2010 Partagas Serie D. No.4

After some very interesting results recently, I decided to break down a new Partagas Serie D No.4.  I had them while webcasting a kart race this late summer, and they were as right off the truck as they come.  Kind of strong and obnoxious and gassy, like Rosie O'Donnell.   Then  over a Saints...no, LSU game I had another and they were great.  Approaching 90, maybe more, great.   

So you'd have to be a little intrigued, they SMELL great.  The performance shows potential on two planes; strength for the future development and body and finesse when enjoyed now.  Which would be no surprise to historic lovers of the "PSD4".  The cigar comes from a box of unvarnished wood containing ten great looking cigars.  Nice packaging for a Christmas gift, retirement, graduation.

 The cigar is a dark winey-tan colorado maduro that looks dangerous as dynamite.  So NOW, it is time to smoke it.  First I need to eat some ribs I smoked yesterday and some marsh taters.  Best ribs I have made in some time.

Whew, that was way too much food.  4 smoked wings and about 4 ribs.  Small ribs. 

You need to light this cigar well.  It's foot shows signs of a kind of magazine roll-up job, they tend to canoe when lazy rollers pull this jazz with a robusto.  It's not classic bad, but it resembles a  magazine roll.  It might be this half roll that makes the cigar burn at least tolerably.

Roll this cigar with respect please. 
OK, I had a big corncob full of Va-Per this morning on my walk and was happy it mostly kept burning without much re-light for 2 miles.  When I turned it up, it was just ash.  Nice and clean, but kind of strong first thing in the morning.  But the point of my going on and on is that my palate was a bit bruised already on just a piece of toast and a cup of milk.  But this cigar is a real treat.  Better than dessert, this no calorie snack is very well complimented by the taste of BBQ that lingers on my palate.  It pours smoke, and is very full-flavored on a medium-full body.  Top notch taste and strength.  Almost too much strength to my tingly sinuses.  The aroma is like a roomfull of those good fries in the red box with the yellow arcs. that are still made with lard cause it tastes good.  That is the aroma.  Whew, this is some cigar. 

Spicy and almost smooth, still a cigar you could mess somebody up with as a first cigar or a first havana.  And it just LOOKS great, starting to reach iconic status in league with the Esplendido and Hoyo Double Corona.  As expected, it is trying to burn up one side and will want repair.  Probably constantly. Sad too, when you consider the really epic one I had burned perfectly and was head and shoulders above your run of the mill havana these days.  A little tea and raisin on the very top that can be enjoyed through the nose.  But the the flavor is there, moving down a bit on the power scale and giving up peppery and leathery taste and a nice salty aroma.  Meaty and aromatic with that side of fries quality.  It is pretty constant in flavor for most of the way, getting a bit more subtle and aromatic in the end, SOMEWHAT saving the cigar. 

As you can see, the burn is going to have to take something away from the final score.  I have smoked three this month, and I have to give it an 87 due to the bad burn on one, unbalanced flavor of two of them, and fantastic flavor and performance on one of three.  Nothing to hang your hat on at the old Partagas factory, but this is fairly young and gets a bit of a pass on that aspect, but the construction on this last one is a really bad sign.  I have smoked more crooked burning cigars lately than good ones.  Not a good ratio.

Montecristo No.5 revisited 2005 box

Montecristo No. 5 is one of my top 5 cigars and gets a lot of playing time in the game that is my love of habanos.

It's not neccesarily cost-effective, but it is taste effective.The definition of wishy-washy is me saying that this is my favorite small cigar, a point I make about every cigar this size.  Spicy and sweet like a good steak, shows a delicate cocoa powder taste with a sticky finish and a lot of power for a cigar so small.  It is only about 4 inches long with a 40 ring gauge. But a really satisfying cigar. 

The cigar burned straight as an arrow from beginning to end with perfect draw and consistent flavor.  The ash was perfect with rounded ridges and toothy white specs embedded in the ash.

I am glad more than anything else that I am smoking a good cigar finally.  Been on a bit of a bad streak lately here at the ole' Warranty Seal blog.  As it was absolutely nubbed and was really not spent THEN, we've got to give it a pretty high mark.  But the draw and burn were both so strong that this has to be elevated even more highly to begin to approach 90 in scoring, and if you add in a few points for mood-altering ability this is a solid 92 points and had the flavor been just a little more intersting and delicate it would have been a 94.  As it was the cigar was a very solid, consistent deliverer of rich, strong, sweet flavor with just a hair less balance and complexity that I would have liked.  Get these while they are hot.

I never nub cigars, but I took that one down to 3/4 of an inch before I was willing to let it go.

Sancho Panza Bachilleres

Boy don't you hate it when things make you think of other things.  Sure, sometimes it's good, in fact some times it's REALLY good, but this is the bad kind. 

Had my best '66 GTO dream ever last night, and I really miss that car.  It's far too long a story for one blog entry, but every 6 months or so I remember in depth and at length about the sad story that is 'why I no longer have that car'.  But I digress. 

When Habanos SA first began announcing discontinued cigars, no one knew if they were serious.  It was a really bad concept for the cigar collector.  But while I think of it, it was a great time to be a cigar seller.  You could do what you liked with your old cigars after the announcement.  Some held a fair line, some scalped, some just stashed.  Half of the habano-knowin'-about population thought it was a sales gimmick.   898s started the march, then duplicate vitolas in a marque, or poor sellers.  Some people snatched up a closetfull of their favorites.  Others speculated.  Still others believed that HSA was only half-serious to begin with.  And to add fuel to the fire, that shocking announcement, of what later became known as "the list" became a regular, annual thing.  A perverse tradition.  As supplies of cigars slated for, or even a few years into "discontinuation" began to dwindle, buyers have become accutely aware of priorities within their personal cigar wish lists.  Moving SLOWLY towards the door like smart people did on Wall St. a few months before the big flush.  Like people SHOULD do in a burning theater.  But now it's much more urgent for folks, and the price continues to rise on cigars for which it is now obvious that the bell has tolled.

What the hell was I talking about?  Oh yeah, Sancho Panza Bachilleres, or as it's known in my house, the perfect cigar in the perfect size. 

You can FIND this cigar if you look and have money.  And if you are relatively comfortable with sticker shock.  It's not the COST of the box, it is the relative cash to leaf ratio that gets 'em.  This is a Fransiscano vitola de galera.  That's the term for factory size.  There are a decent amount of Fransiscanos, and I think most of them are kaput.  It's a little shorter and a little thinner than a petit corona.

 

Other standouts were the Rafael Gonzales Tres Petit Coronas as well as the eponymous (or epynomous) offering from Partagas.  Of note in particular is the El Rey del Mundo Lunch Club, long an insider favorite.  The little Romeo y Julieta Tubos #3 is also a Franciscano.  So we are together on the whole discontinued cigars thing?  It's BAD.  So now it's tougher and tougher to find the Bachilleres, and huge discounts on them are but yarns and lore for putting newbies to bed with at night.  But hang on.....

I think I have 3 or 4 around.  

Yeah, there they are.  Really spectacular little cigars, and they never die, they just fade away and change and evolve.  As delicate and delicious as any cigar made, actually.  Anyone who runs into one is bound to be pleased.  It is neither strong nor dry.  A sweet and tangy, chewy-smoking cigar with easily discernable chocolate and berry flavors, and rich tobacco and toffee at times.  And they put 24 more in a box to ease the pain.  Man I love Pixies.

The cigar is a nice blend between box press and round, kind of a Dave K cigar.  Lots of smoke almost every time.  I have never had a bad draw on a Bachilleres.  It's on the playful side of light, burning perfectly, but not slow.

So what's say we smoke one shall we. 

Hah, I'm  kidding.  I am not smoking one.  Maybe later.

JR Cigars "Copied" BHK Alternative

I used to really like Lew Rothman. You couldn't read one of his JR Cigars catalogs without chuckling and you had to admire his testicular fortitude. But one day about 5 years ago, he wrote a piece for a magazine he was putting out that at once bashed and tried to "out" the online havana cigar vendor phenomenon. In one minute, I went from a kind of respect for Lew to wishing failure of every kind on him. But I read something in his last catalog that put the final nail in his coffin for me. He has come out with a new useless cigar and sold it like this. (Paraphraseology) Habanos is trying to rip you off. They came out with a cigar called Behike that cost $4000 for a box of ten. So I copied it, because I don't want you to have to put up with that crap." I understand that Lew may be too busy to get his facts straight, but it is much more likely that he doesn't care to get his facts straight, because the statement wouldn't be strong enough if he painted an accurate picture.  But to be fair, he is right about one thing.  Even 100 is too much for a cigar.  However, Lew, HSA is not in the discount cigars business.  That's your line of work.  So in my eyes, he is just being whiney.

Habanos SA came up with the Behike years ago and offered it in a ridiculously expensive humidor, for perhaps, and here MY OWN facts may be shaky, $4000. It contained 40 cigars which is still a whopping 100 bucks per cigar. but believe me, there are people that will pay that. This year, Habanos came out with a cigar called the BHK, or the Cohiba Behike BHK, in boxes of ten, for about 350-650 per box depending on the size. So Lew conveniently mixed up his products for the maximum shock effect. But he knows the real situation. He just likes to spout BS and sell inferior cigars. Granted, they are cheap. So he comes out with this cigar that is, according to him, "a copy" of the BHK line.

It's close in ring gauge, but not dead on. It has no pigtail. It might be the right length, who knows. But I buy a good deal of cigars from his enterprise for the troops in the war theaters. So I thought, "what the hell, I'll buy a 20 pack for 40 bucks."  

The poor troops. I hope they don't come back and hunt me down. Luckily I sent them some other cigars that might be made of tobacco. This cigar smelled great out of the cellophane, but I instantly recognized the signature JR cheap smoke aroma. But I was wanting this cigar to be a true "alternative" to the BHK. This is the way Lew sells them, and although he never even comes close, at times some of them have been passable 1.50 smokes. But I mean he went out of his way to say he "Copied" the BHK. Once lit, the trouble began.

You could say, 'well, you should have lit that thing better.'  Well the truth is, you can't properly light this cigar.  In fact, when I cut it open later, I am not really sure what's going to be in it.  If you go by the smoke pouring off the end of the cigar, I think I will find burning tires and creosoted telephone poles.  There is no flavor in this cigar at all.  It is simply an obnoxious citronella candle that repels humans.  Loyal readers will recall that I do not smoke all of a cigar that I do not enjoy.  You can well imagine what I am going to do with this one.  If you guessed 'let it go out before you throw up in the tub', you win a free cigar.  Or what's left of this one, anyway.

 Just look at the frayed end of this thing.  It looks like a exploding cigar from the cartoons.  Or it would have, had I let it go any farther.  Stay as far away as you can from this little 'new product' from Lew Rothman.  But beware, this entry MAY be edited, as I intend to let the other one I kept back from the troops sit out a while outside the cello and light it with the hopes that drying it out helps.  I am not expecting any changes, but I do not like to let my feelings for Lew color what might be a smokeable cigar.  But pity that fool if the second one is no better.

Cohiba Robusto 2009

I am not so sure about these smokes.  These are Cohiba Robustos, the flagship short cigar from the most famous name in the cigar business. They were kind of spongy when I got them, but the were wet from pre-travel over-humidification to be sure.  It also must be said that these cigars are not this dark.  I adjusted in Photoshop using auto-level as they were darker than I'd like and I was being lazy at the time.  They are more colorado maduro in shade

Well-rolled and oily, the flavor was as bad as any cuban cigar I had ever had. Right off the truck.  This one started out minty and fresh but not particularly great. Maybe it was 'Cohiba grassy'. It began, once it warmed up, to be a little creamy, but still not very impreesive. Did I mention that I left this smoke out on the table for more than a week? I find a dry cigar smokes better than a 'properly humidified' cigar, in flavor and burn. Mercy, I would hate for this smoke to be at 70% rh. I hate the wrappers on these, kind of a sick version of the Habana 2000. It just doesn't want to burn in a consistent manner.

Right now, the best I can really say is hints of Black Cherry. And this is very disturbing to me. This is one of the best cigars in the world, for sure in the top 5. And hints of black cherry? Sweet. Slightly herbal. No chocolate, no vanilla, no coffee. No nutmeg. Argh. I need to dig and find out what boxing date these are, because they are just awful. And remember, awful is totally relative here. This is not a cigar that I would toss in the gutter in disappointment.

You guessed it.  That's about where I left it.  Not going to smoke a cigar for pleasure that doesn't give me any pleasure.  These are far too young to be smoking.  But if you think this cigar failed to conform, wait til you hear the story of the JR Alternative to the BHKs.

Saint Luis Rey Serie A 2005

I was handed this cigar at THE herf of all herfs this summer. There seems to be an endless stream of true havana fans at these events, walking around to friends they have developed over the years, and making new friends, with a open box of great cigars, giving them freely. This is how I came to be in posession of this
lovely corona gorda.

I estimate it's boxing date at 2005 based on a few things: it's general wraper shade, the looseness of the band, and the flavor of the smoke. This wrapper is the standard Habana 2000 wrapper all too common at that time. I am no fan of the Habana 2000 wrapper. It just has a bitter taste that I never liked, and it never burns all that well, no matter how old it gets. It started appearing on cigars in 2002-3 as I recall. What's more, once the seeds were secreted out of Cuba, every manufacturer outside of Cuba was trying to force it
on the public as this fantastic wrapper. Yech.

Once lit, the cigar is extremely stingy with the smoke. The draw is on the tight side of medium and the burn is all over the place. Usually a tight draw leads to a pretty even burn but not this time. HINTS of creaminess and a whisper of twang in the smoke, but it is mostly just medium-bodied, mild flavor. It is just a touch cedary, but the flavor is not very impressive.

I paired the cigar with a short glass of Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond Rye with a little ice.  I thought maybe the cigar would be coaxed into revealing something with the delicious whiskey sharing my attention, but that shows you how truly stingy the smoke was....nothing.  Tobacco, obviously, but just nothing all that impressive. 

Now with ALL of that said, the cigar was not terrible at all, I enjoyed the time spent out on the stoop watching the Sunday traffic go by.  There was a hot girl in short-shorts in mid October walking her pitbull down the sidewalk that I would have missed otherwise.  I had no idea there were hot girls in my neighborhood.  OK, there is one right across the street, but she likes...enough about all that.  The cigar rates a dismal 79, just not too much going on in there.

WHAT?? I thought you didn't SMOKE THOSE?

To deflect the criticism right off, I ordered these to get a cutter from JR Cigars.  If you do not HAVE the Montecristo Surgical Steel Cutter, then you are wasting time.  What if they all just disappeared and you didn't have one yet?  Don't be a chump.
Anyway, I give these to the troops in the hot place and keep the free cutter.  But I am as curious as any other man, and I kept a tin for me-self.  If they are good, I'll smoke em, if they aren't, I have a friend who will take em.  After smoking one, I am torn.

Presenting the Montecristo White Pronto Petites from the Dominican Republic.  This is kind of a Perla sized demi corona and is...hang on....snip-tear-rip....a mixed filler cigar that maintains a decent ash.  That's from the bits of tobacco that are just a little longer than your standard cut filler that comes flying out of the end of the cigar into your mouth while smoking.  The flavor is as you would expect, constantly exhibiting whispers of cream, mint, pepper, cocoa.  But because the tobacco that may have caused that delicious flavor is a shred, it's gone in no time.  So there is no signature flavor, but it is a cool-smoking, quick, delicious little smoke.  Unfortunately for Altadis USA or whoever the heck makes these, they won't be selling any more to me...I don't smoke that stuff. Hahaha.  

It's hard for me to give them a score, it's just a little after-dinner mint.  but since that's what I do, ahhhh, let's say a 72.  Tasty, slightly satisfying, and non-threatening.  You can smoke it without thinking about it too much.

1998 Romeo y Julieta Celestiales Finos - 2 Year Anniv of Cigar Asylum

Many, MANY smokers lit up a special cigar today in honor of the 2nd Anniversary of the founding of the Cigar Asylum.  I had quite a few choices run through my head, but settled on something replaceable over the irreplaceable. 

2 years have not whittled this smoke down any at all.  It is stronger than I recall, leathery and richly 'aged' tasting.  At the same time, it is rather 'fresh' and vegetal, not unlike a cool salad on a hot day.  There is a slight edge of mint.  The wrapper is a flat brown with no red tones, unlike the common wrapper leaf being used today.  It tastes like a Bolivar without the creamy fruity notes.  The burn is straight and the draw is fine.  Smoke production is very nice;  full, lush volumes of smoke available at the slightest pull.  It may help that most of the boxes of these cigars are now in the hands of devotees, in that you just don't hear much buzz on these.  In fact the last time anyone ever heard of the 'Britannicas' vitola was when it was released as the Ramon Allones Celestiales Finos Edicion Regional.  It is a slightly tapered perfecto with dimensions very near a standard corona.  No burn issues arise that could be attirbuted to the taper.  As it burns right to the shoulder of the foot taper, no real changes in flavor develop.  There is no sweet taste in the cigar, which I really miss, nor the 'standard' tea flavor that I really enjoy best in Cuban tobacco.  What I wish most is to be able to compare this cigar to ANY other cigar that is reasonably known, but the taste still eludes me.  But maybe the contemplation is worthy of the cigar to celebrate the initiation of Cigar Asylum.  I have never found a cigar forum with as solid a feeling of community and love for one another than we enjoy there.  I have been there for almost all of the 2 years, and to tell the truth, it seems 5 years old.  I think that is because we came almost as one people, as the Israelites leaving Egypt as one, and having the seas part to welcome us to the other side.

