Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Perdomo Reserve Limited Cameroon Edition Petit Corona Review

Wrapper: African Cameroon
Filler: Cuban-Seed Nicaraguan
Price: $5.00

The reason I am review this cigar right now if for two reasons. The first reason is that it is a limited edition cigar, so I don’t know when I would get the next opportunity to smoke one. The other reason is the shop I got this one at is hosting a Perdomo event on September 16th. Xhale Lounge asked me to review this Perdomo in particular because of its amazing price tag, and the fact that it is new to the shop.

This petit corona appears flawless. The smooth Cameroon wrapper is a medium shade of brown with a perfectly flush cap. The stick itself is solid. There was not a single soft spot or vein throughout the entire cigar. The Cameroon wrapper gave off a very grassy yet sweet aroma.

The flavors were very robust right off the start. There were a couple flavors that struck me right away. There was a subtle spice and a mild sweetness off the light. These flavors altered very quickly. The sweetness picked up and the spice died down. As the cigar progressed, I was met with a mild sweet cedar flavor that stuck to my palate.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Pinar Del Rio 1878 Cubano Especial Capa Maduro Review

Wrapper: Brazilian Maduro
Filler: Dominican Criollo ‘98
Price: $6.00

 Xhale Lounge in Philadelphia asked me for my opinion on this cigar. For about $6.00, you can’t go wrong with this full bodied beauty.  The owner suggested me this cigar after seeing a few of my reviews and hearing what kind of cigars I prefer. So I agreed to write up this cigar.

The maduro wrapper is dark chocolate brown, with a nice oily look to it. There were a few veins throughout the wrapper, but nothing major at all. The stick is very heavy and solid. The cap was a nice, long, pigtail. Once I look the pigtail off, I unwound it to find out how long it was. It is easily three inches long unwound. The cigar also gives off a nice sweet aroma.

If you are a fan of spice, you will love the start of this cigar. The spice is very strong for the first few puffs. Shortly after the light, the spice dulls down and gives way to a very nice wood note. The wood is very prominent for the first inch until a leathery flavor comes into play. After a couple inches, the woody notes pick up quite a bit but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what wood note it was. I was sure that it was not cedar. I was leaning towards maybe a hickory flavor or a mahogany flavor, but I was not positive.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Illusione Epernay Le Ferme Review

Wrapper: Rosado
Filler: Criollo and Corojo Long Fillers
Price: $8.00 - $9.00

So today was a pretty big day for me. I went over to a new cigar lounge in Philadelphia called Xhale Lounge. If any of you are in the greater Philadelphia area, I highly recommend this shop. The owner, Brad, is a very nice guy who will help you find the perfect cigar. When I went over there we came to a little agreement to help each other out. So he asked me to review this fantastic cigar for him. So when I got home from, I prepared for this hurricane coming through then lit up this stick on my porch.

The cigar looks flawless. The wrapper is a medium shade of brown with not one vein in it that could alter a burn pattern. The stick itself is solid with not one soft spot in it. The cap has multiple layers that are all layered perfectly flush. The cigar gives off a sweet earthy smell before it is lit.

One I cut and lit this cigar up, I know I was in for a treat. The mild spice kicked off immediately and slowly picked up. This cigar starts off as a relatively full bodied cigar. The flavors opened up some more with some earthy notes. After about an inch of this great smoke, there were some strong wood notes that came out.

Java Mint Corona Review

Wrapper: Brazilian Mata Fina Maduro
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $6.00

Where do I start with this one? This cigar is so far off from everything I usually smoke. I am not a huge mint fan, nor a fan of flavored sticks. But, this cigar being as new as it is, I wanted to be one of the first to do a decent review on it. So, I picked up two of these to do the review on and hoped that I could muscle through it.

The cigar looks kind of cheap. The wrapper was dark chocolate in color but didn’t look like it was wrapped right. The wrapper wasn’t smooth all the way around. There was a decent amount of excess glue on the cap and above the band. There were no veins in the wrapper, but the stick itself was relatively soft. The cigar smelled like I was about to smoke a peppermint patty.

The flavor wasn’t quite what I expected. I was expecting the cigar to be overly mint flavored, but in fact it was the opposite. The cigar started off with quite a bit of spice and chocolate notes. Slowly, the mint came into the smoke, but it was very minor. There was more mint flavor on my lips than in the smoke. After an inch or so, the coffee flavors came out a little bit and shortly after that the chocolate flavor became very prominent.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

San Cristobal Seleccion Del Sol Robusto Review

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Sun Grown
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $7.00 - $8.00

A couple weeks ago I had a wedding to go to in Northeast Pennsylvania, right near where I went to college. So I figured that since I was up that way, I would stop in at the cigar shop up there that I frequented while I was at school. They quite the selection there. This was one of the cigars that I picked up while I was up there. I was asked to review this one next. Since the weather was nice enough today, I went out on my front porch and got to work.

This cigar was a medium shade of brown and was constructed very well. There were no veins and even had a smooth, even cap. The only flaw I found in the construction was the foot. The foot was very soft and actually made lighting it difficult. The smell of the wrapper was sweet and earthy.

The flavor started almost immediately. There was a little bit of spice and earth combination at first, but after a few puffs the spice dulled and earthy notes became prominent. About a half inch in, there were woody cedar notes that kicked in. Slowly more earthy flavors came out which dulled down the spice even more.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Gurkha Gran Reserve Robusto Review

Wrapper: Connecticut
Filler: Nicaraguan and Honduran
Price: $8.00 - $9.00

A couple weeks ago, someone within the cigar community posted online that he had a couple of these that he was willing to send out to other cigar smokers. He said he wasn’t a fan of these after smoking a couple of them. He was nice enough to send one of them to me for me to review and to get my take on this cigar.

After spending a few weeks in my humidor, it was time to smoke this cigar. I was highly disappointed when I noticed the wrapper had been cracked a few times. The wrapper itself was a very light brown with an extremely earthy aroma coming off of it. There were no veins in the wrapper, and the cigar itself was very solid. The construction was just a bit disappointing.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Oliva Serie V Double Toro Review

Wrapper: Habano Sun Grown
Filler: Nicaraguan Ligero
Price: $7.00 - $8.00

The first time I had this cigar was roughly a month ago. The reason I went after this cigar was because I heard of several people who really enjoyed this cigar. When I first tried this stick, I was blown away. This cigar has easily become one of my top cigars. This cigar is simply amazing to say the least.

The construction of this cigar is simply amazing. The wrapper is a dark brown, almost like dark chocolate. The cigar is very solid with not a single spot on the cigar that is softer than anywhere else. There were absolutely no veins in the wrapper that could alter the burn pattern. The cap was good looking as well. It had multiple layers. The only flaw I noticed was that there was a little extra glue up around the cap.

Partagas Serie P # 2 Review


This cigar looks quite amazing. The wrapper is a light brown shade with an amazing aroma coming off of it. The aroma is quite earthy with a little sweetness to it. The cigar itself was a little soft but not a big deal. The construction, other than that, was flawless. There were no veins in the stick, the cap was perfectly flush, it was a very good looking cigar. The cigar cut very clean and was very easy to light.

This cigar started off with a very mild spice with quite a bit of earthy notes. Once the cigar smoked down about an inch, the spice died down quite a bit a became quite woody. The woody notes became very strong and almost completely negated the spicy notes.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Nestor Miranda Art Deco Review

Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Filler: Nicaraguan and Dominican
Price: $7.00

A couple months ago, my local shop had an event for Miami Cigar Co. They had a buy one get one free deal, with a limit of one per customer. The free cigar they gave out was the Art Deco. I had never had it before that day so I figured, “Free cigar? Why not?” So my father and I both bought a cigar from Miami Cigar Co, and each got a free one of these. Well he didn’t want his because he only smokes mild cigars. So I saved his to do this review on.

The cigar itself looks very well constructed. The corojo wrapper is a chocolate shade with an earthy aroma to it. The cap is perfectly flush with the wrapper, and there are no big veins throughout this cigar. The cigar itself is very solid so I know it’s going to be a good hour long stick.

Rocky Patel Nording Toro Grande Review

Wrapper: Costa Rican Maduro
Filler: Nicaraguan and Honduran
Price: $6.00 - $7.00

So as I was walking around my local shop, this box caught my eye. All I saw were two Rams butting heads together. I thought it was a cool design, because something as powerful as two rams should mean the cigar is equally as powerful. Then I saw the price, and decided it was definitely one to try.

This cigar is a beastly 6” x 58. The wrapper was chocolate brown and smelled of sweet chocolate as well. The construction is flawless. There were no veins that could alter the burn pattern in any way, very solid stick with minimal soft spots. Once I cut this cigar, I knew I was in for a treat.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

H. Upmann Magnum 50 Review

This cigar looks amazing in every aspect. The wrapper is the perfect shade of brown with a slight red hint to it. The cigar was solid with only one minor soft spot. There were no veins throughout the entire wrapper, and had a perfectly flush cap. This cigar gives off a very sweet smelling aroma that I wont forget. The cigar cut very clean and lit very easily.

One this stick was lit, the flavors were strong. There initial flavor is a strong woody flavor. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what wood yet, but it eventually became a definite cedar flavor. There was a slight spice that came out, but there was nothing overpowering about it. After a few inches into this fantastic cigar, the flavor turned to a sweet note.

Once the sweetness came out, there was definite chocolate flavor. Once the chocolate came to full force, a bitter coffee flavor came in. The combination of chocolate, coffee, and cedar was so strong, I didn’t think an unflavored cigar could have this much sweetness.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Alec Bradley Crescendo Interlude Review

Wrapper: Honduran
Filler: Nicaraguan and Honduran
Price: $6.75

From my past experiences with Alex Bradley cigars, I have learned they are seriously hit or miss. When I was walking around one of my local shops, I picked this one up to give it  a shot. I thought it looked like a good cigar to enjoy in the morning. So after sitting in my humidor for a couple weeks it was time to give it a try.

The Honduran wrapper was a medium shade of brown with a nice shine to it. There were no veins on the wrapper that would alter the burn pattern in any way. The only flaw I found in construction was a soft spot on the underside by the band. The cigar also gave off a bitter pre-light aroma.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Man O War Special Edition Figurado Review

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Filler: Nicaraguan long fillers
Price: $15

A few months back I stopped in the Cigars International Superstore on my way home from a weekend away and I spent an hour walking around. I was like a kid in a candy shop in there. They were running a deal on Man O War cigars. The deal was that when you bought any box of Man O War cigars, get five of their Special Edition Figurados for free. So I bought a box of the Puro Authenticos for $60 and got $75 worth of cigars for free. Sounds like a good deal to me. So these figurados have been sitting in my humidor for a few months seasoning and it is now time to light one up.
The cigar looks very impressive to me. Since it is a special edition, I have pretty high hopes for this one. The wrapper is a chocolate shade with a very sweet smell coming off of it. There were a couple veins, but they were all relatively thin. The cigar is ridiculously hard and caused the draw to be tight. Since the draw was tight, the cigar was difficult to light.

The flavors were there right from the start. This stick was very spicy with strong oak flavors lingering throughout the smoke. The smoke and flavor latched onto my palate immediately leaving an earthy flavor. After a inch and a half or so, the spice dies down to give way to prominent wood and earthy flavors.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Arturo Fuente "King B" Review

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun Grown Rosado
Filler: Dominican
Price: $7.00 - $8.00

Having become a big fan of Arturo Fuente cigars over the past few months, I turn to them in different cigar shops I go to. Every once and awhile I will grab one that I haven’t had before just to give it a try. In my recent trip to a cigar shop in Philadelphia, I saw this one sitting right about eye level on the wall. And with a name like “King B,” why not give it a try?

The cigar and constructed beautifully. The wrapper was a nice chocolate brown shade with very little defect to it. There were no soft sports throughout the entire stick. There was only one vein that I thought would have a chance at altering the smoke pattern, but it didn’t in any way. The cigar cut very clean and the pre-light aroma and taste was a strong chocolate sweetness.