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) New Hampshire is one step closer to opening the door for cigar bars after a bill that would make tobacco shops eligible for liquor licenses cleared the Senate. But the proposed law comes with a catch: provisions that would limit cigar bars’ ability to compete with other bars and restaurants that have to deal with the Granite State’s smoking ban. That means no food, no cigarettes, and at least 50% of revenue must come from cigar sales.

2) On the smoking ban front, North Carolina—the biggest tobacco grower in the U.S.—became the latest state to criminalize smoking in bars and restaurants. And Michigan may not be far off, especially with some Lansing politicians aiming for “a total ban with no exemptions.” Previous efforts to impose a statewide ban faltered over disagreements on policies for casinos.

3) Inside the Industry: Don Pepin Garcia is adding sizes to the three lines he makes for Ashton Cigars: San Cristobal, La Aroma de Cuba Edición Especial, and Benchmade. Xikar, known best for its cigar cutters, has replaced its Defiance cigar line with the Xikar HC series, which will be made by Jesus Fuego.  Punch has launched a “Tax Relief” promotion where cigar smokers can download a coupon from PunchTaxRelief.com for one free cigar with two purchased.

4) Around the Blogs:  Her Humidor lights up a Carlos Toraño Virtuoso. Cigar Command fires up a La Aurora Preferidos Lancero. Cigar Inspector inspects a Romeo y Julieta Churchill. Keepers of the Flame smokes a Château Real. Stogie Review reviews an El Titan de Bronze Grand Reserve Cameroon.

5) Deal of the Week: Have you subscribed to our free email newsletter yet?  By signing up you’ll receive our regular newsletter, occasional updates, and be entered to win some great prizes. We’ve already given away a custom signed humidor full of El Tiante cigars, and today we’re selecting a winner to receive a box of Cubao Lanceros as part of our weekly drawing in celebration of our third anniversary. To be eligible to win all the great prizes we’re giving away, all you have to do is sign up.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

While I’ve peripherally enjoyed Cruzan products since my college days, I didn’t really know much about this St. Croix-based distiller until last summer’s trip to St. Thomas, another U.S. Virgin Island. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed many Cruzan drinks during that heavenly week.

In case you’re not familiar with their operation, Cruzan originally began producing rum from pot stills eight generations ago and today uses a continuous column distillation process. The name of company (pronounced kru-shun) comes from the island—inhabitants are called “Crucians.” This seems fitting because, if you poke around enough on Cruzan’s website, you’ll notice they take great pride in St. Croix and its history.

That history is rich and varied. The island has been controlled by seven different nations since Christopher Columbus first landed on St. Croix’s shores in 1493 (Spain, England, Holland, France, Malta, Denmark, and now America). It thrived due to sugar output, which made it a naturally fitting locale for rum production. And even though cane is no longer grown on St. Croix, Cruzan’s business is supported by molasses imports.

You might remember Cruzan as the first major rum company to come up with flavored rums—from banana and black cherry to coconut and pineapple. As you might imagine, however, I’m more interested in their darker creations. So today I’ll be looking at their flagship product: Cruzan Single Barrel Estate, which sells for around $25-30 per 750 ml. bottle (40% alcohol by volume).

Cruzan employs a two-step process to create this spirit, which is regarded by many as a complex yet approachable sipping rum. First, they blend 5-12 year old rum, produced in small batches and aged in oak. Then they give the blend secondary aging for 6-12 months in single white American oak barrels. So the term “single barrel” means that the blend is aged in “new” oak casks for approximately one more year and then bottled one cask at a time.

But enough background. My individually numbered bottle of Cruzan Single Barrel Estate boasts a dark golden pour with vanilla and butterscotch on the nose. While honey and oak are the dominant flavors, as you’d expect, I also found a cognac-like taste with traces of fruit and caramel. Straightforward with a light yet lingering finish.

A dash of water or and ice cube or two smoothes out the spice. Don’t overdo it, though. This rum is rounder than most and it evens out quickly, so take the minimalist approach—enjoy it neat and savor every sip.

Don’t take that recommendation as a sign that this is one of those overly subtle, delicate rums. To the contrary, the Single Barrel Estate is versatile and medium-bodied, making it easy to pair with cigars.

I didn’t find a bad combination in my “research,” but some particularly good complements include the La Aurora Barrel Aged, Montecristo Edmundo, Bravo Colombian Gold, and the Cupido Tuxedo. I hope you enjoy exploring some pairings of your own.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Make no mistake, the well-funded, well-connected professional activists who oppose tobacco are far from sensible people looking to place so-called “reasonable restrictions” on tobacco. The truth is, almost all are deceitful opportunists who won’t stop until tobacco is taxed or regulated out of existence (or at least pushed completely into an underground black market).

These anti-tobacco zealots are too smart to ever admit their ultimate goal in public, even though occasionally they let their secret slip. Instead, they twist science to deceptively present themselves as reflective, thoughtful advocates who just happen to continuously find “problems” in need of “solutions,” which always amount to more tobacco taxes, more regulations, and more expansive smoking bans.

Recently, these incremental steps towards tobacco prohibition have often been presented as closing loopholes, leveling the playing field, or combating problems seemingly unrelated to smoking. It seems the anti-tobacco crowd has taken to heart the lesson of the boiling frog, which goes something like this: If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. But if you place the frog into a pot of lukewarm water and slowly turn up the heat, it will boil to death.

I suspect they realize that if they are forthright about their ultimate goal of prohibition, they know they would lose credibility and could even unleash a backlash, as those whose freedom of choice they seek to limit would rally to defend their right to enjoy tobacco. However, if the steps towards total prohibition are small enough, like the frog, we won’t act until it is too late.

Three examples show how the tobacco banners present more regulation, taxation, and smoking bans as merely fixes to “loopholes” or “problems” in existing laws:

Congress Takes on Mail-Order Tobacco Sales

This week, Congress is debating a ban on mail-order cigarette sales. It seems that many states are losing revenue as consumers seek to avoid punitive cigarette taxes. Instead of buying a pack of cigarettes for $10 in New York City, they are ordering them through the mail for less than half the price.

Never mind that it’s the excessively high taxes that are forcing people to look for less expensive ways to get tobacco. The anti-smokers say the solution isn’t to re-examine the taxes that created this pseudo-black market, but to create more restrictions and make the postal service, and companies like Fed-Ex, police the contents of every package shipped over state lines. At least so far, the regulation only affects cigarettes, but that’s just another “loophole” waiting to be closed.

Anti-Smokers Say Nebraska Smoking Ban ‘Unfair’

Meanwhile, in Nebraska, after a battle to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars, a deal was eventually struck that would ban smoking everywhere except cigar bars where cigars and pipes would be allowed, but not cigarettes. But the anti-tobacco zealots at the American Cancer Society thought even that most limited exemption was a problem, and they even found novel way to suggest that it was unconstitutional.

According to their tortured reasoning, the ban was an unfair benefit to cigar bars. It seems after banning smoking in all these restaurants and bars, they suddenly claimed to be concerned with the competitive disadvantage that the ban’s victims were put in. Naturally, the “solution” they were seeking—which fortunately was rejected by the Nebraska Attorney General—was to extend the ban to include cigar bars.

San Francisco Pushes Butt Tax

As reported by the New York Times yesterday, San Francisco’s mayor is pushing a tax increase on cigarettes. (No word yet on any effect on cigars.) His reasoning? Smokers, who have been forced out of bars by city and state smoking bans, were creating litter by leaving their cigarettes in the street.

Citing the cost of cleaning up the cigarette butts, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to increase the cigarette tax. Obviously, the idea of allowing smoking back into bars where staff can clean up butts and provide smokers with ashtrays isn’t being considered. Instead, the “solution” is to raise taxes further.

In all three situations, the “problems” were created when freedoms were limited by policies advocated by the anti-tobacco crowd. Yet somehow the solutions are always more anti-free choice policies.

It has become quite clear that we smokers are becoming the frog, standing idly by as our freedom to smoke is stolen from us one degree at a time. My fear is if we don’t start fighting back soon, it will be too late and our freedoms will have evaporated completely.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Some brands inspire cigar enthusiasts to go to great lengths just to have a chance to buy their highly sought blends. El Mejor Emerald isn’t one of those brands. In fact, I’ve found that it’s quite the opposite—often serving as a filler stick in samplers with more attractive stogies.

But there are, apparently, many fans of this value brand around the online cigar community. I found several flattering reviews on blogs and forums that laud El Mejor Emerald for its simple, straightforward taste and low price tag. I wish I would have enjoyed this creation as much as they did. In the end, this value cigar left me neither delighted nor dismayed.

One of four cedar-wrapped vitolas, the Torpedo (6.5 x 54) includes Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos and a Honduran-grown corojo wrapper. It isn’t much to look at, despite of (or because of, I can’t decide which) the shaggy foot—a feature that is supposed to honor the “true old world fashion” of cigar making.

After removing the cellophane and the cedar strip, the dry, pale wrapper displays few veins and a musty pre-light aroma of damp earth. Then, after toasting the foot and establishing an even light, I encountered a taste much creamier and milder than expected.

That flavor is best described as light and airy with notes of cedar, peanuts, and some low-key spice. Nice yet uncomplicated and undemanding of much attention. And in contrast to what I read from some other reviewers, I found El Mejor Emerald to be fairly consistent in taste from start to finish.

The physical properties could have been a lot worse, especially for a cigar that sells for $3-4 apiece (and even less in samplers or on auction sites). While the burn tends to weave in and out, it doesn’t require serious maintenance. The draw is clear and open and the ash, though far too flaky for my liking, seems to hold pretty well.

All told, this is one of those decent cigars that works best on the golf course or as a complement to some other activity. It just doesn’t have the depth to deserve your undivided attention.

So, while I won’t go out of my way to buy more El Mejor Emeralds, I won’t go out of my way to avoid them in otherwise exciting samplers, either. That’s ultimately why the Torpedo earns three stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Released in 2007, this Nicaraguan puro is made for Ashton by Don Pepin Garcia in his Tabacalera Cubana factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. It features a beautiful, oily, dark brown wrapper that shows a slight tooth.

The torpedo-shaped Fabuloso (6.125 x 52) is fairly smooth with one large vein that runs most of the length of the cigar.

I need to point out that one of the two cigars I smoked for this review included a loose wrapper that separated from the binder about a third of the way up from the foot. More on that later.

The pre-light aroma is nutty with a slight hint of chocolate. After an easy cut, I found a perfect pre-light draw with just the right amount of resistance.

The foot lights effortlessly and the burn is perfect at the start. Smooth and creamy, the initial flavor is predominantly earthy with a little spice and just a hint of bitter chocolate.

On the second Fabuloso I smoked (the one with the loose wrapper) I was forced to touch up some burn issues after the first third was complete—problems that likely arose due to the loose wrapper.

At this point, on either sample, the flavors begin to transition with the earthy taste fading just a little bit, and dark chocolate and coffee notes coming to the forefront.

The burn continues to be a little ragged but does not require any more touch ups. The dark chocolate and coffee flavors remain until about the last inch and then fade away after being replaced by some spicy and grassy notes.

While this is a very pleasant $9-10 cigar with good complexity, the lack of consistency in construction detracts from the experience and ultimately prevents the San Cristobal Fabuloso from receiving a mark higher than four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick M

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.

With a splotchy wrapper and bumpy appearance, this Double Corona (7.6 x 49) wasn’t appealing to look at, but you can’t judge a cigar on looks alone. Once lit, I found a woody core of cedar spice with some graham cracker sweetness. While the burn needed a touch up or two, it had a draw with just the right amount of resistance and a sturdy ash. Well-balanced and medium- to full-bodied, it’s a fine example of why Hoyo de Monterrey is one of my favorite Cuban brands from top to bottom.

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.

While I enjoyed this belicoso-shaped stick (6.25 x 52) when I reviewed it in September 2007, I could have done without the traces of sour, stale notes that popped up from time to time. Today, after approximately 20 months in my humidor, those unfortunate flavors were gone, leaving behind a not-too-creamy, not-too-spicy profile of sweet hay, graham, earth, and tea. The already impressive physical properties were also improved. The moral of the story? Pick up this Sumatra-seed Ecuadorian sungrown-wrapped cigar, be patient, and you will be rewarded handsomely.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys