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.

Made at the Plasencia factory in Nicaragua, the Claro edition of the U.K.-based Regius Exclusivo U.S.A. line features a white primary band above a red, white, and silver secondary band. The Nicaraguan puro sports a light brown wrapper and dual binders. Once lit, I find light spice, woody notes, and bready flavors. Billed as lighter than the original Exclusivo U.S.A. line, it falls distinctly in the medium-bodied range. The Pressed Perfecto shape (6.5 x 56) shows off excellent construction and combustion qualities.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Warped Cigars had a breakout year in 2015. The company has been around for the better part of a decade, but in the past couple years it upped its game with a series of releases made at El Titan de Bronze in Miami and TABSA in Nicaragua.

Futuro was one of a handful of new releases from Warped at the 2015 IPCPR Trade Show in New Orleans last summer. Warped describes Futuro’s creation on its website:

“Future” is a collaboration between Warped x Casa Fernandez, but more specifically Kyle Gellis of Warped and Max Fernandez of Casa Fernandez, son of Eduardo Fernandez, owner of AGANORSA and Casa Fernandez. We originally began speaking about this project at the 2014 IPCPR and it took that much time to develop this concept and blend. We set out to create a profile that is unlike anything Warped or Casa Fernandez has done previously, utilzing 100% AGANORSA material from their “vault,” a selection of tobacco under lock and key and specifically for the Fernandez family.

The cigar uses a reddish-brown Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 wrapper, Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 binder, and Nicaraguan Criollo ’98 and Corojo ’99 filler tobaccos. It is made at TABSA.

Futuro will be offered in two vitolas, each of which sold in 20-count boxes: Selección Suprema (5.6 x 46, $8.75), and Selección 109 (6 x 52, $9.75). I smoked four Selección Supremas, the size and blend preferred by Kye Gellis, for this review.

The profile starts with an initial burst of creaminess before it settles into a woody flavor with light spice and hints of honey. Occasionally, I even pick up on a combination of flavors that reminds me of banana bread. As the medium-bodied cigar progresses, heavier spice and earth notes become more prominent. There are papery notes on the clean, relatively short finish.

The excellent construction on this cigar is a testament to the increased quality that the TABSA factory has been producing. The factory is now producing cigars for Illusione, Warped, Casa Fernandez, Foundation Cigar Co. (El Güegüense), and others.

With a combination of sweetness, spice, wood, and earth, this is a very enjoyable, complex, and balanced Nicaraguan puro. Add in excellent construction plus a fair price (under $9) and the Warped Futuro Selección Supremas earns our first five-stogie rating of 2016.

From its rough, rugged Connecticut Broadleaf maduro wrapper to the intense finish, The Rake would be right at home at the poker table in the Long Branch Saloon.

The Rake is the second regular production line from MoyaRuiz, a small firm that has already made an impression in the cigar world with a couple of offbeat limited editions and its initial La Jugada line.

Like La Jugada, The Rake is a powerful smoke. With filler comprising four ligero leaves—two from Jalapa and two from Estelí—the surprise would be if it weren’t. (Details on the binder were not released.)

The Fix starts with spice and pepper and a bit of a back-of-the-throat scratch. For the first third, in fact, it seemed that might be its single distinguishing characteristic. Fortunately, though, that began to lessen as the second third began, opening up to some dark flavors like burned coffee, roasted nuts, and charred wood.

As I progressed down the box-pressed frame (5.6 x 46), there was lots of smoke, a slightly loose draw, and a not-so-great burn. The thick wrapper, at times, seemed almost fireproof.

The cigars are rolled at Erik Espinosa’s La Zona factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. The Rake comes in boxes of 20, with three sizes in addition to the Fix: Cut (5 x 52), Take (6 x 52), and Vig (6 x 60). The boxes and bands, like the names themselves, all reflect a connection to poker.

In announcing the line, Danny Moya said in a release that the band’s design was “inspired by the speakeasy peep hole found in many doors at underground gambling rooms, and the cigar box has two slots on the top of the box to resemble a rake box.”

I bought a five-pack ($47.50) back in the summer and smoked a couple then and a couple recently. Six months or so in the humidor seems to have made a little difference, especially in reducing sharpness.

With such a distinctive profile, I wouldn’t regularly smoke The Rake. But I would definitely pick one up on occasion for something different. I recommend it, especially in this size, and give it four stogies out of five.

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

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys / MoyaRuiz

Each Saturday and Sunday we’ll post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief take on a single cigar.

The original El Centurion blend was one of my favorite cigars, which has always given the second iteration an unfair standard to live up to. But after being impressed with the newer El Centurion H2K, I decided to revisit the cigar, which uses a Nicaraguan sun-grown Criollo wrapper. It has nice pepper and wood notes, but this particular stick suffered from a terribly tight draw that made multiple relights necessary. Given my experience with this blend and My Father cigars in general, I have every reason to think the fatal construction on this cigar was a fluke, and a rare one at that. Still, each Quick Smoke only evaluates a single sample, and this one was a dud.

Verdict = Sell.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys

We all know about beginning-of-the-year resolutions. Lose weight, exercise, get more sleep… And we all know how most of them end up. Broken. (Statistically, by now, over a third of resolutions are already broken.)

But cigar resolutions are different. They can be easy to keep because they increase your enjoyment. Here are a few suggestions for 2016:

Take better care of your cutters and lighters. Neither of these tools requires all that much maintenance, but a little work will pay off. Keep your cutter clean. A blast of canned air will push out tiny bits of tobacco that can jam the mechanism and dull the blades. And while you have the compressed air handy, shoot a little in your lighter to eliminate debris and keep the butane flowing freely.

Venture outside your comfort zone. Try something from a manufacturer you never smoke, pick up a cigar with a different wrapper or blend, spring for an ultra-premium when it’s time to celebrate, or dig into the bargain basement once in a while. Sure, you will come up short on occasion, but you might find a new favorite. At the least, you’ll learn more about your likes and dislikes.

Clean up. Dump the ashtrays when you’ve finished smoking. Without fail. No one—and I mean no one—likes the sour, nasty smell of old ashes and butts.

Check out some oldies. New doesn’t always mean better. There is a reason some smokes have been around for years and years. People like them and buy them regularly. It’s also nice to know that a cigar you enjoy will always be available.

Introduce someone to the joys of cigars. We’ve all got friends who have never tried a premium cigar. Can they really turn down an invitation to watch a game, enjoy a drink, or just chew the fat at your local shop or in your backyard?

Enjoy. Whatever you find best about cigars, do a little more of it this year.

You likely can come up with more resolutions of your own. No matter what you decide, here’s to the best cigar-smoking year ever!

–George E

photo credit: Stogie Guys

BG Meyer is an offshoot from Camacho’s “Board of the Bold,” which is comprised of legendary NFL coach Mike Ditka, jewelry maker Matt Booth, and Hollywood writer and producer Rob Weiss. The trio was assembled in 2013—about five years after Davidoff acquired Camacho—when Camacho’s portfolio of 11 brands was narrowed to 6, and when its reputation for bold smokes was underscored by a new scorpion logo.

Ditka, Booth, and Weiss all have brands that are made and distributed by Camacho, which operates out of Honduras. Weiss, perhaps best known as a writer and producer for the HBO series Entourage, labels his smokes BG Meyer after his dog, Big Meyer. There are currently three BG Meyer blends: Standard Issue, Slackers, and Gigantes.

The latter was introduced last year as homage to the bigger-than-life heroes we admire, hence the name and “amped-up” ring gauges. Gigantes showcases a dark Nicaraguan-grown Habano wrapper from 2007 over a Brazilian Mata Fina binder and filler from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Four sizes are available: 52 (4 x 52), 54 (5 x 54), 56 (6 x 56), and 60 (7 x 60). They range in price from about $9.50 to $12.50.

The Gigantes 56 is a large, thick, bold-looking smoke accented by dual bands of gold and black. While the firm, well-built cigar is not without a minor aesthetic imperfection here and there, it carries an overall impression of quality. The oily, toothy wrapper leaf has a faint leathery aroma, and the foot has a more complex fragrance of dried apricot, cocoa, and earth.

As soon as an even light is established, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with my colleague’s First Impression: Gigantes 56 “is dominated by earth and oak, though notes of coffee, bread, clove, and hints of red pepper are also apparent.” Medium- to full-bodied from the get-go, I also find some cherry and creamy cashew—especially on the retrohale. The intensity subsides towards the midway point, then ramps up a bit in the final third, which is also characterized by the addition of black pepper and a heavier dose of coffee beans.

The physical properties performed perfectly across my three samples. When you fire up this cigar, you can expect a straight burn, solid ash, easy draw, and good smoke production.

You have to be weary of any cigar with a celebrity name attached to it; you can end up paying for the name, while important aspects like tobacco, blending, etc. are an afterthought. That shouldn’t be your concern with Gigantes, though. Weiss clearly had expert tobacco people guiding him through the development process.

This fine-tasting smoke has a lot going for it. That said, I wish Gigantes was available in some thinner sizes. The 56 is a big smoke, commanding a significant time commitment. Plus, the flavor changes along the way aren’t terribly significant, which means the cigar runs the risk of overstaying its welcome if you aren’t in love with the core profile. All things considered, I’m scoring the BG Meyer Gigantes 56 three 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.

Here’s a throwback: a robusto from the original Tatuaje La Vérité release, which represented an ambitious use of aspects of wine by adopting future sales pricing, single vintage tobaccos, and tobacco sourced from a single farm. Back in 2009, when my colleague reviewed a pre-release edition, he predicted it would age well, so today I’m checking out what the better part of a decade did for this cigar. Construction is flawless, with age producing a sharp, even burn. The dominant flavors on this medium-bodied smoke are mild oak and light spice, although there is a slightly tannic, bitter element towards the final third. Most unique is the notably clean and crisp finish. This is a well-made, unique, and enjoyable cigar, but I don’t think it ever fully lived up to the grandiose expectations. Even with age it is easily surpassed by the 2009 La Vérité releases.

Verdict = Buy.

–Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie Guys