Appearance: The first thing that stands out on this cigar, of course, is the band.  It looks like a cool Cadillac from the 50s.  It bears Nestors signature as part of the signature series, so you have to hope this will be a good cigar.  Especially if it’s anything like it’s older brothers, the Special Selection.  The ’06 Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper bears some serious veins, but little tooth.  This parejo shaped cigar bears a triple cap.  I’d wish for lighter veins in the appearance, but overall this is a nice looking cigar.

Taste: This started out with a mild wood and leather that stayed in the forefront of the palate for the whole of the stick.  Some sweet floral notes melded in and out.  Touted as a medium strength cigar, I’d put it closer to mild than medium.  It did pick up some strength towards the end of the stick which infused a little pepper onto the tongue as well.

Aroma: Unlit, this thing is strongly aromatic.  A chocolaty leather resonates through the nostrils and gives hope for the smoke to come.  The lit smoke was mild and a little floral.

Construction: Feeling the length of this cigar, it’s firm which suggests a tight roll.  The wrapper is well done and has visible seams.  The triple cap is perfectly executed and completely smooth.  After clipping, the draw was tighter than I’d like on both samples smoked for this review.  The ash held tightly and the burn was excellent.

Overall Impression: Sometimes you can’t judge a book by its cover.  While a very decent stick, this cigar didn’t live up to my expectations.  Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but when you throw out names like Pepin and Nestor Miranda, what else can you expect.  I think the tight roll had something to do with the milder flavors and think that if you get some sticks with a looser roll, you might experience more flavor.  As it is, with an average $7.50 price tag, I don’t know that I’d be reaching for this over some other sticks in the same price range.

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Appearance: This is an unbanded cigar with a closed foot and a pigtail cap.  At 5.5×50, it’s a standard robusto size.  The corojo wrapper has a few major veins and a couple nicks and scars as well.  There’s no apparant oils in the wrapper.  Nothing special about this cigar from its appearance.

Taste: This started out pretty mild with some light spice and woodiness.  The spice declined quickly to be taken over by a light floral flavor that was pleasant, but not full.  The floral eventually morphed into kind of a dry grass flavor with the wood still lurking as the heavy base of flavor.  About half way through, the strength kicked up from mild to medium, and the flavor went all wood.  It stayed this way for the rest of the smoke.

Aroma: Not much to the unlit stick in the smell department.  A slight woody scent underlined by a raw tobacco aroma.  Not much to the smoke as well.  Just tobacco.

Construction: Feeling along the body of this cigar, it’s solid.  My first thought was that they might be plugged. The draw, however, was perfect.  It took to flame easily and burned perfectly for the duration.  I’m not lying when I say I was amazed, because those weren’t my expectations.

Overall Impression: This was a decent cigar.  Not bad, but not great either.  I guess not every cigar can blow me away, right?  There you have it, folks.  Talk about down and dirty.

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Cue 1950s TV announcer: This review is brought to you courtesy of Tex Cigars. And cut! I have to say that sometimes it’s hard having a cigar blog.  I mean sponsors are tough.  They keep sending cigars and I have to keep reviewing them.  I know, I know… stop my pitty party, right?  Well, I have to thank Tex Cigars for sticking with me and providing sticks to smoke and share my thoughts with you.

Now, onto this PIO cigar.  I’ve received a few emails from the owner of PIO cigars, but I can’t ever seem to get in touch with him as my replies get bounced saying it’s a bad e-mail address, but I’ve been interested in seeing what PIO has going on.  Now, I can bring to you just a little insight to their cigars.  This is a boutique cigar made in Miami, FL and is named for Pope Pious VI.  It was introduced in 1996 and is part of their Overture Series 1996 line.  According to their website this is a very limited quantity and there are only 100 stores that are sold this cigar.  The wrapper and binder are Ecuadorian, and the filler is criollo from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.  That’s enough info and history, let’s get to smoking!!

Appearance: The sample I received was unbanded, but the PIO website shows it with a band.  It’s a 6×52 toro in size.  There’s no tooth to this cigar and few veins.  It has a triple cap that was well done on this parejo.The wrapper is mottled.  I say that sometimes about wrappers, and I’m not sure if you know what I mean, so I’ll give some photographic evidence of what I’m saying. See the light brown and dark brown areas?  It’s not an even coloring.  Forgive the bad cellphone pic, but you should get what I mean.

Taste: This thing started a little sweet and a lotta spicy.  The spice settled into some woodiness, but the sweetness stayed.  This cigar has a long finish and you’ll taste it even when you’re not smoking it.  There was a bit of tannin as you got toward the middle, but nothing to be concerned about.  This settled into a medium body pretty quickly and was very pleasant. It’s not complex, but it is pleasing.

Aroma: Nothing too special to this cigar’s aroma before being lit.  Just a light scent of tobacco.  The smoke held some sweetness, but again, nothing too special about it either.

Construction: At first feel, this is pretty solid stick.  Feeling for inconsistencies, I didn’t find any.  It had the proper amount of give to it for a properly humidified cigar but without being spongy.  This cigar irritated me a little with its very loose ash.  I couldn’t let it grow in the slightest lest I wear it.  The burn didn’t satisfy as well.  It got quite erratic at times and had to be fixed.  The wrapper even split pretty badly towards the end.

Overall Impression: I’m torn over this cigar.  I loved the flavor combination, but the construction just didn’t hit it for me.  At just over $6 a stick, I can’t say that I’d be happy about its performance.  I think PIO needs to work on their construction if they’re going to be a big competitor.  But again, it tasted very good.  I’m going to have to split this down the middle, and give it an average rating, because the taste is higher than average and the construction lower.

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I was first introduced to Adrian’s cigars at the Serious Cigars Holiday Party when my friend and owner of Fumee World, Heather, introduced me to the owner of Adrian’s Premium Costa Rican Cigars, Michael Rosales.  When he heard I have this cigar blog, he immediately reached into his bag and handed me a sample for review.  I had to admire the confidence he had in his cigars.  I did only get one cigar, and I normally smoke a minimum of two to do a review, but he was handing them out pretty freely and I didn’t want to seem greedy.  Anyway, I was intrigued by the thought of a cigar made from Costa Rican leaf.  The wrappers are grown in Ecuador, this being a criollo wrapper, but the binder and filler are pure Costa Rican.  Let’s see how it stacks up.

Appearance: On their site, Adrian’s claims to have fewer veins resulting in “a stronger aroma, and smooth, even burn lines.”  They definitely have the fewer veins resulting in a nice wrap.  The wrapper was smooth with no tooth.  The torpedo cap was done very well.  Looking at the foot, I saw a nice bunch in its rolling.  The band, I think, could be done better.  I’m assuming it’s a Costa Rican beach looking through the palm trees to the mountains, but what I see is an average band with some gold leaf that doesn’t impress.  This cigar goes for $11, which, to me, means the band needs to say something…  But, I’ve often said you can’t judge a cigar by its band.

Taste: Being a criollo, I was looking forward to this.  I was immediately hit with some good peppery spice that attacked the back of my throat.  The spice quickly mellowed out and each draw brought a cool sweetness with it to counteract it.  The cigar started out on the medium side in strength, and that cool sweetness eventually introduced a light woodiness to it.  I did not get the usual nutty flavors that I associate with criollo.  About half way through, the sweetness went away, and a more tobacco-like flavor kicked in with a little bitterness.

Aroma: Pre-light, this was a sweet cocoa smell at the wrapper.  Smelling the foot, you just got tobacco (which is to be expected, right?)  The smoke itself isn’t one you’ll want lingering in your living room, but it won’t offend your garage or your porch one bit.

Construction: Pre-light draw indicated a tight roll as I was puckerin’ just to get some air.  I rolled it in my fingers a bit to loosen it up and that did the trick.  There was one soft spot in the stick, but it was pretty small.  It burned very well, but not perfectly, and the ash was nice and tight as they advertise.

Overall Impression: Well, the biggest downer on this cigar for me is the price.  At $11 a stick for the torpedo, I don’t see myself buying many, but I definitely see much potential with this cigar.  The claim on the website is that they use tobacco aged 7 years, but I’m not sure how long they age them after rolling them.  The flavors were good and the construction was decent.  It produced good smoke too.  A medium body throughout, it didn’t have the usual criollo profile, but it was still a good profile.  It also had a short finish.  If the price were lower, I would have given this a higher rating, but as it is, I can’t.  I can say that Adrian’s may be able to boost Costa Rica’s cigar industry, though, if it keeps this up.

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Like the other cigar bloggers in my circle, I was recently contacted by Andrew Roth from the H.J. Bailey Company about their new venture into having their own cigar brand: Don Ramon. The H.J. Bailey company has been in the tobacco business for over 75 years and is the largest wholesale distributor in the U.S. Well, now they’re cigar makers too. I was sent the maduro and Connecticut churchills to review, so look for the Connecticut to come soon.  A Honduran puro, this 7×48 cigar is made for H.J. Bailey by the Camacho factory.

Appearance: This wrapper is dark!  That’s the first thing that struck me.  It is dark.  The band is elegant but not overly done.  No veins, no tooth, and no visible wrapper lines.  The cap is not perfect, but it’s very well done.  This is a good looking cigar.  Looking at them in the box, they’re consistent across the board in color, size, and shape.  The foot shows an even roll.  Looking good so far.

Taste: This thing lit well, and immediately brought moderate maduro flavors.  There was a sweet chocolate at first, but then some slight bitterness kicked in.  I think the acridity is due to the cigar not having enough age.  This will go away with some time, and it muted a little bit during the coarse of the smoke.  Now, I love a maduro cigar; they’re actually my favorite, but you can’t look too far for flavor variety.  It’s leather and chocolate, and this was a maduro.

Aroma: This is a maduro and it smells like a maduro.  Strong chocolatey tobacco will infuse your senses with their aromas.  The smoke was mild and woody.  Probably still not something the wife would like inside the house.

Construction: Feeling along the body, it is a solid stick.  It was consistent in its feel throughout, and I could feel no plugs or soft spots.  After cutting, the draw was a bit tight, but not overly so.  It did start to burn faster on one side than the other, but it quickly corrected itself and then burned very well the rest of the way through.  The draw loosened up slightly, too, with the heat from smoking.

Overall Impression: I gotta say that I think there’s some real potential here.  Good construction, nice looking, good maduro flavor… It’s all going to come together well.  I just think that they need to rest for a little bit.  I’ve got more and I’m going to put them away for a couple months to let them age a bit.  They’ve done well at other blogs, so I definitely think there’s something promising with these Don Ramons.

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I was sent a couple of these cigars from our sponsor, Tex Cigars.  When I got them, I was really impressed with the quality of the wrapper, and construction.  They look really tasty for a nice morning smoke.  It’s about 7:30am on Friday October 3rd, and I thought this cigar would go well with a nice cup of coffee.  Its also been a while since I have done a review for you guys, our loyal readers, so here we go!

Pre-light: As I pulled this out of my cello, the first thing I noticed was how well constructed this cigar was.  The wrapper was nice and smooth, with no major veins, and the wrapper was almost perfect. So far, judging by the appearance alone, this is going to be a nice smoke.  I ran it along the length of my nose to get a feel for how the smells came at me.  The first thing I noticed was that there was not a whole lot of smell coming from this cigar.  I did notice a slight creaminess with some spicy and light leathery notes, but they were not very strong.  I clipped this cigar with my newly sharpened Xikar cutter, and lit it up with my Ronson JetLite.

1/3: As I lit this cigar up, and took a few puffs, I got a nice hit of creamy smoothness, that I have come to expect in the lighter cigars.  As I continued down the cigar, the creaminess was consistent, without too many other flavors.  In an attempt to pull a few more flavors out of the cigar, I retrohaled it through my nasal passage.  Upon doing this, I got a little spiciness mixed in with that creaminess.  So far its been an enjoyable morning smoke.  The ash is firm and the burn is even.  After this 3rd, I decided to knock the ash off so I don’t drop it all over myself.

2/3:  As I continued on this cigar, the first thing I noticed was that the burn started to get a little wavy, but it wasn’t enough to worry about yet.  I was still getting the same creaminess flavor, with a little bit of leather on the background. The smoke was still very abundant, and I was enjoying this with my cup of coffee.  So far, if there is one word to use about this cigar… Its consistent.

3/3:  As I finished up this cigar, something was a little bit disconcerting.  I noticed a DARK DARK spot at the head.  It was leaking a dark fluid from it, almost like a dye, but  I am not really sure what it is.  I dried it off, and continued to smoke, but I found it odd that this spot came about.  If anyone knows what this might be, please let me know.  Here is a picture of the head and the dark spot:

I was really still enjoying this cigar, even with the small dark spot problem.  It was nice and creamy all the way down to the end.  The burn was still a little wavy, but the ash was holding tight, and I had to really knock it off the cigar to get it to drop.  So far I am impressed with this cigar.

Overall Impression:  Overall, first I want to thank Tex Cigars for the opportunity to smoke this cigar.  I usually smoke stronger cigars than this, but I was pleasantly surprised with the flavors, and the construction of this cigar.  I will smoke a few more of these I am sure.  If you like mild cigars in the morning, head on over to Tex Cigars and buy yourself some Monaco cigars!

-Scott

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So a little while back, there was a deal going for a 3 pack of Macanudo 1968′s in various sizes for around $10 shipped.  I figured what the heck, and bought them.   I don’t usually smoke Macanudos, as they are a bit mild for me, and tend to lack flavor, but I’d heard good things about this particular stick.  Being a newer smoke by Macanudo, I could think of nothing better than to review one for the loyal fans of Cigar Command, so here we go!

Pre-Light:  As I ran this cigar across my nose, I got some hints of spice, and heavy leather and coffee.  It smelled good, so I was ready to light up.  I cut it with my trusty Palio, and took a pre-light draw.  I got the heavy leather and a little spice on the un-lit draw, and the draw was just about perfect, with no stems or veins in the cigar to speak of.  This cigar looks to be well rolled.

1/3: As I lit up, I got hit with some peppery spice and lots of leather and wood notes.  The ash was a little flaky, but the burn was perfect, and the smoke was very abundant.  The leather was hitting hard, and its a flavor I enjoy, so I didn’t mind.  I was enjoying this smoke, surprisingly.

2/3:  As I started on this portion of the cigar and it was consistent with the leather and wood notes.  The smoke was still very abundant and the burn was even.  The flavors are good, but there are not a whole lot of changes.  So far, I am enjoying this cigar alot more than I thought.

3/3:  As I finished up this cigar, I was still getting the leathery notes, and the pepper came back stronger on the last third.  I was really enjoying this a lot more than I thought.  I didn’t have to re-light this cigar once, and I put it down quite a few times for extended periods.

Overall Impression:  Overall, I had some reservations about this cigar, as it was a Macanudo, and I have never had a Macanudo that I enjoyed.  As it turns out, I enjoyed this cigar, but I don’t know if its price point will be worth keeping these in my humidor.  From what I understand, these are a little spendy.  That being said, I am thinking about grabbing another 3 pack for 10 bucks if I can still do so.
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I realize how lucky I am to be sponsored by cigar retailers who send me cigars to review. I was reminded when this cigar showed up in my mailbox sent by Heather and Ralph at Fumee World. Now, you’ll notice that there aren’t very many CAOs reviewed here (yet), and that’s because I haven’t really bought into all of the hype. One cigar of theirs, though, that’s been a winner for me is the Brazilia. Now, this is my first tasting of the Lambada, but I can tell you that I love the Gol and the Piranha. I’m hoping this sexy stick lives up to its name.

Appearance: I’m always surprised at how oily the Brazilias are. This one is no different. While not as oily as others I’ve had, the sheen on the wrapper is tantalizing. Smooth veins can be seen, but they’re not prominent. The wrapper has a little tooth, but it’s dark chocolate coloring is quite appealing. The double cap is almost imperceptible.

Taste: This cigar started strong with spice and wood. This is pretty usual for the Brazilias and quite pleasant in its mix. After about an inch, there was a hint of fresh bread that shadowed these other two flavors, but that’s about the gist of it for this cigar. Not complex at all, but still good. About halfway through, though, the strength increased from medium body to a full in-your-face body.

Aroma: Holding this to my nose, I get a pungent mix of tobacco and strong dark chocolate. Very strong aromas that promise full flavor once it’s lit.

Construction: Gently squeezing this sample along its length, it felt a little spongy, though consistently so. It’s a lot looser than I’m used to when it comes to quality sticks. After cutting, I drew and got firm resistance. Firmer than I like. Upon lighting, though, I knew there were going to be problems. I had a hard time keeping this thing lit and it only wanted to burn on one side of the cigar, requiring numerous touch-ups and re-lights. Halfway through, though, it finally eased up and got back to where it was supposed to be. I’m sorry to say that this seems to be a common problem with CAO.

Overall: I have to say that the construction problems influenced the rating on this, otherwise I’d give it another full star. These cigars are always full flavor, if not always full-bodied (though this one turn out to be). The Gol still remains my favorite in this line, but these aren’t far behind in my book. Now, if I could just get a CAO that burns well…

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- Ricky

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Appearance: This is an average looking cigar. The 5×50 robusto looks a little smaller with the double band that’s wrapped around its girth. The criollo wrapper is smooth with light veins and no tooth. The wrap was well done and appeared seamless.

Taste: This isn’t a complex cigar as the flavors remained constant throughout. Wood and nut pervaded my taste buds, and except for some tannic undertones, it was quite pleasant. The strength started mild then grew into a solid medium body with a medium finish.

Aroma: Holding this to my nose, there was a buttery wood scent. The smoke was plain tobacco and when lightly exhaling through the nose, was harsher than you would think.

Construction: This was a very solid cigar. Couldn’t feel any inconsistencies and the foot looked like the cigar was bunched well. The burn held marvelously, and it was an extremely windy day. The ash was crisp and held firm throughout the smoke, often holding even when I attempted to tap it off before it was ready. This is definitely a well-made cigar. The only thing I have negative to say is that the wrapper is extremely fragile; cracking easily. But that’s just the way the leaf is, not how it’s rolled.

Overall: This experience wasn’t as good as the first sample of this cigar I had a year ago, but I have to admit that this is a solid smoke. The construction and quality was what I expect from a good cigar. I definitely recommend you try this cigar. Not to mention that this cigar stands for our rights to smoke cigars.

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Appearance: This was a decent looking cigar with a nice dark wrapper. There were thick, very prominent veins running through it and the color was a little mottled. Smooth with no tooth and the cap was well done. The wrapper is elegant and not too overdone. Not too much to say but that this is a decent looking cigar.

Taste: Overall, this is not a complex cigar. It starts out with a good leather taste that’s strong, but not too strong. The leather taste fades about half way through the cigar and then it picks up a very distinct coffee flavor. Black, no sugar. This taste lasted to the end and then some. To say this has a long finish is an understatement, as I could taste this cigar still an hour after I smoked it.

Aroma: Nothing special here. Tobacco, tobacco, tobacco. But, then, they all can’t smell like 11-year-old Madagascar vanilla, can they?

Construction: This is where we kind of ran into problems. Feeling along the body of this cigar, there were major inconsistencies. There were hard spots and very soft spots. The draw was extremely loose. Surprisingly, even with this, the burn held rather well. The ash didn’t, as it was loose and flaky. It did, however, produce copious amounts of smoke (that’s always a plus in my book).

Overall: For a special release cigar that’s a few years old, I have to say it didn’t live up to expectations. A medium to full-bodied cigar, the taste was average at best with a below average construction. When you drop $10+ on a stick, you should be able to expect at least superior quality, if not taste. Thank goodness this was part of a bomb I received months ago (thanks, Ron!).

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