Memoirs of a Cigar

The Illusione HL series, which stands for “Holy Lance” and is obviously a play upon words for ‘Lancero’, comes in the following 3 Wrapper Varieties:
-Cafe Colorado (brown)
-Maduro (dark brown)
-Claro (green)

For this weekend edition of “Battle of the Lancero’s” I will be smoking the Original Cafe Colorado vs. the Nicaraguan Maduro. Being an avid Lancero lover, I couldn’t resist these beautiful looking Lancero’s. I would have smoked all 3, but the cigar shop had just ran out of the famed green wrapper Claro’s.

During any Cigar Battle, it’s important to ensure an even playing field, and so I paired these 2 cigars with Perrier Citron. I personally believe Perrier Citron to be one of the best drinks to accompany a cigar tasting. The Bubbles and the Lemon Lime both cleanse the palate, and it’s neutral taste at room temperature provides all the hydration your mouth needs without interfering with the cigar flavors.

Let the Battle begin!

First up, the Illusione HL Cafe Colorado Lancero. The cigar starts off with a few nice puffs of milk chocolate, and then transforms into a core of toasted cedar wood. Spice is provided by white pepper, and delicate floral notes can be observed in the background. By the 2nd third the floral notes have mostly subdued, leaving it’s core flavors of toasted cedar wood, white pepper and milk chocolate. The final third changed dramatically into a deep, leathery smoke, with flavors of oak wood, herbaceous notes and a slight touch of sweet raisins.

Overall I would rate the Illusione HL Cafe Colorado Lancero at 91 points. I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor profile of the first two thirds, and while I found the final third interesting, it seemed out of character when compared to the rest of the cigar.

Now for Round 2, let’s light up the Illusione HL Maduro Lancero. The cigar starts off with a massive dose of white pepper spice that completely overwhelms the palate. Shortly thereafter notes of plum, walnuts, and oak wood come through, followed by a slightly sweet caramel finish. By the 2nd third, the white pepper spice dies down a bit to reveal a sweet core of caramel, walnuts, cocoa, oak, leather and earth. By the final third the white pepper spice has almost disappeared, and the cigar has become a sweet caramel coffee powerhouse of a smoke. The core flavors of oak, earth and dark plums are presented for the final stretch, with a walnut caramel finish.

Overall I would rate the Illusione HL Maduro at 89 points. While the cigar had wonderful flavors and complexity, it lost points for balance, as it was overwhelmed by the white pepper spice and intense strength. This may be the strongest, most full bodied Lancero I have ever smoked. If you love strong maduro cigars, you should definitely check this cigar out. Just make sure that you, and your palate, are prepared, as this is a powerhouse of a smoke.

And the winner is…

I would have to award the original Illusione HL, with it’s cafe colorado wrapper, as the winner. The white pepper, milk chocolate and floral notes made for an outstanding smoke. While the Maduro version was an intriguing smoke, it was a little too strong for my personal preference. However, both of these Illusione Lanceros were complex and flavorful, and I would gladly smoke either of them again.

The next time you walk up to the counter of your local cigar store you might notice a cute display of 3 La Gloria Cubana Cigar’s tied together with a yellow bow, in a very nice looking coffin box with a see through top. Like me, you might pick it up, view it from all angles, put it down, then pick it up again and take it home. The outstanding presentation of these 3 cigars exemplifies marketing perfection, but don’t let the perfect marketing fool you, these cigars are not only great to look at, they’re wonderfull smokes as well!

Team La Gloria has been rolling out some very innovative marketing campaigns for it’s new cigars lately, but in my opinion the La Gloria Cubana Rabito De Cochino takes the cake, both on presentation and in flavor.

The cigars themselves, which are 6.5 inches long with a 46 inch ring gauge, are Lancero’s. They are a little shorter and a little fatter than your standard Lancero, but are Lancero’s none the less.

The Rabito De Cochino, which means pig-tail in Spanish, comes with a tightly wound pig-tail cap on top, and more interestingly with an un-cut foot underneath. When lighting the uncut foot you are presented with the full flavor of smoking the wrapper, before you even get to the actual blend of the cigar, which makes for a wonderful cigar tasting experience.

The La Gloria Cubana Rabito De Cochino presents a masterful blend of spicy cedar wood, espresso, light chocolate, cream and beautiful finish with strong notes of nutmeg. The cigar alternates from creamy to spicy several times while smoking, all while maintaining it’s core flavors and it’s intriguing nutmeg finish. It’s the clearest example of nutmeg in any cigar I can recall smoking, and it’s actually quite wonderful, allowing you to slow down and enjoy each and every exhale of the cigar.

The La Gloria Cubana Rabito De Cochino, with it’s yellow ribbon, and it’s little coffin box, would make an excellent cigar gift, but make sure to buy a second one for yourself, as these are really great smokes. 92 points!

THE BELGIAN BEER:
While driving my new 2012 Lexus RX in San Francisco yesterday, I happened upon a little corner store with a Chimay Sign outside, amongst a slew of other Belgian Ale signs. I immediately pulled over realized I had stumbled into the best Belgium Ale Store in the city!

Ales Unlimited, located at 2398 Webster Street in San Francisco, has an enormous selection of rare Belgian Beers. The owner is extremely friendly and knowledgeable of all the beers in the store, an unbelievable feat in itself. I picked up about 10 bottles of new Belgians I had never had before, along with some Strawberry and Black Pepper Chocolate.

Today I decided to pair a new cigar with a new Belgium Christmas Ale, the La Binchoise Reserve Speciale.

La Binchoise pored a hazy copper colored beer with a foamy rock white head that left a thin layer of foamy lace around the glass. The beer had flavors of caramel, malt, yeast and golden fruits, which included an orange zest. The mouthfeel was slick and thin and went down extremely easy.

The La Binchoise Reserve Speciale was a great Christmas Ale, which paired amazingly well with my cigar. Overall I would give this Belgian Beer an “A” rating, which is quite impressive considering I don’t usually like Christmas Ales that much.

THE CIGAR:
Kurt Kendall has recently released a new line of cigars leveraging an old cigar brand from Pre-Embargo times in the US, with a funny name, the “7-20-4″.

The Kurt Kendall 7-20-4 Torpedo has pre-light flavors of earth and maple syrup from the wrapper, combined with coffee and chocolate from the blend

The first third of the cigar exhibited flavors of cedar wood, coffee, chocolate and cream. At the end of the first third it added flavors of pepper and sweet oak.

Toward the middle of the cigar, core flavors of coffee, dark chocolate and pepper were present, with waves of cream splashing on the palate. In between the waves of cream a long finish of salty spice was apparent. These alternating waves of creaminess and saltiness continued throughout the cigars finish, with it’s wonderful core flavors underneath.

The Kurt Kendall 7-20-4 Torpedo was a wonderful winter cigar, which paired amazingly well with my La Binchoise Reserve Speciale Christmas Ale. I would rate the cigar at 92-93 points.

The Scarface Blue-Ray Limited Edition Gift Set with Humidor goes on sale 9-5-2011 for $1000.00 each.

But if you Pre-Order TODAY ONLY, the price is $699.00.

You can Pre-Order at the following:
Scarface Blue-Ray & Special Edition Humidor

Additional information on the Humidor: “…for the ultimate collector and cigar enthusiast, a hand-crafted Scarface-themed humidor will be made available in an exclusive, never-before-available, limited gift set edition. Created by the renowned Daniel Marshall, the humidor’s exterior is hand painted and polished with the Marshall’s trademark “1000 coat brilliant finish.” The interior – made with untreated Spanish cedar – will properly condition and age approximately 100 cigars at optimal humidity levels. Limited to 1,000 worldwide and priced at $999.99, each individually numbered humidor comes embellished with custom medallions inspired by the iconic film and includes a certificate of authenticity.”

In 2008 Cigar Aficionado named the Casa Magna Colorado Robusto it’s #1 Cigar of the year. The cigar was remarkable, not only for it’s taste, but also for it’s price, which was just over $5.00 wholesale.

Shortly thereafter, Casa Magna released their 2nd cigar, the Casa Magna Oscuro, which added a Honduran Maduro Oscuro Wrapper to the original cigar.

Now for 2011, Casa Magna is back with a completely new blend, the Casa Magna Domus Magnus Limitada. The Cigar comes in 2 sizes; Optimus & Maximus (essentially a box pressed Robusto and a box pressed Churchill). The cigar is made entirely from Nicaraguan Tobacco including a wonderful Sun-Grown Jalapa Valley Wrapper.

I have smoked both sizes of the Casa Magna Domus Magnus Limitada, and I can tell you it’s a phenomenal cigar. It’s extremely complex, with flavors changing almost faster than I can note them down. It’s a masterful blend which is smooth and balanced.

The foot of the cigar smells of rich chocolate and hay. Upon lighting I noted sweet cedar wood, tea notes and cinnamon spice. Toward the end of the first third a lemon citrus flavor presented itself in the background.

The spice continued to build and the lemon citrus flavor in the background seemed to merge with a black cherry note into the second third. These wonderful fruit flavors were then enveloped into a rich chocolate flavor at the midway point, with sweet cedar wood and spice in the forefront.

The final third alternated between the rich chocolate and lemon citrus flavor backgrounds, with sweet cedar, tea and spice as the core profile.

The Casa Magna Domus Magnus Limitada is one of the best new cigars I have tried this year. It’s a medium to full bodied box pressed cigar with an extremely complex flavor profile. It retails for around $9.00 a stick, but I would happily pay double that price for a great smoke like this. I would rate the Optimus at 93 points and the Maximus at 94 points.