Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Old Henry Bully Maduro Review

Wrapper: Connecticut River Valley Maduro
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $6.75

So when I was in Philadelphia a couple weeks ago I went into Holt’s Cigar Shop in Center City. As I was walking around the store, this brand caught my eye. Mainly due to the fact that I like bulldogs, and there happens to be one right on the band. I came to find out that these sticks are one of their many House Brands. This particular one is made by the Don Pepin Garcia. When I learned that, I figured this cigar couldn’t possibly be bad.

Now this particular size is a 6” x 60. So it is quite a heavy stick. It’s dark brown with a nice sheen to the wrapper.  This cigar’s construction is great. No veins, no soft spots, flawless construction is always a good start. The cigar smells of sweet tobacco. The pre-light draw was very smooth and effortless with subtle wood and earthy notes throughout.

Once I lit this cigar, the flavors were very smooth. A little bit of spice developed early on but was quickly met by many more flavors. Earthy notes became very prominent. A strong oak flavor developed about an inch in or so. When this happened, the spiciness died down a bit .

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Alec Bradley Tempus Terra Novo Review (Saturday Morning Smoke)

Wrapper: Habano-seed Tobacco from the Nicaraguan and Honduran Border
Filler: Cuban-seed long fillers from Nicaragua and Honduras
Price: $7.00 - $8.00

As you have probably read in some of my previous reviews, I did an event a few months back, and this was one of the cigars that was given to me to do a review on. So this cigar has been sitting in my humidor since early may and I was waiting for that perfect time to smoke it. So this past Saturday, I woke up, grabbed this cigar, and sat out back of my house before it got too brutally hot. It wound up hitting 106 degrees. So luckily I could enjoy this cigar while it was only in the low 90s.

The cigar had a beautiful dark brown wrapper with only a couple medium sized veins. There wasn’t anything to be to worried about. The cap was perfectly flush and there were also absolutely no soft spots. The cigar had a great sweet tobacco smell to it as well.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Kristoff Ligero Maduro Churchill Review

Wrapper: Brazilian Maduro
Filler: Cuban-Seed Dominican & Nicaraguan Long-Filler
Price: $8.00 - $10.00

Being a huge fan of a few other Kristoff cigars, I figured it was time to give this one a shot. When I went cigar shopping on Father’s Day with my dad, this was one of the sticks I picked up. The weather was warm out when I smoked this cigar, so there was quite a bit of water and iced tea consumed to get through this Churchill.

The Brazilian wrapper on this cigar is fantastic. Its very dark, very oily, and radiates a coffee smell. The cigar has a nice pigtail cap, and a covered foot where the wrapper tobacco was left long. The cigar is very solid and very tightly wrapped.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

San Cristobal Papagayo Review

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Filler: Nicaraguan Long-Filler
Price: $9.00 - $10.00

So over the weekend I was walking around my local cigar shop looking for something different. I wanted something good, that I had never tried before. So as I was walking around, I saw a few boxes of these on the bottom shelf. So I grabbed a few to give them a try.

The cigar itself looks really good. The wrapper is chocolate brown and very smooth. There are no veins in the wrapper and no soft spots. The cigar is constructed great. The cigar has a very sweet chocolate smell to it.

Once I lit the cigar up, the flavors were great right from the start. There were strong notes of spice and wood. There was a little bit of sweetness that came out as well. After about an inch or so of this great stick, the spice died down and became much more earthy and sweet.

After a few inches the body of the cigar mellowed out a little bit. The earthy wood tones became very prominent in these few inches. There was still quite a bit of sweetness as well. This cigar becomes very creamy on the palate.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Pinar del Rio Clasico Exclusivo Gordo Review (Weekend Morning Smoke)

 Wrapper: Connecticut Shade Ecuadorian
Filler: Nicaraguan and Dominican Long Fillers
Price: $5.00 - $7.00

So I woke up Saturday morning around 7:00 a.m. and figured it was a good morning to do my weekend morning smoke. The breeze was nice, a little warm out for 7:00 a.m. but a beautiful morning nonetheless. So I opened my humidor and saw this guy staring at me. So I went downstairs, made a cup of coffee and went to relax with the cigar out back.

The cigar looks great. It has a nice smooth wrapper that is flawless. There are no veins whatsoever on this cigar. There were no soft spots either. The only bad thing about this cigar was the cut. The cut caused a little but of splitting and a small crack, but is was no big deal. The cigar still held together. The cigar smells very earthy as well.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

La Aroma De Cuba Mi Amor Robusto Review

Wrapper: Mexican Cuban-Seed
Filler: Nicaraguan Long-filler
Price: $7.00

Having smoked several La Aroma De Cuba cigars, I felt it time to review this particular one. I have smoked the Mi Amor probably four or five times prior to this one, and each time it’s a great smoke. They were given to me a few months ago for helping someone out at a cigar event.

The cigar looks amazing. The box press is perfect, but because of the box press, the cigar is relatively soft compared to traditionally round cigars. The wrapper is chocolate brown with a couple thin veins that I know wont affect the burn pattern. And the wrapper smells ridiculously sweet and strong like chocolate.

Once this cigar is lit, a little bit of spice comes out, but it is quickly dulled. After a few puffs, a strong chocolate flavor and is very sweet. About a half inch in, the flavor shifts towards a more earthy tone with a sweet cedar base. After about another inch, the chocolate flavor comes back strong and the combination of the chocolate and cedar make up a great sweet flavor base.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

G.A.R. M5 Robusto Grande Review (Weekend Morning Smoke)

Wrapper: Cuban-Seed Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan and Dominican
Price: $4.00 - $5.00


The other day I was walking around Philadelphia and walked into a cigar shop over there. I had the intent of grabbing a few stick that I had never smoked before for my review site. This was one of the ones that stood out. I had never smoked a G.A.R. before so I picked up a few and decided it was a good weekend review cigar.

The cigar looks wonderfully constructed. The wrapper is light brown and flawless. There are no cracks, no splits, no peels, and no soft spots. But most importantly, there were no veins. The cap is very cool looking as well. It actually looks like is has a few layers and a few different shades of brown. The smell of this cigar was very sweet as well.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Partagas Black Label 1845 Clasico Review

 Wrapper: Sun-Grown Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler: Nicaraguan Cuban-Seed Ligero
Price: $4.00 - $5.00

This cigar was given to me in a trade a few weeks back with my neighbor. What we do is we buy sampler packs and trade full bodied cigars for light bodied cigars. He is a fan of mild to medium, and I am partial to medium to full. So when I gave him a couple, this was one of the few he gave me.

The wrapper is almost jet black. It was also very oily with a nice shine to it. The cigar itself smelled very sweet which I find quite often with the full bodied cigars. There were a few cracks in the wrapper but nothing major, and there was also a few thick veins that I was a little worried about.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

CAO Italia Positano Review

Wrapper: Honduran
Filler: Italian, Nicaraguan, and Peruvian
Price: $6.00

I was given three of these about 2 months ago and prior to that I had never smoked one. So last month I smoked one of them and thought it was just ok. Then over this past weekend I smoked another and it was exponentially better that the first one. So after work today I figured I would smoke the last one and write up this review.

The wrapper looks very good. It is chocolate brown and very oily. There is a wonderful shine to this wrapper. There were a couple flaws to these sticks though. There were a few thick veins that I was afraid of, and while examining the stick, I found a couple soft spots on one side of the stick. The cigar itself smells very sweet like chocolate though.