The 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.”

To say it would be easy to dismiss the American Eagles as a gimmick would be an understatement, but when I heard that Davidoff’s Henke Kelner blended the cigar, and that a portion of profits go to the Semper Fi Fund, I figured it was at worth a try. The cigar’s unique “camouflage” wrapper consists of Ecuadorian shade-grown Connecticut, Connecticut broadleaf maduro, and Central American candela, which surrounds a Dominican blend. The medium-bodied smoke has good balance, savory flavors, and its kept lively by the subtle changes in flavor that result from the different combinations of wrapper leaf you experience. At $10 each, its proof that a cigar can be a gimmick and a good smoke.

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.”

Finding cigars on store shelves that I’ve never heard of isn’t at all uncommon. But I was surprised when I walked into a shop with a small selection and spotted two open boxes of a cigar whose name I’d learned only a day earlier by reading Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list. The Aging Room Small Batch M356 Presto, a diminutive 4.125 inches with a 48 ring gauge, is a Dominican puro with burn problems and great flavors. There is terrific spice, a light finish, and an incredibly smooth experience. If you stumble across one, pick it up. Even if you have to pay nearly $3 over the $7.25 MSRP, as I did.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

photo credit: N/A

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) Today is the final day of the 2012 ProCigar Festival, a showcase of the top cigar makers in the Dominican Republic. Since Sunday, when the festival began, cigar enthusiasts have flocked to the country to sample unreleased cigars, tour nearby tobacco fields and factories, chat with cigar makers, and attend gala dinners. As the 5th annual ProCigar Festival ends, the 14th annual Habanos Festival is set to begin on Monday. This Cuban event will likewise feature tours, seminars, tastings, and a preview of new cigars to come. It will also include a dinner to mark the 520th anniversary of the discovery of tobacco in Cuba by the Europeans.

2) New Releases: The new VegaFina Sumum Edición Especial 2010 will include an Ecuadorian wrapper and be solid in one size (5 x 54) for $6.75 apiece. This year’s limited edition release of the Punch Rare Corojo will be available starting March 1. The San Lotano Oval will soon be available in a maduro variety.

3) Inside the Industry: La Flor Dominicana’s Premium line will henceforth be known as “La Flor Dominicana Light” and the packaging will be different, but the blend remains the same. Avo has added a new size (3.6 x 43) to its full-bodied Heritage line.

4) Around the Blogs: Tiki Bar kicks back with the Pedro Martin Fiera. Stogie Fresh rates the Dignity Black Gold. Nice Tight Ash checks out the Illusione 68. Stogie Review reviews the La Sirena Prince. Cigar Brief smokes the God of Fire Carlito Double Corona. Cigar Explorer tours the ProCigar Festival.

5) Deal of the Week: Good for only three more days, this “Silver Plate Special” features six Alec Bradley sticks and a butane lighter for just $45. Included are such highly-rated Alec Bradley smokes as the Prensado, Family Blend, Black Market, and Tempus.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: ProCigar

The professional anti-tobacco activists are on the march, and their target is your right as an adult to enjoy a premium cigar. Here are three recent stories that show that no matter what they say to appeal to reasonable people, their goal is always the same: restricting your free choice as an adult to use tobacco.

Campus Smoking Bans Spread

Over 600 colleges in the U.S., supposed bastions of multiculturalism and tolerance, have banned smoking on campus. Those in favor of such bans will claim they protect people from secondhand smoke, but their actions show that such a claim isn’t true.

Campus bans routinely include both outdoor and indoor spaces, and make no distinction between instances when others could possibly be impacted and when they definitely are not. Proving that paternalism and the desire to control adults’ behavior (even when no one else is affected) drives such bans, one Florida college official attempted to justify extending the campus smoking ban to personal cars by saying, “We don’t want your car to be a safe haven, where you do any activity you want as long as you’re in your car.”

Public Health Official: Smoking is More Dangerous than Suicide

How dogged and single-minded are anti-tobacco zealots in their advocacy against smoking? Take a look at Dr. Gregory Calkins, director of the Miami University Student Health Center. In response to a question about the dangers of hookah smoking, he actually said this: “First, smoking is the single most harmful thing we can voluntarily do to our bodies. It is most definitively the most dangerous thing one person can choose to partake in.”

Fortunately, one student wrote a letter to the editor calling out Dr. Calkins’ idiocy and providing a list of things that one could do to oneself that would cause immediate death, all of which would be, according to a good doctor, more harmful than smoking. Citizens of Ohio, your tax dollars are paying this man’s salary.

Federal Health Bureaucrats: States Should Ban Smoking in Cars

Campuses aren’t the only ones banning smoking in cars. The federal government is trying to get into that game too. According to the Associated Press, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now advocates that all states pass laws preventing adults from smoking in cars when children are present. But don’t think for a second that their quest will end there.

First, the same logic that would justify a car smoking ban would also support a ban on smoking in the home when children are present. After all, people spend far more time in the home than in cars, so exposure is likely to be greater there. Second, remember that these people also subscribe to the theory that “third-hand smoke” can be just as harmful as “second-hand” or “environmental tobacco smoke.” As one car expert points out, given that a child could be in a car (or house) at any point in time after someone smoked there, total home and car smoking bans may not be far off.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Memorial Day. Veterans Day. Independence Day. Christmas. Thanksgiving. These are the days of the year when many Americans focus their thoughts and generosity on the men and women who are bravely serving in the armed forces overseas.

No matter what your opinion of U.S. foreign policy, one thing that shouldn’t be divisive is supporting our troops. And you needn’t wait for a holiday to do your part. Year round, men and women who are serving in dangerous conditions would appreciate any spare cigars you can send their way.

Last summer, the StogieGuys.com team took inventory of our personal humidors and sent some cigars to the Kandahar Koughers, a group that has gotten much well-deserved publicity for its efforts. The Koughers, according to their Facebook page, smoke donated cigars “under adverse conditions” to increase morale, relieve stress, and build camaraderie. Feel free to send cigars of your own to the Koughers at the following address:

MAJ David Luttrell/Randy Sauers
c/o Kandahar Koughers
KAF RCC, BLDG 232
APO AE 09355

The Koughers are worthy recipients of your generosity, but they aren’t the only cigar club made up of overseas military personnel. Another is the Tali-banned Cigar Aficionado Club (TCAC), a group of U.S. and coalition soldiers that provides fellowship and complimentary cigars to members. Today the StogieGuys.com team is sending a nice package of cigars to the club’s chapter in Kabul. We encourage you to do the same at the following address:

Chris Mino
NTMA/CSTC-A
Attn: MTAG
APO AE 09356

If you haven’t done it before, mailing cigars to troops really couldn’t be simpler. Just use a free USPS flat rate Priority Mail box and fill out a brief customs form. The postage is the same to an APO box as it is for domestic shipping. Delivery will take a bit longer, though, so be sure to provide adequate humidification to keep the sticks from drying out.

But whether you send cigars to the Koughers, TCAC, another group, or an individual, I urge you to make a contribution. In addition to those sticks you’ll never miss, toss in a few special cigars. As my colleague George recently wrote, “I bet you’ll get more from donating them than you would from lighting them up.”

–Patrick A

photo credit: TCAC

Sosa’s original line, particularly the Wavell size, was a cigar I used to smoke more regularly. Produced by the Fuentes, it offers excellent mild- to medium-bodied flavors at an affordable price. Remembering my fondness for that cigar, I was looking forward to trying some of the newer Sosa cigars.

Last summer, Antillian Cigar Corp. (owner of the Sosa brand), announced three new lines. Underground, billed as the “hippest of the new brands,” is an all Nicaraguan cigar rolled in Little Havana, Miami. The Sosa Family Selection is a more traditional cigar that’s made in Honduras and available in natural and maduro wrappers.

The third cigar (and the subject of this review) is the Sosa 60, an all 60-ring gauge line that comes in four lengths: four, five, six, and seven inches. Rolled in Honduras at Rolando Reyes’ factory, the Sosa 20 utilizes a light brown Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper around Dominican and Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos. I smoked a handful of the 4 by 60 “460 S” size for this review.

Woodiness dominates this medium-bodied cigar. There’s also a bit of cream, some toasty notes, and hints of honey and nutmeg spice. The finish is long and cedary.

The 460 shows excellent construction. The draw is easy while the cigar burns evenly and produces a sturdy light gray ash.

I must confess that this cigar surprised me. Thick smokes aren’t usually my thing, but this cigar worked well in the large format (though I’d still be interested to see how it fares in a thinner size).

Available for $5.50, the stubby little smoke is medium-bodied and surprisingly complex. Combine that enjoyable profile with excellent construction and the Sosa 60 460 S earns four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

[Editor’s Note: The Cigar Maker is the story of a Cuban cigar maker who battles labor strife and vigilante violence in 1900’s Tampa. It recently won the Bronze Medal at the Independent Publisher Book Awards and has been named a Finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s 2010 Book of the Year Awards. Click here to learn more.]

“Boxing? I should sell you to the circus!” Olympia stood on the porch with her fists on her hips and glared at the boys below. Lázaro’s crooked nose was smeared with blood and Javier wavered in a drunken daze with blotches of red coloring his shirt and tie. “Get inside, the both of you, before I knock your teeth out!” Lázaro climbed the steps and as he passed his mother and entered the house, Olympia slapped his backside. Javier tried to follow but Olympia stood in his way. “And why didn’t you stop him?”

His jacket was folded over his arm and his hat was in his hand; his eyes sagged, tired and drunk from a long night on the town. Javier shrugged. “I’m not his father. He can do what he wants.”

“Be careful what you say or I’ll throw you out of this house!” They went inside where Lázaro sat on the couch in the parlor. Josefina was sitting on the floor reading a book, which she set aside when her brothers walked in. Javier joined Lázaro on the couch and Olympia stood before them with her fists still locked against her hips. She said to Lázaro, “If you spill blood on that couch, you will pay for a new one.”

“Fine,” Lázaro said and dabbed his nose with Javier’s bloody handkerchief. His eyes were closed, his head hurt, and he wished she would leave him alone so he could rest.

Josefina rose. “I’ll get ice and a fresh towel.” She crossed the parlor and disappeared down the hallway, passing Salvador as he entered the room. “Bring a dirty dishrag instead!” Olympia called to Josefina. “I don’t want to ruin another good towel with this one’s blood!”

Salvador came into the parlor with his shirt off wearing only his pants and a belt, almost ready for bed. He saw Lázaro on the couch a mess of bruises and Javier beside him with a bloody shirt. Javier’s normally perfect hair was disheveled and both boys looked guilty as thieves. “Now what is all this about?” He stood next to Olympia and glared sternly at the two boys.

“He entered a contest,” Javier began.

Olympia interrupted. “Let him say it.”

All eyes went to Lázaro, who sighed and looked to the floor. Finally he said, “I’m not going to sit at a factory workbench all day.”

Salvador and Olympia shared a glance; they had expected this moment. Inside of her anger, Olympia found that she understood, but she tried not to let it show by crossing her arms and tapping a foot. “You entered a contest?”

He nodded. “It was a great fight,” Javier said merrily. “All the men were cheering.”

“Javier!” Olympia pointed at her oldest son, “If you don’t shut your mouth, I’m going to break your nose!”

“What’s wrong with boxing?” Javier asked innocently. “He’s good at it, and if he keeps practicing, he can make money for the family.”

Olympia asked Lázaro, “How much money did you make tonight?”

He shook his head. “None.”

“Why not?”

“Because I didn’t win.”

Javier said, “I made ten dollars.”

“You bet against him?” Olympia asked. Javier shrugged his shoulders and nodded. Olympia held out her hand. “Give me half.” Javier was surprised. “I spent it already.”

“You already spent ten dollars?” Olympia said doubtfully as she took a step closer. She didn’t believe he already spent ten dollars and made sure her face showed him how angry she would be if he had.

He shrugged. “Most of it.”

“So you’ve just lied to your mother? Give me what’s left.” She waited with her hand extended as Javier reached into his pocket and handed her a couple of crumpled bills and some change. “Two dollars? You good for nothing fool,” she folded the money into her palm.

Josefina returned from the kitchen with a fresh towel and a handful of ice, which she handed to Lázaro. Olympia said to Javier, “Your father and I want to talk to Lázaro.”

Javier and Josefina dismissed themselves and went into the boys’ bedroom where they sat with E.J. and listened. The walls were so thin it was impossible to avoid hearing everything that was said. Salvador moved to the couch and sat beside Lázaro while Olympia remained standing, her hands back on her hips. Salvador said, “Let me look at your nose.”

Lázaro sat back, allowing his father to inspect his face. Black bags would form under his eyes, his nose and mouth were caked with dried blood, and his nose was smashed, but the bleeding had stopped. “Your nose is broken again but it doesn’t look too bad. Do you still have all of your teeth?” Lázaro clenched his teeth and opened his lips to show his father that he did.

Olympia shook her head. “You’re going to come home dead one of these days, little raccoon.”

Salvador said, “Lázaro, fighting and scuffling with your brothers is one thing but boxing is no way to make a living. You don’t make real money unless you turn pro and you don’t turn pro unless you fight constantly. In the meantime you’ll break your nose, your ribs, your hands, and your neck.”

Olympia added, “And when you’re hungry with broken hands you won’t be able to work any other jobs and you won’t be able to eat.”

“Boxing is a life for men with no other skills,” Salvador said.

“Boxing is a skill,” Lázaro insisted as he held a handful of ice to his nose.

“But it is not work. How are you going to feed yourself?”

“I won’t go hungry,” Lázaro said. “There is a man visiting town who trains professional boxers in New Orleans.” Olympia threw her head back and forced an exasperated laugh. “You’re going to waste your life on some circus clown?”

“He’s not a clown.”

“You are a clown for even considering this ridiculous stunt!”

Lázaro finally lost his temper and yelled, “Then why don’t you kick me out of this house so I can go about my life as I please?”

Olympia pointed at him. “The only place you’re going is back to the workbench so you can earn money for this family. You will do your part like every one of us.”

Then Lázaro said something that not only enraged Olympia, but hurt her feelings in a way that Lázaro would regret for the rest of his life. He shouted, loud enough for the neighbors to hear, “You don’t work! You don’t do anything!”

Olympia’s eyes opened wide and black as the volume of her voice became frighteningly lower. “What disrespect have you just shown your mother?”

Lázaro rose to face Olympia. Salvador tried to hold him back, but Lázaro broke away and stood face to face with his mother, looking down at her from above. “Papa, Javier and I work full time in the factory. Josefina is a nurse, and even E.J. is learning the trade. You stay home all day playing and bossing everyone around.”

She took a step closer so their faces were inches apart. Though she was small compared to her son, to Salvador she looked as if she had risen to the same height. There was a fury in her eyes unlike any Salvador had ever seen. In a deep, controlled voice that stifled her rage, Olympia said, “Are you telling me that I don’t wash your clothes and keep your bed clean? That I don’t fix your daily meals? That I’m not awake long after everyone has gone to sleep, and that I’m not the first to rise in the morning? When you were five and wandered over a beehive, and ran home crying like a baby, it was my shoulder you cried on! I was the one who treated your stings! I looked after you when you were sick, I picked you up when you fell, I carried you when you couldn’t walk, and I fed you when you could not eat. And when you were an infant, and didn’t know your foot from your ear, it was me who wiped your ass and cleaned you off after you had shit all over yourself! So if you think I don’t do anything, then get the hell out of this house and do it yourself!”

Her eyes watered and tears fell immediately. “I am so mad I can no longer look at him,” her voice cracked as she stomped down the hallway, into the kitchen and out the back.

–Mark M

photo credit: The Cigar Maker