The Stogie Guys

This is an oldie that remains a goodie.

I’ve long been an Oliva cigar smoker, but in the past couple of years that’s tended to focus on the Serie V, especially the Melanio extension. Frankly, I couldn’t remember the last time I lit up a Serie O. I reviewed the Toro back in 2008, knocking it down a bit for performance problems.

The four Serie O Robustos—in the typical 5-inch, 50 ring gauge format—I smoked for this review had none of those. In fact, the burn, draw, ash, and smoke production were all excellent.

It’s a tasty Nicaraguan puro with a sun-grown Habano wrapper, and Habano filler from several regions of the country.

The Robusto is fairly complex, shifting gears along the way as it produces notes of spice, cedar, and earthiness. It’s never harsh, and the finish is delicately pleasing. Through the years, both Cigar Aficionado and Cigar Journal have awarded the Serie O vitolas high marks.

I think the Robusto is just about ideal for this blend. It’s big enough to supply the various tastes, but not so much cigar that it devolves a sense of sameness. You put it down wanting more, not wishing there had been less. And we can’t ignore the price. Coming in at only a shade over $100 for a box of 20, the Robusto Serie O is a genuine bargain.

If you, like me, haven’t smoked one in a while, I highly recommend you give it a try. I’ve enjoyed these so much I plan to check some of the other Oliva lines I haven’t had in years.

As for the Serie O Robusto, I rate it three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

First, I’d like to apologize for the lack of pipe content in the last couple weeks (you may recall my previous articles on why I smoke a pipe, tools of the trade, beginner pipe blends, and how to properly pack a pipe). I have been in a swamp of finals and term papers finishing up my first semester at graduate school, and I just have had no time to write anything about pipes, much less to smoke any. But, the semester is over, summer is here, and I’m back to smoking! So today we will talk about building cake in a pipe.

So, first off, what is cake? Cake is the term for the carbon build-up left in a pipe after you smoke a bowl of tobacco. Cake is a good thing. You want a nice, even cake lining the bowl of your pipe. This will help keep the smoke cool, and it will also lend a particular flavor to your smoking, depending on what types of tobacco you’ve built that cake with.

A very important thing to remember from this definition is that we want cake to be even. If your pipe’s cake gets too thick, you can crack the pipe and permanently break it. So, anytime you think it might be getting too thick, take the scraping part of your pipe tool and just break it down. Exactly how much cake one wants is up to debate, but the general rule I’ve heard is about the thickness of a dime.

How does one build cake? There are a lot of tricks. Some will tell you to fill your pipe with honey or jelly so that the ash will stick to it, others will recommend plugging the pipe somehow, etc. All of these tricks have one thing in common: They are unproven, and risky. The only way to reliably build cake is to smoke your pipe, evenly, to the bottom of the bowl.

The method I use to break in a pipe takes quite a long time, but it’s a great way to do so, and it ensures you get a consistently even cake. All you’re going to do is pack about a quarter of your pipe and smoke it, all the way to the bottom of the bowl. If you cannot finish all the tobacco in one sitting, just place the pipe down and come back to it. After you’ve done maybe six or eight bowls at a quarter full, bump it up to a half bowl, and, again, smoke six or eight bowls. If you keep doing this, afterwards jumping to 3/4 of a bowl and then finally full bowls, you’ll experience a cool, sweet, broken-in pipe.

If you have any questions about how to build cake, if you have any tobaccos that you think perform particularly well for cake-building (I prefer a burly blend like Prince Albert), or if you have any other experiences or stories about breaking in a pipe, let me know.

–Joey J

photo credit: Flickr

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.”

The Tatuaje Black Lancero has come in a few different packages, from “The Old Man and the C” (culebra/lancero pack) to a New York/New Jersey retailer exclusive (a show of support for the region in the wake of Superstorm Sandy). This particular one comes from the recently released Tatuaje Lancero sampler, featuring 10 different Tatuaje blends each in a classic format (7.5 x 38). The result is a creamy, nuanced, medium-bodied cigar with nuttiness, cocoa, and just a bit of spice. I always measure Tatuaje Blacks against the original ceramic jar release, which is one of the finest cigars I’ve ever smoked. Against that high bar, this doesn’t quite stack up. Still, it’s a well-made, enjoyable cigar that’s easy to recommend.

Verdict = Buy.

–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.”

While Drew Estate crafts many excellent cigars, in my opinion there is none finer than the elusive Velvet Rat (one of only a few cigars to ever receive our five-out-of-five rating). Yes, it’s hard to find. Yes, it’s expensive at about $14. But this Connecticut Broadleaf-wrapped beauty is a lighter, creamier, more harmonious blend than the famed Liga Privada No. 9. I love me some Liga, however the Velvet Rat (6.25 x 46) elevates the blend to a new level. Expect Drew Estate’s trademark draw with notes of coffee bean, cocoa, pepper spice, syrup, and caramel. Think moist chocolate cake.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

You can pretty much bank on CAO introducing a new line at the upcoming IPCPR Trade Show, but don’t expect any details on that cigar for a while. Still, right now there are some limited release blends coming out from the CAO team at General Cigar.

I was able to catch up with brand frontman and chief blender Rick Rodriguez at an event yesterday to get the scoop on the new CAO offerings, as well as clear up some misinformation that has been circulating.

Area 9

Out now is CAO Area 9, a selection of cigars from CAO’s vast archives. The cigars consist of old blends that have been aging at CAO’s Estelí factory.

Included are cigars (some released a long time ago, others have never been released) that were made in the factory before it came under the General Cigar umbrella, along with possibly some post-General Cigar test blends. Some may be original release CAO cigars like Brazilia, America, Vision, or others that were made prior to 2007. Others include special blends that never made it to market, including, I’m told, one for a project CAO briefly had with Kid Rock that never came to fruition.

The cigars come in a bundle of six tied up in a burlap sack (though there are more than six Area 9 cigars). They have plain white bands with cryptic names like Picasso, Chief, Liga M35, Ciprus, Parabola, and Rica, with no details on their origins. In early June a special section of the CAO website will let consumers look up more details on the cigars in their Area 9 bundle. For now, the Area 9 cigars are event-only cigars that are included as a promotion for those who purchase a box. But there are hopes that it may eventually be available for sale.

Sinister Sam

Another new cigar coming before the late July Trade Show is Sinister Sam, a one-off blend along the lines of Hurricane and Angry Santa. Though, in a way, it is most similar to the Brazilia Carnivale.

While the Carnivale was Rick Rodriguez’s twist on the original Brazilia blend he inherited, Sinister Sam is his own take on the CAO America blend, which forms the base for the one-size blend.

“Sam” is a reference to Uncle Sam (hence a twist on CAO America). And contrary to rumors, there was never any plan to release it under the name ‘Son of Uncle Sam,’ a name that at most was briefly kicked around in a brainstorm session before being quickly rejected. Look for it to come out in June.

–Patrick S

photo credits: Stogie Guys

Last year, two of my favorite cigars happened to be Abaddon and Ouroboros, both of which are made for Blue Havana, a tobacconist in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. They are crafted at Fabrica de Tabacos Nica Sueño in Estelí by Skip Martin of RoMa Craft Tobac.

I was so impressed by these cigars that I decided to better acquaint myself with RoMa Craft and its core lines: CroMagnon, Intemperance (EC XVIII and BA XXI), and Aquitaine. If you haven’t already done so, you should do the same. After all, Skip Martin’s Estelí operation may be small with limited production, but he’s undoubtedly making some of the best cigars in the world.

By way of background, RoMa Craft was born after the Hava Cigar Shop and Lounge in Galveston, Texas, was decimated by Hurricane Ike in 2008. At first it was an online version of the old brick-and-mortar store, but distribution and cigar production grew. Today, while RoMa Craft’s production is nowhere near the levels of its neighbors Drew Estate or Joya de Nicaragua, the outfit is nimble, efficient, and turning out excellent smokes.

I visited the factory last month to learn about cigar blending (and sample some of Martin’s rum collection). There, I received a sampler of RoMa Craft smokes, including the CroMagnon EMH, a robusto extra (5 x 56) that’s short for “Early Modern Human.” Like the Cranium (6 x 54) my colleague reviewed in 2011, EMH has an oily Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper around a Cameroon binder.

The long-filler includes three types of Nicaraguan filler tobaccos. They hail from Estelí, Condega, and a small farm on the Honduran border. “This third leaf, a Ligero, brings a strong, smoky, savory flavor to the blend,” according to the RoMa Craft website. “When combined with the mildly sweet characteristics of the Broadleaf Maduro wrapper, the exotic bite of the Cameroon binder, and the clean finish of its Viso and Seco companions, the blend delivers the precise, deep, rich tobacco flavor we wanted to present…”

In my own experience, smoking the sample I received from Martin and several others I purchased myself, the EMH’s hearty, musty, leathery pre-light notes transition to bold, full-bodied flavors ranging from pepper and savory char to cocoa and espresso. The texture is dark and chalky. Still, I agree with my colleague that the CroMagnon EMH is “more than just a club of strength across the palate.” There’s depth and complexity, some of which can be attributed to the sweetness of the Cameroon binder. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the combustion qualities—burn, draw, ash, and smoke production—are all up to snuff.

This slow-burning power-bomb runs about $8, which is a very fair price for this level of quality. If given the choice between the two, I prefer the slightly cheaper Intemperance BA XXI. But the CroMagnon EMH is an outstanding selection if you’re looking for body and impact. In my book, it’s worthy of an admirable rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys