Seriously, this is a Phenomenal Deal on Cigars! For only $30.00 bucks you get Ten 90+ point rated cigars. There are some of my favorites in here too! The Don Pepin Blue Label, Graycliff, Indian Tabac Super Fuerte Maduro, Rocky Patel Sun Grown, Alec Bradley, Oliva G and La Aroma De Cuba. These are all cigars I have smoked over and over again. You wont be disappointed with this deal: http://www.cigarsinternational.com/html/spec_wkly.asp
The new Angelenos Cigar is a very elegant looking smoke. It’s from the makers of Promethus Lighters, and by the same people who made the God of Fire Cigars. The Black and Red colors of the band were similar to my Prada Shoes, as you can see below. The band is a departure from what most cigars look like, but being a Prada lover, I didn’t mind the contrast.
By the way, if you are in the market for a new pair of dress shoes, I highly recomend Prada. I picked up my Prada’s on my first visit to Milan back in 2001. They are the lightest, most comfortable shoes I own, extremely fashionable, and they still look almost new, even after close to 10 years. And I wear them almost every day to work.
The Angelenos is a very good mild smoke. It imediately saturates the palate with a sweet buttery taste with light flavors of cinnamon and a sweet finish. The cigar stays sweet and buttery throughout, with some additional leather coming through in the second half of the cigar.
I usually find mild smokes to be boring and unsatisfying, but the Angelenos hit the spot. A good choice for a mild cigar, and a very interesting smoke with it’s sweet buttery texture.
I’ve been hearing alot about the new BrickHouse Cigar lately. Their ads are in the magazines, the guys in the smokeshops are recomending them, and the name “Brickhouse” reminds me of that song our D-Line Coach used to sing in the Locker Room. You know the words “She’s a BrickHouse, she’s mighty mighty, letting it all hang out.”
BrickHouse is one of the Best Cigar Bargains of the year, in fact all 4 sizes made Cigar Aficionados Bargain List for 2009. The Churchill rated 91 points and costs less than $6.00. The other 3 sizes, including the Corona Larga which I’m smoking right now, came in at 88 points.
The first puff of my BrickHouse let me know that this would be a good quality cigar. I got a little taste of chocolate right off the bat, followed by a rich earthy taste. With each puff I noted a clean cedar bite, with a earthy core, folowed by a quick sweet finish. It does give you dry mouth, so make sure to have a drink on hand.
Again, this was the 88 point Corona Larga I smoked, which for $4.75 was a good cigar. The Churchil is what you should be looking for, which I will try to find as well.
A perfect Sunday morning cigar session. A fresh hot Crossiant, a strong sweet Cuban Coffee, and a Classic Cuban Cigar…the Punch Punch. Breakfast is served.
A Cuban Coffee is basically a strong shot of espresso with 2 large spoonfulls of sugar, poured into a large cup of foam from milk. When done correctly, it’s a perfect cup of coffee which is both sweet and strong, and extreemely satisfying.
The Punch Punch is a Classic Cuban Cigar. The size is essentially a box pressed corona, which is slightly longer than a robusto. The first few puffs reveal everything a good Cuban can be, with a creamy taste, light aged cedar, and a slightly sweet aftertaste. There is also a slight tanginess to the flavor which reminds me of the grassy Cohiba Robusto flavor. The middle of the cigar added a touch of leather and spice, with the final third balancing out with a more earthy base. The entire smoke maintained it’s creamy and cedary profile, and gave off a floral cedar aroma.
This is a complex and balanced cigar, which developed into a world renowned smoke. I have had several Punch Chuchills and Punch Double Coronas before, but the Punch Punch is definately my favorite Punch, and now is one of my all time favorite Cubans.
As for the Punch Churchills and Double Coronas, it should be noted that they tend to have an initial aging period that is like a vacum, making them seem quite flavorless. However, paitent aging with cedar wood should reveal a spectacular smoke along the likes of an aged scotch. I am aging about 20 of them in this method now, and will soon reap the fruits of my labor.
For Christmas Chloe got me the hottest new Cutter and Lighter combo on the market…the Xikar Ultra Slim Cutter and Lighter. It comes in Silver, Gold and Gunmetal Gray, of which I am now the proud owner of the latter. In fact you can even get the Cutter in Carbon Fiber, for all you racers out there.
The Ultra Slim Cutter is as thin as 3 credit cards, and is so small you can fit it in your wallet. But don’t let it’s small size fool you…it can cut a huge 64 inch ring gauge cigar, making it able to handle your biggest smokes. You can also see that it’s ring gauge is considerably larger than the standard Xikar tear shaped cutters, which I believe are the best, most popular cutters in the world (of course I am now re-evaluating that due to the Ultra-Slim Cutter). And the blade is SHARP, and has provided me with flawless cuts on about 20 cigars so far.
The Lighter is also a beauty with a perfect jet flame, which is easy to use, and very reliable. You can adjust the flame on the bottom, and it works perfectly. It holds the flame as long as you need, and can be turned or flipped without flickering. It also allows elegant control of the flame for precision paintbrush style lighting.
All this for a combined price tag of only $79.99!!! What a deal!! But wait…there’s more.
The most amazing aspect of Xikar’s new Ultra Slim Cutter and Lighter is that they stick together. There is a magnet on both sides of the lighter which holds them together in you pocket, glovebox, or wherever. I really love this feature, as I dont have to worry about my cutter or lighter scratching eachother up in my pocket.
I HIGHLY RECOMEND THE XIKAR ULTRA SLIM CUTTER AND LIGHTER COMBO. It’s my new favorite cutter and lighter, whether rated as a pair, or alone, these both get top marks on my blog.
The HC Habano Colorado Robusto was recently named in Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 Cigars of 2009, but I knew this was a winner long before it landed on “the list”. Xikar, my favorite cigar accesories manufacturer, has done it right with this smoke, along with a little help from Jesus Fuego who blended this beauty.
The cigar is blended and produced in Nicaragua using a Nicaraguan Wrapper and Binder. The filler is a blend of Nicaraguan, Honduran and Costa Rican tobacco. The Costa Rican leaves are said to be the secret rare ingredient that make these cigars so special.
I smoked a pair of these with my friend Andrew down in Burlingame Avenue after a perfect Eggs Benedict at Crepevine. The HC Habano Colorado always impresses me with its smooth and creamy maduro flavors. We both had nothing but praise for this cigar. We then finished up our smokes sipping on cappuccinos outside of Starbucks. The cigar gods were with us that day, as we both finished our cigars without incident, even though there were two large red “No Smoking” signs behind each of us. That’s proof of the wonderful aroma the HC Habano Colorado puts out.
Released in 2009, the new Patel Bros Cigar is a collaboration between Rocky Patel and his Brother Nish. It’s a Nicaraguan Blend with a Broadleaf Maduro Wrapper grown in Pennsylvania. The blend is almost identical to the Rocky Patel Winter Collection, but with some slight differences, including some added Ligero.
The Patel Bros Torpedo is a very interesting cigar. I spent several minutes simply enjoying the many smells of the cigar even before lighting it. The Wrapper smelled of very fresh leather and cinnamon, and the foot of the cigar smelled of leather and chocolate.
The pre-light flavors hit me with a blast of pure “dark fruits” or “fruits de bois” in French. The term dark fruits refers to a mélange of rasberrry, blackberry, blueberry, dark cherry and black currant flavors. The “fruits de bois” experienced with the pre-light of the Patel Bros Torpedo was the strongest and purest I have ever experienced in a cigar, and was very intriguing. Once lit, the Patel Bros Torpedo featured flavors of dark fruits and cinnamon, with a core of leather, chocolate and coffee. A very fine full bodied smoke, which will pair well with coffee or a dark fruity red wine.
I have been praising cigars made by Don ‘Pepin’ Garcia for years. He is arguably the best cigar roller in the U.S., if not the world. As a Lancero Lover, his cigars quickly went to the top of my list, as he rolls more, better, Lanceros than anyone. And now, he is finally getting the full credit he deserves, thanks to a secret blend of home grown Nicaraguan Tobacco his son created as a tribute to his father.
Cigar Aficionado recently rated the My Father Cigar as the #3 rated cigar of the year. I can’t think of a more deserving cigar company to join the ranks of Cigar Aficionado’s Top 3. The El Rey De Los Habanos Factory Store is located in Little Havana, Miami on the corner of 8th and 11th (right next to El Credito of La Gloria Cubana and El Titan De Bronze). I picked up several of his cigars back in September from the factory, including My Father, My Father Le Bijou, and an assortment of Lanceros.
Tonight I decided to smoke the My Father #2, the Belicoso, to see if this single cigar would live up to the standard of #3 rated cigar in the world. It did!
The cigar is beautiful to look at, with a wrapper so smooth it looks like someone took a fine piece of sandpaper to it and brushed away any posible trace of imperfection. The foot smelled like an aged grassy cohiba. The pre-light flavors were of clean light tobacco and oatmeal. The first puff was flawless, offering a light clean taste with a long and creamy finish. The burn line was absolutely perfect, and stayed perfect throughout. The ash effortlessly hung on well passed the half way point. Imagine a spoonful of oatmeal, covered in finely chopped nuts, with buttercream instead of milk or water. That’s what the My Father Belicoso (#2) tastes like, and this gem recieved a 90 point rating. The My Father Robusto (#1) is supposed to be even better and stands at 94 points!
Congratulations to the Pepin’s, and everyone at El Rey De Los Habanos!
Have you ever bought a box of cubans that was great, only to buy another box later that was not? Doesn’t it seem like buying Cubans can be hit or miss? And why is this lack of consistency acceptible to us as consumers?
The question here is: Are their different grades of Cuban Cigars?
Obviously Cuban Cigars can be real or fake, but for the purposes of this discussion let’s leave fake Cubans out of it. It is assumed that any serious cigar smoker can detect a fake Cuban anyway, and so it really doesn’t apply.
Officially, Cuban Cigars distributed by Habanos S.A. are all of the highest quality. So why then are some boxes spectacular, and other boxes just ok?
Like Truffles (the mushrooms, not the chocolates) their is a magical quality to Cuban Cigars that can make them truely spectacular. But at times it seems as though the magic is missing. And really that’s just an acceptible part of the Cuban Cugar business.
You can justify these magic lacking Cubans through terms of inadequate aging or improper storage. You can also justify it by the fact that storing great Cubans together makes them all become greater, and so the abilty of the tobacco to merge and mingle with other nearby leaves could be the answer to why some boxes are great and some are just ok.
But why don’t we see this problem with other great cigars produced in Nicaragua, Honduras or the Dominican Republic? Could it be that the great world wide demand for Cubans has led to a hush hush Cuban Tobacco Industry that imports much of it’s tobacco from neighboring countries and calls them Pure Cuban Cigars? That’s one rumor. And it would explain how one box of 100% Pure Cubans could taste so magical, while another box of say 30% Pure Cubans might not taste as great.
I have also found that while all my sources for obtaining Cuban Cigars provide me with real authentic Cuban Cigars, some sources consistently provide a higher percentage of magical Cubans. Could it be that some suppliers get the first take of the highest quality product, while others get the rest?
With all products planted and harvested in large amounts, their are going to be good years and bad years. A bad harvest could be due to a hurricane or a flood, but none the less a bad crop is the result.
Cigars are produced, released, rated, marketed and sold. This is the business. This leads to the first release of a cigar to be the best, to get the highest rating. Let’s say a cigar gets a 93 point rating when first released in 2003. You buy one, and smoke it, and love it. A few years later, let’s say in 2005, it may be a 91 point cigar, but the store shelf still advertises it’s 93 point rating. You buy one, and smoke it, and it’s just ok. This is just how the marketing of cigars works. It should also be noted that manufactures may try their absolute best to maintain the high ratings quality, but it may just not be possible for the aforementioned reasons.
I believe this marketing strategy to be true. And I believe that by analyzing the lifecycle of a given cigar over several years, this will likely show. It is even more apparent in cigars that garner extremely high ratings when first released, as the market need naturally increases, and so any business in an attempt to maximize profits will increase supply while slightly sacraficing quality. This is the natural evolution of a cigar over several years in the marketplace.
What about “Factory Seconds”, cigars with slight blemishes or rolling issues, that were deemed not good enough to be sold as high quality products. I have seen factory seconds from Padron sold through Famous Cigars online. I have also seen factory seconds of Rocky Patel Decades sold through Thompson Cigars online (which I plan to buy soon). These are sold at a fraction of the price, with no band, but should offer close to the same smoking experience. Again, from a production standpoint, all manufacturing industries, even those with machine made products achieving levels of Six-Sigma (99.996%) Accuracy admit to a small number (3.4) of defects per million products produced.
So the cigar industry does have a marketplace for these slightly inferior cigars. And this factory second marketplace includes cigars from all the cigar regions including Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, etc…but I have never seen a Factory Second from Cuba? I wonder where the Cuban Factory Seconds go? Are they mixed in with the regular production? Are they smoked by factory workers? Are they given to certain, less preferable, online retailers?
Of course, with cigars being handmade organic products, their is some acceptable level of variation from cigar to cigar, box to box, year to year. But with Cuban Cigars their are no clear answers for consumers as to how this process works, and ulimately, and unfortunately, it can at times leave a Cuban Cigar Lover with the short end of the stick. No pun intended.
Life is not measured by the number of cigars we smoke,
but by the moments with cigars that take our breath away.
www.memoirsofacigar.com
I started 2010 off with my new favorite cigar, the E.P. Carillo Edicion Inaugural 2009. This may partially lie in the fact that La Gloria Cubana was my first favorite line of cigars, but this new blend from it’s founder clearly stands on it’s own (see my previous review from a few days ago for more info).
The owner of Hemmingway Cigars on University Avenue in Palo Alto also considers them one if his new favorite cigars. Hemmingway Cigars in Palo Alto is my new favorite cigar shop in the Bay Area. The store carries all the classic cigars from Davidoff to Fuente to Padron and all the latest and greatest cigars as well. I would not consider the owner of Hemmingways to be an avid cigar smoker, but a connisuer of cigars. If you enjoy amazing hard to find smokes, I encourage you to go into Hemmingways Shop. Tell him that Memoirs of a Cigar sent you, and you will see what I mean.
Top Shelf:
E.P. Carillo Edicion Inaugural 2009
Bolivar Gold
Davidoff 100
Davidoff Belicoso
Partagas Benji
Punch Punch
Romeo y Julietta from early 1990′s
Bolivar Regional Edition France
Punch Regional Edition Swiss
Trinidad Fundadores
Middle Shelf:
Quai Dorsay
Don Lino 1989
El Titan De Bronze Sun Grown Lancero
La Fontana Belicoso
Don Pepin Garcia Torpedo
La Aroma De Cuba
Brick House
Fuente Rosado
Fuente King B
Fuente Fuente Opus X
Fuente Fuente Opus X Lost City
Montecristo Platinum Vintage 1999
Bottom Shelf:
La Gloria Cubana Artesanos De Miami
My Father
My Father Le Bijou
El Titan De Bronze Redemption Maduro
El Titan De Bronze Gran Reserva Maduro
Angelinos
Torano 50 years
Padron Family Reserve
Hoyo De Monterrey Particulares from 2002
