The 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.

Robert Caldwell’s Blind Man’s Bluff, introduced at the 2015 IPCPR Trade Show, broke from his earlier releases. It is not as strong, and it’s made in Honduras, at the factory where Davidoff rolls Camacho. The Magnum (6 x 60, $9.50) features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Honduran Criollo binder, and filler from Honduras and the Dominican Republic. It burns extremely slowly, though not perfectly. Flavors start with a nice spice that quickly fades, opening up to include the common Honduran leather along with burned coffee and some sweetness. A worthwhile smoke, though perhaps better in a smaller size.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

photo credit: Caldwell Cigar Co.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Warped Cigars had a breakout year in 2015. The company has been around for the better part of a decade, but in the past couple years it upped its game with a series of releases made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami and TABSA in Nicaragua.

Futuro was one of a handful of new releases from Warped at the 2015 IPCPR Trade Show in New Orleans last summer. Warped describes Futuro’s creation on its website:

“Future” is a collaboration between Warped x Casa Fernandez, but more specifically Kyle Gellis of Warped and Max Fernandez of Casa Fernandez, son of Eduardo Fernandez, owner of AGANORSA and Casa Fernandez. We originally began speaking about this project at the 2014 IPCPR and it took that much time to develop this concept and blend. We set out to create a profile that is unlike anything Warped or Casa Fernandez has done previously, utilzing 100% AGANORSA material from their “vault,” a selection of tobacco under lock and key and specifically for the Fernandez family.

The cigar uses a reddish-brown Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 wrapper, Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 binder, and Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 and Corojo ’99 filler tobaccos. It is made at TABSA.

Futuro will be offered in two vitolas, each of which sold in 20-count boxes: Selección Suprema (5.6 x 46, $8.75), and Selección 109 (6 x 52, $9.75). I smoked four Selección Supremas, the size and blend preferred by Kye Gellis, for this review.

The profile starts with an initial burst of creaminess before it settles into a woody flavor with light spice and hints of honey. Occasionally, I even pick up on a combination of flavors that reminds me of banana bread. As the medium-bodied cigar progresses, heavier spice and earth notes become more prominent. There are papery notes on the clean, relatively short finish.

The excellent construction on this cigar is a testament to the increased quality that the TABSA factory has been producing. The factory is now producing cigars for Illusione, Warped, Casa Fernandez, Foundation Cigar Co. (El Güegüense), and others.

With a combination of sweetness, spice, wood, and earth, this is a very enjoyable, complex, and balanced Nicaraguan puro. Add in excellent construction plus a fair price (under $9) and the Warped Futuro Selección Supremas earns our first five-stogie rating of 2016.

From its rough, rugged Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper to the intense finish, The Rake would be right at home at the poker table in the Long Branch Saloon.

The Rake is the second regular production line from MoyaRuiz, a small firm that has already made an impression in the cigar world with a couple of offbeat limited editions and its initial La Jugada line.

Like La Jugada, The Rake is a powerful smoke. With filler comprising four ligero leaves—two from Jalapa and two from Estelí—the surprise would be if it weren’t. (Details on the binder were not released.)

The Fix starts with spice and pepper and a bit of a back-of-the-throat scratch. For the first third, in fact, it seemed that might be its single distinguishing characteristic. Fortunately, though, that began to lessen as the second third began, opening up to some dark flavors like burned coffee, roasted nuts, and charred wood.

As I progressed down the box-pressed frame (5.6 x 46), there was lots of smoke, a slightly loose draw, and a not-so-great burn. The thick wrapper, at times, seemed almost fireproof.

The cigars are rolled at Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. The Rake comes in boxes of 20, with three sizes in addition to the Fix: Cut (5 x 52), Take (6 x 52), and Vig (6 x 60). The boxes and bands, like the names themselves, all reflect a connection to poker.

In announcing the line, Danny Moya said in a release that the band’s design was “inspired by the speakeasy peep hole found in many doors at underground gambling rooms, and the cigar box has two slots on the top of the box to resemble a rake box.”

I bought a five-pack ($47.50) back in the summer and smoked a couple then and a couple recently. Six months or so in the humidor seems to have made a little difference, especially in reducing sharpness.

With such a distinctive profile, I wouldn’t regularly smoke The Rake. But I would definitely pick one up on occasion for something different. I recommend it, especially in this size, and give it four stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys / MoyaRuiz

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

The original El Centurion blend was one of my favorite cigars, which has always given the second iteration an unfair standard to live up to. But after being impressed with the newer El Centurion H2K, I decided to revisit the cigar, which uses a Nicaraguan sun-grown Criollo wrapper. It has nice pepper and wood notes, but this particular stick suffered from a terribly tight draw that made multiple relights necessary. Given my experience with this blend and My Father cigars in general, I have every reason to think the fatal construction on this cigar was a fluke, and a rare one at that. Still, each Quick Smoke only evaluates a single sample, and this one was a dud.

Verdict = Sell.

–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.

Regius has gained lots of online buzz since entering the U.S. market from Great Britain. The Exclusivo, introduced in 2014, is billed as a “fusion of the old and new schools of cigar making” for American smokers. Four vitolas feature three large ring gauges and a Lancero Extra, each blended to suit the size. I paid about $12 for the Toro Extra (6.5 x 56). Made by the Plasencias in Nicaragua and distributed by Quesada, it’s a tasty, medium-strength Nicaraguan puro with wood, earth, spice, and a hint of sweetness. One complaint: Regius’ poor website. There are few to no specifics about the cigars, and the retailer page is woeful, failing to even include the Chicago shop where this line debuted. I had to rely on a Cigar Aficionado interview with the CEO.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

photo credit: Regius Cigars