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.”

Released to celebrate J.C. Newman’s founder, this Diamond Crown extension is a medium-strength, tasty cigar. Few details are released—the smooth, oily wrapper is labeled Ecuadorian Havana-seed and the other tobaccos called simply Central American. My guess—based on spices reminiscent of some Opus smokes—is a high proportion of Dominican filler. Like all Diamond Crowns, the Julius Caeser carries a high price tag. The Pyramid (6.5 x 52) retails between $16 and $20. I thoroughly enjoyed it with one caveat: The draw was a bit constricted and smoke production a little limited. But I would say this is one to consider when you want a celebratory stick.

Verdict = Buy.

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Cigar makers and brand owners must feel a constant pressure to continuously work on the next big thing. From what I can tell, retailers and consumers alike are always asking about what’s new. And it must be quite challenging to keep a steady stream of traffic flowing at your annual convention booth if you don’t have something fresh and exciting to show off.

That’s why, as my colleague put it recently, “the seemingly irresistible urge to introduce new blends, new line extensions, new brands, new tobaccos, new curing methods, and on and on reaches its annual pinnacle at the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) Trade Show.”

Yet there’s something to be said about the slow and steady approach: not wearing yourself too thin, and only coming out with something new when you’ve got a product worth introducing. So far, that’s the strategy Omar de Frias has employed for Fratello Cigars, the venture he began in 2013. The original Fratello line was a project over two years in the making. It would be another two years until a second Fratello cigar would come to market.

Called Bianco, the four-vitola line features a San Andrés Negro wrapper, Dominican binder, and filler tobaccos from Pennsylvania, Nicaragua, and Peru. “We wanted a richer, darker, and a fuller body smoke that would be smooth, complex, and characteristic of our full flavor cigars,” said de Frias in a May press release. Bianco cigars sell in the $8-9 range and are packaged in 20-count boxes.

I smoked three in the “Event Exclusive” size, which measures 5 inches long with a ring gauge of 44. As is sometimes the case with San Andrés, the cigar looks a little rough around the edges with noticeable seams, a slightly sloppy cap, and a toothy texture. The pre-light notes, however, are an inviting, potent combination of cocoa and espresso, the cold draw is smooth, and the surface has ample oils.

Once lit, I find a medium-bodied profile of black coffee, pepper, dark chocolate, and oak. The texture is leathery. As the cigar progresses, the complexity deepens with the additions of creamy nut, damp earth, and a dried fruit sweetness. The smoke production is commendable and the resting smoke has a fragrant, sweet bouquet. The final third is slightly more intense with espresso taking center stage.

The physical properties perform beautifully from light to nub, including a straight burn line, solid white ash, and good draw that has just the right amount of resistance.

Like the original Fratello, it’s hard to not like Bianco. I’ll take that a step further and say Bianco has its predecessor slightly beat in terms of complexity, flavor, and texture. (I doubt this will be a popular opinion; it’s fashionable to put down San Andrés-wrapped smokes, but I think San Andrés really makes this blend shine.) Try Bianco yourself and you’re bound to be impressed. I rate the Event Exclusive size four and a half stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick A

photo credit: Stogie Guys

Sunday was National Bourbon Day, not to be confused with National Bourbon Heritage Month, which is September. So I naturally poured myself some. What was a little unusual was that although bourbon is a most American product (it must be produced in the U.S., though not necessarily in Kentucky), the bourbon I enjoyed isn’t sold in the United States.

Blanton’s is a well-known single barrel bourbon made at the Buffalo Trace distillery. It’s a popular premium bourbon that sells for around $50, is bottled at 93-proof, and comes in a distinctive round bottle with an iconic metal horse perched on the cork top. While Buffalo Trace distills the bourbon, the Blanton’s brand is owned by Age International, a Japanese company.

Outside the United States Blanton’s also sells a Special Reserve version (80-proof), Blanton’s Gold (103-proof), and Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel (SFTB), which is bottled at barrel-proof. Reportedly, “contractual obligations” prevent Age International from selling these other variations within the United States.

Fortunately for me, I picked up a few bottles (700 ml. each, as opposed to the U.S. standard of 750 ml.) in France last year where SFTB sells for 69 euros, or just under $80. Each label gives you information on the particular bottle. For this one, I can see that it was bottled on 7/7/14 from barrel number 225, which is located in Warehouse H on rack number 31. (Mine is bottle 138.)

This barrel comes in a hearty 127.3-proof (though the proof can vary quite a bit from barrel to barrel, generally ranging from 125 to 135). It’s a very dark copper color with a nose that has features strong oak, clove spice, and hints of caramel and wood polish.

On the palate, SFTB features oak, cinnamon, clove, and caramelized sugar. Just a bit of water opens the flavors up nicely revealing fudge, banana bread, and toffee. The finish lingers with sweet wood notes and a dryness on the roof of the mouth.

As for a cigar, it certainly can hold up to a full-bodied, spicy smoke. Flavorful Nicaraguan-forward blends like Aquitaine or Tatuaje Fausto seem ideal; so does the spicy La Flor Dominicana Cameroon Cabinet and Fuente Opus X.

While you can find a few places online that will ship this elusive version of Blanton’s into the U.S. for a hefty premium, a better plan is to wait until you, or a bourbon-drinking friend, are heading to Europe or Japan and then do a little research to locate it so you can pack a bottle or two back with you in your checked luggage. It is an excellent bourbon and if you’re a fan of Blanton’s (or Elmer T. Lee or Rock Hill Farms, which are other single-barrel bourbons that use the same mashbill as Blanton’s) it is well worth the effort needed to acquire a bottle of this tasty, flavorful whiskey.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

As a whole, cigar smokers are an amiable bunch that, with the exception of a few curmudgeons, tend to assume good intentions of others. That’s a good way to deal with most people, and exactly how you’d have most people treat you.

But when it comes to politics, it can be very dangerous to underestimate you opponents. This is very much true with the opponents of cigar freedoms.

There are lots of people with various views on how our laws should deal with tobacco products. When it comes to where smoking is banned or permitted, at what level cigars should be taxed, and to what extent cigars should be treated the same as other tobacco products, there a wide variety of views. A proud, freedom-loving cigar smoker should welcome informed debate.

That said, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact there is a well-funded group of professional anti-tobacco activists for whom any adult choosing to use any tobacco product anywhere is a problem that needs to be solved by a law. Attempts to reason or negotiate with these people are not only a useless; any energy expended on them is counterproductive.

These “tobacco control” activists, as they call themselves, are funded to the tune of billions of dollars a year (much of it by our taxes) and extremely politically connected. Look no further than the U.S. Senate, where a small group of anti-tobacco senators continue to push for more aggressive anti-smoking measures, no matter how hypocritical or illogical.

Earlier this month, Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut called for the FDA to accelerate the rulemaking process to, among other things, regulate cigars. The senator even said if the FDA doesn’t issue a final rule soon enough, he would introduce a law demanding that it rush the final rule. Never mind that anti-smoking activists have called for the FDA process to proceed uninterrupted and without the influence of legislation like the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act. Suddenly, when the supposedly independent rulemaking process isn’t proceeding fast enough, here is a senator moving to intervene.

Similarly, Blumenthal is one of four senators who recently introduced a bill to increase taxes on most tobacco products, including almost doubling most tobacco taxes. That may be unsurprising, but their reasoning strains reality. According to a press release issued by Senator Dick Durbin, the bill is necessary to stop smuggling and black market tobacco products. Of course, anyone with a basic understanding of how taxes create black markets realizes this bill would be counterproductive to its supposed goal.

But pointing out to Senator Blumenthal and his ilk that it is hypocritical for them to interfere with the FDA process, or that excessive taxes only encourage smuggling, would be a waste of time because their real goal is removing tobacco as a choice that informed adults can make for themselves.

So I’d like to suggest the following: Instead of just focusing narrowly on the text of whatever legislation the anti-tobacco forces are championing next, lets also remind Americans (who I still think are mostly reasonable on these issues) that every time they cast their lot with politicians and professional activists who just want one more tobacco tax or regulation or smoking ban, they are siding with folks who reject the basic American premise that adults can make choices for themselves.

Cigar smokers, and all adults who choose to use tobacco, don’t want children smoking, nor do we demand the right to smoke everywhere whenever we want. Mostly, we just want to be left alone and not picked on for our choices by a powerful special interest group that seeks to control a centuries-old behavior by consenting adults.

Maybe I’m too optimistic about Americans. But I think enough people agree with those basic principles for the underdog (and that’s exactly what we are) to ultimately prevail.

–Patrick S

photo credits: 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) Yesterday Camacho announced American Barrel-Aged, a “complex and intense” cigar with “bourbon barrel-aged Corojo at its heart.” The first release under Camacho’s Master Built Series, the blend is “constructed almost entirely of American-grown tobacco including a Broadleaf wrapper, binder, and filler, along with maduro filler tobacco from Pennsylvania,” reads a press release. “One leaf of the six-year-old, bourbon barrel-aged Corojo tobacco was added to the recipe and is the main component that amplifies the complexity of the blend.” The cigars retail for $10 to $12 apiece and are being supported by a nationwide tour beginning on June 8 in Orlando and ending December 19 in Tampa. Dylan Austin, director of marketing for Davidoff, had this to say about American Barrel-Aged: “This project marks the first time a Camacho core line has been made outside of Honduras and we are extremely proud of what our master builders in the Dominican Republic have brought to life. Barrel aging is a very tedious and hands-on process. We are aging around 2,000 pounds of Corojo filler tobacco and rotating the barrels one leaf at a time every few weeks. Each batch takes a full five months to complete and requires constant attention to ensure the proper journey for this special tobacco.”

2) La Flor Dominicana has announced its 2015 Tobacconist Association of America (TAA) Exclusive Series. The TAA 47 (5.5 x 52) will begin shipping to TAA retailers in late May in 25-count boxes with an MSRP of $9. The Dominican-made blend includes an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. You can find the list of TAA retailers here.

3) Legislation introduced by four Democrat senators would raise federal taxes on all tobacco products. The so-called “Tobacco Tax and Enforcement Reform Act” purports to, among other things, fight tobacco smuggling by raising the federal tax on cigarettes from $1.01 per pack to $1.95 per pack. For other tobacco products, including cigars, the bill would “set tax rates… at an equivalent amount,” presumably increasing federal taxes by 94%.

4) Inside the Industry: Rocky Patel’s The Edge brand was first introduced in 2004, and the new Edge A-10 celebrates the line’s tenth anniversary (the delayed release was supposed to debut in 2014). The dual barberpole-style Honduran and Costa Rican wrappers are the same wrappers used on the original Edge Corojo and Edge Maduro. The cigar also has a Honduran binder and Nicaraguan and Panamanian filler.

5) Deal of the Week: This “five great cigars” sampler features, you guessed it, five excellent cigars for just $26. Included are the Kristoff Galerones DR4 Toro, Curivari Gran Rey Belicoso, PDR 1878 Habano Robusto, Avo Classic Robusto, and the Asylum 13 Robusto.

–The Stogie Guys

photo credit: Camacho

Illusione has been on a roll lately. The recently released 2014 Singulare Anunnaki earned a rare five-stogie rating. It is the first Singulare that’s in the same class as the original 2010 Singulare, as good and possibly even better depending on how it ages. And the last new full line from Illusione, the Fume d’Amour, was another outstanding release.

In addition to both being good smokes, both the Anunnaki and Fume d’Amour fall in the mild- to medium-bodied range. For that reason, I was particularly interested to try Illusione’s ~eccj~ 20th Annicersary cigar.

The original ~eccj~ debuted in 2008 to celebrate the 15th Anniverary of the European Cigar Cult Journal magazine, now just called Cigar Journal. That cigar blend, which gained a bit of a cult following, would become the popular Epernay line.

So, naturally, when Illusione brand owner Dion Giolito announced a follow-up ~eccj~ would be coming, it was eagerly anticipated. The new ~eccj~ features a tweaked blend and a slightly larger size (6.5 x 48). Boxes of 15 sell for $195, or $13 per cigar.

Using 100% Nicaraguan tobacco, including a Café Rosado Corojo ’99 wrapper, the ~eccj~ 20th Anniversary features some sneaky strength. The flavors are a complex combination of roasted nuts, breadiness, light oak, leather, and cream.

The strength builds towards a solid-medium, bordering on medium-full as it progresses, though the flavors don’t change much. There is a slightly sour edge that particularly lingers on the finish.

While it’s an excellent cigar, it might suffer from the obvious comparison to other Illusione cigars. For my tastes, it isn’t as refined as the Epernay, Fume d’Amour, or the most recent Singulare. But don’t let that high bar fool you. With sneaky flavor, complexity, and good construction, plus the potential to get better with more age, the Illusione ~eccj~ 20th earns a rating of four stogies out of five.

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

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys