So, for the first review of the summer, I bring to you the Calibre 58 from Miami Cigars.  Along the same vein as NUb cigars, these are short but stout.  The Calibre 58 is a Nicaraguan puro, and if you know anything about Nicaraguan puros, that almost guarantees a full-bodied smoke.  These were “initially created as a personal house blend of Miami Cigar to be used exclusively for promo’s [sic] but due to the demand [they] were forced to release them.”  These cigars are available in both rosado and oscuro wrappers as well as a parejo or torpedo shape.  Let’s see how they turn out.

Appearance: These are unbanded, which to me is a good thing, since they’re so short at  4×58.  No need to mess with a band when they’re that short.  Notice I didn’t say small, because a ring gauge of 58 is nothing to sneeze at.  The wrapper has few veins and no tooth.  A slight sheen to the cigar hints at age, but it’s not what I would call oily.  The cap of this torpedo is extremely well done as is the rest of the roll.  Unpretentious in its presentation, let’s see if the cigar backs up its lack of flaunted presentation.

Taste: This thing comes out swinging like Foreman before he learned how to grill.  Very strong cedar from the gate that subsides into a pure tobacco taste.  A strong wood and floral come to the forefront pretty quickly with a slight undertone of pepper, but not as much as you’d expect from this powerhouse.  I can honestly say I’ve never experienced these kinds of flavors from any puro, that were so abrupt in strength but smooth in flavor.  After the first inch, though, the floral went away and the woodiness came heavy.  Heavier than I like, but taste is purely subjective, right?  It didn’t really change much after that.

Aroma: Taking a huge whiff of this stick pre-light gave me a very strong aroma of chocolate, cedar, and tobacco.  This thing smells fantastic and reminds me of what a cigar should smell like.

Construction: I’ll say in both samples that I had before writing this review, these weren’t easy to initially light.  Not that they were extremely difficult, but it took some time to get a good full light on these.  Once going, the burn was good, though not great.  In the humid southern air of a somewhat cool North Carolina evening, though, it’s probably never going to be perfect, so take that for what its worth.  The cigar is well rolled.  The ash holds strong.  The wrapper doesn’t unravel even with the added humidity.  Miami Cigars has maintained its quality and proves it with the Calibre 58.

Overall Impression: I’m sold.  At just under $5 per stick, these are extremely enjoyable, even if not earth-shattering.  A good solid cigar with powerhouse flavor.  Just be careful not to smoke these too fast.  With all that strength, this can get pretty acrid on you if you don’t moderate.  I would definitely say that NUb has some strong competition in the market now.

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Okay, let’s kick this week off right with a cigar review.  These cigars were sent to me by Paul Bush who’s just recently created his own cigar line: Panacea.  Wanting to take what he calls an “old school” approach, Paul says his focus is on getting the best tobacco.  Instead of focusing on pretty packaging, he wants to get back to the basics of cigar making.  Let’s see how he does.  The torpedo is 6×52 and the blend is made up of a Brazilian wrapper with Cuban seed ligero and seco.

Appearance: This is a good looking torpedo.  It has a sharp point at its cap, and the cap is well done.  The chocolate wrapper has no tooth and some slight veins with a few prominent ones.  The wrap itself is visible.  Overall, this looks like a good torpedo.  I’m not a big fan of the band itself.  It looks a little cheap to me, but I’ve said many times you can’t judge a cigar by its band.  Also, band design and production can get expensive.  If you’re putting all your money into the tobacco itself, it makes sense that the band isn’t the focus here.

Taste: This is a pretty straight forward stick.  A mild-medium strength of a floral wood is consistent from beginning to end.  While not complex, it’s pleasant.  The strength starts out on the medium side, then mellows a bit, and picks back up toward the end.

Aroma: Holding the foot to my schnoz, I got a little floral cinnamon in there.  The wrapper itself is a mild tobacco.

Construction: Squeezing this stick, it’s a stout one. After clipping, the draw was fantastic.  While the burn wasn’t razor sharp, this stick was perfectly made.  The ash was firm and held tight for a long time.  I flicked the ash off the first time after I’d smoked half the cigar.  I didn’t have to flick again until I put the cigar down.  That’s a helluva well-made cigar if you ask me.

Overall Impression: I’m impressed.  The construction of this cigar is flawless.  It burns well and the ash holds well.  I’d like a little more complexity, but I can pick out many sticks I smoke on a regular basis that aren’t complex.  At around $6 for this stick, I think it’s a great buy.

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This cigar was sent to me by Tex Cigars and my eyes lit up when I saw it.  I love a full-bodied cigar and I loves me some ligero.  These cigars were rated as a 91 by Cigar Aficionado, but take that for what it’s worth.  Last year Scott reviewed its little brother robusto and it got a decent rating.  Let’s see where this one stands up.

Appearance: I love these bands.  Pure elegance.  It’s a good presentation and it says “I’m worth the cost.”  We’ll have to see if the cigar backs that up.  The wrapper is a little toothy and has some color variation.  The wrap seams are easily distinguishable.  The cap on this is perfectly done and it’s sharp.  This is a very, very sharp looking cigar.

Taste: This thing starts out hard leather.  It comes on pretty strong too.  Not a bad thing at all, but you may wanna have a little snack before you tackle it.  It’s creamy too.  After about the first inch, this cigar settles into some earth and pepper and it smooths out considerably.  About half way through, the pepper left and the leather moved back into the foreground and stayed until the end.

Aroma: I was so looking forward to this stick that I forgot my usual sniffing ritual, so you’re just gonna have to find out for yourself.  The smoke was a nutty buttery smell that was very pleasant.  There was plenty of it too.

Construction: I did feel along the stick and noticed some inconsistency along its length.  That sounded kinda dirty.  Anyway, the burn was a little ragged.  I always want a razor-sharp burn when I’m smoking in doors.  The ash was loose too.  Neither of which are a huge deal, but together don’t rave of the roll quality.

Overall Impression: This is a damn good cigar.  And smooth too.  You’ll have to be careful because the strength sneaks up on you.  While I was smoking this cigar, I was wondering how it could be claimed as a full body cigar.  After the cigar was over, I knew.  Make sure you have a full stomach when tackling this baby.  Great smooth flavors, good creaminess, decent burn.  Yeah, you’ll love this stick.

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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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Alright, so I know I’m a little behind the times as this is my first experience with the G.A.R. line-up.  And for what I paid for these puppies, my first thought is that they better be worth it.  There’s not much information out about these cigars yet, though according to the G.A.R. website “there’s more to come.”  The G.A.R. is the brainchild of George A. Rico, hence the name of the cigar.  It’s his initials… get it?  An Ecuadorian corojo wrapper surrounds the Ecuadorian Connecticut binder and Nicaraguan filler.  At 6×54, this isn’t a small torpedo: it’s stout.  Let’s get to it.

Appearance: I’m not a fan of the cheap-looking band, but then a band doesn’t make the cigar does it?  Though it does help with the overall experience.  It’s kinda cool that it’s at the foot of the cigar, and it is easy to get off, so there’s that.  I was impressed with the wrap though.  It’s a nice tight wrap; seamless almost.  The wrapper has no tooth and minimal veins.  The cap on this torpedo was perfect.

Taste: It took a little bit to get this thing lit because of the amount of tobacco in this stick (see Construction), but once it was going it started out with a mild woody floral flavor with the tiniest hint of spice.  This is supposed to be a full-bodied cigar, but it never really got there.  It maintained some sweet floral notes and the woodiness, but the two I smoked just were off.  Toward the end, the strength jumped to a medium body and some leather kicked in, but I could tell these weren’t reaching their full potential.

Aroma: This thing had almost a musty wood smell to it before I lit it.  It wasn’t an extremely strong smell, but the mustiness was noticeable.  As for the smoke, try and smell it if you dare.  I was affronted with the strength when I wafted too much smoke towards my nose and ended up with watery eyes for my efforts.  When I recovered and was able to gently direct some smoke my way, I found that it actually had a sweet scent to it; quite pleasant.  Just don’t take too much at once.

Construction: Okay, this thing is a brick shithouse.  Seriously.  The draw was tight also which came as no surprise when I hefted this thing out of the humidor.  It’s the heaviest cigar I’ve ever seen for its size.  They definitely want to give you your money’s worth when it comes to the amount of tobacco they use, but it’s detrimental to the overall smoke.  A cigar that has too much tobacco or is too tightly rolled, and in this case, both, just doesn’t smoke well.

Overall Impression: I smoke two sticks of a cigar for each review just to make sure I didn’t get a bad one.  Well, in this case, I must have gotten two bad ones.  Both were the same: too tight, too much tobacco, and not a good smoke.  I feel that there’s some goodness below, though, because of the sweet floral flavors it exhibited.  I just think there may be some inconsistencies in the rolling and quality processes at the factory.  I won’t completely close the door on the G.A.R. just yet, but they do need to work on their quality.  At $9 a stick for these, you should get quality when you pay for it.

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To change it up a bit but still stay within the Los Blancos family, today I pulled out a Primos Habana Criollo Rosado Torpedo sent to me by David Blanco.  This is a bundle cigar that is made using mainly Nicaraguan tobacco.  It is reputed to be a medium to medium full body cigar that will please even the experienced cigar smoker.  Let’s see…

Appearance: The first thing you notice is the band, well, kinda…  It almost blends in with the color of the wrapper and is a different take on the way other cigars (even other Los Blancos) are: where the band is very prominent.  The wrapper is quite veiny with a little tooth.  Looking at the foot, the bunch seems to be well made.  The wrapper is not oily, but it’s not dull either.  Maybe with a few more months in the humidor, the oils might have started working their way out a bit more.

Taste: This thing started the first few puffs and I thought it was going to be a dud.  But then the spice kicked in.  Wowza.  It didn’t last long, and it gave way to a rich leathery flavor that coated the palate, but for a few puffs I thought I was in for a ride.  The spice did come back in small doses, and a sweet woody flavor weaved its way in and out as well.  I can’t say that the taste changed much, but I can say that it was quite pleasant all the way through.

Aroma: Either my sense of smell is off (wouldn’t be the first time) or this has the most mild scent I’ve ever smelled on a cigar.  I had to inhaled deeply just to get any hint of a scent from this cigar.  The smoke had that sweet woody scent that you could taste.

Construction: This cigar had a medium draw and feeling along the body, had a few inconsistencies, but being a bundle, that’s easy to forgive, right?  The burn proved the inconsistencies, but it never got out of control nor did I ever need a relight.  That’s good in my book; not great, but definitely good.

Overall: Overall, this cigar exceeded my expectations.  I know, I know…  I’m not supposed to have any preconceived notions, but having had quite a few dud bundles in my day, it’s hard to get that out of my head.  This cigar may just turn me around on them.  I’d put this cigar right in the middle of medium body (maybe leaning toward the milder side), but it’s rich in flavor, produces plenty of smoke, burns well, and costs less than $3 a stick.  Primos may be a bundle cigar, but right now it’s prime-time as far as I’m concerned.

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Okay, here is a new cigar to me, and its claim to fame, so far, is that it’s 100% Columbian tobacco.  The tobacco put into this cigar is varied coming from Ecuadorian seed or Dominican seed, but it’s all grown and harvested in Columbia.  The owner of Bravo Cigar, Roberto Juarez, is very proud of his cigars and the fact that he’s making a 100% Columbian cigar.  Let’s see how it goes with this 6 1/2 inch, 52rg torpedo…

Appearance: The Ecuadorian seed wrapper was light with few slight veins.  The cigar was well wrapped with the seam of the leaf being hard to detect.  The band on this Columbian Gold is very pretty with its red and gold.  It’s not too ostentatious, but not too bland either.  This is a good looking cigar.

Taste: This stick started out with a heavy earth and settled into some woody flavors.  It maintained this throughout the whole with some light sweet floral notes coming in and out.  Towards the end some leather snuck in as an undertone.  This is a mild cigar so it won’t overwhelm your palate, but not so mild that it will bore you either.

Aroma: Holding this to my nose and inhaling I got a light and sweet aroma of tobacco.  I couldn’t garner much of an inkling as to what flavors I would encounter by just holding it to my nose.  The smoke was light and not offensive.  Though, being a mild cigar, you can imagine that it’s aroma is pretty mild as well.

Construction: Feeling along the body, there were some inconsistencies.  I couldn’t find any plugs and didn’t encounter any as the draw was light and easy, but there were some soft spots and some hard spots which tells of a poor roll.  Unfortunately, the burn confirmed this as it burned raggedly, many times canoeing on one side or another.

Overall: I’m a little surprised at how much I liked the flavor of this all-Columbian cigar, but I was disappointed in its construction and quality.  To be a player with the likes of Pepin and Padron, you have to provide high quality cigars.  Taste is subjective, but if you can’t provide a cigar that perfoms every time, you won’t be in the business long.  However, I’m not done with this line.  I’ll be revisiting it again to see if the quality improves to match its nice flavors.

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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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I was at my local cigar shop, as I am a lot of days out of the week lately, and I noticed that they had gotten in the new habana reserve from Romeo Y Julieta. I don’t generally care for RyJ cigars, but after hearing from a few of the regular guys at the shop that had tried them, I decided I needed to smoke one. I also figured this was one cigar I don’t see reviewed too often, so I’d throw up a review for our loyal readers! Here we go!

Pre- Light: I did the usual running of the cigar along my nose, and I got lots of woody, cedar hints, with some spice, and very light sweetness. It was smelling good, and I was ready to get this thing going. I clipped it with my trusty Palio cutter, and took a pre-light draw. It was PERFECT, and I was getting some great flavors out of it… Lots of woody flavors.

1/3: As I lit up into this cigar, and the first few puffs really floored me. I was getting complex flavors of spice, cedar and a touch of sweetness. The smoke coming from this cigar at this point was great. Lots of huge blue smoke puffs, and the burn was razor sharp. I was really enjoying this smoke, and was really surprised. This is the first RyJ I’ve ever truly enjoyed, thus far.

2/3: As I continued through this cigar, the cedar and wood notes became the prominent flavors, and they were really enjoyable. The spice and little bit of sweetness mellowed out quite a bit. It was still burning razor sharp, and the smoke was very abundant! I was really shocked by this cigar, and I was really enjoying every aspect of it.

3/3: As I was finishing off this cigar, the woody and cedar flavors seemed to dissapate, and the spice and sweetness re-appeared. The burn was still razor sharp, the smoke was still abundant, and it was smoking very cool. It smoked cool right down to the point where it was so small that I could no longer hold on to it. Being that I enjoy the woody flavor in cigars, I was REALLY enjoying this smoke.

Overall Impression: I really enjoyed this smoke, and plan on picking up at least a box of them as soon as I can afford it. The price point is decent, even for California. This stick ran me about $10 plus sales tax here in CA, and I know you can find them cheaper in other states. Overall I would suggest that everyone try this stick at least once, as its a great smoking experience.

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As most of our readers know, before this cigar, I had the opportunity to smoke both the Connecticut and Habano wrapped cigars from Nub, which I reviewed a while ago. My local cigar shop got a box of each wrapper in one day when I was there ( I am there at least 3 times a week). I immediately unwrapped the boxes of each, found room in the humidor for them, and demanded he tell me how much this cameroon was going to cost me. For the measly CA price of $7.99, I had the Nub Cameroon 466 box pressed torpedo in my hand!

Pre-light: I took the usual pre-light run across my nose and the flavors I got were some sweetness with some nice cocoa and coffee. I cut it with my trusty Palio, and took a pre-light draw. I thought to myself that this was possibly the best drawing cigar that I have had in a LONG time. I was anxious to light this thing up.

1/3: I lit this up with a triple torch supplied at the cigar shop. A triple torch is almost a necessity with a ring gauge this large. As I took the first few puffs, I could tell you that if this cigar continued like this, it was going to be my favorite Nub so far. I was getting some nice coffee flavors with some sweetness and spice on the palate. The smoke was abundant, and the ash was near flawless! I was really enjoying this smoke!

2/3: As I moved on to the 2/3 of this smoke, the ash was still holding strong, and I decided I needed to try a “nub stand” on the ash of the cigar. The flavors were great, still getting some sweetness and floral flavors, along with cocoa and coffee. I am REALLY enjoying this cigar, and once again, I am playing darts, but my attention is focused on the cigar, and darts take a back seat.

Sorry for the poor picture, it was taken with my camera phone.

3/3: As I am finishing up this cigar, I am getting more sweetness, with a bit more spice flavor, along with the floral notes. The burn is still perfect, which, in my opinion, is amazing, considering this cigar was just off the truck. The ash was knocked off by me at this point, as I didn’t want to get it all over me. The ash inside the ashtray was still sturdy, and I could pick it up between my thumb and forefinger.

Overall Impression: This is by far the best Nub cigar I’ve had to date, and I am glad that I have a box on order! If you have the chance to pick up just one, in any wrapper size, do it. This is a great cigar, and what Sam has created is not just a gimmick.

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