The Stogie Guys

With the holidays cutting into the budget for discretionary spending, it seems a good time to consider some enjoyable cigars that can help you stretch your dollars. Here are three I’ve enjoyed and found consistent through several smokes.

Red Witch: This three-vitola line from Gurkha’s East India Trading Co. is a box-pressed bargain. I prefer the Toro (6 x 54) that runs about $5. It’s a slow-burning, tasty treat with an Ecuadorian Rosado wrapper, Dominican binder, and Nicaraguan filler. It starts with a peppery blast, downshifts to a medium-strength earthy flavor, and picks up some spice in the final half.

Asylum 13: At $5, the Robusto (5 x 50) in this Nicaraguan puro line from Christian Eiroa is a natural for anyone who enjoys a strong, spicy cigar. It’s also more complex than you have a right to expect at that price. And if you’re a fan of big ring gauges, Asylum 13 has you covered with a 6 x 60 and a 7 x 70 at $6 and $7, respectively.

Partagas 1845: A line extension of General Cigar’s standard Partagas cigars, the 1845 sports tobacco from several countries including filler aged in rum barrels and an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper in place of the standard Partagas Cameroon. The Double Corona (7.25 x 54) is under $5, with the Robusto (5.5 x 49) even less. As you’d expect from the cigar giant, these are consistent with first-rate construction. A tasty, medium-strength stick that will likely surprise you if you haven’t had one.

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

Here’s a cigar suggestion you might not have heard: change your toothpaste.

Chances are you’re using a conventional toothpaste in a tube that contains a sodium-based chemical known as a surfactant. It’s the ingredient that makes toothpaste—and a host of other products from detergents to surfboard wax—spread better and helps create toothpaste’s foam.

I don’t know of anything wrong with these chemicals or any potential danger from using them. But they can mess up your taste buds, sometimes reducing the ability to experience sweetness and making bitterness more intense. How intense the disruption is, and how long it lasts, seem to vary among individuals and use.

Let me confess that my knowledge is based mainly on reading and my own experience, and I’m surely no expert. So I need to add a disclaimer. I’m not a dentist or a doctor and have never even played one on TV. So, before you do anything, you might want to consult with your health professional.

Finding a toothpaste or powder without surfactants, the most common of which in toothpaste go by the abbreviations SLS and SLES, is pretty simple. Just do a Google search and by the time you type “toothpaste without” you’ll start to see responses.

I switched a while back to Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Tooth & Gum Powder at the suggestion of my dental hygienist. It’s an all-natural product, and I should note that while I like it, some dislike the taste. Perhaps the most widely known toothpaste without SLS is sold under the Tom’s of Maine label.

I’ve never thought I had a particularly good set of taste buds—or olfactory receptors, for that matter. I think switching to Christopher’s Powder has helped, though I couldn’t say how much. See what switching does for you.

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

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.”

I found it interesting that Camacho included a limited edition (100,000 cigars in 5 sizes) as part of its revamp of the line. The Toro is a 50-ring gauge, 6-inch cigar with an international mix of tobacco: Honduran wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and filler from Nicaragua, Honduras, and Brazil. Costing about $10, it’s a bit expensive, and for me the strength came too close to overpowering the flavor.

Verdict = Hold.

–George E

photo credit: N/A

Don’t be surprised if you begin seeing numerous reviews of the new Romeo y Julieta line, the Nicaraguan RyJ, as well as some giveaways. Altadis, the manufacturer, has engaged not only in the common practice of mailing three-pack samplers to cigar bloggers, it added a twist.

“We wanted this experience to be magical, that’s why the first 15 bloggers who send me the link of their magical, innovative, and creative RyJ reviews… will receive a box of the new RyJ to share with fans and friends,” RyJ’s brand manager wrote in a followup email.

The issue of freebies can be divisive in the cigar world. It led to a flap at IPCPR, some smokers resent bloggers and reviewers receiving samples, and small cigar makers often see them as their best way to gain exposure.

After spending my career at newspapers where ethics was always a concern, I may be a little more sensitive to this issue than many. As with so many things, the more you examine it the greater the complexity.

Flying around the world with the Secretary of Defense? Seems pretty simple that the Defense Department has to be reimbursed. Having a cup of coffee with a university president? Refuse to let him pick up the check and you run the risk of appearing to be a sanctimonious ass.

Most papers where I worked had guidelines on freebies. Often, there was a limit allowing accepting of things valued under $10 or $20 to avoid that cup-of-coffee conundrum. Perhaps the most common freebies were books and musical recordings, which could nearly inundate the newsroom. One placed I worked auctioned the collections off a couple of times a year and donated the proceeds to charity, another gave them to institutions such as VA hospitals.

What to do about cigars can, likewise, be vexing.

First, I must say that the bloggers I’ve met do this because they love cigars and the industry around them, not for what they might get. Frankly, I’d be very surprised if most of those RyJ boxes don’t end up as contest prizes for their readers. (That’s what we’d do with such a freebie.)

Second, I can’t really say how many samples most bloggers get, only that I’ve received a lot at IPCPR and a relative handful throughout the year. Third, without samples there’d be a lot fewer small-label reviews or even knowledge about those cigars. Fourth, my practice is generally to go through my humidor a couple of times a year, cull a pile of smokes, including freebies I’ve received, and dispatch them to the troops.

Here at Stogie Guys, we keep it pretty simple. We don’t go looking for free cigars. Sometimes, they arrive out of the blue; sometimes, manufacturers email first to ask if we’d be interested in doing a review. When we write about cigars, we make it clear if they were samples. (You can read all our policies here.)

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

Not being a Led Zeppelin fan, I wouldn’t know the drums in “When the Levee Breaks” from “Moby Dick.” Not that it really matters. We are, after all, smoking, not beating out a rhythm.

After a successful, but limited, debut in 2012, Headley Grange went on to become Crowned Heads’ second regular line. It is available in five regular vitolas and a limited edition drumstick, released earlier this year. The corona gorda is 5.6 inches long with a ring gauge of 46. I paid about $8 each for the most recent sticks.

The blend comprises a familiar combination: Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper with binder and filler from Nicaragua. Headley Grange, like Four Kicks, is rolled at Ernesto Perez-Carrillo’s Tabacalera La Alianza factory in the Dominican Republic. I consider that the cigar world’s equivalent to the Good Housekeeping Seal when it comes to quality and consistency, and it surely is in this case.

From appearance to draw, burn line to ash, Headley Grange is first-rate. My initial smoking impression was that this cigar is a bit milder than Four Kicks and that held up throughout. The predominant flavor is deep, rich tobacco with a light layer of spice at the back of the throat.

About halfway down, Headley Grange ramps up a bit, becoming, in fact, a bit sharp. That quickly dissipates, though, and by the final third, it’s again smooth with just a little spice.

This cigar is well worth trying. Descriptive words that come quickly to mind are satisfying, rich, and deep. What I don’t think you’ll find are much complexity or surprises.

I give the Crowned Heads Headley Grange a paradiddle and a rating of three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Crowned Heads

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.”

With a name like Straight Jacket, you’d expect a cigar strong enough to wrestle you to the ground and wrap you around the throat. Couple it with Christian Eiroa, one of the fathers of modern full-strength cigars, and it would seem an even better bet. Surprisingly, I didn’t find it that way. Oh, the six-inch Toro is powerful, a spicy $9 smoke with a bit of pepper and a long, satisfying finish. But if it’s strength you crave, I’d recommend Eiroa’s eponymous line. Just don’t ignore Straight Jacket. Or you’ll miss an immensely enjoyable smoke.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

photo credit: N/A

I once tried smoking my way through a large number of La Flor Dominicanas. Of course, with so many lines, new releases, and limited editions, there was no way I’d get them all.

With Crowned Heads, it’s a much different story, although I still may not make a sweep. That’s because of special editions, such as Mule Kick and Drumstick, that aren’t easy to find. But I can certainly get through the standard lines: Four Kicks, Headley Grange, and J.D. Howard Reserve.

Four Kicks is rolled in the Dominican Republic by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo and was Crowned Heads’ debut production after Jon Huber left CAO and formed the new company.

The Corona Gorda measures 5.6 inches long with a ring gauge of 46. Retail is about $7 individually and $150 for a box of 24. The binder and filler are Nicaraguan and the wrapper is an Ecuadorian Habano.

As with much of Crowned Heads, there’s an interesting mix of old and new. For example, the name comes from a Kings of Leon song, while the intricate red and gold embossed band wouldn’t look out of place on a mid-century Cuban.

I smoked a couple of Four Kicks not long after they came out a couple of years ago—check out the 4.5-stogie review by Patrick S. from that time—but only recently devoted the care and attention necessary to do a review. As you’d expect, the basics are well covered: construction, draw, burn, and smoke production are first-rate. Every one I’ve smoked has performed the same.

When it comes to taste, Four Kicks is a bit different. There’s a range of spices but little of the pepper often associated with Nicaraguan tobacco. While some elements, such as a sweetness, appear and disappear, complexity is achieved more by a variation of the intensity of the spices as you smoke. The finish is light and smooth. I found lighting with a cedar spill successful as the woody flavor mixes well with the spices.

The best compliment I can give Four Kicks is the more of them I smoke, the more I enjoy them. For me, the Crowned Heads Four Kicks Corona Gorda earns four stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys