Weekend review; February 23 and 24, 2008

What a Saturday in Columbia, SC!!! Temps in the high 60's and clear skies! Also, today is my daughter's birthday. Chelsea is 21 today!

The weather turned off much cooler on Sunday and overcast. No problem; just sit inside and enjoy cigars!

This weekend's reviews are:

• Gran Habano Corojo #5 churchill


• Gran Habano XL maduro pyramid


• CAO Gold Maduro double corona


• La Unica Cameroon Series belicoso #3

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Gran Habano Corojo #5 churchill (7x50)

Nice looking, reddish cigar. It was spicey immediately. Very smooth. Some pepper noticed. Caramel undertones. You can "feel" the corojo. Quite a bit of spice in this cigar. A step up from the #3, which I also enjoy. Dark gray ash. Nice flavor; spicey caramel with a hint of pepper. Long, sweet finish. Nice cigar!

Score: 92

Gran Habano XL Maduro torpedo (6 1/4x52)

Very dark cigar. Lacks flavor initially. Spice noted but not significant amount. Cigar is smooth but at the 1" point still lacks flavor. At the 1 1/2" point spice greatly increased and the flavor became a dark chocolate. Very even burning. At the halfway point the cigar is quite spicey with full bodiness. Licorice noted. Lots of smoke. The cigar transformed into quite a good cigar. Remained spicey with heavy licorice overtones.

Score: 89

Sunday, February 24, 2008

CAO Gold Maduro churchill (7 1/2x54)

First draws were leathery and earthy. Caramel undertones appear at 1/2". Burn at this point is dead on. Spice gets prevelent at 3/4". Pepper present but in small amounts. Slight sweetness and rather dark caramel-like flavor begins. Burn still dead on. After 2" the flavor still sweet, dark caramel with spice and some pepper. Burn still perfect.

The finish is short. Not a lot of smoke with this cigar but extrememly even burning.

Score: 87

La Unica Cameroon Series belicoso #3 (5x50)

Nice Cameroon flavor right from the start! Light caramel with hints of toasted almonds. Spice at 1/2" point. I like Cameroon cigars. This one is no longer made! Very disappointing. The cigar is consistent. Very good Cameroon cigar.

Score: 90

Camacho 10th Anniversary Robusto-Preview smoke!

My friends at Camacho and Social Cigar sent me one of the new Camacho 10th Anniversary robusto's to try and comment on. I decided to have it last night. Here is my review:

Camacho 10th Anniversary Robusto (4 1/2 x 50)

Box pressed

Initially the flavor was somewhat leathery. It quickly changed to an incredibly spicey cigar. The spice is central to this cigar. You can feel it on the back of your throat and on your tongue. After an inch the flavor changed from leather and spice to toasted caramel and spice. Very, very nice! Oh! The spice is fantastic! I would call this a medium bodied cigar. The ash is very tight. After a couple inches I got concerned it might fall so I tapped it. Nothing happened. I decided to break it off to keep it from falling in my lap. It did not break easy! Very tight ash. This is a great cigar. It has slight amounts of pepper but the overwealming point is it's spice.

Score: 94

I nubbed this sucka!!!!

These should be available at your local cigar shop in early March. Look for them. You'll be glad you did!

Weekend review; February 16 and 17, 2008

Pretty decent weekend with temps in the 70's. Had a few new cigars that I'll comment on...

• Sunset Cigars Co. maduro torpedo
• CAO Crillo Bomba
• Don Luis churchill
• Camacho Diploma

Sunset Cigars Co. maduro torpedo (6 1/2x52)



I picked up this cigar while on our cruise last year. It's from a small cigar shop in Key West, Florida. You can visit their website at http://www.sunsetcigar.com/ . They have a roller in the shop rolling cigars as well as carrying the usual brand names. I like to try local shops house brands. This cigar was beautiful and well constructed. Initially the cigar tasted very leathery. It quickly changed to spicey within an inch. There was no significant pepper. At the halfway point the cigar settlee into a consistent spicey, leathery cigar. Quite enjoyable.


Score: 87







CAO Criollo Bomba (6x50)



Initial draw had a burst of caramel! Undertones of toasted almonds were seen after 1/2 inch. Nice spice noted after an inch or so. This is a very good cigar. I love the flavor the crillo wrapper gives.

Score: 89







Don Luis (Vegas Santiago Cigars) from SC Sit Down no. 4 (7x48)



I'm really pissed right now! I only have one of these cigars left from one of our SC Sit Down's, and this thing is fantastic! It is made by Vegas Santiago in Costa Rica, www.vegassantiago.com . It is a beautiful connecticut shade wrapper with no band. The initial draw was full of wonderful spice and a hint of pepper. It reminds me alot of the Pepin-made 601 Connecticut cigar. Wow! This was a nice surprise. This cigar has been sitting in my humidor for 2 years (I'd guess) and something made me take it out today. I'm sure glad I did. The cigar developed strong caramel notes and it had tons of smoke. The cigar was very consistent. It was great!


Score: 91







Camacho Diploma (5x50)



This is my first experience with the Diploma. The cigar had strong caramel notes initially. Pepper was noted but not too much; just enough. It also had a perfect amount of spice. The cigar is what I'd call "balanced". I was blown away at it's taste! It is about perfect! It stayed consistent. Lots of smoke. A truely fantastic cigar.


Score: 93

Weekend reviews; February 9th and 10th

Nice weather in central South Carolina this weekend, but a little breezy! This was a good review weekend. I had some very good cigars. They are...

• Gran Habano Corojo #5 Churchill



• Lianos Dos Palmas Connecticut Broadleaf Double Corona



• Fundacion Ancestral Pinar del Rio 1941 Torpedo



• Serie 601 Black label toro

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

After helping out a friend this morning I came home for a quick nap and then lit up a
Gran Habano Corojo #5 churchill (7x50)

This is a beautiful reddish color cigar. Very good construction with a good draw. It had a very nice, spicey, almost sweet caramel-like flavor complemented by hints of pepper. This is my first experience with this cigar but I like it very much! The aftertaste is very pleasing. Medium bodied. Cigar stayed consistent. The only negative I have with this cigar is the ash fell off twice after only getting about 3/4" long. Otherwise, this is a very good cigar. I really enjoyed it!

Score: 92




Lianos Dos Palmas Connecticut Broadleaf Double Corona

(7 5/8"x49)

I picked up this cigar on my recent trip to Charleston to meet Melissa (Cigar Chic). The cigar was a beautiful, dark color. It had very good construction. These cigars are made in Charleston at their shop. Visit their website at http://havacigar.com/ . The wrapper was vein free. The cigar had a spicey, leathery flavor with hints of caramel. It was smooth with hints of pepper. Very even burning. I enjoyed this cigar very much. The flavor stayed consistent. Very tasty! I strongly suggest you stop in their shop if you're ever in Charleston, SC.

Score: 91



Sunday, February 10, 2008

Fundacion Ancestral Pinar del Rio 1941 torpedo (6x54)

I received this cigar in a trade with Tommy boy Martin of Social Cigar's website. The cigar was very nice looking. Had a lot of spice initially. Notes of leather and coffee were present. The spice continued and stayed at a high point! This was the cigars strength. Full bodied. Hints of roasted nuts noted at mid-point. Enjoyable cigar.

Score: 89



Serie 601 Black Label toro (6x50)


I love the 601 series of cigars. They are made by Don Pepin, whom I have grown to love! I think I love all his cigars!!!! This cigar started off peppery with caramel notes. Toasted almond's were noted, also. The spice of this cigar is great! The cigar developed an almost "sweetness" to it as it progressed. I'm a huge fan of the red label 601's and now I can add this version to my "Must have" list! Great cigar. I'm looking for more!

Score: 92

The Big Bamboo; Super Bowl 2008 cigar

A little background:

Jim Massengale, Connie, and I went on a cruise in 2005. One of the stops was Nassau, Bahamas. We took a quick trip through town to the Graycliff Hotel to visit the cigar factory. While there we held one of the Big Bamboo cigars that they make. It's a 15" long monster with a ring gauge of 50 (at least). Here's a pic of the two of us holding freshly rolled Big Bamboo's in the Graycliff factory:

We both always wished we had bought one while we were at the factory. So, I decided prior to Christmas 2006 that I would try to win a couple on cigarbid.com. Well, I did! I won a coffin of 2 Blue label Big Bamboo's! I gave one to Jim for a Christmas present. We both have been keeping them in our humidors for over a year now. We decided that this year's Super Bowl would be the day to smoke them! Afterall, we'll be at the bar for nearly 5 hours anyway!

Here's the pre-game measurements:

Cigars ready!

Toasting:

Lighting:

Time of lighting: 5:20 pm (15")

The cigar was quite mild with a great draw!

We decided to take measurements every hour to see how the cigar progressed.

End of first hour: 6:20 pm (10 3/4")

At this point the cigar developed some spice.

End of 2nd hour: 7:20 pm (8")

At this point the cigar developed some caramel overtones. Together with the spice it made for a very enjoyable cigar.

There was a quick supper break from 7:20-7:35. A relight was needed.

Cigar relit: 7:35 pm

End of 3rd hour: 8:35 pm (4 1/2")

End of 4th hour: 9:35 pm (2 1/4")

Almost gone!

The nub!

Official end (when my fingers burned): 10:04 pm

Total cigar time: 4 hours 29 minutes!!!

That was quite an experience! I doubt I'll get a chance to smoke another monster like that for quite awhile! The cigar remained consistent with caramel and spice notes from the 2 hour point onward.

I have to give credit to our photographer, Connie!

Thanks Connie!

Maduro Room 1 year anniversary/Weekend review; February 2, 2008

The Maduro Room celebrated it's one year anniversary Friday night (February 1st) with a huge crowd! There were 3 cigar reps in attendance; CAO, Fuente-Newman, and Altadis. I've never seen so many people at a local cigar shop event! There had to be 50 or more in the shop at all times! Grady had some bar-b-que set up for the patrons, also. Here's a few pics of the crowd:

Congratulations to Grady on a great first year in business!!!!

Cigar review: Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Couple of nice cigars to review today;

• Serie 601 Havana-Red label



• Perdomo Estate Sun Grown

Serie 601 Havana-Red Label Rabito (6 1/2x46)

Beautiful cigar! Peppery with caramel and leather notes. Very spicey cigar! Great draw. I first tried this cigar when we received some for the SC Sit Down no. 6 (last year). This cigar is made by Pepin. Very consistent throughout. Even burning. Great cigar; love 'em!!!

Score: 92

Perdomo Estate Sun Grown (7x54)

Nicely constructed cigar. Beautiful cigar. Initial draw is full of great sungrown flavor. Nice draw. Best caramel and spice appear at 1/4 point. Burn is very even. Caramel and spice stayed consistent after 1/4 point.

Score: 88