The Stogie Guys

If you’re into ashes, and I know some of you are, you won’t find a whiter one than that produced by the Savinelli Special Selection 2005. If you’re not into ashes, and I know most of you aren’t, you’ll find a fine, peppery cigar at a reasonable price .

Rolled by the Olivia Family in Nicaragua for the Italian pipe maker, this cigar sports a rich Habano wrapper grown in Ecuador with Nicaraguan binder and filler tobaccos.

At five and a half inches, it’s a bit longer than most robustos; the ring gauge is 50. There’s also a Toro and a Torpedo.

The cigar kicks off with pepper, which begins to fade about halfway through before picking up again near the end. I enjoyed a little coffee and a fair amount of wood flavors as well, particularly when the pepper was in the background.

There’s enough kick to keep lovers of strong cigars interested, while the balance and changes make it interesting for those who want something with a little variety.

Several reviews have focused praise on the Torpedo, including Cigar Aficionado, which ranked it among its top 25 this year. I’ve smoked only one of those vitolas and found it equally good. The Robusto retails for $6.50 a stick. The Toro is $6.75 and the Torpedo runs $7.

I’d recommend you pick up a Savinelli Special Selection if you’re looking for a cigar with a little kick and pepper that’s not compiled along the lines of Pepin’s recipe. I give it four stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Savinelli USA

One week ago, my colleague divulged his affinity for the Nestor Miranda 20 Aniversario Oscuro, quipping that you’d be “hard-pressed to find a better way to spend $9 and two hours.” While I haven’t yet tried that version of this new release, I can tell you the Rosado is pretty damn fantastic in its own right.

The Miami Cigar & Co.—distributor of such acclaimed brands as La Aurora, Don Lino, León Jimenes, 601, Cubao, and Mi Barrio—launched both 20 Aniversario blends (one Oscuro and one Rosado) in celebration of two decades of producing a Special Selection line named for company founder Nestor Miranda. Both are crafted by Don Pepin Garcia’s son, Jaime, and made in Pepin’s Nicaraguan Tabacalera Cubana factory.

The 20 Aniversario is a very limited release. Only 2,000 boxes of 20 cigars have been made, 1,000 with that Habano Oscuro wrapper that my colleague liked so much, and 1,000 with a Habano Rosado. Both versions come in only one size: an immense (7 x 56) smoke called the “Danno.”

I smoked more than a handful of Rosados for this review (also an MSRP of $9 apiece), and each featured an anvil-shaped pigtail that sits atop a beautiful, carefully adhered cap. While the wrapper isn’t without its share of veins and noticeable seams, the cigar has the look and feel of a super-premium, especially given its glistening, oily sheen. The cross-sections at the foot and freshly cut head appear on the loose side despite the cigar’s firm feel.

Toasting the foot—an endeavor that requires patience due to the Danno’s wide girth—yields mouth-watering aromas of sweet hay, toffee, and wood. The actual flavor is stronger than that preview, though, with plenty of pepper and spice. It’s almost as if Pepin wants to make his presence known from the first puff.

After the white, well-layered ash winds down the first few inches, the flavor takes a gentle turn and develops a softer profile of hazelnut and coffee with cream and sugar. This is what I’d call the sweet spot, and it lasts almost until the band needs to be removed. The final third sees a reprise of the spice and full flavor that are found in the beginning.

The burn tends to meander a bit—pretty much what you’d expect from such a wide cigar—but not to the point of annoyance. The draw is accommodating and the ash well-behaved throughout the 150-minute smoke.

For these reasons and more, I count myself lucky to have a box of 20 Rosados to call my own. I can’t wait to test drive the Oscuro to see how it measures up. Until then, though, and whatever the outcome of that match-up may be, the Nestor Miranda Special Selection 20 Aniversario Rosado earns a well-deserved rating of four and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

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.

Back in January, we reviewed this cigar and found a tasty, spicy little smoke. Five months later, it seems to have mellowed a bit with a smoother, sweet cedar flavor replacing the spicy, peppery notes. Burn, draw, and ash were all quite impressive. Overall, however, I preferred the spicier flavor when the smoke had less age and more bite.

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 take on a single cigar.

Perhaps more than any other cigar I’ve smoked in the past few years, I wish the Rocky Patel Connecticut tasted more like its resting smoke smells. This Toro (6 x 52) gives off a wonderful aroma of roasted almonds and cream as it sits in the ashtray between puffs. But, falling into the trap that plagues many Connecticut-wrapped sticks, the actual flavor includes the same sour, chemically aftertaste as the Robusto. While the physical properties are top-notch and the price is friendly (about $4 apiece), those attributes aren’t enough to merit a recommendation.

Verdict = Sell.

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and informative as possible, each Friday we’ll post a mixed bag of quick cigar news and other items of interest. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) On the heels of Jacob Grier’s critique of a “study” that purported to downplay the impact of smoking bans on employment in restaurants and bars comes this commentary from Forbes. It argues that, despite widely accepted claims that depend on  fuzzy science, “many prior studies of smoking bans are riddled with statistical shortcomings.” The author should know; he has “15 years of experience in performing economic and statistical analysis.”

2) In related news, shares of Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc., a Louisiana casino operator, jumped 14% on Wednesday after lawmakers shot down a bill that would have expanded the Pelican State’s smoking ban to cover bars and casinos. Such acute market activity supports the claim that freedom of choice is best for business.

3) Inside the Industry: Rocky Patel is releasing another seasonal blend, the 2009 Summer Collection. Colibri, a brand best known in cigar circles for its lighters, has emerged from bankrupcy and will begin making lighters again. CAO is adding a box-pressed robusto to its MX2 line.

4) Around the Blogs: Stogie Review looks at the Camacho Connecticut. Cigar Inspector samples a Davidoff Special R. Velvet Cigar reviews a Camacho Liberty 2008. Cigar Spy infiltrates a La Aroma de Cuba.

5) Deal of the Week:  This “Mega III Sampler” has 16 big-name cigars for just $30. (That’s under $2 per stick for those of you who might not be up on your arithmetic.) Included are  favorites from La Flor Dominicana, Rocky Patel, CAO, Alec Bradley, Camacho, Gurkha, and Cuesta-Rey. Get yous here.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

[Editors’ Note: The following is courtesy of Chris Verhoeven, a South Carolina-based friend of StogieGuys.com who went on a dream vacation.]

Last month, through my local B&M, I was lucky enough to tour the Rocky Patel Premium Cigar Company’s operations in Danlí, Honduras. And while anyone who went on this amazing adventure would agree that the pictures can’t fully convey how spectacular the trip was, today I’ll try to do just that with just those.

It all starts at the field of dreams. It’s amazing how tall these plants get and it’s humbling to walk out and see nothing but tobacco across the horizon. The company lets a few plants flower to harvest and test the quality of the seeds, but most lose their flowers early on so all the nutrients focus on the leaves instead.

Here in the tobacco curing barns, Nimish, the VP of operations and our gracious host, shows us how the tobacco leaves are sewn onto the sticks and hung to cure.

Although it is a multi-step process involving these piles as well as rooms I can only describe as saunas, I found the tobacco fermentation procedure to be the most interesting. The leaves are wetted and piled creating heat on the inside. The temperature must be watched carefully and the leaves must be rotated to prevent the tobacco from burning and losing its flavor.

While seco, viso, and ligero tobacco are known to come from distinct primings (when the leaves are harvested they pick two per week starting at the bottom, and each pick is called a “priming”), gray areas do exist. These women use sight and feel to sort the leaves appropriately. Females are employed exclusively in this process due to their softer hands and superior color vision.

Finally, after years of curing and aging, the tobacco reaches the rolling tables.

I was truly amazed at how many quality control checkpoints Rocky Patel cigars go through. This draw tester is one of those checks. Cigars must fall between 35 and 50 on the gauge…the one I rolled was a 20!

Spanish cedar is the wood of choice at the box factory to ensure the cigars are kept in the optimal environment.

This photo, taken with Uptown Cigars owner and trip sponsor Israel (far left) and Nestor Plasencia, captures one of the trip’s most memorable moments for me.

The whole trip is a blast, evidenced by this snapshot of me drinking by Rocky’s guest pool. I sincerely hope you get to experience this fun for yourself. Rocky does about 30 of these per year through tobacco shops that sell his products, so be sure to check out your local B&M for a chance to take the trip of a lifetime.

–Chris Verhoeven

photo credit: Stogie Guys

An email from the Stogie Guys’ founders about preparations to cover the annual International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association convention this summer evoked two reactions: wistful regret that I won’t be there and utter amazement at how fast another year has passed.

Even with the economic woes still rippling through the country, cigar exhibitors in New Orleans will, no doubt, unleash a batch of new cigars. And I haven’t yet begun to whittle down my wish list of earlier smokes. The coming sticks will surely entice me to add more names and put me further and further behind on smoking them. Only a smoker who lights up far more frequently than I could hope to keep up.

I may, however, be able to make some progress soon. For the past several months, the weather here in Florida has been so pleasant. I’ve done nearly all my smoking outside my home, reducing the stock of cigars in my humidor. But with the temperatures rising, I’m likely to be visiting local shops more frequently to revel in indoor air-conditioned smoking. So I will have a chance to try some of the smokes I’ve been wanting to light up.

For example, I have yet to smoke a Casa Magna, the low-priced stick Cigar Aficionado raved about. There are also new Tatuajes that sound tasty, new La Gloria Cubanas (and new sticks to come from that brand’s founder), a host of new Padillas that promise good things, and My Father from Pepin’s factory. That’s really just the top of the list.

Any you’d care to recommend?

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys