Altadis event at Hemingways Saloon

Altadis sponsored another event tonight. They supplied A. Turrent Triple Play toros for us to sample. This was a new cigar to me. The fact that it was all made from maduro tobacco was interesting. The majority of the cigar is Mexican but it also had some Nicaraguan and Dominican tobacco mixed in the filler. Several people were sampling the cigars while I was having dinner and they all commented that they were very good. After dinner I had mine. Now, this is not a review but the cigar was quite spicy with notes of vanilla and citrus with good pepper. Hints of cinnamon were noted. All in all a good cigar. Of course, there were plenty of pics of the evening and here they are:

Our waitress, Ivy

George and Mark

Mr. Bob and Jim

Bruce and Greg

Me and Cedric

Darryl and Connie

Josh and Darryl

The Twig-ster

Me with Cedric

Darryl

Cedric

Phil

Mark

Jim

Robby

Connie and me

Great time. Thanks to Altadis for supplying the cigars and thanks to Hemingways for hosting us!

Weekend review; August 28 and 29, 2010

One week until we leave for Jamaica and our 7 night stay at Couples Resort Sans Souci! Really looking forward to it. 3 other couples are going with us.

The house modifications continue. Our back porch clock and thermometer were replaced this weekend. The clock stopped working and I could not find a replacement that matched the thermometer, so I searched for a larger clock that could take the place of both. I found one on summer closeout at Cabella's online. It is quite large! But, it looks nice.

In order to show exactly how large it is I asked Connie to model next to it:

Well, there are still some reviews to get to. This weekend the cigars supplied by Famous Smoke Shop that I reviewed are:

• Rocky Patel American Market Selection cigars robusto
• La Floridita Limited Edition cigars Magnum
• Don Tomas Special Edition Connecticut cigars robusto

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Rocky Patel American Market Selection cigars robusto (5 1/2x50)

A Connecticut shade cigar. My preconceived notion about this cigar is that it would be mild. I'm hoping it has sufficient spice and flavor.  The cigar feels very dense. It has a heaviness in the hand.

After cutting and giving a test draw I found it to be rather tight. The cigar started with light raw almond spice with some pepper. This is the perfect example of a beginner's mild cigar. If someone is wanting to try cigars for the first time they would want to try a mild cigar and work their way toward stronger cigars. They would do well to start with this cigar. It has nice flavors but won't overpower anyone.The cigar's draw improved at the midpoint. The finish was rather long with semi-sweet raw almond notes. An experienced cigar smoker might like this cigar early in the morning. At the midpoint the cigar had some light coffee notes. Still mild bodied, it gave the cigar a nice addition. For me, this cigar is too mild. Again, I feel this would be a good cigar for a beginner. It should be noted that other Rocky Patel cigars are not nearly this mild. In fact, this is the mildest cigar RP has ever made. Several others are medium to full bodied and some are very full bodied.

Score: 83





 La Floridita Limited Edition cigars Magnum (5x60)

 A very dark cigar. Dense feeling. Well made. Here is what the Famous Cigars website says about these cigars:

Nestor Plasencia created these robust cigars using Nicaraguan and Mexican longfillers with an Indonesian binder, then rolled them in a dark, oily Brazilian Mata Fina. The result is a bold, aromatic, earthy smoke laced with sweet 'n spicy complexities on the finish.

So, here we go...
I cut the minimum from the cap and gave the cigar a test draw. It was effortless! This is a fat, dense cigar and it had a perfect draw! After the cigar was lit the first flavors were intense, peppery, sweet cinnamon with notes of coffee and citrus with nice black pepper. There are sweet notes of oranges! Quite nice! I've never had this cigar but at this point I'm quite impressed. (1/2 inch into it) The finish is very long with raw almonds, vanilla and black pepper that lingers. To me, this is a very good thing which usually leads to the cigar getting high marks. About the only negative thing I noticed is the burn was a little off. Not a deal breaker. I smoke cigars for the flavor, not the perfect burn, although that would be nice. The burn did improve at the midpoint. Fairly full bodied. The cigar stayed pretty consistent without any significant changes. This was a very nice surprise of a cigar. I really enjoyed it and will smoke more in the future. To sum up: orange citrus, cinnamon spice with notes of vanilla and plenty of black pepper. Long finish of raw almonds and thick vanilla with lingering black pepper. Very nice!

Score: 92




Sunday, August 29, 2010

To complete the weekend's cigars I had the Don Tomas Special Edition cigars. These have a Connecticut wrapper.

 Don Tomas Special Edition Connecticut cigars (5x50)

The cigar had a very good draw. This Connecticut cigar started with a huge blast of citrus/cinnamon spice with nice pepper. The finish was long with semi-sweet roasted almonds. Notes of raw almonds noted in the spice. the citrus tang appears to take the lead in the flavor profile. Mild to medium bodied. Thankfully this cigar is not another tasteless, mild, Connecticut cigar. Don Tomas has a nice blend of Nicaraguan, Dominican and Mexican fillers that gives this cigar some flavor. The flavor profile does not change. Another good cigar for beginners but an experienced smoker would like this cigar for an early morning smoke.

Score: 86

All of these cigars are available at Famous Smoke Shop.

Next weekend we'll be in Jamaica! I'll try to post pics on a daily basis from the resort.

Brickhouse Bash/Weekend review; August 21 and 22, 2010

Friday night started off with the Brickhouse Bash at the Maduro Room. David Ludwig was on hand to give all info on these fairly new cigars from Fuente. Brickhouse cigars are a Nicaraguan cigar that is moderately priced. A churchill is less than $6. As usual, I snapped plenty of pics from the evening.

Me with David Ludwig

David Ludwig 

Mark Lewis 

Grady Marsh, store owner 

That's not on your diet!!!! 

Steve Miller 

Eddie Weaver with a mouthful of pizza 

Barrett 

My beautiful bride 

Mr. Bob 

Saturday was a busy day! I did the usual yard work but afterwards I hung a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom. Did Connie buy the one I told her to? No. She got to Lowes and found one that SHE liked better! The problem is it was also much harder to put up! Bottom line; got it done.

Here are this weekend's reviewed cigars:

• My Father La Reloba Seleccion Habano
• Olor Fuerte robusto
• CAO CX2 robusto

Saturday, August 21, 2010

My Father (Don Pepin Garcia) La Reloba Seleccion Habano toro (6 1/4x54)

A medium brown cigar that has a nice ring gauge; 54. This is a new cigar from Don Pepin Garcia and My Father Cigars.

The cigar has a good draw. It started off with a sweet cinnamon spice with hints of vanilla and nice pepper. Nice pepper when blown through the nose. The finish is semi-sweet raw almonds. This is very different for Pepin. If you recall, most of his cigars have massive amounts of citrus notes. This cigar has faint citrus notes but the sweet cinnamon is the headliner. This is also a very affordable cigar from Pepin. At about $6.50 a stick (for the toro size) it is one of the lowest priced Pepin's you'll find in your local shop's humidor. This cigar is also available in a Sumatra wrapper. Both wrappers are from Ecuador. Good cigar and as I said before, different for Pepin but a GOOD different. They are at your local shop now so I suggest you try one. Medium bodied at best.

Score: 91




Sunday, August 22, 2010

Today I begin reviewing some cigars provided by Famous Smoke Shop. I will be giving my feedback on several cigars selected by them for me to review. The first cigar is from Olor Fuerte Cigars.

Olor Fuerte robusto (5x50)

This is a very dark cigar but it is not a maduro. It's called a dark natural and dark it is. With a name like Fuerte I expected this cigar to have some pop to it. Fuerte means heavy, intense, bold, fierce. The cigar started with a raw almond spice with coffee notes and very little pepper. I would put this cigar at medium bodied. Unfortunately the name "Fuerte" does not hold true, at least in my mind. As I smoked the cigar I picked up some semi-sweet notes and some light citrus notes. The coffee notes were consistent. The finish was one of semi-sweet raw almonds. This cigar would be good for a beginner cigar smoker who wanted to experiment with darker cigars. The cigar improved in the second half with more intense almond spice with a touch more pepper. The finish was also better with more sweetness on the raw almond flavor.

Score: 84





The second cigar from Famous Smoke Shop was the CAO CX2 Cigars robusto. This is a double Cameroon cigar with the binder and the wrapper both being African Cameroon. I love a good Cameroon cigar so this cigar peaked my interest.

CAO CX2 robusto (5x52)

This cigar started with a sweet roasted almond flavor spice average pepper. With twice the amount of Cameroon in this cigar I expected it to be very sweet but it lacks the overpowering sweetness I expected. The finish is very nice, however. It was very long with the sweet notes I expect from a Cameroon cigar. The sweetness lingers with notes of almonds and a touch of pepper. This cigar is best experienced when blown through the nose. Doing this really shows off the pepper. The roasted almonds are very obvious. The sweet notes make it very enjoyable. Although at this point the cigar  lacks the powerful sweetness I expected it makes up some of those losses with a fantastic finish. At the 1/3 point the cigar seemed to improve with greater sweetness in the spice. Although dinner, or supper as we call it here in the south, interrupted the smoke the cigar picked right up where it left off with nice, sweet roasted almond spice with improved black pepper notes. At the midpoint the cigar had improved to the point I thought it was pretty good. The cigar ended up with a nice flavor and very nice spice. I enjoyed the cigar very much after the first 1/3.

Score: 89