The Stogie Guys

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and informative as possible, each Friday we’ll post a mixed bag of quick cigar news and other items of interest. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) On the heels of Jacob Grier’s critique of a “study” that purported to downplay the impact of smoking bans on employment in restaurants and bars comes this commentary from Forbes. It argues that, despite widely accepted claims that depend on  fuzzy science, “many prior studies of smoking bans are riddled with statistical shortcomings.” The author should know; he has “15 years of experience in performing economic and statistical analysis.”

2) In related news, shares of Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc., a Louisiana casino operator, jumped 14% on Wednesday after lawmakers shot down a bill that would have expanded the Pelican State’s smoking ban to cover bars and casinos. Such acute market activity supports the claim that freedom of choice is best for business.

3) Inside the Industry: Rocky Patel is releasing another seasonal blend, the 2009 Summer Collection. Colibri, a brand best known in cigar circles for its lighters, has emerged from bankrupcy and will begin making lighters again. CAO is adding a box-pressed robusto to its MX2 line.

4) Around the Blogs: Stogie Review looks at the Camacho Connecticut. Cigar Inspector samples a Davidoff Special R. Velvet Cigar reviews a Camacho Liberty 2008. Cigar Spy infiltrates a La Aroma de Cuba.

5) Deal of the Week:  This “Mega III Sampler” has 16 big-name cigars for just $30. (That’s under $2 per stick for those of you who might not be up on your arithmetic.) Included are  favorites from La Flor Dominicana, Rocky Patel, CAO, Alec Bradley, Camacho, Gurkha, and Cuesta-Rey. Get yous here.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

[Editors’ Note: The following is courtesy of Chris Verhoeven, a South Carolina-based friend of StogieGuys.com who went on a dream vacation.]

Last month, through my local B&M, I was lucky enough to tour the Rocky Patel Premium Cigar Company’s operations in Danlí, Honduras. And while anyone who went on this amazing adventure would agree that the pictures can’t fully convey how spectacular the trip was, today I’ll try to do just that with just those.

It all starts at the field of dreams. It’s amazing how tall these plants get and it’s humbling to walk out and see nothing but tobacco across the horizon. The company lets a few plants flower to harvest and test the quality of the seeds, but most lose their flowers early on so all the nutrients focus on the leaves instead.

Here in the tobacco curing barns, Nimish, the VP of operations and our gracious host, shows us how the tobacco leaves are sewn onto the sticks and hung to cure.

Although it is a multi-step process involving these piles as well as rooms I can only describe as saunas, I found the tobacco fermentation procedure to be the most interesting. The leaves are wetted and piled creating heat on the inside. The temperature must be watched carefully and the leaves must be rotated to prevent the tobacco from burning and losing its flavor.

While seco, viso, and ligero tobacco are known to come from distinct primings (when the leaves are harvested they pick two per week starting at the bottom, and each pick is called a “priming”), gray areas do exist. These women use sight and feel to sort the leaves appropriately. Females are employed exclusively in this process due to their softer hands and superior color vision.

Finally, after years of curing and aging, the tobacco reaches the rolling tables.

I was truly amazed at how many quality control checkpoints Rocky Patel cigars go through. This draw tester is one of those checks. Cigars must fall between 35 and 50 on the gauge…the one I rolled was a 20!

Spanish cedar is the wood of choice at the box factory to ensure the cigars are kept in the optimal environment.

This photo, taken with Uptown Cigars owner and trip sponsor Israel (far left) and Nestor Plasencia, captures one of the trip’s most memorable moments for me.

The whole trip is a blast, evidenced by this snapshot of me drinking by Rocky’s guest pool. I sincerely hope you get to experience this fun for yourself. Rocky does about 30 of these per year through tobacco shops that sell his products, so be sure to check out your local B&M for a chance to take the trip of a lifetime.

–Chris Verhoeven

photo credit: Stogie Guys

An email from the Stogie Guys’ founders about preparations to cover the annual International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association convention this summer evoked two reactions: wistful regret that I won’t be there and utter amazement at how fast another year has passed.

Even with the economic woes still rippling through the country, cigar exhibitors in New Orleans will, no doubt, unleash a batch of new cigars. And I haven’t yet begun to whittle down my wish list of earlier smokes. The coming sticks will surely entice me to add more names and put me further and further behind on smoking them. Only a smoker who lights up far more frequently than I could hope to keep up.

I may, however, be able to make some progress soon. For the past several months, the weather here in Florida has been so pleasant. I’ve done nearly all my smoking outside my home, reducing the stock of cigars in my humidor. But with the temperatures rising, I’m likely to be visiting local shops more frequently to revel in indoor air-conditioned smoking. So I will have a chance to try some of the smokes I’ve been wanting to light up.

For example, I have yet to smoke a Casa Magna, the low-priced stick Cigar Aficionado raved about. There are also new Tatuajes that sound tasty, new La Gloria Cubanas (and new sticks to come from that brand’s founder), a host of new Padillas that promise good things, and My Father from Pepin’s factory. That’s really just the top of the list.

Any you’d care to recommend?

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

It’s hard to beat Angostura 1919 if you’re looking for a light sipping rum with a soothing, rounded heat. As I wrote in my review back in September, perhaps no other spirit is quite as relaxing or as complementary to a medium-bodied smoke. For those of us who also enjoy stronger and more flavorful stogies, though, sometimes the 1919 blend just doesn’t pack enough punch. That’s where the older and more expensive Angostura 1824 comes in.

This highly esteemed rum honors the year Angostura got its start as a maker of concentrated food and beverage flavorings. The Trinidad & Tobago-based company’s beginnings can be traced back to 1824 when a surgeon general in Simón Bolívar’s Venezuelan army sought to improve the appetite and digestive well-being of the soldiers.

It wasn’t until 1947 that Angostura began to ferment, distill, age, blend, and bottle rum in Laventille, Trinidad. Today Angostura produces over 600,000 cases of rum each year, most of which is shipped to America, Great Britain, and other Caribbean islands.

The 1824 blend, which sells for around $55 per 750 ml. bottle (40% alcohol by volume), is Angostura’s flagship rum. It is made from “the finest mature rums, hand-picked by the master blender from select casks.” Aged in charred American oak bourbon barrels for at least 12 years, the rum is hand-blended and re-casked until it reaches its “optimum maturity” before it is hand-drawn.

Each individually numbered bottle of Angostura 1824 is decked out with a gold ornamental medallion and a wax-encased cork. Dark with a brilliant reddish hue, it pours with a pungent nose of sweet, smoky notes that include fruity orange and raisin and creamy honey and vanilla.

I find the taste—which others have described as similar to toffee, spice, butterscotch, and nuts—is best compared to charred molasses and caramel. That smoky sensation from the nose carries over well to the palate. The finish is nearly everlasting, warm, and highlighted by a clinging spice.

With this array of flavorful complexity, Angostura 1824 isn’t difficult to pair with a cigar. You’ll have to find your own perfect match through trial and error, but the LFD Double Ligero Chisel, Hoyo Petit Robusto, and the Montecristo Cabinet Selección Belicoso are good places to start.

If this bold blend sounds like your cup of tea, and if you don’t mind paying top dollar for top-quality rum, go ahead and make an investment in a bottle. That decision will pay big dividends neat or on the rocks.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

While you might not of heard of it, there’s a good chance a few of your favorite cigars are distributed by Miami Cigar & Company.  The outfit distributes such acclaimed brands as La Aurora, Nestor Miranda Special Selection, Don Lino, León Jimenes, 601, Cubao, and Mi Barrio, among others.

And to celebrate it’s 20th anniversary, Miami Cigar & Company is putting out a special cigar under its Nestor Miranda Special Selection line, which is named after Miami Cigar & Company’s founder Nestor Miranda. The celebratory cigar is blended by Don Pepin Garcia’s son, Jaime, and made in Pepin’s Nicaraguan Tabacalera Cubana factory.

According to a recent interview, Miranda has been looking to have Pepin make a cigar for the line for some time, but the last time he approached Pepin he was busy setting up his new Nicaraguan factory. So when it came time to create a new cigar for the anniversary line, there was little doubt that it would be made by the Pepins.

The cigar is a very limited release. Only 2,000 boxes of 20 cigars have been made, 1,000 with a Habano Rosado wrapper (the subject of a future StogieGuys.com review), and 1,000 with a Habano Oscuro wrapper. Both versions come in only one size, an immense (7 x 56) smoke called the “Danno.”

The Nicaraguan oscuro wrapper is a bit rustic, with plenty of small veins and a nice shine. The wrapper has been aged three to four years before being rolled around a Nicaraguan binder and filler from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. The firm cigar is accented by a pigtail cap.

Once I began smoking, the Danno produces full-bodied earth and bread flavors and an understated peppery core. Beneath those initial flavors is a subtle combination of complexity that includes coffee beans, oak, and cocoa. The finish is long, dry, and toasty.

I was amazed by the copious amount of smoke that this thick cigar produces from its easy draw. It gives off a rich aroma that’s reminiscent of freshly brewed espresso. The even burn and ash, which holds for well over an inch, cap off the cigar’s impressive construction.

The Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversarios have an MSRP of $9 apiece, a reasonable price considering its pedigree and when compared to many of the limited release cigars being put out these days. If I had my way, the 56 ring guage might be reduced slightly, as I personally find such girth to be larger than I prefer. But that’s a small complaint against what is  an excellent, interesting, complex, and well-constructed smoke.

All of which is to say that you’re going to be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend $9 and two hours. That’s why the Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversario Oscuro earns an impressive rating of four and a half stogies out of five.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click 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 take on a single cigar.

The Montecristo Petit Edmundo has been one of my favorite cigars for some time now, so I was excited to see what the longer Edmundo format had to offer. While a tad soft to the touch, the Edmundo has the same good looks as the Petit version, and later I found the construction to be outstanding with an even burn, ideal draw, and dependable ash. The smoke is a pleasant combination of cedar, leather, and toasty flavors. I’d agree that it isn’t as complex as the Petit format, but that doesn’t mean the Montecristo Edmundo isn’t a fine Cuban cigar.

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 take on a single cigar.

First my colleague gave this new Belicoso (6 x 54) a good review in March. Then, just a few weeks ago, we gave away a Savoy humidor signed by baseball legend Luis Tiant and filled with 23 El Tiante Corojos through our email newsletter contest. It was high time I tried one of these for myself. When I did, I encountered admirable construction and loads of flavor—including cedar, herbs, and sweet spice. You can pick up this wonderfully balanced, slow-burning treat for around $6-8.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys