Last month I was fortunate enough to be one of the first to review the Isla de Cuba Classic Belicoso. I found it to be an excellent smoke with a delicious flavor profile and an all-around quality feel. Today I examine the other line from the new Tampa-based boutique manufacturer: Aged Maduro.

Like the Classic blend, Isla offers its Aged Maduro cigars in five traditional vitolas – Corona, Robusto, Toro, Belicoso, and Churchill. Both lines first hit retailers after the company launched in February to bring old Havana favorites back to the U.S. market. President Darryl Lieser was nice enough to participate in our Cigar Insider series on May 5, and he’s reportedly working hard to build the brand’s credibility and get Isla’s blends noticed by retailers across the nation.

With a Connecticut broadleaf maduro wrapper, a broadleaf binder, and proprietary filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, Aged Maduro is clearly the heavier of the two lines. The Robusto measures five inches with a 52 ring gauge and boasts the same quality feel I noticed in the Classic: firm to the touch yet clear in draw. The dark, almost seamless wrapper is dry and a bit granulated.

Isla’s promotional materials say the Aged Maduro cigars are bold with “subtle notes of rich sweetness.” Based on my experience with two Robustos, I’d have to agree. Given its prelight aroma, the smoke starts just as you’d expect with a black pepper spice, some cashew creaminess, and a typical maduro sweetness. I find the whole effect to be akin to the taste of rich espresso. Clove and cocoa bean flavors kick in at the halfway mark, and the smoke remains full-flavored, but never harsh, until the nub.

To the cigar’s credit, its physical properties resemble those of the Classic Belicoso. The burn is either very straight or self-correcting, the foot stays lit when left unattended, the draw is true, and the white ash is solid and strong.

I am impressed with this blend and the brand as a whole, and I think pessimists who question Isla’s prices will be pleasantly surprised. With a price tag of $146.25 per box of 25 at JR, the Aged Maduro Robusto may not be the very best value in all of cigardom, but it’s certainly a damn good one. I give it a well-deserved four out of five stogies.

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

-Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Michigan is now one step closer to a statewide smoking ban. Last week, in a surprise move, the Senate quickly passed the statewide ban that had been languishing in committee.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm praised the bill’s passage, saying it “sends a strong message across Michigan and the nation that we place a high priority on the health of our citizens” and promised to sign any smoking ban that came across her desk. Never mind that the science doesn’t support the contention that smoking bans help non-smoking citizens.

Business groups, particularly restaurants and bars, argued against the legislation:

The Senate action was an unexpected setback for opponents of the ban, led by the Michigan Restaurant Association. The group’s spokesman, Andy Deloney, called a statewide smoking ban unwarranted government regulation that hurts Michigan’s business climate.

Deloney said nearly 5,100 Michigan restaurants and taverns - about one of three - prohibit smoking, an increase of 130% in the last 10 years. He said owners made the switch to accommodate customers.

In other words, there is no shortage of completely smoke-free establishments, not to mention the fact that many places have non-smoking sections.

The leading advocate for the smoking ban was state Senator Ray Basham, who has been trying to pass a statewide ban for a decade. Basham’s leadership on the ban is noteworthy because he has proven himself to be completely idiotic on the issue of smoking (and particularly cigars).

Last month Michigan Sheriff Michael Bouchard confiscated thousands of counterfeit Cubans that turned out to be high quality non-Cuban cigars. Rather than simply destroy them, he sent them to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Altadis and General Cigar also chipped in thousands of cigars for the troops.)

In response to Sheriff Bouchard’s generous act, Basham had this to say: “It is sad that troops are being killed in Iraq, but it’s even sadder that someone would send cigars, which is also a killer.”

Anti-smoking activists in Michigan couldn’t have a better spokesman: Basham is another example of an anti-tobacco activist so dedicated to controlling the lives of others with his smoking ban that he would ignore scientific evidence, common sense, and even basic decency.

-Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

I enjoyed this Churchill-sized vitola considerably more than the torpedo-shaped No. 9. At seven inches with a 49 ring gauge, it provides several hours of sweet, earthy flavors with few sour or stale notes. The combination of an Ecuadorian Sumatra-seed sungrown wrapper and Dominican binder and filler tobaccos yields a straight burn and a firm white ash. Expect to pay around $6-7 apiece, and expect a long and pleasant smoke.

Verdict = Buy.

-Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

It should come as no surprise to regular StogieGuys.com readers that government-mandated smoking bans and the anti-tobacco zealots who advocate them get no sympathy here. We’ve made no secret of the fact that such invasive bans limit choice, violate private property, and are justified only by shoddy “science.”

So when I come across interesting stories about bar owners who either outright defy or creatively sidestep smoking bans, I have to applaud them. These entrepreneurs are rightfully taking steps to regain control of the establishments they risked so much for and worked so hard to open – much to the chagrin of bureaucrats and tobacco-hating buffoons. Below are three of my favorite smoking ban defiance stories from recent headlines; they range from courageous to downright ingenious:

1. Colorado Springs, CO: “Several bar owners around Colorado Springs refuse to go smoke free despite the state-wide smoking ban that’s been in effect for nearly two years. The owner of Murray Street Darts, Bruce Hicks, says he’s not stopping his customers from lighting up. He does however ask that they donate $1 if they do decide to smoke inside his bar. Hicks says he’s using the money to pay smoking tickets and lawyers. Hicks has been going to court to battle his smoking tickets and he believes he’s winning. ‘I’ve gotten 23 tickets and 19 of them have been dismissed so far,’ said Hicks.”

2. Blackpool, United Kingdom: “Hamish Howitt, 55, of Park Road, Blackpool, denied five counts of failing to prevent smoking in his Del Boy Sports Bar. Howitt, a non-smoker, was fined £1,950 and told to pay £2,000 costs. On Wednesday, Preston Magistrates’ Court was told that officers from Blackpool Council found Del Boy’s ‘thick with smoke’ on five occasions in November 2007. A board outside the premises read: ‘Our political conscience will not allow to put smokers and non-smokers on the street. It’s our choice.’ Howitt, who represented himself, said the Health Act 2006 was ruining his business and had left him ‘on the verge of bankruptcy.’”

3. Maplewood, MN: “A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions, as long as patrons are notified in advance. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them ‘actors.’ The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away – and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too. The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it’s on with the show.”

-Patrick A

photo credit: Flickr

The big event that we had been writing about and planning for over a month finally went down yesterday at Carpool in Arlington, Virginia. And I am happy to report that the DC Stogie Guys Cigar Smoke Out was a huge success.

While we had hosted a few of these events in the past, yesterday’s Smoke Out was particularly fun because our friends at Cuban Crafters generously provided free cutters and cigars from their Cameroon line for all attendees. Based on what I overheard, I think it’s safe to say everyone enjoyed the sticks, which boast mild, woody notes and a typical Cameroon sweetness.

But Cuban Crafters’ generosity didn’t end there. They also provided a three-finger black leather cigar case, a stainless steel cutter, a marble ashtray, and a 100-count humidor for us to give away in a free raffle. Stewart Cumbo, seen below, took home the grand prize.

Thank you once again to Cuban Crafters for making the event possible, and thank you to everyone who joined us for a great afternoon of cigars and camaraderie. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

-Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Despite the fact that StogieGuys.com is about cigars, not politics, we’ve spent considerable time and text communicating the evils of government-imposed smoking bans. And rightly so. When the state violates the private property rights of bar and restaurant owners in this unjustifiable fashion, it eliminates many occasions that would otherwise be perfect cigar opportunities.

It also eliminates liberty. I’ve written before that smoking bans, like many government regulations, present a slippery slope. These invasive laws – once relegated to restaurants, workplaces, and bars – have moved closer to our homes, cars, and other private places. Many anti-smoking zealots will not rest until tobacco is outlawed completely.

A recent BBC article signals the next trend in their indefensible crusade for more regulation and less personal freedom. A senior government advisor in England is publicly proposing that smokers be required by law to purchase a £10 ($19.61) permit to purchase tobacco.

Professor Julian Le Grand, a former adviser to ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, says that such a law would encourage smokers to quit. “You’ve got to get a form, a complex form – the government’s good at complex forms; you have got to get a photograph,” he said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Professor Le Grand goes on to say that “it’s a little bit of a problem to actually do it, so you have got to make a conscious decision every year to opt in to being a smoker…So if you just make it that little bit more difficult for them to actually re-start or even to start in the first place, yes I think it will make a big difference.”

These outrageous statements help demonstrate that the anti-smoking movement isn’t about secondhand smoke or public health; it’s about using the government to violate the rights of the minority. Politicians and bureaucrats think they know what’s best for smokers, and they will use their power to criminalize activities that they deem worthy of eradicating.

Thirty years ago, the concept of government-imposed smoking bans on a grand scale was almost incomprehensible. So is it all that insane to think that we’ll have to get permits to purchase cigars in the future?

-Patrick A

photo credit: Flickr