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.

With terrific lines like Black, Brazilia, and Criollo, I’ve turned into quite the CAO fan. Maybe that’s why I had such high expectations for the 6 1/2 inch by 50 ring gauge Gold Corona Gorda. With an Ecuadorian wrapper and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos, the flavor is mild and creamy, and I have no complaints about construction. The only problem is this $4 cigar is missing that wow factor I’ve come to expect from CAO. Still, it’s certainly not a bad smoke, and I’d be interested to see how the blend reacts to some aging.

Verdict = Hold.

–Patrick A

Tags: cigars

In our ongoing effort to make StogieGuys.com as entertaining and reader-friendly as possible, each Friday we’ll post a selection of quick cigar news and stogie-related snippets. We call ‘em Friday Samplers. Enjoy.

1) General Cigar, Inc. reached a settlement yesterday in its protracted legal battle against four companies that were selling unauthorized “yellow band” Cohibas (as opposed to authentic “red dot” Cohibas). The defendants acknowledged trademark infringement and reportedly turned over 10,000 sticks to General “for destruction.” I wonder if they’ll be destroyed in the same manner U.S. Customs destroys Cubans, as reported by former Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger: “One by one.”

2) Here’s a helpful tip: A handy item to include with your smoking paraphernalia is one of those tiny screwdrivers that comes with eyeglass repair kits. The little head will turn most lighter flame-adjustment screws as well as depress the gas refill nozzle to drain the tank before refilling.

3) Around the Blogs: Cigar Inspector inspects a Punch Black Prince. Keepers of the Flame reviews a Montecristo Serie C. Cigar Monkey smokes a Cusano Cuvee Blanc. Stogie Review tries a Graycliff Blue Label. And Cigar Jack has a cool “Blog Carnival” cooking.

4) Deal of the Week: The World Series Sampler has seven quality cigars for under $30. Included are such top notch smokes as the CAO Italia, Oliva Serie G, Partagas, La Aurora, and Cohiba – all in the Robusto size. Grab yours here.

5) Finally, you may have noticed that Monday’s review of the Fuente Hemingway Short Story was sponsored by CigarsDirect.com. In the coming months, CigarsDirect will be supplying us with a number of stogies so that we can continue to provide our readers with a wide selection of cigar reviews. (Don’t worry; you’ll still get the same unvarnished truth from us.) But we do encourage you to check out CigarsDirect’s website where they have an excellent selection of stogies, including hard-to-find smokes such as the Fuente Opus X, Casa Fuente, and Anejo lines.

–The Stogie Guys

Truth be told, about a week ago I had never heard of the company. But now I can safely say that if you’re into mild cigars with good construction and you’re on a budget, you probably need to know about Bacchus.

The Natural line, according to Thompson, “has been a winner for years.” It is composed of Cuban-seed tobacco that’s grown in the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic – specifically, an Indonesian wrapper, a Sumatran binder, and a Piloto Cubano / Olor filler. Bacchus says its cedar aging rooms “produce a classic blend of subtle, mild flavors you expect from premium cigars.”

The Toro is classically sized at six inches with a 50 ring gauge. It retails for around $2 per stick or $50 for a bundle of 25. I find the wrapper to be fairly attractive, though not without its fair share of noticeable seams and veins. The cigar is quite soft to the touch, and the shiny white and gold band seems to beckon for attention.

Given its reputation as a mild stogie, I was really surprised by the initial woody spice flavor. So my first impression was of a dog with a quiet bark but a painful bite.

The taste, however, thankfully settles down quickly into light notes of cedar and ginger. Creamy and mostly salty on the palate, the smoke is thick and rich and the mild flavor remains almost completely constant from beginning to end. The only exception is a faint bitterness that comes and goes from time to time. Call it a hunch, but I get the feeling this is a flaw that cannot be remedied by further aging.

The physical properties are really exceptional, especially for a value stick. I was quick to take note of the clear draw, even burn, and firm ash.

On the whole, what this cigar delivers is reliability, good construction, and a pleasingly mild taste. I’m not bothered by the fact that it lacks a name or any flashy characteristics.

But I am bothered by the fact that it doesn’t bring anything memorable or exciting to the table. You could say that’s to be expected at the price, but that argument just doesn’t hold water when compared to similarly-priced cigars like the Don Kiki Brown Label.

All things considered, I’m giving the Bacchus Natural Toro two and ½ out of five stogies.

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

–Patrick A

Not long ago, Gene Arganese was a real estate developer in search of a cigarmaker for a private label. When he couldn’t find one that suited him, he ended up buying a Dominican factory and making his own. The result: Arganese Cigars , which now makes a wide range of different blends, wrappers, and sizes.

The Arganese Maduro Presidenté is the company’s strongest blend, wrapped in a Brazilian maduro wrapper. This 54 ring gauge by 6 and 1/2 inch figurado is made with an Indonesian binder and Dominican filler from the Villa Gonzalez area. It retails for around $7.

The deep brown wrapper is dark and oily with a few prominent veins. Pre-light, this solidly built perfecto features oak and hay notes, and the draw had raisin and burnt coffee flavors.

After lighting the cigar, I was greeted with roast coffee and a subtle black pepper spice. The draw was deliberate, but not too difficult. It gives off a plentiful amount of airy smoke with a coffee aroma.

As the cigar progresses, leather and cream develop and the roasted finish caps off a pleasant medium- to full-bodied smoke. Of the multiple cigars I sampled for this review, none had a perfectly even burn, but that never really developed into a detriment to the cigar.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable stogie. The flavors are well-balanced and strong, the construction good (though not great), and it has an appealing look with double bands around a well-proportioned perfecto shape.

For that combination, the Arganese Maduro Presidenté Figurado earns a very reputable rating of four out of five stogies .

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

– Patrick S

Tags: cigars

If you’re reading this it probably means that, like me, you’re an adult who has made the conscious decision to, at least occasionally, smoke cigars. You understand that, like most things, there are certain risks associated with the hobby. But you’ve considered your options and have decided the benefits outweigh those risks.

Today, making that decision is terribly difficult. Thanks to a plethora of anti-smoking activist groups and self-interested health organizations, it seems nowadays, when it comes to cigars and risk, there’s more misinformation than information out there.

Thomas Lambert’s “The Case Against Smoking Bans,” for example, gives a good assessment of how the Environmental Protection Agency completely fabricated the risks associated with secondhand smoke in an effort to fuel the imposition of smoking bans.

So it may not surprise you that I’ve wanted to do a brief examination on the health effects of cigars for quite some time. The only problem is I’m not a doctor.

But Marc J. Schneiderman is. In order to better educate myself on the subject, I’ve been reading Dr. Schneiderman’s musings on how the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) seminal 1998 study on cigars “clearly demonstrates that those risks are acceptable to those who use the product responsibly.”

“The great majority of cigar smokers smoke fewer than one cigar per day and don’t inhale. The ‘habitual’ cigar smoker is rarely even a daily smoker. Disease risk ratios comparing cigar smokers to the general non-smoking population are reported by NCI:

This chart demonstrates that the 1-2 cigar/day user who doesn’t inhale is not at serious risk for developing cancer or heart disease. The ‘all cause’ of death risk for smokers of 1-2 cigars per day (and sometimes more) is not significantly different when compared to those who never smoked.”

Dr. Schneiderman convincingly makes many other relevant points in his rebuttal of the study – including that cigars are not addictive. If you’re interested in the subject, as I’m guessing many of you are, I would highly recommend reading his complete response.

I write this not to make light of the various hazards associated with cigar smoking. Risks exist and we should all be aware of them.

But much of the “science” government agencies and anti-smoking zealots use to advance their own agendas is terribly flawed. As Thomas Lambert and Dr. Schneiderman have done, these unsubstantiated claims should be identified and challenged. In that spirit, I look forward to gathering more data on the health effects of cigars as it becomes available.

–Patrick A

Tags: cigars

The temperature had dipped a little, and the humidity was down as well. It seemed like a good evening to enjoy a Short Story. I lifted one from the humidor. As I pulled the cellophane off, it dawned on me that I had never written about these wonderful little cigars. So, I hereby rectify the omission.

I’m always intrigued by the Short Story’s perfecto shape. From the nipple-end foot to the head is four and 1/2 inches, and along the way the ring gauge runs from 46 to 49. Introduced a few years after the 1983 debut of Hemingway, the Short Story has become the top seller in the line. All feature the same blend of West African Cameroon wrapper and Dominican filler and binder, but the various sizes and shapes do, of course, influence the taste of each.

Few cigar firms are as easy to get information from as Fuente, and for that I credit Darlene “The Cigar Girl” at the company’s Tampa Sweethearts retail operation in Ybor City. Her quick and thorough replies are unparalleled.

One question I had was whether it was the difficulty of rolling the cigars or the availability of suitable leaf that leads to the cigars being in short supply. (Even Tampa Sweethearts limits customers to two boxes of Short Stories.)

“It is a unique cigar and only so many are produced yearly because of the workmanship involved,” Darlene emailed. “The answer to this would be a combo of both that you stated above. Plus, we don’t rush making these cigars so they are aged properly for six months or more.”

While lighting a Short Story is simple, it does require caution to avoid scorching. I used a match to first ignite a little piece of cedar rather than a lighter. The foot caught easily from the cedar’s flame, and the burn was nearly perfect throughout, as were all aspects of construction.

I paid $4.30 for this particular stick, which seems somewhat low to me, even in Florida. But the price tag was still on the cellophane.

The Short Story’s taste is refined and balanced. There’s a little cedar, some spice, a touch of leather, and nice tobacco. But if you don’t like Cameroon tobacco and what I’d call the combination of spice and sweetness that it imparts, you aren’t apt to enjoy this or any of the Hemingway cigars.

For me, though, this is an excellent cigar. I give the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story a rating of four and 1/2 out of five stogies.

[To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here. Cigars for this review were provided by CigarsDirect.com which has an impressive selection of Arturo Fuente cigars.  To purchase this cigar, click here.]

–George E

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar. The following is a Guest Quick Smoke, submitted by a StogieGuys.com reader for our Quick Smoke Cigar Giveaway contest. If you’d like to submit your own for publication, please contact us.

The Perdomo Habano Maduro Toro is a big, beautiful cigar at 5 1/2 inches with a 54 ring gauge. It is dark and oily with a very attractive label, and a pleasure to smoke from beginning to end. It smelled great before I lit it and it just got better. This smoke is a bit deceptive; it looks like it should be a spicy flavor bomb. But it isn’t – and that is a good thing. It is full-bodied and full-flavored, but mild to medium in strength. Creamy with deep rich but subtle flavors of dark cocoa and coffee, the Habana Maduro Toro is a smoother, mellower, sweeter version of the Lot 23 Maduro.

Verdict = Buy.

–Submitted by George A from Madison, WI who will receive the third of five Arganese samplers.