The 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) The Wall Street Journal recently ran an interesting piece on Fidel Castro, which provides some insight at a time when the Obama Administration is normalizing relations with Havana. The info comes from Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, a former member of Castro’s security detail for nearly two decades—and later a prisoner of Castro’s—who defected to the U.S. and died shortly after publishing a “The Double Life of Fidel Castro.” The article reads: “The legend of Castro as a great revolutionary who sacrifices for his people is preserved by keeping the details about his life a state secret. Sánchez’s account shows the real Castro: vengeful, self-absorbed, and given to childish temper tantrums… Sánchez witnessed firsthand Castro’s indifference to Cuban poverty. The comandante gave interminable speeches calling for revolutionary sacrifice. But he lived large, with a private island, a yacht, some 20 homes across the island, a personal chef, a full-time doctor, and a carefully selected and prepared diet. When a Canadian company offered to build a modern sports-facility for the nation, Castro used the donation for a private basketball court. Wherever he traveled in the world, his bed was dismantled and shipped ahead to ensure the comfort he demanded.”

2) Altadis, which has extensive tobacco operations in the Dominican Republic, is calling the 2014-2015 Dominican tobacco harvest “remarkable.” Sufficient rain overall, coupled with dry period, has resulted in thicker leaves, and light rain and cooler temperatures during the curing process provided ideal humidity levels. “Compared to previous years, the current crop has benefited from generous conditions throughout the year. Experts believe this year’s Dominican tobacco crop will qualify as a very unique and distinctive harvest, achieving both quality (strength and flavor) and crop size.”

3) Inside the Industry: More details have emerged about the new Davidoff cigar, which will be called Escurio. The line will feature a dark Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and a Brazilian binder around a combination of Brazilian and Dominican fillers.

4) Deal of the Week: The Smoke Inn Spring Fun Pack seems like the perfect accessory for summer fun at the beach, on the golf course, or tailgating a concert or sporting event. Just $65 lands you 20 Smoke Inn house cigars, plus a cooler bag to keep your drinks ice cold and a Xikar torch lighter.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

For many smokers, warm weather signals the time to find some lower-priced sticks that can be enjoyed while pursuing outdoor activities such as golf, fishing, or mowing the lawn.

My advice? Buy a box of La Aurora 1495 Churchills.

Forget the no-name bundles, seconds, factory throwouts, and all those others where you run a high risk of poor construction and inconsistency.

The 1495 delivers top construction and performance with four-alarm smoke production at bargain-basement prices. Just what you’d expect from La Aurora, which has been rolling cigars in the Dominican Republic since 1903.

Check several of the big online retailers, and you’ll find the 1495 at less than $70 for a cardboard box of 25. (Smaller sizes are even cheaper.)

With a ten-year history, this line combines tobacco from Ecuador (wrapper), the Dominican Republic (binder and filler), and Nicaragua and Peru (filler). It’s a smooth combination that creates a mild to medium strength experience.

It’s not overly complex, not the sort you’re likely to look forward to as a celebration stick. But you’ll find nice tobacco flavors with nuts and a subtle spice near the end. At 7 inches with a ring gauge of 50, the 1495 is perfect for those long, sunny afternoons wherever you are or whatever you’re doing.

Smokers looking for a bargain cigar really need look no further. A few years ago, a StogieGuys.com review awarded the 1495 Robusto four stogies.

While, for me, the Churchill isn’t quite at that level, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to new smokers and those looking for a better-than-just-good daily cigar.

I feel the 1495 Churchill is worthy of a strong rating of three and a half stogies out of five.

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

–George E

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) In two weeks, New Orleans’ smoking ban will take effect—an event that’s notable since the Louisiana city is set to host this summer’s International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) Trade Show (you’ll still be able to smoke on the convention floor). An effort by Harrah’s Casino to have a smoking section on its gambling floor seems to have “fallen on deaf ears,” according to The Times-Picayune. But there are other tweaks to the law that are still under consideration. They include an exemption for cigar bars (defined as establishments with 10% of revenue from cigar sales and humidor rentals) and whether bars, casinos, and restaurants can have outdoor smoking areas. It will be interesting to see how this shapes up, especially since Harrah’s, and the bars and restaurants surrounding the convention center, were popular hangouts among the IPCPR crowd the last time the Trade Show was in New Orleans in 2010.

2) Davidoff is building a new factory in Honduras to support its Camacho, Room 101, and Baccarat brands, and has also purchased tobacco fields in Condega, Nicaragua, and Jamastran, Honduras. “The new Camacho factory in Danlí, Honduras, will sit on almost 450,000 square feet of land, and in its initial phase, operate over an area of 185,000 square feet,” according to Cigar Aficionado. “The new factory will be located near the Pan-American Highway, less than half a mile from the company’s existing box factory.”

3) Many people will tune in to the Masters Golf Tournament this weekend. Look hard and you might see cigar smokers in the gallery, although according to a local paper fewer than you used to. One patron told the paper: “Golf and cigars, they just blend… It’s in the outside, the open air… but you don’t see as many of them anymore.”

4) Inside the Industry: Maya Selva Cigars, producer of Flor de Selva, Cumpay, and Villa Zamorano, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in premium cigars. As a part of what it calls the “20 Años” celebration, the company, which has a strong following in Europe, will be releasing new cigars, including a limited edition “20 Años” Lancero to the Flor de Selva brand, and adding a Toro (6 x 52) to both its Connecticut and Maduro lines.

5) Deal of the Week: Only $25 (shipping included) lands you this five-cigar sampler. Included are the Room 101 Connecticut 808, Macanudo 1968 Toro, Quesada Q40 Toro Box Press, Alec Bradley The Lineage Robusto, and Rocky Patel Edge Maduro Missle.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr

So far this year I’ve reviewed two interesting smokes from United Cigar: the Atabey Ritos, an expensive cigar that’s complex and nuanced; and the Garofalo Robusto, a mild-mannered smoke that’s affordable, flavorful, and satisfying.

Both creations are impressive, not only in their performance but also in their packaging (more on that later). So I’ve made it a point to try and smoke my way through the rest of the United Cigar portfolio, which includes Bandolero, Fleur de la Reine, La Gianna, and Byron.

The latter is named for Lord Byron, an English poet and a leader of the Romantic movement. The Byron cigar line is the revival of an old Cuban brand from the mid-nineteenth century. “Many cigar factories produced numerous brands with Anglo-American names to attract UK and US markets, which had tremendous demand for premium cigars at the time,” according to the United Cigar website.

Today Byron is made in three different blends—Siglo XIX, Siglo XX, and Siglo XXI—to represent “what Cuban cigars were in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.” They are handmade in Costa Rica, stored in an aging room for one year, and then packaged in beautifully ornate porcelain jars or individually humidified tubes.

The Siglo XX Londinenses (5.5 x 54) is dark, firm, and clearly crafted with care. Underneath the cedar sleeve and double bands is a virtually veinless wrapper with a well-executed cap and potent pre-light notes of green raisin, cocoa, and earth. The Byron Siglo XX’s wrapper, binder, and filler are undisclosed.

The cold draw is quite tight, which is a bit of a concern, but fortunately it seems to open immediately after setting an even light. The ensuing flavor is medium-bodied and balanced with notes of creamy nut, sweet cream, dried fruit, coffee, cedar spice, warm tobacco, and cinnamon. Yes, there’s a lot going on here. The texture is dense and the smoke production is moderate. The final third witnesses a slight increase in spice and body.

Aside from the draw being a tad too resistant for my liking, construction is absolutely perfect. The gray ash holds well off the foot, and the straight burn line doesn’t require a single-touch up.

Like Atabey, the Byron Serie Siglo XX Londinenses is competing in the ultra-premium market with a sky-high price of about $30. Surely some of that cost is sunk in the flamboyantly elaborate packaging and the humidified tube (which is reusable and excellent for the golf bag, by the way). That said, this is no mediocre cigar on masquerade. No, the flavors are as numerous as they are harmonious, and the experience is downright memorable. Pony up for an indulgence, and be prepared for a cigar that’s worthy 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

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 announced this week a Liga Privada Único Serie Ratzilla would be launched as a new limited edition holiday release. The cigar will be available at tobacconists in Drew Estate’s Drew Diplomat Retailer Program, which affords some retailers priority allocations on new cigar releases, limited editions, and commemorative cigars and products. “Prior to this formal release, the Liga Privada Único Serie Ratzilla was handed out to a few friends at the IPCPR tradeshow in 2011, and then introduced at Casa de Montecristo in Chicago in 2012 with an extremely limited production of 50 12-count bundles,” according to a Dew Estate press release. “The Liga Privada Único Serie Ratzilla, produced at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Estelí, Nicaragua, features a Connecticut stalk-cut and cured sun-grown Habano wrapper, a Brazilian Mata Fina binder, and Nicaraguan and Honduran fillers.”

2) “The Boulder City Council unanimously approved two versions of a broad outdoor smoking ban Tuesday night,” according to the Denver Post. “The smoking ban would cover city parks, multi-use paths, the area around transit stops, the entire downtown business district, including alleys, Chautauqua Park, and the Flatirons Golf Course. Smoking is already prohibited on the Pearl Street Mall, in the Civic Area, and from the corner of Arapahoe Avenue and 13th Street southeast to 17th Street and University Avenue.”

3) Inside the Industry: This week Illusione shipped its 2014 Singulare cigar called Anunnaki. Named after Sumerian deities, the latest annual release from Illusione is a 5.5-inch, 54-ring gauge Nicaraguan puro made at the TABSA factory in Nicaragua.

4) Deal of the Week: Only $36 gets you a dozen fine smokes in this cold front sampler special from Smoke Inn. Included are two Romeo Toros, two Nish Patel Toros, two Partagas Black Maximos, one Gran Habano Azteca Jaguares, three Ortega Wild Bunch Gearhead Garys, and two Wynwood 465s.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Drew Estate

Assuming time is one of your biggest constraints—as it is mine—you likely face a similar tradeoff: smoke more cigars more often, but forgo the ability to seriously appreciate every stick; or smoke almost every cigar under great smoking conditions, but smoke less.

As a husband, father of an infant, and occupant of a demanding job that requires regular travel, it’s really tough to find the time to smoke a cigar under (what I consider to be) optimal circumstances. But I think such circumstances are necessary if I’m going to be studying, writing about, and reviewing many of the cigars I smoke. So, when faced with the aforementioned tradeoff, I’m usually erring on the side of smoking less, but smoking under solid conditions. That’s how things have played out over the past few years.

What exactly are these optimal conditions? Like so many things when it comes to cigars, I’d imagine the conditions vary by individual. And that’s OK. For me, though, I tend to get the most enjoyment out of a cigar—and I have the greatest ability to appreciate its flavors and performance—when the setup is as follows:

• A comfortable piece of furniture
• An agreeable temperature, either outside or inside
• No wind
• Little else to draw away my attention
• A carefully chosen drink

Right away, you can probably see that these requirements aren’t easily met in full. Unless, of course, you have a smoking sanctuary at your home, or you frequent a well-run cigar lounge. The kind of conditions that don’t make the cut for deep cigar appreciation include the golf course, the car, a BBQ, or even going for a walk.

Now don’t get me wrong. Do I find myself smoking cigars on the golf course, in the car, at BBQs, or on walks? Yes. But more often I’m on my back patio or (when the weather is less agreeable) in my den. True, some of this is a function of my work for StogieGuys.com, which requires a lot of careful consideration and writing. But I tend to think I’d still fall into the habit of smoking a little less and smoking more attentively even without this website.

That said, in preparation for this article, lately I’ve consciously smoked more often, many times under less-than-ideal conditions. I’ve enjoyed it. And frankly it’s kind of liberating to fire up a smoke at times when I typically wouldn’t.

I’ve learned that, in terms of the tradeoff, it’s probably ideal to have a more balanced approach. After all, some cigars are built for the golf course, just as some demand my unwavering attention.

–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) One week ago, the public comment period was closed on the FDA’s attempt to effectively regulate new handamde cigars out of existence. Before that deadline passed, though, eight U.S. senators—Bill Nelson (D-FL), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), David Vitter (R-LA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Joe Manchin (D-WV)—wrote their own letter to the FDA, urging the agency to exempt premium cigars, and to eliminate the retail price requirement for that exemption. “A premium cigar should be defined as any roll of tobacco that is wrapped in 100% leaf tobacco, bunched with 100% tobacco filler, contains no filter, tip, or non-tobacco mouthpiece, and weighs at least 6 pounds per 1,000 count,” they said. “It also must either have a 100% leaf tobacco binder and be hand-rolled, or have a homogenized tobacco leaf binder and be made in the United States using human hands to lay the 100% leaf tobacco wrapper onto only one machine that bunches, wraps, and caps each individual cigar.” While there is no deadline for the FDA to act, some expect the FDA to issue its regulations next summer, with legal challenges sure to follow.

2) Officials in Charlotte have proposed the criminalization of smoking cigars in parks, greenways, and golf courses, in addition to a separate ordinance that would ban smoking on the grounds of government buildings. A public hearing has been scheduled for September 2, with a vote expected on September 17.

3) Contest: StogieGuys.com readers who register at CigarsFor.Me this week will once again be registered to win a free five-pack of cigars. CigarsFor.me specializes in recommending customers the perfect premium cigars without having to go through endless hours of research. Users simply fill out their quick Palate Profile and instantly they’re shown cigars that they’ll love. It’s fun, easy, and this week you can win free smokes. Click here. Congrats to last week’s winner: Jay Dolas from West Henrietta, NY.

4) Inside the Industry: A.J. Fernandez released an online mini-documentary. Despite its gratuitous and slightly stereotypical use of images of Fernandez walking (and riding a horse) through his fields to Buena Vista Social Club music, the 12-minute video does a good job of capturing the process of making cigars and providing some insights into A.J. Fernandez’s background. Watch the whole thing here.

5) Deal of the Week: Looking to try what Sindicato Cigars has to offer? This sampler is way to do it. Just $40 ($4 per cigar) gets you two each of all four Sindicato lines: Hex, Casa Bella, Affinity, and Sindicato.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Flickr