Tatuaje L’Esprit de Verite 2009 The idea of blending a wine taking a single year’s crop from a single vineyard/farm has always intrigued wine enthusiasts. For cigar enthusiasts, this concept can also be easily applied – namely harvesting the tobaccos from a single farm from a single year to produce a cigar blend. A couple […]
Cu’Avana Punisher A friend of mine asked me if I ever heard of “The Punisher”. This is a cigar made by a boutique company called Cu-Avana. I had not heard of this cigar, but it was explained to me that this was being billed as one of the most powerful smokes on the market place. […]
Aging Room Cigars M356 There is no doubt the limited edition cigars have created excitement in the cigar industry. Recently I had a discussion with a manufacturer about taking a limited edition cigar and moving it into the core line (similar to what E.P. Carrillo did with the Limitada 2010 moving it to Elencos). When […]
Emilio AF2 A rule of thumb I have is if you are looking to build a brand to carry in a retailer humidor, the key thing is there must be three blends that are solid from that brand. Over the past couple of months, I have sampled two amazing cigars from Emilio Cigars – the […]
The La Sirena Series A A few days ago, I was listening to the Dino Costa Radio show on Sirius XM Mad-Dog radio. While Dino is primarily known a sports host, he has been talking cigars. On this show, Dino had Rocky Patel as a guest (and gave Rocky a full hour!). Rocky made a […]
Padron 1964 Anniversary Torpedo Last month (June 2011), I put up on my monthly “battle of the cigars” (formerly “battle of the stogies). In that matchup, I pitted two Padron cigars that are considered classics in the industry – the Padron 1926 Maduro and the Padron 1964 Maduro. I admit, when the poll came back, […]
J&D Temptation Maduro Last month, I had the opportunity to sample a cigar that I consider to be one of the revelations of 2011 – J&D Cigars’ Temptation Habano Claro. This mild to medium bodied cigar brought something special to the table with its unique flavors and smooth smoke. This time around, I sample the […]
Illusione HL Maduro I’ll make a confession – I am not a lancero vitola fan. I know many serious cigar enthusiasts will say this is the best vitola to smoke, but I just cannot adjust to the small ring gauge. Plus to be honest, I’ve only found a handful of lanceros that I have found […]
Monte Pascoal – Robusto (All Brazilian Puro) I admit, when it comes to cigar blends, I tend to stick to what I am most familiar with – namely my Nicaraguan, Dominican, and Honduran blends (with some Ecuadorian wrappers thrown in as well). However, recently I heard a discussion about how some soils of the Cuban […]
E.P. Carrillo Short Run 2011 (on a Short Run 2010 box) If you have been either following this web-site or the cigar industry in general, you will know that 2011 is intended to be a huge year for the E.P. Carrillo. Plans are for five cigar releases during the calendar year. Earlier in the year, […]
