I have never been a fan of the Punch Rare Corojo.  It seemed an OK enough cigar but it just never struck my fancy which I thought strange because I generally enjoy Corojo cigars.  I had no idea until very recently that the Punch Rare Corojo doesn’t even have any Corojo tobacco in it.  I thought the wrapper was Corojo but apparently it was a Sumatran leaf of some kind.  Learning that fact kind of annoyed me.  Why the hell do they call it a Corojo if it isn’t?  But ultimately I came to the conclusion that I really don’t care especially since the cigar has largely remained off my radar…

Enter the the Punch Rare Corojo 10th Anniversary Edition.  Wonders never cease, this one actually uses a Corojo wrapper leaf.  What’s more it is a Connecticut grown Corojo wrapper.  I didn’t even know they grew Corojo in Connecticut.  Well there’s lots I don’t know but still, I was surprised by it. General Cigar sent me some samples of the new limited edition of the Rare Corojo and its make-up is intriguing to me so I looked forward to giving this one a try.  I have to say, it is a much better cigar that the previous sticks to carry this name.  It starts off with leather and earth and an undertone of what I would describe as spiced vanilla, giving it a subtle sweetness and creamy characteristic to the flavors.  It builds in body as you progress and it starts to exhibit more spice and gets a little woodsy and tannic at times which may just be a bit of youth shining through, or the Honduran filler dominating the blend (I often get tannic notes from cigars with Honduran tobacco).  Overall the cigar was quite enjoyable and it held my attention nicely with well defined flavors.  It may be a limited edition cigar but it doesn’t carry a limited edition price tag so I would say it is definitely worth trying if you run across them.

The Macanudo Reserva Dorada is a dark maduro with an earthy aroma and a shiny metal band.  It is an eye catcher on the shelves.  I have to be honest.  I am not a fan of Macanudo in general (although I was recently impressed by the new Gran Cru), but when I saw this cigar with that big metal ring on it, I had to buy it just to try and also to have that band.  For what I don’t know but i had to have so I guess the gimmick worked.  The flavors are mild and classic maduro, a slight sweetness with chocolate an coffee flavors.  The flavors were a little thin though with not much body to speak of.  The draw was a little looser than I prefer but it did produce plenty of thick aromatic smoke.  The burn was a little tricky at time requiring one or two touch ups and the ash was very loose and flaky so I had to keep an ash tray near by.

The final verdict, while it was an OK smoke, it was too mild for my tastes and too thin in the body department.  The ash was kind of troublesome too.  However, the flavors were good and in the end I guess I enjoyed enough to be happy with the purchase though I probably won’t be looking to smoke another.  However, if you like mild smokes and that classic maduro sweet flavor, this cigar is right in your wheel house.

Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan and Costa Rican
Size: Lancero 7.0″ x 38 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

The fact that this line of cigars was re-blended by Don Pepin Garcia should leave it as no surprise that a Lancero was eventually added to the card.  Pepin has a reputation for being partial the old-school Cuban way of doing things and he seems to have a love of the traditional connoisseur vitolas  like the Lancero.  Not only that, but he seems to have a special talent for masterfully blending for the Lancero as his Lanceros tend to be the best on the market in my opinion.  That said I have been looking forward to trying this cigar given how much I have enjoyed the other larger sizes in the line.

Like a lot of Lanceros it isn’t the prettiest cigar.  It is a bit bumpy and lumpy looking but the draw is excellent and the burn is razor sharp.   It starts off a little peppery before falling into a woody/nutty core complimented with leather and occasional subtly sweet caramel notes.  There weren’t any dramatic changes in flavors but rather shifts in intensity between the present flavors and a build up of black pepper near the end of the smoke.  Watchout for the ash on this one.  It is a little flaky and falls off easily.  If you don’t pay attention you’ll be wearing it.  All in all the Nestor Miranda Special Selection Lancero is an excellent cigar that I will smoke again.

Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan, Honduran, and Dominican
Size: Rothschild 4.5″ x 50 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

The Nestor Miranda Special Selection changed quite a bit from its original incarnation when Nestor Miranda of Miami Cigar & Co. asked Don Pepin Garcia to re-blend and make this cigar for him.  I don’t know much about this cigar before Pepin got his hands on it.  The coffee break is supposed to be a smaller more convenient format for the highly touted, and very large Danno which is Nestor’s 20th Anniversary cigar also blended and made by Pepin.  Surprisingly, there is absolutely no mention what so ever of the Special Selection cigars on the Miami Cigar & Co. website.  Why do so many cigar companies fail at the simple task of keeping their websites up to date?  It seems to be an annoying fact of life for cigar lovers who crave information.  Cigar companies seem loathe to part with it.

Dressed in a dark brown leather jacket of a wrapper leaf it looks grainy and has small veins spider-ing across its surface.  The band is simple and elegant, and after clipping the excellently applied cap a quick test of the draw reveals perfection and a rich preview of whats to come.  Although there is none of the infamous “Pepin Black Pepper”, the cigar is very Pepin-esque and leaves no doubt as to who blended this smoke.  The Nicaraguan tobacco seems to dominate at the start with lots of rich earth notes complimented by leather and coffee.  Once you get about half way in it starts to develop some Honduran spice and some nutty undertones of raw almond or maybe walnuts.  The last third is spicy and earthy with a slightly sweet finish.  I found this cigar to have an almost Tatuaje like nature to it which of course only makes me like it even more.  It is an excellent smoke and I enjoyed the size.  It is a convenient afternoon smoke and I plan to keep a handful of these in stock at all times.  I can see me reaching for one of these whenever I can’t make up my mind on what I want to smoke.  It will compete heavily with the Oliva V Belicoso in that role for me.

Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan and Honduran
Size: Robusto 5.0″x54 Ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

Made in Honduras with mostly Nicaraguan tobacco, the Habana Reserve is unique in the prolific number of lines in the Romeo  y Julieta portfolio.  I believe, but am admittedly not certain, that this is the only one that is not made in the Dominican Republic.  It is a handsome cigar with a good looking oily wrapper that has the look of leather.  Constrction of the cigar seems to be high quality.  The wrapper is neatly applied as is the double cap.  The draw is ideal and the cigar is firm and well filled.

The Habana Reserve is purported to be RyJ’s most robust offering.  That may well be the case but it is far from being a full bodied smoke and perhaps speaks to just how mild the other lines are.  I am ok with calling it a medium bodied smoke, but it lacks a lot of the oomph I expect from a cigar made of mostly Nicaraguan tobacco.  I am just not getting that Nicaraguan earthiness.  If i didn’t know there was Nicaraguan tobacco in the cigar and was smoking it blind, I’d probably guess it was a Dominican cigar.  The flavors are pleasant enough, woody and floral, but they are a little thin.  As the smoke progressed it developed a little more body making it more enjoyable if not any more interesting. Towards the end it developed a bit of a peppery bite and a hint of that earthiness I was looking for but was missing almost the entire time.

This smoke is a bit one dimensional and doesn’t hold much for the seasoned smoker.  However, it is a smooth pleasant cigar that could be enjoyed by the beginner or occasional smoker.

Country: Honduras
Wrapper: Honduran Criollo ’98
Binder: Honduran Criollo ’98
Filler: Honduran and Nicaraguan
Size: Churchill 7.0′ x 49 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

The Alec Bradley Tempus is made in the Raices Cubanas factory in Honduras. This is the same factory the the Illusione and Cruzado cigars are made for Dion Giolito. I mention this because of a story I heard. It is second or third hand so I have no way of knowing how true it is but it is interesting. The story goes that Dion was testing several prototype blends to use in one of his lines. Apparently Dion wants his cigars to change up on him 4 plus times through the course of the smoke so there were several blends that while good, complex smokes, they were passed on by Dion. The rumor is, that one such blend was offered to and subsequently bought by Alec Bradley to become the Tempus. Like I said, I have no idea if it is true or not, but it is an interesting story and maybe it provides some insight into what happens to some of better blends that go unclaimed during the development phase for a new cigar.

The large ornate band and the second gold band at the foot of the cigar gives it a kind of regal look from a distance, but up close the cigar looks rather rustic.  The wrapper drak brown and a little rumpled looking with a sparse scattering of small black spots on it.  It is very veiny and has a slight tooth to it.  The triple cap is sloppily applied.  It kind of looks like a Padron, only slightly better put together.  Despite its rustic appearance, it is obviusly a well made cigar as the draw was near perfect and the burn remained straight and even the entire smoke with no relights or touch-ups.

This was a nice robust smoke.  It burned slow and cool and took me close to two hours to finish.  It starts off with a peppery blast and rich notes of earth and black coffee and a subtle sweetness on the finish.  It is a full bodied start with a bit of a heady punch.  It does begin to mellow out though and the majority of the smoke is nice and smooth with creamy flavors of nuts and oak interrupted by the occasional flash of salty leather.  As I neared the end, it changed back to the robust earthy smoke that it began as with plenty of pepper on the finish.

This was a good complex smoke that was able to hold my attention for the full 90 plus minutes it took to smoke.  I don’t smoke a lot of Churchills because they do take a while to work through so they need to be complex and engaging when I do partake of one.  The Alec Bradley Tempus Centuria fits the bill.  I will certainly smoke this one again.  The Tempus is easily my favorite Alec Bradley cigar.

Rating – B+

You can get Alec Bradley Tempus cigars @ CigarsDirect.com

Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Size: Short Robusto 4.75″ x 60 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

Cigar Aficionado named the Casa Magna Colorado #1 on their Top 25 Cigars of 2008 (specifically the robusto).  They did so with a very controversial explanation, stating that the price point of the cigar played a large role in its selection due to the state of the economy. That sparked off a ton of impassioned debate across the cigar smoker world about what should or should not factor into proclaiming a cigar as the #1 cigar of the year.  Where ever you come down on that debate, the general consensus seems to be that the Casa Magna is a decent to very good cigar that carries a reasonable price tag.  Somehow I have managed to fail to get around to trying the Casa Magna up til this point, but today I fired up the beefy Torito to see what I think of this much debated #1 cigar of 2008.

There has been a ton of stuff written on this line of cigars given the hype and controversy that surrounded it earlier this year.  There are lots of places that detail the specifics of the cigar and its makers so I am going to save myself the trouble of rehashing it all here.  You’ve probably already have read all about it, and if not you’ll find the information is easy to locate with a quick google search.  So no more fluff, on to the review…

This short fat robusto is a handsome specimen.  Girthy yet elegant looking in its ornate band and oily rosado colored wrapper.  It’s like a football player in formal wear.  The cap is a little sloppy but that isn’t uncommon in my experience when dealing with these huge ring gauges so we can forgive it.  The filler looks like it is littered with several thick rib veins, another pitfall of a 58+ ring gauge.  it takes a lot of tobacco to create a cigar this thick and I guess you can’t be too picky when trying to get that much tobacco in it.  Hopefully it will not adversely effect the cigar.

The draw is very good and the burn surprisingly even for such a thick cigar.  It burns slow and cool which is certainly a plus.  The flavors seem a bit muted and hard to pick out.  I got notes of white pepper and some musty earthiness and a slight oakiness at times.  It was a fairly smooth smoke, creamy at times but not very dynamic.  I think perhaps that this blend does a lot better in a smaller vitola, but that is just a guess on my part.  It seems to me that some of its complexity and at the very least the core of its flavors get diluted and lost in the abundance of tobacco crammed into this monster.  This cigar intrigued me enough to want to try a more traditional size like the corona.  The Torito however leaves a little to be desired.  Besides, a 60 ring gauge is just so awkward to smoke and that doesn’t help any either.  It is a decent smoke though and those that enjoy big beefy cigar will probably enjoy the Torito.

Rating – B

Some other takes on the Casa Magna:

• The Stogie Guys were impressed with the Torito
• Agent 15 over at The Cigar Spy was less than impressed
• Brian at The Stogie Review enjoyed the Belicoso

Country: Honduras
Wrapper:  Nicaraguan Shade Grown
Binder:  Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, and Colombian
Size:  Robusto 5.0″ x 52 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

The Gran Habano line of cigars is made in Honduras by GR Tabacaleras Unidas which is a father and son operation of Guillermo Rico and his son George. The 3 (Tres) Siglos line was first introduced in 2006 and is reputed to be a complex, full-bodied, spicy addition to the Gran Habano family of cigars. The key aspect of this blend is the use of three different types of ligero tobacco in the filler. This cigar features ligero from Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, and Colombian tobacco. I am making the assumption that this is why the number “3″ is used int he name of the cigar so it got me curios about the word “Siglos”. I never had given any thought to that word until now and I discovered that siglo is the Spanish word for century. So that makes the name of this cigar (translated by me) “three centuries”. I’m not sure if there is any significance there. The company was founded in 1995 so it certainly isn’t three hundred years old. It may not have any significance at all, or it refers to something I was not able to ascertain. Really, I guess it is all irrelevant since what is important here is this question – “Is the cigar any good?” Well, lets find out…

The shade grown wrapper on this cigar is a very nice rosado in color.  It is a little veiny with an oily sheen to it and has a neatly applied cap.  The 3 Siglos seems to be well filled and very well put together.  It sports two elegant white bands trimmed in gold leaf making for a very a handsome and elegant presentation. The smoke starts out very smooth and creamy with a hint of vanilla and very little spice on the finish. The first third of this cigar had me wondering if this really was all ligero in the filler. As I moved into the second third I was still asking myself that same question. The flavors were excellent with notes of creamy toasted nuts and a little bit of a musty earthiness, but still very little spice and none of the pepper I’d expect from a cigar with a lot of ligero. At this point I’d describe the cigar as a mildly complex and very enjoyable medium bodied smoke. It burned slow and cool. The ash was a bit flaky, dark grey and black with swirls of brown in it.Things finally began to pickup a little bit in the last third with addition of more black pepper notes and a little more robust profile.

Overall this was a really enjoyable smoke with excellent flavors.  Based on it’s makeup I was expecting it to be a fuller smoke than it turned out to be.  I think maybe the shade grown wrapper contributed to toning it down a bit.  Even though it wasn’t what I was expecting, it was still a very good cigar and I recommend giving it a try.

Rating – B+

Country:  Honduras
Wrapper: Corojo
Binder: Honduran
Filler: Not Sure
Size: Toro 6.0″ x 50 ring
Courtesy of CigarsDirect.com

The Cuba Libre is blended by Nestor Plasencia.  I am not very familiar with his blends.  I am not sure but this might be my first experience with one of his cigars.  I had a hard time finding any details on this cigar and it’s blend.  What I was able to find was inconsistent and vague.  I was able to discern that this is a Honduran made cigar and it may be a Honduran Puro, but like I said I couldn’t find much detail on the blend so I am not sure of that.

The Epicure has a severe box press.  The wrapper is leathery and rough looking and has a rumpled look near the head.  I can see a couple small stems in the filler at the head and foot.  The draw is good and a little on the loose side.  It produces lots of thick white smoke and has a basic tobacco aroma, nondescript.  The best I can describe it is that it smells like a cigar.  I know, that sounds kind of silly but it’s accurate.  The flavors are a bit plain as well.  It has a basic core of leather and earth complimented by a toasty tobacco.  It was all a bit muddled and one dimensional.  It has decent strength and body.   The finish is OK but can be a bit bitter at times, and the burn is a bit problematic going askew several times.  At about $4 a stick it is a decent value smoke.  The flavors are pleasant enough and with an attractive price point I would say this is a good cigar for out on the golf course or when working in the yard.

Rating – C

This review is part of a series of blind reviews I am doing in conjunction with Jamie of Zen and the Art of the Cigar. We each exchanged three unbanded cigars. The only previously agreed upon criteria for the exchange was the there would be one value cigar, one mid-range cigar. and one premium cigar. The cigars were numbered randomly. I will be reviewing cigars number 1, 3, and 5. Cigars numbers 2, 4 and 6 will be reviewed by Jamie and can be read on his blog. The reviews will be posted over the next two weeks and at the end of the series a summary of all the blind reviews will be posted.

Cigar #5

Cigar number 5 is a good looking cigar.  The wrapper is smooth and silky with very few, small veins.  The wrapper is expertly applied as is the cap.  Inspecting the clipped head and the foot revels a good looking bunch of the filler tobacco and the pre-light draw is perfect.  It has a mild earthy aroma and the wrapper is leathery, and a uniform rich brown in color. It looks to be about a 46 ring and is 5 inches long. There was a small patch on the wrapper near the head about the size of the nail on my pinky finger.  What is particularly interesting about this patch is that I almost didn’t see it even given the fact that I went over this stick with a fine tooth comb.  Because it is a blind review I paid closer than usual attention to the physical appearance of the cigar and I still almost didn’t see this patch.  It was simply the best patch job I have ever seen on a cigar.  Even with the patch this is the best looking of the three cigars.  That alone doesn’t mean it is the premium stick in the bunch, but if I had to guess just based on appearance this would be my pick.

This cigar is very smooth right from the start.  Mild to medium bodied. The flavors are balanced and delicate.  It smokes like a cigar with a little bit of age on it.  At the beginning there are notes of espresso and bakers cocoa.  It wasn’t long before this smoke started changing on me.  It developed woody/oak overtones with smooth creamy notes.  Halfway through it got more robust but was still on the mild side of medium in body and flavor.  It developed a leathery core complimented with roasted coffee beans.  It always put off thick clouds of creamy white smoke and had a wonderful room bouquet.  The finish was long, smooth, and pleasant.  The ash was well formed and firm.  Flavor and construction on this cigar was superb.  It was a complex, well balanced, delicate smoke.

After all that, I have no clue as to what this cigar was or where it came from.  I can take a wild stab and say, due to its mildness, that it is a Dominican cigar but I really don’t know.  That is just a wild gues on my part.  It was a very good smoke, not typical of the robust powerhouses I have grown most fond of, but I must say as good as this was, I could see myself enjoying this cigar more regularly. Putting together its appearance, flavor, complexity and construction I would think this is a premium top-shelf smoke.  If it isn’t then it is a heck of a value.

Check out  the review of Cigar #6 at Zen and the Art of the Cigar

So now all the reviews are done for this little project.  I have to say it has been a lot of fun up to this point but now comes the most exciting part.  Jamie and I will be hanging out tonight at our local cigar shop and we will be discussing all the cigars.  Expect a wrap-up to be posted in the next few days.

Related Posts:

• Going Blind
• Cigar #1
• Cigar #2
• Cigar #3
• Cigar #4
• Cigar #6