The Stogie Guys

If you are, like me, in the ever-increasing part of the country where the temperatures have taken a dive, then maybe you’re looking for a fun way to warm up. And what better way than a warm drink that also packs a little boozy kick? Here are my five favorites:

Hot Toddy — A classic that can be made with scotch whisky (save the single malt, use a blend), bourbon, or even brandy. It’s simple to make. Just add sugar, lemon, and cloves to boiling water and your spirit. (Feel free to swap in honey or cinnamon, or even look for a recipe that uses ginger ale.)

Stonewall Jackson — A simple classic consisting of hot cider and bourbon (but rye, Tennessee whiskey, or even spiced rum fill in nicely). Want to kick this up notch? Add some mulling spices to turn it into mulled cider. Just don’t boil the booze out.

Hot Buttered Rum — Perhaps my favorite of the bunch, hot buttered rum is a little more complicated to make than the above drinks, but you’ll find that it’s really not too difficult. If you want, you can make a batch of the batter ahead of time (it will last in the freezer) or just make it as you go directly into a mug.

Mexican Hot Chocolate — While there are lots of recipes out there, “normal” Mexican hot chocolate is spicy and intense with unsweetened chocolate, cinnamon, and chiles. Adding some tequila kicks it up a notch. While I use something similar to this recipe, I might also add a splash of Cointreau.

Spiked Coffee — There are plenty of variations of the basic coffee (milk and sugar optional) with booze. Coffee or chocolate liqueurs are particularly popular options, although there’s nothing wrong with simply adding whiskey, rum, or brandy. Want a recommendation I picked up traveling in Mexico? Add goat milk caramel (you can buy it from Amazon) to coffee and Kahlua.

–Patrick S

photo credit: AccuWeather

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.”

Drew Estate’s Liga Privada gets all the attention, but a strong case could made that Herrera Estelí is the company’s most well-made cigar. The Cuban-esque smoke features roast nuts, cedar, cream, and just a hint of spice. It’s a medium-bodied blend that trades strength for balance and finesse. While Liga is the big, bold Bordeaux, Herrera Estelí is a sophisticated, restrained Burgundy. Depending on the time and place, each can be ideal.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

To say American whiskey is growing in popularity is an understatement. Over-production and glut of prior decades has been replaced with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for good bourbon and rye (and even quite a bit of well-marketed mediocre whiskey).

But there’s a catch: One of the key ingredients to good rye or bourbon is age in the barrel, and with the bourbon boom there are limited sources of well-aged whiskey. Even if you can find some aged product (or more likely procured some a few years ago when it was a little easier to come by) what you are buying is likely from the same source as what is already being sold in a different bottle with a different label.

Case in point is the Indiana distillery that uses the same 95% rye recipe to supply straight rye for Redemption, Angel’s Envy, Templeton, Bulleit, Dickel, Old Scout, High West, and others. To that list you can add Willett, although the company did start distilling its own bourbon and rye recently (but so far only a two-year rye has been deemed ready for the market).

So how does a company differentiate itself in this increasingly crowded market? Picking and identifying exceptional barrels is one way Willett built its reputation. Another way is with unique barrel finishes, which is what Willett is trying with it’s Exploratory Cask Finish (XCF).

These days one of my favorite rye whiskeys is the unique and bold Angel’s Envy Rye, finished in rum casks. It’s an interesting twist on the classic rye flavors, with sweetness and tropical spice layered over the distinctive Indiana rye flavors.

That’s why I was eager to try Willett’s XCF version 1.0, which starts with an 8-year-old Indiana rye that’s finished in casks used to make Grand Marnier, although (presumably for trademark reasons) it simply refers to as orange curacao.

The result is a deep gold color rye that has been cut down to 103.4-proof. The distinctive nose features orange peel, pickle brine, and floral spice.

The influence of the orange curacao continues on the palate with plenty of sour orange and clove. The finish is long with plenty of spice that lingers on the roof of the mouth

It’s an interesting combination that starts off intensely unique, even a bit bracing, but very quickly becomes deliciously familiar. It pairs perfectly with a woody, full-bodied Nicaraguan cigar like the RoMaCraft Aquitaine Mode 5 or La Antiguadad.

The only thing that would make me hesitate to recommend the Willett XCF is the price, which runs around $150, if you can find it. (I only procured a bottle because a friend happened to be near the distillery on the day it was released for sale.) That’s pretty steep, even in this overheated market. But if you enjoy Angel’s Envy Rye and want to taste an even more extreme example of cask finishing then XCF is well worth trying.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

On Monday, Florida Congressman Bill Posey introduced the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2015 (H.R. 662). The legislation, which Posey also introduced in 2011 and 2013, would prevent the Food and Drug Administration from regulating handmade cigars.

The FDA is close to finalizing a rule that would subject cigars to FDA oversight, including a pre-approval requirement that would likely halt the introduction of new cigars. (One FDA proposal would apply all cigars to the pre-approval process, while another would exempt non-flavored cigars over $10.)

The 2011-12 version of the bill gained support from a majority of the House of Representatives, while the 2013-14 version had 145  co-sponsors. Posey’s 2015 legislation was introduced with 34 original co-sponsors, which groups like the IPCPR and CRA will seek to build on over the next two years.

Even if the bill isn’t passed and signed into law, significant Congressional support would send a strong message to the FDA that many elected officials in Congress, which has oversight and funding authority over the legislation, don’t want the FDA to to extend its authority over handmade cigars.

The following bi-partisan group of Representatives are the 34 original co-sponsors of the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2015:

Rep Bilirakis, Gus M. [FL-12]
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7]
Rep Brady, Robert A. [PA-1]
Rep Buchanan, Vern [FL-16]
Rep Calvert, Ken [CA-42]
Rep Cardenas, Tony [CA-29]
Rep Castor, Kathy [FL-14]
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1]
Rep Cole, Tom [OK-4]
Rep Collins, Chris [NY-27]
Rep Costa, Jim [CA-16]
Rep Diaz-Balart, Mario [FL-25]
Rep Foxx, Virginia [NC-5]
Rep Graves, Sam [MO-6]
Rep Grayson, Alan [FL-9]
Rep Griffith, H. Morgan [VA-9]
Rep Harris, Andy [MD-1]
Rep Hastings, Alcee L. [FL-20]
Rep Hunter, Duncan D. [CA-50]
Rep Jolly, David W. [FL-13]
Rep Kelly, Mike [PA-3]
Rep Kinzinger, Adam [IL-16]
Rep Murphy, Patrick [FL-18]
Rep Murphy, Tim [PA-18]
Rep Pascrell, Bill, Jr. [NJ-9]
Rep Pompeo, Mike [KS-4]
Rep Rogers, Harold [KY-5]
Rep Roskam, Peter J. [IL-6]
Rep Ross, Dennis A. [FL-15]
Rep Royce, Edward R. [CA-39]
Rep Sessions, Pete [TX-32]
Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [GA-3]
Rep Wilson, Frederica S. [FL-24]
Rep Yoder, Kevin [KS-3]

If your Congressman is already a co-sponsor, contact them and thank them. If not, contact them and demand they become a co-sponsor. (Unsure who your representative is? Find out here.) Read an example of a letter to Congress in support of the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act here.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Best Price Cigars

The cigar smokers of Nebraska are coming together with national cigar organizations to fix the cigar bar issue in Nebraska. A new bill is moving forward that should address the state law that led a court to eliminate the exemption for cigar bars.

The Nebraska Supreme Court found the exemptions violated the state’s prohibition on special legislation, or laws that are not equally applied in pursuit of the law’s stated goal. The court found that since the law’s goal was to protect employees from secondhand smoke, there was no reason why it shouldn’t also “protect” cigar bar employees.

Now common sense says cigar bar employees are fully aware that they would be working around cigar smoke, plus their job won’t exist very long if a cigar bar can’t let patrons smoke. So it certainly will be a good thing when the Nebraska legislature amends their law so their intention to exempt cigar bars will survive any legal challenges.

Still, I can’t help but feeling that there are lessons to be learned from this episode.

While the result—banning smoking in cigar bars—may have seemed odd, the court wasn’t totally wrong when it said if the only goal of the ban was to protect employees from second hand smoke, then there is no reason for any exemptions. In fact, there’s a level of consistency to a blunt, across-the-board ban.

Once you’ve conceded the premise that government should be protecting workers from making their own decision about whether to work in a place that allows smoke, there isn’t a logical reason for that paternalism to stop when it comes to places whose business model is catering to cigar smokers. If restaurants and bars are included, why not cigar lounges? Why not cigar shops?

It’s important to make a principled stand against smoking bans. After all, they strip adults from making the choice to be around tobacco, which is after all a 100% legal product. If the owner of a furniture store wants to allow smoking, and consumers and workers choose to be there, that should be their right. If that sounds like a dumb idea to you, well that’s what the free market is for: to allow businesses to succeed or fail based on their ability to attract customers.

None of which is to say that exemptions for cigar shops, cigar bars, and other places aren’t important; those exemptions limit the damage done by smoking bans, which can destroy businesses and jobs. But when a smoking ban passes with certain exemptions, remember it isn’t a victory for cigar rights—just slightly less of a defeat.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

I’ve written before about aging whiskey in small barrels and the theories behind it. Some say it’s a shortcut to make a young whiskey taste like fine, well-aged whiskey, while others say it only makes lousy whiskey. As I’ve stated before, my feeling is the practice mostly produces a different kind of whiskey, very different but not necessarily lesser.

Tuthilltown Distillery, which makes the Hudson line, is certainly a believer in the mini-barrel aging method, as all their products are stored in 3-10 gallon barrels for “less than four years,” though they don’t disclose how much less. (I wrote about their Baby Bourbon and Four Grain Bourbon years ago.) Interestingly, the increasingly common practice of labeling young whiskey “less than four years old” will no longer fly under new federal labeling guidelines, meaning that an actual affirmative age statement will soon be necessary.

For this “limited edition” rye (word is it will become an annual release), Tuthilltown took its Hudson Manhattan Rye and finished it in casks that had previously been used to age maple syrup. The result is a 92-proof finished rye that sells for around $55 for a 375 ml. bottle (half the size of a traditional bottle).

Whether it’s the maple or the mini casks, the Hudson Maple Rye features an inviting rich copper color. The nose definitely has a added hint of maple on top of oak and wood spice.

But on the palate the youth shows. The woodiness is an astringent oak flavor that overwhelms more inviting notes of maple, maltiness, pear, and cocoa. The finish shows more young oak and maple.

I think a Mexican-wrapped cigar is ideal for this rye, as it has a similar quality of full flavor with a slightly harsh edge. The Illusione *R* Rothchildes is an excellent choice, especially with its value price.

Ultimately, it’s hard to recommend Hudson Maple Cask Rye to all but the most committed collector, mostly because the price and the harshness due to its youth. Still, one thing I really appreciate about this whiskey is the natural way Hudson handled adding a maple flavor, at a time when more sketchy, artificial methods of flavoring are becoming increasingly common.

–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 week I reviewed the Señor Rio Añejo and in the process I also smoked theDiamanté (which I reviewed in October) to compare and contrast the two cigar offerings from Jalisco International Imports. Of the two, Diamanté is the more balanced and well-rounded smoke, while Añejo is bolder and stronger. Diamanté features coffee flavors, bready notes, and a slight pepper spice, all in a small, odd shape (5 x 40). Particularly if you are a fan of A.J. Fernendez’s cigars (he helped blend and make Señor Rio), this is worth picking up.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys