The Stogie Guys

Summer officially starts this Friday, so now is the time to prepare for the hot season of cigar smoking. With that in mind, here’s a StogieGuys.com  guide to summer:

Summer-proofing your cigars

Heat and humidity put your cigar collection at risk and, depending where you live, you’re likely to face one or both this summer. If you don’t adequately address these threats, you might end up with a beetle infestation.

To avoid that, here are some tips for keeping your cigars cool during the hot months. If you want to take things further, check out these tips for prepping your cigars, including freezing cigars to prevent cigar beetles. You can also transform a wine fridge into a large humidor. But no matter what, you’d be well-advised to perform the simple salt calibration test to ensure your hygrometers are accurate.

Summer leisure activities

Now that your cigars are protected, let’s get out and have some fun. (It’s better than freezing in the cold, right?)

Thinking about some camping on the beach? Here are a few tips to make it a good trip if you want to enjoy a few cigars.

Here at StogieGuys.com we’re also big believers that baseball and cigars go together well. (If the Mets ever win another pennant they could even celebrate like this again.)

Another natural summer pairing is golf and cigars. Here are a few ideas for selecting a golf course smoke, including making sure you bring enough if you get stuck behind a particularly slow group. Finally, we’ve explored the surprisingly wide range of gadgets designed just to hold your cigar on the course, which can be fun but certainly aren’t necessary.

Summer beverages

Chilled beverages are good for summer and good for cigars. Here are five summer beers you can pair up with a cigar.

You can’t go wrong with a properly made margarita, but rum is one of the best spirits for summer. Here are five classic rum drinks, including the Dark n’ Stormy and Mount Gay Tonic. If you prefer something straight-up or on the rocks, we highly recommend El Dorado 15, Cruzan Single Barrel, Ron Zacapa 23, or Zaya 12.

-Patrick S

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.”

This cigar (5 x 60) has been sitting in my humidor for a few years, probably since around the time my colleague wrote a full review. It features Nicaraguan viso and ligero, along with Dominican piloto cubano and olor, wrapped in a Brazilian arapiraca leaf. The cigar has a loose, easy draw. It’s slightly lumpy but still has excellent combustion. The flavors are leather, earth, coffee, and a hint of syrup-like sweetness. While I’ve never been a huge fan of this thick of a cigar, the Marco V Platinum is a well-made, pleasant smoke.

Verdict = Buy.

-Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Every year, cigar companies create many new lines. (You could argue there are too many new cigars and not enough attention to older lines.) The plethora of new cigars means cigar makers register a lot of trademarks in order to protect their brand names once they are released.

Those same trademark registrations give us a hint of what new blends companies may be releasing, especially with the IPCPR Trade Show taking place next month. Of course, many will never turn into anything, but others will become flagship brands. Take a look at this 2010 article about trademark registrations and you’ll see Drew Estate’s Undercrown and Alec Bradley’s American Classic long before the cigars ever were released.

Some trademarks are pretty obvious as to who the owner is. For example, “Flor de Antillas Sun Grown” or “Prohibition by Rocky Patel.” Others are seemingly random.

So to have a little fun, here’s a quick eight-question quiz to see if you can guess who registered which trademark. You’ll find the answers on the last page.

In the comments, let us know which trademark names you are most excited about possibly becoming a new cigar.

-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.”

If memory serves, I received this cigar (7 x 47) as a pre-release sample back when it came out in 2009, only a little before my colleague reviewed the pyramid size. The now discontinued blend celebrates Louis Tiant’s 1968 season with the Cleveland Indians, a year in which he won 21 games. It has a Sumatra-seed Ecuadorian wrapper and a Nicaraguan Habano binder with three different ligeros from Nicaragua and seco tobaccos from both Nicaragua and Honduras. The result (after almost four years of age) is a medium-bodied smoke with an interesting combination of earth and a damp Davidoff-esque musty flavor. The legendary Cuban pitcher is now working with Don Pepin Garcia for his El Tiante lines, and while I also enjoy those cigars (though they are very different profiles) I would be pleased if I found a few more of these in the bottom of my humidor.

Verdict = Buy.

-Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Despite the hundreds of bourbons on the market under an almost countless number of brands, nearly all of them come from not more than a handful of distilleries. Pure Kentucky is no exception, only you don’t know exactly which one it comes from.

That’s because the “small batch” Pure Kentucky is bottled and aged by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD) which, despite the name, doesn’t distill any of the bourbon it sells (at least not yet, although it has recently opened its own distillery). It does, however, bottle many well-known bourbons including Noah’s Mill, Willett, and Rowan’s Creek. (For more on the sometimes controversial phenomenon of non-distiller producers read here and here.) KBD is open about the fact it doesn’t actually distill what it bottles, and as long as they’re honest, it really doesn’t bother me.

What’s important is what the consumer buys, and if they enjoy it. According to the back label, Pure Kentucky is 12-year-old (or older) bourbon bottled at 107-proof. Available for $30-35, it has the potential to be a great value considering many similarly aged bourbons cost quite a bit more.

My bottle came from batch QBC No. 12-121 (there have been reports of significant variation between batches). Once you open the slightly infuriating plastic cap beneath a layer of blue wax, the copper-colored spirit reveals a nose of molasses, oak, and mint. The flavors are overly woody with vanilla, lots of wood spice, and a good bit of mouthfeel. The finish continues the woodiness as it lingers for seemingly a minute on your tongue.

There is a school of thought in bourbon that after nine or ten years, aging becomes detrimental to flavor. Obviously, such excellent bourbons as Van Winkle, AH Hirsch, and Jefferson’s Presidential Select 18 are the counter to that. But Pure Kentucky might be a case for limited aging, as the barrels seem to have overpowered this spirit, sapping its complexity and leaving mostly old tasting wood and spice flavors behind.

Curiously though, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a bourbon I wouldn’t pick up again. That’s because when mixed with younger bourbon it can add that well-aged flavor that can be so hard to find. (I’ve experimented with combining it with many other straight bourbons and found my favorite to be equal parts Maker’s Mark and Pure Kentucky. The result is, in my opinion and others I’ve shared it with, a reasonably close approximation of the impossible-to-find Pappy at an average cost of $30 a bottle! Try it and let me know if you agree.)

As for cigar pairings, in its pure form it requires a strong, full-flavored, spicy cigar to hold up to the spice, like a La Flor Dominicana Air Bender or Opus X. When you start playing mad chemist and mixing and matching, the possibilities become limitless.

-Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

[Note: The following is one of a series of articles regarding StogieGuys.com's recent visit to Nicaragua as part of Drew Estate's Cigar Safari. Read all our Cigar Safari articles here.]

One of the more interesting nuggets from the trip was Drew Estate CEO Steve Saka telling me that if production capacity allowed, he has as many as a dozen blends he thinks are market-ready. Here, I will look at some potential upcoming blends from Drew Estate.

First, one important note: I’ve only smoked one sample of each of these cigars (some in Nicaragua and some upon my return) and they may or may not be the final blend; so what follows are (obviously) not reviews, or even Quick Smokes.

My Uzi Weighs a Ton Kentucky Fire Cured

This is the “Beef Jerky” cigar (or at least a variation of it) that Saka first told me about at the 2010 IPCPR Trade Show. While you won’t see it in Drew Estate’s marketing copy—almost certainly for trademark reasons—I expect this cigar to be known by most smokers as simply “Uzi KFC” or just “KFC,” which certainly has a familiar ring to it. The blend, which I’m led to believe is pretty much finalized since it has been officially announced for the 2013 Trade Sshow, uses up to three different fire-cured tobaccos, including one as a cap for the wrapper that imparts flavor directly on the mouth. The fire-cured tobaccos definitely have a smokey, mesquite aroma and flavor, but those flavors weren’t as dominant as I thought they might be. It’s definitely different, but I for one look forward to trying more.

Drew Estate Nica Rustico

This cigar uses a unique strand of tobacco that grows wild in Nicaragua that comes from a different variation of the tobacco species than is normally used in cigars. It was described as having rough characteristics and that certainly is true from the sample I smoked. I would describe it as gritty, rustic, slightly vegetable, and even a bit grating. Those characteristics come on a bit strong at first, especially for smokers who value balance in their cigars, but it does seem to mellow slightly as the cigar continues (though perhaps just because you become accustomed to it). I find this to be an even more unique cigar than the KFC and more likely to be either loved or hated by each particular smoker.

Herrera Estelí Maduro

Possibly for release later this year, this is the maduro project that is a derivation of the original Ecuador Habano-wrapped Herrera Estelí. Dubbed “WH Project M” on the test bands, it sure seems like a finished product to me. It features medium- to full-bodied flavors and adds earth and dry chocolate to the basic profile of the original Herrera Estelí. Whether it’s just the Estelí Herrera with a different wrapper or a more extensively tweaked blend, I’m not sure. (I’d certainly believe the former, but knowing Drew Estate’s attention to detail the latter seems more likely.) Like Willy Herrera’s projects before and at Drew Estate, it maintains the Cuban-esque style he is known for. This is my favorite of the the blends listed here.

“WH Cuadrado”

This is another blend created primarily by Willy Herrera. It would be his first box-pressed cigar, hence “Cuadrado,” which translates to square. Herrera told me he’s always wanted to create a box-pressed smoke. The cigar starts very full-bodied before rounding out slightly, though it’s certainly more full-bodied than his other blends while keeping in the Cuban style.

-Patrick S

photo credit: JonathanDrew1/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 Nicaraguan puro from Alec Bradley and made at Nestor Plasencia’s factory features a sun-grown Habano wrapper from Jalapa. The dark leaf is a stark reminder of the difference that location makes, as it’s one of the darker Habano wrappers I’ve seen (especially compared to Ecuador, which also grows a lot of Habano wrapper). It started out with a burst of bitterness, but fortunately that fades relatively quickly leaving blend dominated by dry earthy flavors. Construction was free of any problems. It’s a decent smoke at a reasonable price ($4.75) but hardly inspiring.

Verdict = Hold.

-Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys