a background note of herbal tea. I also find a range of earthy flavors and a familiar sensation I can only describe as warm tobacco. On the finish, there are warm spices, including clove, cinnamon, and cayenne heat.

As far as construction goes, the white ash can be a tad flaky but, honestly, that’s pretty nitpicky. I don’t think you’ll encounter any issues. The draw is perfect, the smoke production solid, and the burn line requires zero touch-ups.

Only 200 boxes of 25 Elegantes have been made available in the U.S. That makes this cigar not only exceptionally expensive; it’s also pretty rare. Is it worth your money and time? That’s a hard question to answer, and one that likely depends on your own unique circumstances. For me, the Byron Serie Siglo XXI Elegantes is a tasty, interesting cigar, but not one I would regularly seek out at this price point. For that, I’m awarding it three 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 verdict on a single cigar of “buy,” “hold,” or “sell.”

This bundle cigar is made by Felix Mesa of El Galan and features a Habano wrapper around Nicaraguan filler. The value-potential is obvious (20-count bundles can be found for $30) but like all bundle cigars the question is if it can over perform its price. Construction was better than I expected with a slightly spongy feel leading to a loose draw but otherwise it had an even burn that didn’t require any re-lights. Flavor isn’t particularly complex, but it is a medium-bodied and lacking of any bitterness, with earth, wood and mild coffee notes. No one will mistake this for a top, premium-priced offering but its as good as many cigars twice its price.