The Stogie Guys

About one year ago, we reported Hendrik Kelner, Jr.—son of Henke Kelner of Davidoff fame—was releasing his own brand called Smoking Jacket Cigars. The inaugural release was the first cigar created in Kelner, Jr.’s newly opened Kelner Boutique Factory in the Dominican Republic. It was a blend of Dominican, Brazilian, Peruvian, and Nicaraguan tobaccos.

As is popular in the cigar industry, Kelner, Jr. is involved in other projects as well. One example is Cabal Cigars, a brand operated by Chris Arolfo who distributes Cabal out of a base in Houston. Over the past few years, Cabal’s availability has expanded to 24 cigar shops, most of which are in Texas. Other states with Cabal retailers include Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, and Washington.

Cabal—which means a group of like-minded individuals who gather for a common purpose or ideal—took two years to blend at the Kelner Boutique Factory. The result is a lineup of three regular-production sizes in the $6.50 to $8 range that Arolfo hopes many cigar fans will adopt as everyday smokes. (There’s also a single-vitola blend called Cabal Esoteric; Arolfo says this Robusto stood out so much in the blending process that it deserved its own identity).

The core Cabal sizes are Corona Gorda (5.5 x 46), Robusto (5 x 50), and Short Robusto (4 x 52). The latter, as the Cabal website notes, is “distinctly darker than the other Cabal vitolas… [because it] comes from a higher priming of the Dominican Bonao wrapper.” In addition to this dark Bonao wrapper, the Short Robusto sports double binders from Peru and the Dominican Republic surrounding a filler blend of Nicaraguan, Pennsylvanian, and Dominican tobaccos.

The Short Robusto is characterized by a fair amount of tooth, especially around the rough cap, and a heavy weight. The cold draw is smooth and the pre-light notes are earthy with a hay-like sweetness. Once lit, a leathery, medium-bodied profile emerges with background notes of coffee, roasted nut, and a cocoa sweetness. The impact is bold and complex—especially for such a small smoke—and the interplay between leather and sugar will likely be what grabs you. The hot, meaty notes that creep in towards the final third will be more forgettable.

I only smoked a single sample for this review, which is not typical for me, or for StogieGuys.com. So keep that in mind. But if my Short Robusto is any indication, you won’t encounter any construction issues when you try this smoke for yourself. My sample exhibits a straight burn, solid ash, smooth draw, and ample smoke production.

One of the finest compliments I can pay a cigar is writing that smoking one makes me want to fire up another. Clearly, the Short Robusto’s small stature makes it easier to say this because, by the time you’re done with this tiny smoke, you still haven’t tired of the flavors. That said, though, the Cabal Short Robusto is very impressive and affordably priced. That earns it a reputable rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Launched less than 18 months ago, the Sindicato Cigar Group had a lot of things a start-up cigar brand could only dream of. In addition to industry veteran Jim Colucci as CEO, the company had the backing of of a handful of the best-known cigar shops in the country right from the outset.

Sindicato has been busy in its first year launching three lines: Affinity, Hex, and their “premium bundle” Cassa Bella. Now the company is following up with its eponymous lines: Sindicato and (coming this fall) Sindicato Maduro.

I received two samples of the Sindicato blend when it began shipping to stores in early May. I smoked the Corona Gorda (5.5 x 48), one of six box-pressed sizes (MSRP $10.95).

The cigar is made by Casa Fernandez in Nicaragua under the direction of it’s master blender Arsenio Ramos. Although the press materials don’t say it, it almost certainly is made completely of Aganorsa tobacco (one of the premier Nicaraguan tobacco growers and suppliers, owned by Casa Fernandez owner Eduardo Fernandez.)

The Nicaraguan puro blend uses a shade-grown Corojo wrapper grown in Jalapa, dual binders from Estelí, and a combination of Jalapa and Estelí filler tobaccos. The wrapper is slightly mottled and reddish-brown in color.

Sindicato features classic woody spice that fans of Casa Fernandez will recognize; it’s a quintessentially Nicaraguan profile. In addition, I picked up flavors of roasted nuts, black coffee, and some graham cracker towards the second half.

It starts out very full-bodied but eases back towards medium in the second half when a little creaminess reveals itself. Construction was excellent throughout.

I smoked an early prototype of this at the IPCPR Trade Show last year given to me by Jim Colucci, and whether it’s a tweaked blend or just time, it has improved greatly since then. Back then it was very strong and harsh. Now it’s far more balanced, and only medium- to full-bodied.

It’s a good cigar, and fans of Casa Fernandez lines will certainly enjoy this one (although I do wonder if they provide slightly better value given the similarities). Still, there’s plenty to like in the Sindicato cigar, and I think it may continue to get better with time. Even in it’s current state, it earns a rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Dale and Darcy Cahill’s interest in tobacco sheds grew naturally, from observation and a simple question. When they began dating some years ago, Dale would drive down from Vermont and, along the way to her home in Connecticut, he passed quite a few big barns.

Having an engineering mind and a history of hands-on work, he was curious and asked Darcy what was in them. “I said, ‘I don’t know. Let’s go look,’” Darcy recalled. “Luckily, it happened to be the end of September, October. We walked into one of those places and… it smelled so good. And it was full of tobacco. It was just beautiful. He said, ‘We’ve got to start taking pictures of these.’”

That was the beginning of what’s become a seeming flood of photographs, calendars, note cards, even tobacco leaves themselves—dried, preserved, and mounted on barn board. You can check it all at their website.

Now, the couple is embarking on a new project, courtesy of a Library of Congress Archie Green Fellowship, recording the oral histories of everyone they can find involved in tobacco in the Connecticut River Valley.

Their second book on the valley’s tobacco sheds just came out. It reflects their efforts to document and preserve New England’s tobacco heritage.

Dale estimates there are currently between 5,000 and 7,000 tobacco sheds still being used, whether for tobacco, vehicle storage, or something else. He’s glad to see that because, he explained, Thomas Visser, a professor of historic preservation who Dale considers a mentor, taught him that the first way to preserve things is to keep them in use. “It’s when you quit using them, they fall apart,” Dale said.

And, Dale added, even a few new sheds have gone up in recent years.

As should be obvious, New England’s agricultural heritage in tobacco is important to Dale and Darcy. It’s easy to understand when they talk lovingly about the structures they’ve toured, the people they’ve met, and the work they’ve done.

Their enthusiasm for the subject seems nearly boundless. Last year, for example, they performed—she plays fiddle, he plays guitar and mandolin—at the Luddy/Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum’s annual cigar barbecue, which includes a farm tour and appearances by cigar company reps. “It’s very small scale,” Darcy said of the event. “It’s very sweet.”

With the Cahills keeping their eyes, and cameras, trained on the landscape, there’s no doubt that the tobacco sheds, old and new, have someone watching over them.

Contest: Win a Free Copy of Dale and Darcy’s New Book

One lucky StogieGuys.com reader will win a free copy of Dale and Darcy’s beautiful new book, Tobacco Sheds: Vanishing Treasures in the Connecticut River Valley. Just submit a comment below and we’ll select a winner at random next week. Be sure to include your email address so we can contact you if you win (we will not publish your email address; just make sure you provide it in the space provided when you submit your comment). Here are all the contest rules. Good luck.

–George E

photo credit: TobaccoSheds.com

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.”

Sometimes you find a cigar in your humidor and you’re just not sure how it got there or where it came from. This Falto Terruño Hermanos, made in the Dominican Republic at La Aurora’s Santiago factory, is one of those mysterious cigars. The well-constructed robusto consists of a Dominican Corojo wrapper and binder around Dominican, Nicaraguan, and Cameroon filler. It features an interesting combination of chalky and woody flavors with a decent amount of red pepper spice, especially at the start, and a bit of sourness that fades in and out. It’s definitely dominated by the the distinctive Dominican Corojo flavor, so if that’s up your alley you’ll want to give it a try.

Verdict = Hold.

–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.”

If you appreciate cigars for their aesthetic beauty as well as their flavor and smoking characteristics, you’ll agree the Belle Encre (5.4 x 42) is a sight to behold. This perfecto in the Tatuaje 10th Anniversary line has a unique shape, a gorgeous, milk chocolate-colored Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, and a super oily—almost velvety—texture. It’s a cigar that begs to be smoked. And when you do light it up, it doesn’t disappoint. The profile is balanced and complex with notes of woody spice, black pepper, warm tobacco, and a little creamy sweetness. This classic-tasting smoke is one of my all-time favorites from Tatuaje.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

As we have since July 2006, each Friday we’ll post a mixed bag of quick cigar news and other items of interest. Below is our latest Friday Sampler.

