The Stogie Guys

The airport in Providence, Rhode Island, is remarkable in at least one way. You can stroll out the front door, walk for just a few minutes, and find yourself at a commercial highway with bars, restaurants, gas stations, and other enterprises. With the weather too chilly and damp for outside smoking, I decided to use the time I had during a stopover there to eat a quick meal.

I went to an Irish pub and sat at the bar, dropping my briefcase on the adjacent stool. The bag I use is an old one emblazoned with the name of my former employer. The bartender noticed it and asked if I was reporter. I told him I’d retired a few years back and complimented him on his sharp eye. He said he was particularly attuned to it because a former Washington Post reporter had stopped in between flights recently, and they’d talked about a book he’d written. I laughed and said about the only thing I wrote about these days was cigars.

“Oh, you smoke cigars?” he said. “I do, too.” He went on to tell me he enjoyed Fonsecas, sometimes worked at a local shop, and was impressed with the selection at a local cigar store chain. I gave him one of my Stogie Guys business cards and told him about the site. He said he’d check it out.

As I left, I laid a cigar down with the tip. I was glad I had a couple with me because it seemed just the thing. I hope that when he got a chance to smoke, it brightened his day as much as he did mine that gray, wet afternoon. Is there anything else that can create instant camaraderie like a cigar?

–George E

photo credit: Flickr

Not long ago I heard a radio interview with famous wine critic Robert Parker. Parker’s influence is so great that wines rated above 90 in his Wine Advocate, and particularly above 95, can increase in value many times because of the rating. According to one Bordeaux shipper, “The difference between a score of 85 and 95 [for one wine] was 6 to 7 million Euros” and a “bottle rated 100 can multiply its price fourfold.”

Because of this extraordinary influence many people have bemoaned what is called the “Parkerization” of wine. Some winemakers, including in the famous Bordeaux region of France, reportedly blend wines to Parker’s palate—which is described as favoring robust, fruit-forward wines. The huge influence wielded by Parker has resulted in stories of him being offered sexual favors of the daughters of two chateau owners, and also being attacked by a winemaker’s dog in response to a poor rating.

With such a singular palate exerting such influence over the wine industry, one can’t help but wonder might there exist a similar “Parkerization” of the cigar industry?

If there is, surely the source of such influence is Cigar Aficionado. By far the most widely read cigar magazine, CA is widely cited as one of the driving forces for the cigar boom of the 1990s that brought premium cigars back into popular culture and drastically increased the number of smokers.

One well-respected industry source told me that he thinks that some cigar makers actually design cigars with the preferences of Cigar Aficionado’s tasters in mind. And there is no doubt an extremely high rating in CA can drastically increase the demand of a cigar. One retailer told me the 95 rating for the Rocky Patel Decade earlier this year led to a serious shortage of the cigar, as consumers scooped up the highly-rated smoke.

But such influence isn’t necessarily bad if it accurately reflects the good and the bad. The problem is that cigars are so subjective. One must wonder if a tasting panel of a handful of people can rate cigars without their personal biases effecting the rating. My own take is that CA seems to place too much value on bold, forward flavors while discounting the subtlety that I believe differentiates the best cigars.

This subjective nature of rating cigars means that it is unwise for someone attribute much to the difference between an 88 and a 90-rated cigar. And quite frankly I’d feel sorry for the person who only smoked 93 and up rated cigars as determined by CA, as they would be missing out on so many fantastic smokes.

So whether reading our reviews, Cigar Aficionado‘s, or any other publication’s ratings, it is important to use the ratings only as guideposts—not gospel. Identifying a truly poor cigar isn’t all that hard, but separating the good from the exceptional is not nearly as easy and is far more subjective. We try and deal with that here at StogieGuys.com by giving not just a cigar’s name, a sentence or two, and a numerical rating, but by providing the depth that gives an insight into our thinking about the cigar we’re reviewing. (We also attribute every review to a specific writer so, over time, you might learn how a particular reviewer’s palate and tastes corresponds to your own.)

Ultimately, there’s a reason we have a saying around Stogie Guys: “The best cigar is the one you like best.” And to find the cigars you like the best, there’s no substitute for educating yourself about cigars, being willing to try new smokes, and learning not only what you like, but why. Cigar Aficionado may be a piece of that puzzle; making that publication the only piece, however, does the true cigar aficionado a disservice.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Cigar Aficionado

It’s been over nine months since the StogieGuys.com team published a new list of Gold Star Smokes. As you might recall, this special designation celebrates cigars that we feel are worthy of strong recommendations. They don’t necessarily have to be five stogie-rated—just commendable smokes we turn to time and again.

In our previous two Gold Star Smokes articles, we’ve highlighted cigars like the Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 Torpedo, El Rey Del Mundo Robisto Larga, Punch Champion, EO 601 Serie “Green” La Fuerza, Montecristo Petit Edmundo, and the Cuban Crafters Cameroon Robusto. Today we select three more.

Co-Founder & Editor in Chief Patrick A

The Blend 376 Robusto Extra from boutique manufacturer Isla de Cuba is a stunning cigar with an uncanny resemblance to an upscale Padrón. This box-pressed beauty features a full-flavored yet smooth taste of nuts, leather, and coffee and impressive construction. Don’t think twice about picking up this blend of Mexican, Honduran, and Nicaraguan tobaccos for about $7 apiece.

Co-Founder & Publisher Patrick S

Fuente makes some great smokes, including some exceptionally rare ones. My favorite, though, is the King B. This well-proportioned, cedar-wrapped torpedo is the best from Fuente’s impressive, under-appreciated Sun Grown line. With equal parts cedar, sweetness, and spice, it is both full-flavored and exquisitely balanced. And for around $6 each it punches well above its weight class.

Tampa Bureau Chief George E

With a line that seems to encompass an endless array of vitolas, La Gloria Cubana’s Medaille d’Or No. 1 Maduro isn’t the easiest to find. But it’s worth the search. A long, thin cigar, it produces an array of flavors including earth, leather, and coffee. They’re also very reasonably priced; a box of 25 can be found for less than $70.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Stogie Guys

The other day I had a little time for a smoke, so I began looking through my stash for a small cigar. But before finding one, I noticed a green thing, roughly robusto-sizes, that had been there for quite awhile: an Iguana from Thompson that I almost certainly picked up at one of their cigar events I’ve attended. I thought, “Hey, I’ll give it a try. If my memory of the last candela I smoked is correct, I won’t like it very much and it’ll end up being a short smoke.”

Well, I ended up smoking about half of it. In all honesty, it began fairly nicely. Mild, with a touch of sweetness and tobacco. But that didn’t last. The Iguana produced a lot of smoke—again, not what I recall from previous candelas—but it quickly became so dry and tasteless that I could imagine I was smoking dry pine needles rather than tobacco.

So, that leads to question number one: Does anyone smoke candelas on a regular basis?

The second question was prompted by a recent visit to a cigar shop where I found myself gazing at some of the pipes displayed on the wall. I smoked a pipe years ago during one of my attempts to quit smoking cigarettes. I enjoyed it but eventually gave up because of what seemed like too much process and too little enjoyment. Poking around on the web I found quite a few sites related to pipe smoking, two of the most interesting being the Old Toby podcast and the Bootleg Bon Vivant blog.

I haven’t taken up a pipe again, but I am thinking about. Hence, question number two: How many of you out there smoke pipes and how do you compare it to cigar smoking? I’m eager to read your answers.

–George E

photo credit: Old Toby

Here at StogieGuys.com, we highlight the most egregious smoking bans when we can. Telling you about every single one would be impossible given that there are smoking bans in literally thousands of jurisdictions.

We’ve seen government-imposed bans in restaurants, bars, casinos, cars, outdoors, golf courses, cigar shops, and even houses. Each is more ridiculous than the next. And who knows what’s around the corner?

As the following video points out, it wasn’t always this way. In fact, it was only ten years ago that California banned smoking in bars. Most people probably just figured that was California thing. Today, though, smoking bans have become a nationwide thing—something you’ll find in red and blue states, east and west states, north and south states, on the coasts and in middle America.

With smoking bans so clearly on the march, I suggest watching this timely eight-minute video, which discuses how we got here and where we might end up:

–Patrick S

video credit: Reason.tv

I’ve raved about the Tatuaje Havana VI Verocu No. 1 and No. 2 and explored the effects of aging cigars. So this is a little update combining the two.

I’ve had a few of these limited edition Tats in my humidor for close to a year. While that’s not a particularly long time for aging, I think, based on those I’ve recently smoked, it has had an impact. Unfortunately, I have to report that, for me at least, even this amount of aging hasn’t been kind to these sticks.

They have not become bad cigars. But the complexity and variety of flavors that set them apart isn’t present at the level it was before. And they just seem to have lost much of the zip that made them so special in the first place.

Now, the truth is I wasn’t “aging” these cigars. They’ve just been sitting there, as do many of my smokes, while I more or less get around to smoking them.

Nonetheless, I think it’s worth noting that although many cigars get better with aging, there is no guarantee. You may find that you liked the cigars better when you bought them.

I think it’s well worth remembering the advice given by cigar aging experts: Smoke one stick from the box periodically to see how they’re doing. I’d suggest every few months. That way you can quickly speed up your smoking schedule as soon you begin to notice the changes becoming negative rather than positive.

–George E

photo credit: Serious Cigars

There are, of course, many issues at stake in the election, and we probably won’t be voting solely on cigar-related policies. But that doesn’t mean cigar issues aren’t an important factor in who gets our vote. So here’s our take on who we think cigar smokers can trust to defend their rights.

As detailed in Monday’s article on Obama and McCain, neither candidate offers a particularly impressive agenda. When push comes to shove, we suppose McCain is marginally better on cigar issues as a whole, but not in a particularly meaningful way.

Not to mention that his record suggests he is likely to flip-flop on tobacco issues (after all, he spent a decade trying to jack up taxes on cigarettes before only recently opposing such a hike). So while the pragmatist in us says a begrudging vote for McCain, the idealist says there must be a better choice. And there is.

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr agrees with us on every important issue: taxes, regulation, smoking bans, trade, and Cuban sanctions. His position can be summed up with this quote: “Washington should leave smokers and other tobacco users alone.” Here, here!

And he’s a cigar smoker too, even talking about smoking cigars with Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report. All that makes it a real shame that he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected. Still, maybe a vote for Barr would help send a message that we smokers are tired of being mistreated by Washington.

But, in our opinion, far more important than who you support for president is who you support in your state and local races. These elections are easier for individual voters to impact, and this is the level where smoking bans are being passed at an alarming rate. By researching which candidates are for or against smoking bans and then getting involved, you can be an important factor.

Tell your cigar smoking friends which candidate is an ally of smokers’ rights and which is an enemy. Also, call up the campaigns to thank the good ones, as well as let the bad ones know that the smoking issue is why you won’t be supporting them. We suggest you do this year-round but, not surprisingly, politicians are likely to be most responsive to the views of their constituents just before an election.

Be your vote national or local in scope, we encourage you—our cigar smoking brethren—to put in a little effort and make sure your voice is heard. Only then can we expect the loathsome, self-interested politicians and bureaucrats at the federal, state, and local levels to heed our warning to respect our rights.

–Patrick A & Patrick S

photo credit: BobBarr2008