The Stogie Guys

Cigars can appeal for any number of reasons. Some offer a terrific bargain, others the opportunity to savor a rare treat. One cigar might earn a top rank because it can be enjoyed day after day, while another stick might be the perfect complement to a great Scotch. Whatever the appeal, we all have cigars that we think are special.

We’ve decided to recommend some cigars we feel are particularly worthy of your attention and call them Gold Star Smokes. From time to time, we’ll clue you into three favorites – one from each member of the StogieGuys.com team. I guess you could consider anything posted here worthy of the Stogie Guys Hall of Fame, if such a thing existed.

Also, feel free to leave your own suggestions as comments, and we’ll consider adding them to future Gold Star Smokes posts.

Co-Founder & Editor in Chief Patrick A

My first choice for our Gold Star Smokes series was an instant classic the moment I took the inaugural puff. At six and ¼ inches with a 52 ring gauge, the Rocky Patel Vintage 1992 Torpedo is a well-aged Ecuadorian masterpiece with rich notes of dark roasted coffee beans and almond. It’s not cheap at $8.75, but clearly worth every penny. This has become my one go-to cigar for extra-special occasions.

Co-Founder & Publisher Patrick S

The El Rey Del Mundo Robisto Larga is a favorite of mine that I seem to rediscover every six months. Big (six inches with a 54 ring gauge) and packed full of rich earth and chocolate flavors, it is the best vitola from the El Rey Del Mundo brand that never seems to get a fair shake. The presentation – each Robusto Larga is wrapped in tissue paper – makes it seem like a present, and the obscuro wrapper underneath is a pleasure to look at too. This is truly a rare cigar that goes equally well on the golf course or after a fancy dinner. All this for the bargain price of about three dollars per stick.

Tampa Bureau Chief George E

The Punch Champion is a little four and ½ inch bowling pin of a cigar that’s just plain fun to smoke. Pick one up and I’ll bet it feels great. Enjoy the light aroma of cedar before you light it. Best of all, it’s got that Punch spice, but it doesn’t stop there; other flavors kick in along the way. You can usually find them for around $4 per stick.

–The Stogie Guys

In the wake of the latest G8 summit in Germany, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to reflect on the truly international nature of the cigar industry. After all, your average premium stogie is a great example of the benefits of globalization.

Take a moment and consider your favorite cigar. For the purposes of this article, I’ll choose my most recently reviewed go-to smoke: the Toraño Signature Collection Toro.

Maybe I’m just easily amused, but I think it’s remarkable that the stogie’s brown maduro wrapper was grown in Brazil while the binders and fillers are products of the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. All this from a company that has major operations in Mexico and Ecuador and sells most of its products in the United States.

Call me crazy, but sometimes when I sit down with one of these excellent cigars, I think about all the entrepreneurs, farmers, rollers, truck drivers, graphic designers, ink manufacturers, marketing professionals, and administrative support that went into transforming my stogie from idea to seed to leaf to finished product.

Then I think about all the people and skills that were required to make each cigar rolling implement, each farming tool, and each…well, everything. When you get right down to it, countless people play at least some minor role in the manufacture of each stick.

This got me thinking about one of my favorite short essays of all time: “I, Pencil” by Leonard E. Read. A quick read and completely worthwhile, it was first published back in 1958, but its message is as relevant now as it ever was.

The essay, written from the point of view of a pencil, goes on to explain how millions of workers – from loggers to miners to the numberless people who refined and fabricated each necessary component – have a hand in every pencil produced, no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others involved, and many of whom live thousands of miles apart.

Fascinating. At least to me, anyways. These truths are so easily applied to cigars (and most other products you can imagine for that matter) that each puff should be a wonderfully awe-inspiring delight. Well, maybe that’s a bit overboard. But you have to admit it is worth the thought every once in awhile.

Say what you will about the G8 and globalization (and, believe me, many people emphatically do), but I count myself lucky that millions of people take the time and effort to bring great cigars to my humidor – even if they don’t realize it.

–Patrick A

Tags: cigars

I recently downloaded another cigar database that offers all sorts of ways to categorize and characterize my smokes. It’s really quite impressive. And I’d be quite impressed by anyone who filled one out and kept it up to date. Even as I was opening the program for the first time, I knew I never would use it.

Oh, I’d like to. I think the information would be great to have. But the most I can muster is a half-hearted effort to write down the purchase date on a label and stick it to the cellophane. Even with that simple task, I’m probably just above the Mendoza line.

I got some insight into my “I’m such a dismal failure at properly indexing my cigars” condition last night when I pulled a Dominican Montecristo from my humidor. (It looked like a Robusto; I, of course, had recorded no information on that.) This was one to which I had affixed a date: May 2006. As I picked it up and admired the lovely brown wrapper, I began to wonder what a year in the box had wrought, so I took it out to the deck and lit up.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It burned slowly and absolutely straight. The smoke was luscious, the tastes varying throughout. Was it better than a Montecristo fresh from the box? Or one with six months – or two years – aging? To be honest, I don’t know. When I started smoking cigars, I took fairly extensive notes on each one that I smoked. Perhaps if I dug those little notebooks out I’d find a page or so on a Monte that I might be able to compare to that recent one.

But I’ve realized I’m not really interested in keeping all those records because, frankly, it seems just a little too much like work. Don’t get me wrong. I’m fascinated by such topics and will read and listen to other people’s cigar experiences almost endlessly. And when I’m reviewing cigars for StogieGuys.com, I do take careful notes.

When I’m just smoking for myself, though, I’d rather simply concentrate on that. The only records I maintain these days — and rather halfheartedly at that — are two expanding lists: favorites and those I want to try.

How about you? What sort of records, if any, do you keep? Are there diligent recorders of database data among our readers, or smokers as lackadaisical as I?

–George E

Tags: cigars

I’ve burned the last cigar in my excursion through cheap diversions, an unbanded Don Gregory Extreme. At $3 it was the most expensive of the five sticks I chose, and it was one of the worst.

The wrapper began to unravel at the foot not long after lighting. The cigar was rolled so tightly that the draw was about on par with trying to suck a quarter through a straw. I used a paper clip to open it up a little and got some smoke. That was unfortunate because it had a sharp, chemical taste that left a bitter finish. The bad taste did go away, though. About a third of the way down, the Extreme tightened up again and I got no smoke at all.

I was curious about the composition, so I peeled it apart after I gave up trying to smoke it. The wrapper was tissue thin and, somewhat to my surprise, the tobacco inside the binder appeared to be long filler.

The shape of this cigar was what attracted me to it at an outlet shop near my home. It was rolled to look like a Hemingway Short Story and the clerk said it had a Cameroon wrapper with Dominican filler. Its resemblance to the Fuente Hemingway — roughly the same four and 1/2 inch length, nipple foot, and tapered body — was about on par with writers like John D. MacDonald and Robert Ruark who copied Papa’s style without coming close to the substance.

Of course, for $3 I suppose one shouldn’t expect a masterpiece. But it would be nice if you could stop smoking and not have an aftertaste reminiscent of a mistake siphoning gasoline.

So, you may ask, what did I learn from smoking these cheapies?

Well, I think the main thing I took away from this experience is that there are cigar bargains to be had. But you’re rarely going to find them in the bargain bin. Really cheap cigars that are enjoyable — as opposed to not as bad as they could be — are rare.

Instead, look for a lower-priced line from a quality manufacturer, such as the new Oliva Serie series or General’s Sancho Panza lines. Spending just a little bit more money can make a big difference. Consider that I could have smoked a Padron 2000 for less than 50 cents more than my Don Gregory Extreme cost.

Also, you shouldn’t expect to enjoy a wide selection of low-priced cigars as you might more expensive sticks. I’d recommend you find one or two with a taste you enjoy and with consistent construction quality, a vital consideration purchasers too often neglect. Then buy by the box to lower the price even more.

Finally, we could all probably benefit by following the advice of Zino Davidoff: “Smoke less, but better…”

[Please click the following links to read Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV of this series.]

–George E

Tags: cigars

I imagine most of you are familiar with a number of boutique cigar makers, such as Bucanero and Pepin Garcia’s El Rey de los Habanos. But if you’re like me, there are many small operations whose names and cigars come as a complete surprise.

This is an effort to change that. I’ll start by listing three manufacturers whose names and/or cigars I’ve been introduced to. I hope you’ll contribute as well. I think it’s a great way to discover new sticks and to play at least a small, direct role in supporting the art of cigar making.

• Vegas de Santiago. This Costa Rican operation uses locally grown tobacco and imported leaf, producing four lines. They sell directly and offer a six stick sampler of three of their lines for a modest $14.95, including postage. I’ve enjoyed several of their cigars, particularly the Chaman.

• Tabacos de la Cordillera. Another Costa Rican operation, this one uses only tobacco grown on its own farm. It also sells direct and offers several samplers. I have yet to try these, but they’re on my list.

• El Original. A U.S.-made cigar, these beauties are produced by the Island Smoke Shop in Key West. They utilize tobacco from six countries and offer four cigar samplers in natural or maduro for $24.95, shipping included. This is another fine cigar I can recommend. Island also makes two other lines I haven’t yet tried: the Santiago Cabana and the budget Coral Reef line.

Now it’s your turn. What gems can you surprise us with?

–George E

If you’re looking for a truly cheap smoke — something to absently puff on while you’re mowing the lawn or to hand out to acquaintances who wouldn’t know Rocky Patel from Rocky Colavito — you could do worse than picking up a pocketful of Cuban Rejects.

Now don’t get me wrong. No one’s going to mistake a Cuban Reject for a Cuban puro, unless they’ve been smoking something mind-altering beforehand. But you aren’t going to get sick either. OK, I realize that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but don’t forget we’re talking about a stogie that you can get for just a shade over a buck.

The biggest problem I had with the six inch by 50-ring gauge Toro maduro I tested was the smoke. It was extremely light and thin. The cigar wasn’t plugged. The draw, while a bit tight, wasn’t bad, and the burn was straight. The Reject just didn’t make much smoke.

It also didn’t generate a lot of taste. I’d put it among the mildest of cigars, with the taste almost exclusively of light tobacco. On the other hand, one of the few consistencies among really cheap cigars is that they aren’t at all consistent. Who knows what your Cuban Reject might be like?

I was curious about the cigar, since there’s not a lot of information on the web about it — and what little there is often conflicts. So, I called Phillips & King International, the tobacco distributor that imports and sells Cuban Rejects.

The cigar was introduced in 2005 and, in addition to the Toro, comes in a Churchill (7×48) and a Robusto (5×50), all in natural or maduro. The cigar, as you can see from the photo of its innards on display, is a mixed filler made with all Nicaraguan tobaccos, according to Phillips. Though I wondered if it was machine bunched with the wrapper applied by hand, a Phillips spokeswoman told me the Rejects are all handmade. She also said they can barely keep up with demand, moving them out of the warehouse as quickly as they arrive from the factory in Nicaragua.

I paid $1.35 for my Toro. If you check online, you’ll find them available in bulk — up to 200 at one site! — for as little as $1.05. Or visit some shops in your area that carry a wide range of tobacco products, not just premium cigars. I bet you’ll see a batch of the bandless Cuban Rejects.

Now, whether you want to buy one or not, I leave up to you.

Next up is the final installment on our Cook’s tour through the world of ultra-cheap cigars. Or, as I like to think of them, penny premiums.

[Please click the following links to read Part I, Part II, or Part III of this series.]

–George E

Tags: cigars

In my trek through the subterranean world of cheap cigars, the Alcazar represents a step up. It’s not a huge step, though. We’re not talking about going from Woolworth’s to Saks. More like Big Lots to Kmart.

Unlike many of the ultra low-cost cigars – which wouldn’t be seen, much less stocked, in most cigar shops – Alcazars are relatively easy to find. Perhaps that’s due to their connection to the storied Fuente line. As noted on the company’s website, the “Nicaraguan Alcazar bundle” brand is produced by “partners” of the J.C. Newman Cigar Co.

It’s apparent that the Alcazar is named for a horse. Other cigars in the past also sported the moniker. Curious, I did a little research and found at least one dozen thoroughbreds with the name. But then I read that an earlier cigar honored a trotter named Alcazar famous in the late 1800s, and I’m guessing that’s the equine lineage represented by these sticks.

For a stogie readily available for less than $2 when purchased in lots of 20 (I paid $2.75 for my Alcazar No. 4 Maduro at a local shop), the cigar appears surprisingly nice. It has a dark, rough look. The cap had been applied nicely and punched easily. The draw was straightforward, it lit evenly, and the burn was straight from start to finish.

The real trouble began when I started to actually smoke the five inch by 52 ring gauge cigar. The smoke was thin. But I could at least see it so I knew I was smoking. Otherwise, I’d have thought I was simply breathing. When it comes to a lack of taste, Alcazar occupies the winner’s circle. Bland, flat, flavorless, tasteless, dull, boring, vapid. Take your pick.

Fortunately, the Alcazar burned rapidly, so I was able to reach the last third fairly quickly. Unfortunately, my hope that the profile would change along the way was unfulfilled.

I plan to let Alcazar remain in the pasture, alone and undisturbed.

Next up on my highlights of low-cost cigars: a Cuban Reject that stands in at six inches with a price tag of $1.35

[Read part 1 and part 2 of George’s continuing series on cheap cigars.]

–George E

Tags: cigars