I guess you could say I’m a ‘new-wave’ cigar smoker. I sit on the beach listening to the weekly DJ Tiesto Podcast with my Girlfriend and our dog. I watch the sunset while I sip on a “Tinto De Verano”(a refreshing mix of Red Wine and Sprite) which literally translates to “Drink of the Summer”.
As for the cigar, it’s called El Rico Habano, and it’s a beautiful Maduro made by, and produced in, the same place as La Gloria Cubana. I picked up several El Rico’s when I visited their factory store “El Credito” in Miami’s Calle Ocho District this past Christmas.
This El Rico Habano has a 54 inch ring gauge and is about 7 inches long. It’s amazingly smooth, and I’m loving every bit of it. It’s everything I had hoped for, and exactly what I had expected from the folks who make La Gloria Cubana.
Top Shelf
-2 Fuente Opus X
-2 Partagas Decadas 1998
-2 Oliva Serie V
-3 Punch Champion
-1 Punch Gran Cru
-1 Romeo y Julieta Habana Cuba
-1 Hoyo de Monterey Hoyo de Tradicion
-1 Hoyo de Monterey Habana Cuba
Bottom Shelf
-2 La Gloria Cubana Maduro Double Corona
-1 La Gloria Cubana Reserva Figurados
-1 La Gloria Cubana #1 Torpedo
-2 El Rico Habano Churchill
-2 El Credito Box Pressed
-1 Rocky Patel Edge
-1 Rocky Patel Sun Grown
-1 Rocky Patel Old World Reserve
-1 Rocky Patel Vintage 1990
-1 Punch Gran Puro
-1 Punch JG
-1 JKR Torpedo Natural
-1 Caoba
-2 Padron Corticos
Aging
-1 La Gloria Cubana Torpedo #1
-2 La Gloria Cubana Double Corona
-3 La Gloria Cubana Torpedo Arteranos de Miami
-5 La Gloria Cubana Pantellas
-2 La Gloria Cubana Corticos
1. LOOKS – A humidor is a piece of furniture that stores your cigars. Make sure to choose a humidor that you are proud to own, as it increases the overall pleasure of smoking.
2. PRICE – You should be able to find a decent humidor on-line for $40.00 to $150.00.
3. SIZE – A travel humidor can be for 10 to 20 cigars, but your primary humidor at home should hold 100 to 150 cigars. You want your humidor to be able to hold the biggest cigar you own, plus new ones you may buy.
4. WOOD – The inside of a humidor should be lined with Spanish cedar. American or Honduran cedar can also be used, but Spanish cedar is superior for several reasons (high humidity absorption, support of cigar aging, positive effect on cigar flavor).
5. AIR TIGHT SEAL – A humidor should have an air tight seal from which you can hear and feel the air ‘whoosh’ out of when closing the lid.
6. QUALITY – Since you can’t really see the quality from a picture on the internet, buying from a reputable website will help ensure your buying good quality.
7. GLASS LID – A humidor with a glass lid can be both beautiful and functional, however you should be cautious not to keep your glass lid humidor in direct sunlight, which could alter the humidity.
The Ashton line comes from the fields of Fuente Tobacco, some of the most coveted tobacco in the world. This cigar is the epitome of quality.
I paired it with a deep red Spanish table wine from Valencia. The wine turned out to be a slight disappointment. I guess I should have realized that table wine is synonymous with lack of depth. The cigar slightly disappointed me as well. By all accounts this should have been one of the best maduro cigars I have ever smoked. Perhaps my hopes were too high? Perhaps I’m spoiled from having smoked so many Padron Maduros in my cigar lifetime? Perhaps the slightly bitter wine polluted my pallate? Or perhaps, like the Cohiba Esplendidos, the Ashton requires a extremely refined palate to appreciate, of which I have yet to develop?
Whatever the reason, the cigar was a very good, perfectly constructed, balanced smoke…but didn’t quite live up to what I had expected from such a highly praised and expensive cigar. I do plan to revist the Ashton Maduro another time, perhaps with an Amarone instead.
Saturday afternoon I snuggled up with the Cigar Aficionado #4 rated cigar of 2007, the Oliva Serie V. This was my 3rd of a 5-pack of Torpedo’s I had bought a few months back. The wrappers on the Serie V smell absolutely divine! Like flowerless chocolate cake, or fresh baked chocolate brownies.
Being such a rich, decadent cigar, I needed something full flavored to accompany it. I had just purchased a 3-pack of super premium Chinese Oolong Tea’s, so I decided I would try one of them. I chose a 16 year aged Ti Kwan Yin (Reserved), from the Xi Ping Village in the Fujian Provence, a very robust and full bodied tea. It paired splendidly, and I enjoyed each puff and sip in unison.
I couldn’t let my Sunday go down in flames from my earlier bad review, so as the rain started, I started digging in the bottom of my Humidor for a warm and toasty treat. I decided upon a JKR Black Maduro. I don’t know the actual name of the cigar, as JKR cigars aren’t labeled at all except for saying JKR and the price, but they sell large, good looking cigars, at a great price (usually under $5.00 a stick).
I choose to pair this dark black Maduro with a pot of Black Cherry Serenade Tea, which worked quite well.
About half way through, which was over an hour later, I had some fresh baked chocolate cookies with my JKR. The cookies paired perfectly with the cigar, allowing me to taste the chocolate in each puff of the cigar itself. Very nice.
There are tons of cuban tasting, cuban knock-offs in the market today. Most don’t taste anything like a cuban.
Cuban Delights are different.
Cuban Delights taste like a Cuban Cigar tastes. While they burn a little quick, and are not blessed with excellent construction, they are great cigars to smoke. I first purchased a 5 pack, and went back for a 20 pack. Now I’m planning on splitting a box of these with some guys in the office.
Once when I was camping, I handed out about 5 of these to some guys at a bonfire. I told them they were real cubans, and they believed me. One guy came back up to me later saying “Thanks man! That was the best cigar I ever had!” Its amazing what a little marketing can do.
These are the new Maduro Cuban Delights, so Im not entirely sure how they will taste, as I have only had the Natural one’s. Hopefully they still have that great cuban taste, but with a spicy maduro wrapper on top!
Thompson Cigar has a sale going on now, where you can order 30 Cuban Delight Maduro Robusto’s for $19.95 (regularly priced at $47.00). At this price we would be crazy not to try them!
It looks like Montecristo just released a new cigar.
We all know the Cuban Line of Monticristo is amazing, and the #2 is one of the best cigars in the world, if not the best cuban cigar on earth.
The Monticristo’s produced outside of Cuba, such as their Dominican Line, just haven’t been as good. I mean they are good cigars, but they just pale in comparison to the Cuban versions. A friend recently bought a box of their new Monticristo Media Noche’s, and well, they are ok, but I wouldn’t buy one myself. Perhaps they need a few years of aging under their belt first.
Montecristo’s new line, the Flor Fina is set to change all that. Produced in Honduras, they claim to be much better then any of the other Monticristo Cigars made outside of Cuba. They are the first of the new Honduran Line of Monticristo’s and are said to be much more Cuban like.
JR Cigars has a special sale going on through Wednesday Jan 28th, 2009 where you get 40% off a box of the new Flor Fina’s. That means you can pick up a box of 10 Montecristo Flor Fina’s, in glass tubes, for only $49.95.
That’s $5.00 each! I did a google search and it looks like you can only find this new line at JR Cigars currently, so if you are the kind of guy that simply has to have the latest and greatest in cigar land, and if you are partial to Monti’s, you might want to pick up a box. Let me know if you do, im dying to try one.
Monday after work I met up with my friend Dave at La Bodeguita del Medio in Palo Alto for a smoke. Here’s a picture of Dave on his GXR holding a Punch Gran Cru.
La Bodeguita del Medio is a wonderful Cuban Restaurant & Bar with an indoor/outdoor cigar lounge, complete with a walk-in Humidor.
You can flip though one of the many Cigar Books or a copy of Cigar Aficionado while you enjoy your cigar. You can even pick up a free 2009 Cigar Calendar, like I did yesterday. In fact, Cigar Aficionado named La Bodeguita del Medio as 1 of the finest cigar friendly places in the U.S. (one of only 4 in California). The full report is available here: http://www.artdistrictcigars.com/lightupamerica.pdf
So I got down to business with an amazing cigar, the Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur Maduro Epicure, rated #8 for 2007. This 50-ring cigar was excellent in every way imaginable. It had a smooth draw, great taste, and a slow, even burn. What really makes this cigar special though, is the 2 Dark Connecticut Broadleaf’s used for the binder & wrapper. This gives it that full taste that separates it from the rest of the Hoyo de Monterrey line.
This Saturday, I received a gift as great as a man can get, a cigar, and not just any cigar but a H. Upmann Habana – Sir Winston.
Already knocked one off the new 2008 Top 10 List!
Once we arrived, we prepared to smoke by making our customary offering to the cigar gods, thanking them for this bountiful smoke.
I guess Cuban’s make me a little poetic.
I sit in Tiburon
On the Shores Edge
With my Girlfriend
And 4 good friends
I smoke a cigar
Not soon forgotten
H. Upmann Habana
The size a Sir Winston
I gaze past the waves
Sailboats and the Skyline
Reflecting upon
The Embargo Timeline
If not for Cigars
I ask you dear friend
Our knowledge of Cuba
What would it be then?
Wow, this is one fine cigar! It has a 10 year aged African Cameroon Wrapper which comes from The Republic of Cameroon obviously! (JK about the obviously part)
I haven’t really dabbled into the world of aged cigars yet, due to time, cost, etc….but I sure can appreciate the complexities of taste manifested through an aged cigar. The aftertaste of each puff is filled with a toasted nuttiness, of which I have never tasted before.
The Smoke Shop in Burlingame is still my favorite smoke shop. A friend at work wanted to see if we could get some of this years top 10 cigars, so we ran over there on our lunch break. We didn’t find any of this years top 10′s, as most of them are obscure cigars from smaller manufacturers, but we did find some great cigars.
My friend got the #1 and #2 rated cigars of 2007, the Padron 1926 #9, and the Fuente Fuente Opus X. It amazed me that they had a plethora of Opus X cigars. They do have a 2 cigar limit per customer, but still, these babies are out the door quicker then any cigar I have ever encountered. I recently picked some up at Pebble Beach after keeping an eye out for them for about 6 months! Apparently they just opened a new box yesterday, so if your looking for a large selection of Fuente Opus X’s, get down to Burlingame Quick.
I picked up 2 Opus X’s (the limit per customer) & 2 JFR’s, which are a lesser known brand from FL. I had heard it was near impossible to find JFR’s outside of South Florida, so it just goes to further prove what a great smoke shop this really is.
I also picked up a 3 pack of Partagas Decadas Limited Reserve 1998 which have been aged a glorious 10 years!!! They came in a nice package that includes a 3 cigar case, and some seriously long Partagas matches (sorry Zippo Blu). I love the Partagas Black Label Cigars, but I haven’t really found another Partagas that suits me yet.
The box on these Decadas says “Partagas cigar master Ramon Cifuentes goal was to make the finest Partagas cigar possible, regardless of cost or scarcity”…well…that’s all that I needed to hear.
On my way home, I couldnt help feeling that I was doing something wrong. I was still smoking my Secreto and I was driving home. Is there something wrong with that? I sure felt guilty. Is there a law against smoking a cuban while driving? All I know is I kept looking in my rear view expecting to see flashing lights. Funny, I never felt like that smoking a Padron while driving home.
Title “dos cubanos para ti” alludes to the song Dos Gardenias by Ibramim Ferrer:
A friend of mine received a new stash of Cubanos this week, so we went a little overboard for our weekly cigar night. I had the pleasure of smoking a PARTAGAS SERIES D #4, which was incredible!!!
It was perfectly humidified (is that how you say it?) and the wrapper smelled amazing. The smell was very similar to the the wrapper on the standard Cohiba Robusto’s, and it reminded me of this past summer in Antigua, Guatemala when I bought all the Cohiba’s left in the store. It smoked divinely from start to finish, and trust me, I finish good cigars. By the time I’m done with em, even the bums cant get a hit out of em
After about a 30 minute break, and a few Mojitos, I moved onto my second cigar of the night. I must say, currently, this is probably my favorite cigar in the world! Just barely beating out the Padron 1926 80 yr. The last time I had one of these was when I was in San Pedro, Belize – La Isla Bonita – sipping Cuban Coffee looking out over the main square and the Barrier Reef. The way this cigar goes with coffee is truly magical, and with Cuban coffee was just off the charts.
The Cohiba Sectretos #5 Madruo’s must be the finest small cigar ever made! It’s a Petit Corona, so it’s only 4.3 inches long and has a small ring gauge of only 40, but man oh man you wouldnt know any of that by the perfect draw this sucker has. The cigar is beautiful to look at, and comes in an even more beautiful box (I wonder if you can smoke the box too…hmm). Amazingly I smoked this for about 25 minutes, then drove home which took another 45 minutes, never let it go out, and still had 10 minutes to go once I got home! I guess you could say I took my time and enjoyed this cigar
