The Stogie Guys

Since I reviewed it in May, the Cubano Claro Toro has been a staple in my humidor for its affordable price, unique flavor, and solid construction. Now it seems appropriate to examine another size in this blend: the seven inch by 48 ring gauge Churchill.

It, too, is made by Cuban Crafters from desflorado tobacco, a difficult and finicky leaf that’s often reserved for rare and expensive cigars. The desflorado process requires the buds on tobacco plants to be cut off before they flower to give the leaves a rich, smooth taste. Then, in the case of Cubano Claro, the best leaves are hand selected from the tops of each plant to create the Connecticut desflorado wrapper for this line, a project that was four years in the making.

But don’t let the phrase “Connecticut wrapper” fool you. With a relatively dark complexion and a reddish-yellow hue, this cigar doesn’t look, smell, or feel like a traditional Connecticut leaf. It is highlighted by a clean cap, few noticeable veins or seams, and a pre-light aroma of salty hay.

Like the Toro, which also has a slender physique, the Churchill’s dimensions allow for more of the wrapper—the highlight of the blend—and a little less of the Cuban-seed long-filler from the Cupido tobacco fields to shine through in each puff. This must have been a conscious strategy when the nine Cubano Claro sizes were chosen; the widest vitola is the 50 ring gauge Torpedo.

I sampled five Churchills for this review. This size, which retails for $6.50 apiece when bought by the cedar humidor box of 20, starts with a flourish of onion, olive, and bread after an easy light. Each medium-bodied puff produces ample tufts of cool smoke.

Then, as was the case with the Toro, the midway point is characterized by a creamier taste of nuts and milk chocolate. While the overall profile is slightly subdued here, the Churchill is still flavorful with a well-balanced, somewhat dry profile. Truly a pleasure to smoke.

The cigar’s combustion, all the while, remains outstanding. My samples all included a razor-sharp burn with a shiny mascara, a firm white ash, and an easy draw. These set-it-and-forget-it physical properties enable you to focus on the development of the taste without interruption.

Overall, like many other Cuban Crafters creations, the Cubano Claro Churchill is an excellent value that won’t disappoint. It demonstrates superb aging potential and, for now, earns four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Recently, I got a perfect lesson in what drives cigar smokers to the internet. I tagged along with my wife to a nearby town. She met up with some friends and I went to a cigar shop adjacent to a restaurant to smoke and watch the playoffs.

I’m not sure what the first hint of trouble was, but I think it was seeing the TV tuned to an All in the Family rerun. I asked the young clerk if he’d mind putting the game on, and he immediately asked me what game and if I knew the channel. He flipped the remote while I explored the humidor.

Now I can’t be sure, but the smell I noticed was more like cedar chest than Spanish cedar. Ignoring that, I eyed the wares. Quite a few sported hand-written notes pointing out price reductions of 25 to 50 cents, thereby putting them about 10% over MSRP.

I chose a robusto, since I was to meet the group for dinner, and went to pay for it. The clerk didn’t know the cost. Fortunately, I remembered. (I was struck by this later when a couple of customers came in to buy a half-dozen or so sticks each and the clerk asked them to go back and check the prices.)

I picked up the cutter and it was so dull it didn’t really cut the head of my cigar. It just sort of tore a piece off. Lousy cutters are one of my pet peeves at cigar shops.

I know I could avoid this by bringing my own cutter, but I rarely remember. And anyway, why should I have to? Do you bring silverware to a restaurant in case they forgot to wash it? Or a needle to the doctor’s office so they won’t have to re-use one to draw blood? It’s hard to have confidence that a shop owner who has so little regard for tools has much more for his cigar inventory.

The shop did have two leather chairs and the TV worked once the clerk found the game. Since it was the only shop in town, I returned after dinner for the second game. No customers were there either time. After an hour or so, the clerk announced that he was closing up—this after saying earlier that the shop stayed open until 10 p.m. on Saturdays. I made a grumpy remark and walked outside, standing under an awning to avoid the rain while I tried to figure out how I was going to kill an hour or so.

That’s when the most positive event of the evening occurred. A woman from the restaurant came out and asked if I was coming back in. I said the kid had closed the shop, at which point she reopened it and let me back in.

I consider myself a big fan of cigar shops. I’m also lucky to have quite a few first-rate shops close to my home. But if all I had to frequent was a shop like that one, I think I’d be ordering my sticks online. At least my cutter’s sharp and my back deck doesn’t close early.

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

The Davidoff Colorado Claro is a limited edition line using the same blend as the Davidoff Special, but featuring a darker, richer “Colorado Claro” wrapper. While it was originally released way back in 2002, it hasn’t since been available until its re-introduction in late 2009.

For this review I sampled a few Colorado Claros in the Short Perfecto (4.9 x 52) which, at $13 each, is the most affordable size. These are truly very limited smokes, with only 300 boxes of 10 cigars having been made. There are three other sizes of the Colorado Claro, each made in similarly limited numbers: a “Special R” robusto ($16), a “Special T” torpedo ($18), and a “Double R” double corona ($27).

The blend features a unique Colorado Claro Ecuadorian wrapper. It’s a lush brown leaf with nice sheen and, upon close inspection, impressively few veins.

The Short Perfecto starts off with a burst of savory saltiness, which will be the dominant flavor throughout. There is also a underlying core of slightly sweet cedar. As it progresses, it grows from a medium- to a full-bodied smoke with pleasant caramel notes and an aromatic sweetness. It puts off a good deal of smoke, and has Davidoff’s characteristic excellent construction.

The Colorado Claro has a subtle peppery finish, particularly in the second half when the saltiness fades slightly, even though it never goes completely away. Near the end a coffee bean flavor emerges for an exciting and more medium-bodied conclusion.

One of the most remarkable and defining characteristics about this blend are the salty flavors. In so many cigars, saltiness is a sign of a lack of balance—but here that flavor contributes to what makes it such a distinct and enjoyable smoke.

The perfecto shape does an excellent job focusing all those flavors on the palate and helping along the subtle yet striking shifts in the 50-minute smoke. The interesting flavor, combined with superb construction and an approachable price, is what earns this cigar the year’s first rating of five of stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here. A list of other five stogie-rated cigars can be found here.]

–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 stout robusto (4.5 x 50) features the same basic blend as the Nestor Miranda Special Selection Danno, only in a more manageable format if you’re shorter on time. It’s a medium- to full-bodied smoke with warn nutty notes and some cedary spice. Construction is excellent throughout the 40 minute smoke. Much as the name suggests, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a mid-afternoon coffee break.

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.”

General Cigar went to great lengths to keep the cost of this new Jamastran-wrapped stick low. While I appreciate the Robusto’s $3-4 price tag, however, I found myself unimpressed by its shallow flavor. Singular notes of damp earth and warm tobacco leave the palate musty and stale. Sure, the combustion is excellent—something I’ve grown to expect from the manufacturer. But I’m happy to pay a few additional bucks for more depth.

Verdict = Sell.

–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. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) Washington is eying new legislation that would restrict outdoor smoking in the nation’s capital. The proposal, currently under consideration by the city council, would criminalize sidewalk smoking within 25 feet of participating businesses. “If store owners don’t want smoking in their places of business, they have the right to declare their property smoke-free. And if these property owners don’t want people to smoke outside of their places of business, they have the right to ask people not to smoke there,” said Chris McCalla of IPCPR. “But enacting legislation that gives the government authority over these individual property rights we do not support. Not only is it not justified from a medical standpoint, it is not a justified deprivation of our personal rights from a constitutional standpoint.”

2) Other Smoking Ban Alerts: Los Angeles is banning smoking in outdoor dining areas and around “mobile food trucks.” Indiana lawmakers are hoping to make their state the 39th with some sort of statewide ban. Montana’s new indoor ban contributed to an 18% drop in gambling revenue.

3) Inside the Industry: CAO will soon release two new sizes of their La Traviata blend: a corona (5.6 x 46) called “Favorito” and a belicoso (5.5 x 52) called “Animado.” Joya de Nicaragua is releasing its fifth line, a bundle cigar called the Fuerte Serie B that will be made in fours sizes and sell in the $2-4 range.

4) Around the Blogs: Stogie Review fires up a Zino Platinum Crown Series Emperor Edition 2009. Cigar Jack smokes a Toraño Exodus 50 Years. Nice Tight Ash looks at the E.P. Carrillo Edicion Inaugural 2009. Velvet Cigar reviews the Room 101 by Camacho. A Cigar Smoker and Lindsay Heller smoke the Opus X “Love Affair.”

5) Deal of the Week: Looking for a few good smokes and a new humidor? This set includes three cigars each from  Gurkha, Cocinero, Liga Especial, Perdomo, and Victor Sinclair, plus a quality humidor, humidor solution, a double guillotine cutter, and a humidification disc—all for $59 including shipping.  Grab yours here.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

As a cigar enthusiast and resident of Northern Virginia, I would be remiss not to write about a luxurious new cigar lounge opening in my backyard this spring. Called CXIII Rex, it will be an expansion of the Landini Brothers restaurant in Alexandria. And, from what I saw on a recent behind-the-scenes tour, it promises to be one of the best cigar venues in the country.

CXIII Rex is the brainchild of Noe and Franco Landini (pictured above), hosts of Landini Brothers and avid cigar fans. Their restaurant—which, I can attest from more than a few visits, offers outstanding Italian cuisine—has been a haven for Washington-area cigar smokers for 30 years. But when it became clear that Virginia lawmakers would pass a statewide ban, they started to lay plans for a benchmark cigar club with unique benefits and members-only offerings.

Sure, CXIII Rex will have all the amenities of traditional cigar lounges, including a well-stocked walk-in humidor, a selection of top libations and small-batch wines, ample seating, wireless internet, private humidor lockers, and the like. But this club, slated to open in late March, will also feature more luxurious accommodations. Included will be a state-of-the-art air ventilation system, an access-only elevator, an all-female wait staff, and a private cigar blend crafted by none other than Rocky Patel.

While all these amenities are fantastic, the club’s finest asset will be the 19th century building in which it resides. Franco and Noe gave me a first-hand look at the future site of CXIII Rex on Monday. Currently under construction in a building adjacent to Landini Brothers, it is an impressive space with ample character and charm. It was only on this behind-the-scenes tour that I got a sense of the size and scope of the future multi-level club, which is complete with a dramatic staircase and a layout built for privacy, comfort, and flow.

Individual memberships, as you might expect from a club of this caliber, are not inexpensive. The cost is $5,000 to join CXIII Rex and $100 each month thereafter. Franco and Noe tell me that 200 slots are available, 160 of which are already claimed for. If, like me, this is above your price range, or if you reside outside the Washington metro area, you still have to appreciate the high attention to detail and passion that’s going in to creating a premier cigar lounge. I haven’t seen anything like it before.

And for those of you who plan to invest in a CXIII Rex membership, please feel free to invite me as your occasional guest. I’ll even throw in a few cigars.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys