Cigar Inn has always been a great place to smoke, and now patrons can expect even more. For just $20, anyone buying a box of cigars can have a custom design painted right on to their box. All customers have to do is submit a photograph to be painted on the box and wait about two weeks.
From the Cigar Aficionado release:
“All paintings are being done by New York-based artist Elena Yakovleva. Yakovleva, a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, is the talented artist that Cigar Inn commissioned to paint a mural for its 1016 2nd Avenue location.”
I don’t often buy boxes of cigars from anywhere, let alone Cigar Aficionado (NY tobacco taxes are killer), but if I ever do buy an exclusive from Cigar Inn, this will definitely be a feature that I’ll be tacking on.
Vindicator by Oliva is a Famous Smoke shop exclusive. I managed to grab 5 from the website for a review. I paired a variety of drinks, including red wine, coffee, and water. Here’s the description from Famous Smoke, which I found to be, for once, totally spot on:
“Vindicator by Oliva cigars are an all-Nicaraguan blend of triple-fermented Ligero and Viso longfillers in Habano-seed binders and wrappers. The smoke is full strength and impressively bold up front. Settling into the medium-plus range of body, they become almost deceptively smooth, with dark tobacco flavors balanced by a light sweetness. Best enjoyed with a drink on a full stomach. Try a box with confidence: as with all Olivas, you get super high-quality at a really fair price!”
Construction on this cigar, after four smokes, was pretty much flawless. The wrapper is a rich brown with a reddish tint. No retouches, no relights, few veins, and very consistent throughout. The band seems to be, as others have put it, “a total rip off of Gurkha.” I agree. But, playing off of another brand is hardly an unforgiveable sin if the cigar is good. That’s what I set out to find on this cigar. On the foot, I get notes of spice, coffee, and something that reminds me very clearly of the cream soda I drank as a kid.
Flavor & Smoke Characteristics
I’m sure most readers will be a bit disappointed when I report that this cigar does not kick off with loads of cream-soda flavored smoke. However, I was excited to receive a nice initial kick of spice, followed by notes of roasted peanuts and cedar. Medium – full bodied smoke, with a really enjoyable retrohale. In the second third, the smoke remains fairly spicy, but the flavors deepen in richness and sweetness, and a slight slight grassiness appears as well.
In the final third, like clockwork, the spice picks back up and tickles my tongue.
Conclusion
Though this cigar has gotten less than glowing reviews on other sites, I would recommend trying this cigar – but you have to give it at least a couple of weeks before smoking it to let it settle. The first I had of my batch a few days after buying it was in dire need of some time. What is most special about this cigar (to me), is that in all four cigars I smoked, the retrohale was very, very satisfying, though for the life of me I couldn’t actually isolate the taste (readers – any idea what I’m tasting here?). A great $5 cigar – try it immediately.
UPDATE: The retrohale is, as best I can tell, a sort of tanginess
I’m glad to see someone is doing their homework, because the American Cancer Society and over 40 anti-tobacco groups certainly aren’t. A letter signed by anti-smoking groups arguing against HR 1639 (exempting cigars from FDA oversight) stated,
“We are particularly concerned about the wide range of products that would likely be exempted from any regulation under the bill, including Swisher Sweets Sweet Chocolate Blunts, Phillies Sugarillos Cigarillos (described on the box as “when sweet isn’t enough!”), White Owl grape Blunts Xtra, and Optimo peach Blunts. These products come in flavors and are among the most popular with youth.”
From the text of the letter, and some commentary posted by other anti-tobacco leaders, this exemption is some sort of sneaky ploy by big tobacco to shift away from marketing cigarettes to children to marketing cigars to children. And if that was the case, it really would be a pretty terrible thing.
Our friends at the American Cancer Society didn’t do their homework. As a letter from the IPCPR points out, the text of HR 1639 states that the exemption is for cigars that are “wrapped in leaf tobacco, contains no filter, and weighs at least 6 pounds per 1,000 count…”
If you know anything about Swisher Sweets, you’d know that they are not wrapped in leaf tobacco – a detail that the ACS probably missed, presumably because they don’t know anything about the premium cigar products they are trying to destroy.
Many thanks to the writers of HR 1639, who provided a short, concise exemption that keeps cheap, sweetened cigars highly regulated while trying to save the premium cigar industry.
I learned about a cigar shop located on 29th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in May called Martinez Cigars. I stopped by Martinez Cigars and picked up two Don Antonio Escogido robustos. I am at Cigar Inn with the second cigar.
Blend Specifics
Size: 5 x 50 Robusto
Wrapper: Connecticut
Binder: Sumatran
Filler: Dominican and Nicaraguan
Appearance & Constructions
There is a vein going down the left side of the cigar. The wrapper color changes slightly from the top to the bottom of the cigar. There is a faint hint of cedar and tobacco from the wrapper; the scents are more dominant on the cigar’s foot. The cold draw is firm with cedar, tobacco, and vanilla.
Flavor & Smoking Characteristics
The Escogido opens with cedar, coffee, and vanilla. Berry appears faintly in the background. The ash is a solid 1” salt and pepper ash. Entering the next part of the cigar, espresso and hazelnut appear with vanilla in the background. Maple and spice are on the retrohale. The smoke is creamy and the cigar is mild-bodied. The final third, vanilla and black coffee are now the dominant flavors as I near the cigars end. The cigar has plumes of smoke when I place it in the ashtray.
Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed the Martinez Cigar Don Antonio Escogido and look forward to trying their other cigars. This is sa nice choice if you are looking to relax on a summer day with a mild smoke.
Grade: B+
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The Ravel Rooftop
Ladies and gents of the leaf,
First off, a huge shoutout to everyone who came out to our summer smoke at Studio Square – recap here. It was a great time, and a big shout out to our friends at Hispaniola Cigars, easily some of the highest quality cigars on the market today. Also, for those of you interested in the pending FDA regulation of cigars, check out our ongoing webseries, “Cigar Wars”, which will bring you up to speed.
I want to invite all of you to our next rooftop event at The Ravel Hotel, next Wednesday (July 25). The rooftop has great seating, a bar, and features a gorgeous view. We’ll also have live cigar rolling and a DJ, which will make for a magical evening. This event is RSVP only.
Cigar Inn has always been a great place to smoke, and now patrons can expect even more. For just $20, anyone buying a box of cigars can have a custom design painted right on to their box. All customers have to do is submit a photograph to be painted on the box and wait about two weeks.
