Mike Salsbury’s Blog

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.

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admin Cigars A. R. Robaina, A. R. Robaina Familiares Cigar Review, cigar, cigar review, cuban, familiares, rating, review, Review of Robaina Cigar, Review of Robaina Familiares Cigar, Robaina, Robaina Cigar, Robaina Cigar Review, Robaina Familiares, Robaina Review, smoke, smoking

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…

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admin Cigars cigar, Cohiba, dominican, Dot, herf, Pequeno, rating, Red, republic, review, small, smoke

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.

admin Cigars cherry, cigar, cream, crowd, john, pipe, pleaser, review, smoke, t, tobacco, tubo

A while ago, cigarbid.com offered Profesor Sila demi-corona cigars
at an excellent price (about $20 a box).  I bought a box, largely
on the strength of the write-up on their site and the fact that these
once sold at about $200 a box.  Here are my thoughts after
smoking one of them…

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admin Cigars cigar, corona, demi, profesor, profesor cila cigars, profesor sila demo corona cigar review, professor sila cigar review, review, sila, smoke

As part of a larger sampler I purchased from Cigars International, I
received a Perdomo Reserve Cafe Series “P” cigar.  In
this article, I review the experience of smoking this cigar.

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admin Cigars cafe, cigar, cigar review, cuban cafe series, Perdomo, perdomo reserve, reserve, review, series, smoke

It’s probably not a well-known fact about me, but in a normal year I
enjoy 1-2 nice cigars. I typically do this to honor the memory of my
late great-grandfather, who in my memory very often had a cigar in his
mouth or nearby in an ash tray. I haven’t had one in 2-3 years, so when
I started thinking about my grandfather who passed away this past
December (10th), I was reminded a little of HIS father. In a sort of
tribute to them, I decided to smoke one of the cigars I purchased back
in November from Cigars
International. That cigar was the CAO Black.

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admin Cigars black, CAO, cigar, Cigars, international, smoke, smoking, storm