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Cigar Review: PANA Triple Corojo Churchill

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PANA Triple Corojo - Click to Enlarge

After a long week of classes and work, I finally found a couple of hours to pick up another PANA cigar for a review. Granted, the time I found was at 1:00am, but I don’t think it detracted from the review too much – no nodding off anyway. Next on the docket for a review of PANA’s blends was the PANA Triple Corojo, and I was pretty excited.  Then again, I get excited (and a bit nervous) any time I see “triple” anything (maduro, corojo, etc).  In any case, this really was is an excellent cigar, as I will try to describe below. In case you aren’t familiar with Pana Cigars, it is a new brand by Pablo Enchiton that launched midway through 2010. You can find the website here. Enchiton has developed four lines: the Ligero-Maduro, Connecticut Especial, Triple Corojo, and Triple Maduro.

Blend Specifics:

  • Wrapper: Corojo Ecuador
  • Binder: Corojo Dominicano
  • Filler: Criollo 98 (Nicaragua), Corojo Dominicano, Piloto Cubano (DR)

Appearance & Construction:

The Corojo wrapper is a reddish brown with light oil on the wrapper. There are a few veins, but nothing significant, and there are no visible imperfections. The black and white band prominently displays “PANA” in large framed lettering. After clipping the pig-tail cap, I test the draw and it is (like other PANA cigars I’ve smoked) pretty liberal, but not too loose. The scent on the wrapper is subtle, but the foot reveals granola and leather.

Click to Enlarge

Taste & Smoking Characteristics:

The first few draws of this cigar produce large amounts of medium bodied smoke. The texture of the smoke is slightly creamy, and the main notes are black pepper, spice, and some leather. There is also a subtle sweetness to the aroma of the smoke which adds nicely to the experience. The more I smoke this cigar, the clearer it becomes that this stick would be paired very well with Mexican or Southern food. Smoking the cigar actually makes me imagine relaxing on a lounge chair on a hot arid evening in Arizona. About an inch in, the spice picks up considerably and so does the black pepper. The pepper continues to build into the second third of the cigar, and at one point builds a bit too much for my tastes. Still, very enjoyable.  The final third of the cigar tamed a bit on the pepper, but also got a bit hot which may be a result of the slightly more liberal draw. Not the best way to end a cigar, but I wasn’t crushed – it was a great smoke.

Conclusion:

This cigar is an experience. At $7.50, it isn’t a cheap stick, but I think that it will satisfy the Corojo lover in all of us, and I definitely recommend getting your hands on some as soon as you get the chance.

Final Grade: B+

Other PANA cigar reviews:

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Cigar Review: PANA Ligero-Maduro Churchill

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Pana Ligero Maduro - Click to Enlarge

Sometimes, the only remedy after smoking a bad cigar is to grab a good one and light up. Today I had the misfortune of smoking a really bad cigar. Instead of letting it ruin my evening, however, I decided to grab a cigar I suspected would be both a new experience and a good one – the PANA Ligero Maduro Churchill (48 x 7).  PANA Cigars are new on the market (launched July 2010), and owner Pablo Enchinton has big plans and has personally overseen the development of PANA’s four blends: the Ligero-Maduro, Connecticut Especial, Triple Corojo, and Triple Maduro. I’ve got a few of these blends and will be reviewing them, so stay tuned!  Review below:

Blend Specifics:
• Wrapper: Ecuador Connecticut Shade
• Binder: Indonesian
• Filler: Ligero Cubano (DR), Ligero Criollo (Honduran)

Appearance & Construction:

As you can see, the Ecuadorian wrapper on this stick is a rich dark brown. There were a few minor imperfections, but as I found out those didn’t bear much on the experience of the smoke. The cigar is springy to the touch and has a light oily sheen. Because of past experience, I’m always worried about the draw on Churchill size cigars, but I was pleasantly surprised at the easy draw on this cigar. The band on this cigar is black and white, with “PANA” framed prominently.

Taste & Smoking Characteristics:

The first third of this cigar kicks off with a mild bodied spice, earthiness, and rich sweetness. The earthy-sweet smell of the wrapper compliments the taste of the smoke well. The smoke has a smooth texture and leaves a touch of spiciness on the tongue. Very enjoyable and balanced. As the cigar moves into the second third, the body picks up to medium-body. There is a slightly salty savoriness in the aroma that soon moves to a tanginess. Very enjoyable retrohale, and the burn is great (no touch ups). Like clockwork, the final third of the cigar picks up to full body and has a lot more spice, though the earthy, almost chocolaty sweetness remains.

Conclusion:

The flavor profile on this cigar is solid but unique. Heavy earth, sweetness, and spice are how I’d sum this stick up. At times I tasted what seemed like chocolate in the earthiness, but I couldn’t quite pin it down. The construction was good all throughout this stick. With all of the spice this cigar leaves on the tongue, it isn’t for the faint of heart, but for ~$6.50 I would recommend giving this stick a try.

Final Grade: B

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Saturday Cigar Survey: Who Will Win Super Bowl XLV?

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It is that time of year again.  As the Super Bowl nears, the percentage of silent time in any given day dwindles as more and more peace is consumed by Steelers and Packers fans spouting statistics and dropping well-placed insults toward the other side. In the end though, trash talk is worth about as much as a rain-soaked Dutch Master.

Still, it’s always fun to speculate! So what’s it going to be – a Packers game or a Pittsburgh blowout?

[polldaddy poll=4504776]

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Event Announcement: Bolivar D’Oro Worldwide Launch at Nat Sherman

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Click to enlarge

UPDATE — Due to bad weather, Nat Sherman has postponed this event. The new date/time of the event will be announced as soon as info is available.

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Attention NYC cigar smokers! Nat Sherman International (located on 42nd st. between 5th and Madison) invites New York City cigar enthusiasts to participate in the worldwide launch of the Bolivar D’Oro line of cigars on the evening of Thursday, February 3rd. The event will benefit Grand  Central  Neighborhood Social Services Corporation, which provides services to over 300 homeless adults a day. Nat Sherman will also auction off a few pre-embargo Cuban cigar samplers that you can get more information on in the image to the left. Event entry costs $95 and the will include a sampling of the D’Oro line, cocktails and Hors d’oeuvres.

 

You can find the official Nat Sherman invite directly above, which I’ve (admittedly a bit hastily) converted from a .pdf file to a jpeg file for easier viewing.  In the future, event announcements for NYC cigar establishments will happen not in individual posts (like this one), but in an either weekly or bi-weekly aggregated announcement. I’m still not sure which it makes more sense to do, but I’ll be rolling out the first few posts sometime in the next month.

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Event Recap: Refugio Cigar House Grand Opening

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Refugio Cigar House Grand Opening!

This Saturday, FineTobaccoNYC members joined my good friend Mike Lopez and the rest of Brooklyn in welcoming Refugio Cigar House to the New York City cigar scene. The night was full of cigars, wine, liquor, music, new friends, old friends, and a great raffle. Business partners Mike Lopez, Carlos Velasquez, and Angel Lugo built Refugio to be, you guessed it, a refuge for the New York City cigar lover. The lounge is styled around Cuban revolution of the 50’s, with military green walls, red trim, and black upholstery all around.  There are still a few adjustments to be made in the new lounge, but the space was more than sufficient for the event and everyone had a great time.

Refugio Cigar House on Lorimer St.

The grand-prize raffle item!

The event started at 6pm and ran until roughly midnight. Drinks were on the house, and the owners of Refugio collaborated to bring in food from local shops all over the neighborhood including some great Brooklyn pizza (the best!), fresh fruit, and other snack items.

A picture with the owners!

The special Refugio Cigar House line was debuted at the event, and cigars were complimentary to all guests of the grand opening. I was able to taste three, and really enjoyed the Dominican/Honduran double-wrapped robusto that they had in stock. During the first hour, the guests started arriving, including a few from SocialCigar that happened to see the event invite online. There were also plenty of curious locals of the Williamsburg area that stopped in, grabbed a smoke and sat down to enjoy the festivities.

The party picks up

By 8:00pm, the party was in full effect. There were too many people to count, which was ok because that just meant more people to meet. At around 10:30pm, champagne was passed around and Mike proposed a toast to officially launch the lounge. There were cheers all around. Then, the owners held a massive raffle where first place took home the beautiful humidor pictured below.  Second and third place raffle winners took home a sampler pack of Refugio cigars.  As luck would have it, both FTNYC contributing writer Guy and I won, so we’ll have plenty of cigars to smoke and sample for the next few weeks!

Time for a toast!

I was having so much fun I didn’t get a head count, but you can get an idea for just how big the crowd was – at least 60, probably more at one moment, with well over a hundred overall. I was sad a few fellow FTNYCers that RSVP’d weren’t able to make it, but Mike Lopez brought the family so there were plenty of people to meet.  FineTobaccoNYC will definitely be holding more events at Refugio Cigar House in the future, so if you are interested head over to our events page and sign up for the event mailing list! I would also recommend dropping by the lounge in the near future to meet the owners and kick it back with a cigar.

On behalf of FTNYC and its subscribers, I’d like to thank the owners of Refugio Cigar House for the great event. Refugio Cigar House is located at 635 Lorimer St Brooklyn, NY 11211, right by the Lorimer St. subway stop (L and G trains).  Refugio will also be launching their website soon, which can be bookmarked here.

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