It is just another night at the Carnegie Club. A dimly lit lounge with comfy chairs and walls lined with bookshelves and old photographs of historic figures smoking cigars. Guys and gals dressed in their casual business attires lost in their conversations, only to drown out by a live band performing Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits. […]
In the midst of a global pandemic that has shuttered businesses everywhere and seen the end of NYC cigar industry heavyweights like Nat Sherman, there is a rare piece of good news for NYC cigar smokers. Merchants NY Cigar Bar , which closed in December of 2016, has announced plans to reopen on December 2nd, […]
In 2020, Mo Maali of Patina Cigars and Claudio Sgroi of Mombacho Cigars added a maduro blend to the Patina lineup: the Patina Maduro Oxidation. For those who don’t know, patina is the oxidation process that occurs on certain metals that creates a greenish look (for example, the Statue of Liberty). I’m a fan of Mombacho […]
Altadis USA boasts an enormous array of brands, with many lines within each. In fact, the company overseas so many cigar lines that it can be a challenge for each cigar to stand out among the rest. To make the Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Nicaragua released earlier this year, Rafael Nodal enlisted the talents […]
Foundation Cigar Company owner Nick Melillo (whose Tabernacle brand has been a favorite smoke of mine for a while) has added a third blend to his Charter Oak line. The first two releases of Charter Oak (Connecticut shade and Broadleaf) are, to me, very well balanced blends. The Charter Oak Habano is the newest wrapper […]
I’ve always enjoyed Joya de Nicaragua cigars and their many varied lines. Their bold Nicaraguan puros like Antano are always a pleasure to smoke because of their robust flavors. The newest addition to the Antano line—the Joya de Nicaragua Antano Connecticut—is a departure in that it wears an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper rather than a Nicaraguan […]
In 2020, Perdomo cigars announced their 10th Anniversary line. One of these blends is the 10th Anniversary Maduro, a Nicaraguan puro that dons a six year old wrapper which has been aged for fourteen months in bourbon barrels. In addition, the 10th Anniversary lineup includes Connecticut and Sungrown wrapper blends which will be reviewed later […]
Las Calaveras is a Crowned Heads limited edition line extension to their core line of cigars. The blend is an homage to the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) which honors those who have passed the year previously. I’ve had the opportunity to sample much of the Las Calavaras line and enjoyed […]
The H. Upmann Herman’s Batch is an additional line in Altadis U.S.A.’s profile paying tribute to the German banker Hermann Upmann who created the H. Upmann brand in Cuba in 1844. This is not the Cuban incarnation as it uses an Ecuadorian wrapper and Nicaraguan and Dominican fillers, but this is still an homage to the man by […]
The Aladino Cameroon Lonsdale is a premium cigar made by JRE Tobacco Company. What is interesting about this cigar is it wears a Cameroon seed wrapper grown in Honduras. Cameroon wrapper tobacco generally has an African origin in the area of its namesake. In Cameroon this is a very delicate wrapper to grow and blend around. […]
Cigar maker Rocky Patel has a truly vast array of cigar lines which would be too numerous to list here. One of his more creative incarnations is the Rocky Patel Cigar Smoking World Championship. As part of the annual Cigar Smoking World championship events (held around the world and with a Grand Finale in Croatia) […]
The Micallef brand of cigars have released a new toro size to their Herencia Habano line. The wrapper and filler tobaccos are marketed to provide a flavorful medium bodied experience. I hadn’t smoked the Habano blend until this blind review, and I quite enjoyed the several Micallef cigars I have previously reviewed (like the 91-rated […]