The story of the Illusione Nosotros is one that does not have a happy ending. This project started out as a cigar “dream team” collaboration by Illusione’s Dion Giolito and Drew Estate’s Jonathan Drew. The Nosotros would be launched under the Illusione brand and began to surface in early 2010. With these two cigar titans […]
I’ve decided to go ahead and continue the month in review series. This is the second installment. In this series, I will highlight some noteworthy events that happened in the world of cigars. I’ll focus on noteworthy events and smokes that I explored on the Cigar Coop website and throw in a few other tidbits […]
Earlier this month, when I reviewed the lIlusione 88 Candela, I made the comment that I had not paid enough attention to Dion Giolito’s Illusione line. I have another confession to make – while I feel Illusione has some the highest quality cigars out there, they just have not fit in with my taste profile. […]
The great Candela debate continues. It is time to review the Illusione 88 Candela. Earlier this year, Illusione cigars released candela wrapper versions of some of their popular cigars. At the beginning of March, Viaje cigars released their White Label Project Candela. I enjoyed the Viaje WLP Candela a lot – in fact, I even felt […]
There are two reasons why I wanted to review the Illusione MJ12. The first reason is that I simply have not paid enough attention to the Illusione brand. There is no doubt that Dion Giolito has built a huge following of cigar enthusiasts and his products have a great reputation. The second goes to what […]
Opinions are of Cigar Coop and Cigar Coop alone The Pete Johnson interview at W. Curtis Draper Tobacconists this past weekend has created quite a stir – and not just for the insights into Tatuaje’s 2011 releases. The comments he made about some recent Candela releases have created quite a stir. Yours truly posted his […]
Opinions here are of Cigar Coop and Cigar Coop alone I debated for about 12 hours whether to post an opinion on what I saw on The Stogie Review’s 20:15 Interview with Tatuaje’s Pete Johnson. After thinking about it, I felt another point of view needed to be documented here. First up, I am a […]
Today was one of the premier cigar herfs in the world – the Great Smoke sponsored by Smoke Inn. The Who’s Who of the cigar industry was down in West Palm Beach. While I wasn’t there, I was keeping a keen eye. Suddenly, in the late afternoon, my text messages started going off with something […]
Over the past few years, Dion Giolito’s Illusione line has built a core following very similar to what Pete Johnson has done at Tatuaje. Much of the Illusione line is released in small batches, but not to the point where it is very difficult to find most of the blends. I must admit, I have […]
I’ve been pretty critical of Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list of Cigars over the past few years. While many of us might gripe about this list, this is still the barometer for what our industry looks at. When your cigar makes this list, you have arrived. When you are a retailer and you have a […]
