La Flor Dominicana Factory Press IV Ever since the initial release of the Factory Press series by Litto Gomez and La Flor Dominicana a few years ago, the cigars in this series have long been sought after by many cigar enthusiasts. According to Gomez, the genesis for the Factory Press series is as follows: For […]
Lou Rodriguez Habano-Rosado Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to sample and assess three blends in the Lou Rodriguez core line. When an Indie cigar company is able to place three different blends in a retailer’s humidor, it becomes what I term a “brand builder”. I’ve now had the opportunity to […]
Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition 2011 Connecticut Shade Earlier this year, I reviewed the Jaime Garcia Reserva Especial Limited Edition 2011. This Nicaraguan Broadleaf Maduro cigar was one of the best maduros to be released in 2011. These cigars are sold in boxes of sixteen. Each box is individually numbered. 15 of those […]
Viaje White Label Project Stuffed Turkey So I am doing a little bit of a flip-flop with this assessment. A couple of days ago, I assessed the Viaje C-4. One thing I had mentioned what I did was that I sat on my Viaje C-4 for about four months. Overall, that aging process did the […]
Viaje C-4 When it comes to Viaje Cigars, I think there are two fair complaints: 1) Some blends are often shipped to the retailer “green” and not aged enough; 2) Some blends emphasize strength over body. With the cigars being “green”, I have usually applied an eight to ten week rule of aging Viajes in […]
Lou Rodriguez Edicion Reserva Maduro In the past two years at the IPCPR trade show, there has been one booth by an Indie cigar company to get a great deal of buzz by the retailers. In 2010, it was Kurt Kendall and his 7-20-4 cigar. In 2011, it was Elogio Cigars. If I had a […]
Wicked Indie by East India Trading Company The Wicked Indie is a new cigar that has been released by Beach Cigar Group. Beach Cigar Group is actually the parent company for Gurkha Cigars. The difference is that the Wicked Indie is not being released as a Gurkha cigar, but under a new line called the […]
Rocky Patel Fifty 2011 has been a very busy year for Rocky Patel Premium Cigars with four new releases. These new releases were unveiled at the 2011 IPCPR and were slowly rolled out following the trade show. So far, I’ve had a chance to assess three of the four releases – the Rocky Patel Vintage […]
Whether it has been his original core line, or the new maduro extensions to the core line, I’ve always liked how Illusione cigars have had flavor nuances between the vitola sizes. I compare it to macaroni – the same ingredients go into the macaroni, but put that macaroni in a different size, it has a […]
Crowned Heads Four Kicks The anticipation for the release of the first cigar by Crowned Heads was perhaps as unique as any I have ever seen. Namely, I cannot remember an initial release from a new cigar company getting as much attention as the Crowned Heads’ debut. Much of the reason for this is the […]
