Zack the Stogie Man's Top 10 of 2011

Back in March of this year, I set upon a mission to find some of the best cigars. Throughout the year I have visited a wide variety of shops, as well as different online retailers. But without the help of family, friends, social media, and of course, my friends over at /r/cigars, none of this would have been possible.  Another special thank you goes out to all of the cigar companies that have been in contact with me and their sales representatives for all of the samples they have supplies me with. The people I have met over the past nine months have really helped this website become what it is today. With total page views creeping up on 30,000 views, I feel this website is going in the right direction, and I have all of you to thank for this wonderful feeling.

Now I will get into the part that everyone has been waiting for. This is a compilation, of what I feel, were the 10 best cigars that I reviewed in 2011.

Ashton VSG Illusion Review

Wrapper: Dominican Sun Grown

Filler: Dominican

Price: $9.50

I have been asked several times to review the VSG. One of the reasons being that I like full bodied cigar and sun grown wrappers. A couple weeks ago a friend of mine sent me one to review. So now that I had my hands on one, I couldn’t refuse it. The reason I never reviewed it before was honestly because it never crossed my mind to.

The Virgin Sun Grown wrapper is dark brown with a couple very thin veins. The cap was perfectly flush and double layered. The cigar itself is very solid with a slightly softer foot. There is also a very sweet smell coming off of this cigar. Its almost like the smell of sugar and vanilla. The cut was very clean and this cigar required no effort to light.

As soon as it was lit, there was a nice helping of spice. There was also a good amount of wood that started to enter the picture. Right after I picked up the wood notes, I started getting a good amount of earth as well. The peppery spice actually started to stick to my tongue, which is not a bad thing at all.

Ashton Heritage Puro Sol Churchill Review

Wrapper: Cameroon Sun Grown

Filler: Dominican

Price: $10.00

I’m not a huge fan of Ashton, they have a few lines that I like, but in my opinion they are just a little too expensive to have regularly. I went to an Ashton event, so I picked up a few. So this was the last one I had, and it was asked of me to write it up. So I went ahead and did it.

The wrapper was a medium shade of brown. The smell of the cigar was just a generic sweet tobacco smell. The cigar was solid for the most part, there weren’t any really soft spots, but there were some areas that weren’t as solid as the rest. There really wasn’t any distinctive pre light flavor to this stick either.