1) Drew Estate has announced its Kentucky Fire Cured blend will soon be offered in the “Flying Pig” format (3.9 x 60), a unique cigar shape that’s short, thick in the middle, and tapered at the foot and head. Drew Estate has released other Flying Pig cigars before, including the Liga Privada No. 9. The official unveiling will be at a private event at Oxmoor Smoke Shoppe in Louisville, Kentucky; the nationwide release will be at the IPCPR Trade Show in Las Vegas next month. “Kentucky is obviously a major inspiration for the Kentucky Fire Cured line, and that inspiration comes through in everything from the blend profile to the iconic imagery,” said Jonathan Drew, who will personally attend the event in Louisville. “The tobacco that gives the Kentucky Fire Cured line its distinctive smoky aroma and flavor is grown right here in Kentucky.” You can expect 12-count boxes of Kentucky Fire Cured Flying Pigs to start shipping to your local retailers in September.

2) To celebrate 20 years of cigar making, Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana will be releasing a yet-to-be-named limited edition cigar that will be packaged in porcelain Oktoberfest beer steins. The cigars are expected to feature Mexican San Andrés wrappers around Dominican tobaccos. Come September, Gomez is expecting to ship 60,000 of these special anniversary cigars in 20-count steins.

3) Inside the Industry: 7-20-4 cigars has announced a new “Factory 57” line, which will use a Jalapa Habano wrapper, a Costa Rican binder, and filler from Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Colombia; it will come in four sizes retailing for $6.75 to $9. Nat Cicco is adding a Habano-wrapped version to its HHB line.

4) Deal of the Week: This “silver tray special” sampler features five cigars for $26 (35% off normal retail). Included are the Tatuaje Noella, Alec Bradley Prensado, H. Upmann Maduro Corona, CAO Gold Double Robusto, and Romeo y Julieta 1875 Petite #2.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Drew Estate

In April the FDA took a big step towards regulating cigars in a way that could be devastating to the handmade cigar industry, and initiated a public comment period that will run until August 8. With time running out to submit your comment, here are a few tips to use when you register your comment here.

Don’t Lose Sight of the Goal

The point here is to protect cigars, not just vent anger at the FDA. If your comment includes lots of words in ALL CAPS, multiple exclamation marks, or frequent references to nazis and fascism, it may make you feel better when you hit submit, but it will probably be more easily dismissed by the bureaucrats at the FDA. Unfortunately, the FDA has already been granted the authority to regulate cigars, so the only questions now are if it will use that authority, and, if so, what form the regulations will take and what exemptions the FDA may create.

Don’t Bury the Lede

I doubt I’m going to single-handedly disillusion any readers about our government here, but odds are your comment won’t individually get a careful, thorough consideration. Rather, the FDA uses the comment period to hear from prominent stakeholders and to generally gauge the opinions of those who take the time to comment. So be clear upfront about your position. And feel free to repeat it at the end.

Emphasize the Key Points

Cigar Rights of America has a helpful list of message themes here. You should definitely read the whole thing and feel free to borrow from it while writing your comment. (There are no extra points for originality.) To their excellent points, I would add two additional ones. First, there is no reason for treating flavored or infused cigars differently from non-flavored premium, handmade cigars (for more on that point check out this piece I wrote a few weeks ago). Second, given the FDA’s limited budget and the fact that it has only ruled on 34 of thousands of outstanding new tobacco products waiting for approval, the agency’s resources would be better off focusing on products other than handmade cigars. Of course, most of all, be sure to point out that you are a responsible adult who smokes in moderation.

Pause Before You Hit Submit

Proofreading is important. A comment full of spelling or grammatical errors or, worse yet, sentences that don’t make sense, will undercut your message. As someone who edits quite a bit of writing, I can tell you it’s always tougher to edit and proof your own writing, so don’t hesitate to ask a friend to look it over.

Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow

A rhetorical masterpiece complete with citations to relevant scientific research is great if you can pull it off, but lets not kid ourselves: This is in large part a numbers game. A short, to-the-point comment is infinitely more helpful than the long, in-depth comment you never get around to actually submitting. To that end, if you know someone who would be willing to submit a comment but probably doesn’t have the time to write it up, send them a comment they can use along with the link where they can submit it.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys