A while ago I purchased an entire box of Indian Tabac’s “Fire” cigars. I bought
them having never had a cigar by Indian Tabac before, and of course
never having had the Fire line either. Based on what I’d been
reading in the forums, Indian Tabac makes some good cigars, so I figured
it wouldn’t be a huge risk. I just had my first one of them
tonight, and I’m pleased to say they were a good choice.
The folks at CigarBid.com
periodically offer “Carmen’s Sampler”, which is a bundle of
cigars that they describe as being first-quality stuff but with
blemishes, rips, tears, or other problems that prevent them from being
sold as top-quality, new cigars. I was a little cautious about bidding
on these because you have no idea what you’re going to get, but I
finally “went for it”. Here’s a photo and description of
what I received for my bid (which I’d say was worth the price)…
The Pinar 1958 Series B Pre-Embargo
Cuban Rothschild cigar is frequently being sold on the CigarBid.com auctions lately. The forum
participants on the site have discussed this cigar a few times, and the
general consensus was pretty middle-of-the-road. Some liked it,
some didn’t, and some were indifferent. Having recently purchased
a 5-pack at auction, I decided to try one out. Since none of the
reviews I read on the forum covered the smoking experience in detail, I
decided to do that here. In fact, this review is probably going to be more detailed than any of my
earlier reviews.
The 2 Guys
Smoke Shop in Salem, New Hampshire recently sent me an email offer
on the A.
R. Robaina line of cigars. They caught my attention because
they contain 40% pre-embargo Cuban tobacco. I’ve never been able
to bring myself to pay the rather high prices charged for pre-embargo
Cuban cigars, so I figured this is about as close as I’m ever going to
get.
In addition to the 40% Cuban long filler, the cigar
boasts a Cuban-seed Ecuadorian wrapper from the 2000 crop. The
wrapper is a very rich dark brown with fine veins. Its
construction is very firm. Unlit, the cigar has a wonderful
smell. A draw through the punched but unlit cigar was easy and had
a hint of spiciness to it.
Once lit, I found that I was in
for quite a treat. The aroma of the smoke was by far the most
pleasant I’ve ever smelled. It had what I can only describe as a
perfect “classic cigar” smell. The flavor was a rich
medium-bodied one. The smoke was very creamy white and (if I had
the talent to do so) would probably have blown wonderful smoke
rings. Keep it away from your eyes, though. It burned mine
like no other smoke ever has. It also made my head swim more than
any cigar ever has. Felt like I’d just pounded about a half-dozen
beers by the time I was about a half to two-thirds of the way through
it. Wow…
The cigar burned evenly. The ash was
firm and medium gray in color. It stayed on the cigar until I
tapped it off. I don’t think it would have stayed on if allowed to
grow to about an inch.
If this is what a
“real” Cuban cigar is like, I understand why people love
them. I enjoyed everything about this one and can’t wait to smoke
the other one I bought. I’m even considering picking up a few
more. (BTW, 2 Guys has a really good price on them that puts them
in just about everyone’s price range. I don’t know if I’m allowed to
tell what that price is, since they can’t, but let’s just say that an
“Abe Lincoln” and a couple of coins should get
you a single, before shipping.)
On a 1-10 scale, with 10
being excellent, this one has to be about an 8.75! Definitely
recommended.
As part of a trade with a member of the CigarBid.com forums, I
received a Cohiba Red Dot Pequeno cigar. Yesterday, while waiting
on my step-son to finish playing 9 holes at a nearby public golf course
(Wilson Road for those of you who know or care), I lit up the
cigar. (Since then, I purchased a 6-pack tin from CigarBid.com and
took some better photos for the article.) Here is a review of my
experiences…
During my recent visit to Fort Lauderdale, I picked up a CAO
Brazilia Samba cigar at the Oasis Cigar shop in the Sawgrass
Mills Outlet Mall in Sunrise, Florida. Last night, I had the
pleasure of lighting up the cigar and enjoying it, which took a couple
of hours.
The CAO Brazilia Samba is a torpedo
style cigar made in Nicaragua. It has a dark brown wrapper with an
oily sheen an pleasant texture. Only the tiniest of veins is
visible. The binder and filler are Nicaraguan. The wrapper is
Brazilian, hence the name of the cigar.
The CAO Brazilia
Samba cigar is very firmly constructed and has a very solid
feel to it. It’s 6.5″ long with a 54 ring gauge.
Unlit, the aroma is pleasing, with a hint of a leathery smell to
it. The draw is very easy. The cigar lit easily as
well. I found that the one I reviewed did not burn very
evenly. At first, I attributed this to a poor lighting job my
part, but after evening it up a bit and ensuring that the entire end was
lit properly, it continued to burn unevenly at the bottom, with the
wrapper more or less refusing to burn. Perhaps the bottom got too
moist in the humidor, I don’t know. I didn’t expect that from a
CAO cigar.
The ash from the CAO Brazilia
Samba was extremely firm, which I expected given the firm
construction. It was a very light gray, almost white, with trace
amounts of other gray colors here and there.
The flavor was a bit
intense in the first half inch or so, then mellowed out a bit. The
smoke was very thick and white, visible all the way from my mouth to the
ceiling. My wife found the aroma of the smoke pleasant, as did
I. Nevertheless, she asked me to close the sliding glass door to
the house while I sat on the screened-in porch smoking it with a beer
(the “Grotten Brown” Belgian Ale that Michael Jackson the beer
expert rated the best of 2005). The flavor to me was very good,
with a hint of a pleasing leathery taste and a very light peppery touch
to it. A couple of unintentional breaths of the smoke into my
lungs (I normally do not inhale the smoke into my lungs, like – I gather
- most of you) were tolerable and didn’t make me want to cough like many
cigars do. I got a mild “buzz” off the CAO
Brazilia Samba, far less than I did from the Perdomo Reserve
Cabinet Series I had last week in Florida, but noticeable (and no, I’m
sure it wasn’t the beer).
The cigar lasted at least two
hours. I lit it some time after 8pm and it was going well past
10. If you plan to smoke one of these and don’t plan to be drawing
on it constantly, make sure you allot a couple of hours to enjoying
it.
All in all, I’d say this was another fine cigar from
the good folks at CAO, confirming my evolving opinion that
they’re one of my favorite manufacturers.
On a 1-10 scale,
this is at least a 7.5. I’d rate it higher, but
the uneven burn and the intense initial draws take it down a peg for
me. If I have another in the future and the burn is more even, I’d
move it to an 8.
During my Florida visit I had the good fortune to visit the Oasis
Cigar store in the Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall in Sunrise, Florida.
While at Oasis Cigar, I picked up a Macanudo Gold Label
Shakespeare cigar.
The
Macanudo Gold Label Shakespeare cigar is 6.5
inches long with a 45 ring gauge. It features a Cuban-seed Dominican and
Mexican filler with a Connecticut shade wrapper that Cigars
International says is “culled from the first and second
primings”. The wrapper is a beautiful golden color and remained
properly affixed to the filler throughout my experience with it. Clearly
it is a well-constructed cigar, which one would expect from Macanudo.
Unlit, the Macanudo Gold Label
Shakespeare cigar has a very mild but pleasant aroma. A
draw through the unlit cigar showed that this mild aroma carried through
to the heart of the cigar’s filler. Drawing through the cigar was quite
easy. Since I was attempting to smoke the cigar while sitting next to
the beach, lighting it with matches was challenging but took only a
couple of tries.
The burn was far less even than I expected,
with about a half-inch of wrapper more or less stubbornly refusing to
burn until I was very nearly finished with the cigar. The ash from the
Macanudo Gold Label Shakespeare was a very light gray
as would be expected for a lighter-colored cigar, and stayed attached
until I intentionally knocked it off.
The flavor of the
Macanudo Gold Label Shakespeare cigar was
extremely mild, which is what I was looking for at the time. In fact, it
was so mild that at times I thought maybe it wasn’t lit, because I’d
draw a mouthful of smoke and barely taste it at times. As the cigar
burned farther down, probably about half way, its flavor picked up a
little and gained a bit of a peppery note to it, like an extremely mild
jalapeno.
On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being excellent,
the Macanudo Gold Label Shakespeare rated about an 8.5.
Not quite as good as the Perdomo Reserve Cuban Cafe series (which I
rated a 9) but close enough that I’d have no problem having a few more
of these in the future. In fact, I bought several from
Cigarbid.com based on my good experience here.
I just returned from a vacation in Florida where I had the opportunity
to pick up some cigars at the excellent Oasis Cigar shop in
Sunrise, Florida. If you are in (or visiting) the Fort
Lauderdale area, I recommend visiting this shop. And if you happen to
speak Portuguese, you definitely need to visit to talk to the owners.
I picked up 2 of these cigars during my visit to Cigar
Oasis. I had previously smoked and very much enjoyed another
Perdomo Reserve cigar, one of the Cuban Cafe
Series P’s, so I looked forward to reviewing this one.
Unlike the Perdomo Reserve Cuban Cafe series I
reviewed earlier, the “La Tradicion Cabinet
Series” is a maduro and the series “P” is a
perfecto 5 and a half inches long with a 55 ring gauge. The
Perdomo web site describes the Perdomo Reserve
Cabinet Series “P” Maduro cigar as featuring “a
distinguished and contemplative blend of medium bodied, double-aged
Cuban-seed tobaccos. Grown in the rich, dark soil of the
Perdomo family plantations nestled in the Nicaraguan
regions of Esteli, Condega and the Japama valley”.
Cigar
Aficionado rated the Perdomo Reserve Cabinet Series
“Red Box” or “Red Label” cigar a 92 and named it one
of the top cigars for that year.
The wrapper of the
Perdomo Reserve Cabinet Series “P”
Maduro is dark and slightly oily looking, typical for a
maduro though lighter in shade than some other maduros in my collection.
The wrapper has very fine veins running through it. The cigar has
clearly been constructed to the highest quality standards.
Unlit, the Perdomo Reserve Cabinet Series “P”
Maduro has a very pleasing aroma. A draw through the unlit
cigar revealed a definite but pleasant “punch” and the
fermented flavor you’d expect from a well-aged cigar. Drawing through
the cigar was quite easy.
Since I was attempting to smoke
the cigar while sitting next to the beach, lighting it with matches
proved to be quite a challenge. Still, once lit it burned very evenly,
requiring a turn only once to correct a slightly uneven burn. The ash
was a medium gray in color, very firm, and stayed on the cigar until
forcibly knocked off.
The flavor for the first inch or so of
the cigar was pretty strong to my taste, but very quickly mellowed out
after that. In the end, the smoke had a very pleasant flavor and a
decent body to it. There were some hints of chocolate or earthiness in
the last portion of the cigar. It burned pretty warm up to the end, and
left my head swimming quite a bit when I was finished with it, which
took close to an hour.
On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being
excellent, the Perdomo Reserve Cabinet Series “P”
Maduro rated about a 7.9 in this review. Not as good as the
Cuban Cafe series (which I rated a 9) but certainly one
I’d smoke again.
Disclaimer: Due to the content of
this blog posting, I need to make a few points clear at the outset.
First, I am not a Communist, Communist sympathizer, nor am I a
Socialist. Second, I don’t approve of the actions of the government of
Cuba toward the United States in the past or present, nor am I a
supporter of the Castro regime. Third, I don’t own, nor have I ever had
or consumed a Cuban cigar or other Cuban product. The views discussed
below are mine, and mine alone. I believe them to be a logical, rational
conclusion based on the facts presented. If your views and opinions
differ, I respect that, just as I would expect you to respect my
opinions even though you may disagree with them.
I recently read an
article from Time Magazine talking about House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay’s arguments against lifting the sanctions (14) against Cuba. The
article showed a photo of DeLay smoking a Cuban cigar while on a visit
to Jerusalem in 2003. While DeLay’s actions at the time were perfectly
legal, under today’s laws he would be comitting a crime to consume a
Cuban product while abroad. After reading this article, the somewhat
hypocritical stance of Mr. DeLay made wonder “Just how effective
are our sanctions against Cuba, and how much impact are we really having
on the Cuban economy?” So I did some research.
This past weekend I pulled a cigar out of the collection to
try. I wanted something different, and I’d picked up several of
John T.’s Crowd Pleaser Tubos -
Cherry Cream flavored. I hadn’t had one before, so this one
qualified as different. Like every new cigar I try, I decided to
review it.
The outer white plastic tube protecting the John
T. cigar is printed in multiple colors. It isn’t an especially
attractive design, but it isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen either. A
small plug of foam sits between the cap of the tube and the foot of the
cigar. Extracting the cigar from the tube took a pretty firm shake
but resulted in no damage to the cigar.
These John T. Crowd Pleaser Tubo
cigars are billed as the “original aromatic
cigar”. They are made in the Dominican Republic with fillers
made from pipe tobacco. In this case, that pipe tobacco is infused
with a cherry cream flavoring.
The cigar’s size is 5.5″ with
a 38 ring gauge. The outer wrapper is a medium to dark brown, with
minimal veins. Although I’d stored it outside my humidor in its
tube due to a lack of space, the cigar seemed appropriately moist and
ready to smoke. It lit reasonably easy with my torch style
lighter. The burn was more even than some cigars I’ve tried
lately, but was slightly off from a true straight, even burn.
The ash was a salt and pepper gray, very firm, coming off only when I
wanted it to.
The aroma of the smoke had a very slight pipe
tobacco smell to it, and was pleasant though not spectacular. The
draw was a little tougher than other cigars I’ve smoked recently, but
not so much as to be a problem. I got 30-45 minutes out of the
cigar. The flavor of the smoke, which did not provide (to my
tastebuds) any hint of the cherry cream flavoring you smelled in the
smoke, was quite mild. It was a decent smoke overall, and I will
very likely finish the others in my collection eventually.
On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being excellent, this cigar rated about
a 6 in my review. That makes it worth smoking if you come across
it inexpensively, but nothing to go out of your way for.