The chaos of flavor is now leading to a chaos in burn.  Weirdly scalloped, but still perfect in all other ways, this cigar is starting to act up.  I guess the complaint I am having is that the flavor is thin.  It is bold and strong, but lacks depth and interest.  When you age a cigar this long before smoking it, you expect it to lose it's vibrant, sweet notes, but when it is well cared for in that time, you do hope that it has something more interesting to say.  Again, the cigar is not spent at all, it's really peppy.  But knowing my own taste, it is past it's joyous prime.  There are flavor components that are either trying to say "I am gone never to return", or "please excuse our mess, we will be back, better than ever."  Impossible to say at this point, but I WILL learn it's secrets, for I have a dozen left.  But perhaps this is why some people don't like the Romeo y Julieta brand.  It's really a dividing line among havanophiles.  I really love a Tubo 1 through 3, as FRESH as you can find.  But I have so many favorites outside the RyJ line, that I am more of a detractor than a lover.    Still, that's not really what is going on here.  It's just missing some little thing that would make it a truly special old cigar.  What's worse though, is that I never smoke a cigar to the end just because it would be a waste not to. 


I believe cigar smoking should only be a pleasure, and if a cigar is not giving me that pleasure, then I let it go.  This Celestiales Fino is coming dangerously close to snuffing it.  It's going to die a half-smoked 72.  That is not to say that it was a bad cigar.  It simply fell short of my high expectations  for a well-cared-for vintage cigar that has a reputation for unique flavors.  Good but not great.  The only consolation is that havana cigars are not very consistent in flavor.  This may indeed be an aberration in the box.

Lonely at the top

I went window shopping today for havana cigars, and I realized with force that which has been coming at a trickle for many years now.  As if veterans from some long ago war, old cigars are losing their comrades on the left and on the right.  If you were to take just one brand, El Rey del Mundo, quite appropriately, "King of the World", you could see the sad trend in full effect.  Where once there were over 20 sizes of El Rey del Mundo available, most online shops carry but one consistently.  You can find a shop here and there with 3-4 sizes, but that is really a lucky occasion.  WONDERFUL cigars, like the Grandes de' Espana.  Full-flavored mini cigars like the Demi-tasse.  Gone for the most part.  Those that aren't are being closed out fast; petit coronas, lonsdales, etc.  Streamlining the marketplace, using the best tobacco to produce the best-selling cigars.  It's a strategy.  And maybe in the end no one will care much about it one way or the other.  And certainly I am no influential voice in the matter.  But when you've been making cigars for 500 years or more, and you take real pride in saying it anywhere people will listen, it seems a shame to gash and trash that history to become a more modern entity.

But this is not much more than the same thing I said in my first blog entry or my first week.  The reason it comes up again is because there is no choice anymore.  No joy of shopping.  Believe me, as a man I do not know how comfortable I am with people thinking I get joy out of shopping.  But looking through a discount vendor's "rack", there is one ERDM cigar, the Choix Supreme.  A fine cigar, but not exactly one that makes me continue to browse.  I either have them or I don't.  There is no 2nd or 3rd option.  It's a disgrace to be perfectly honest.  This was once considered the most expensive Havana cigar...no, not considered, it simply WAS the top of the line in price and quality.  Then Montecristo came along and became, over time, the most popular brand.  Cohiba came along in the 60's and became the most expensive.  A lot of people look at ERDM today and think, 'ehhh, who cares, I've never heard of them...I've heard of the Honduran version, they're great!"  Sigh.

The Cohiba, Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta brands have all the choices.  Partagas SEEMS to be fading away in choices, too now, but something tells me it will never get that bad.  But now if you want to try a new ERDM cigar, you had better be a fan of the Ediciones Regional.  There are a half-dozen or more.  Some are good, some are bleak.  Poor old Bolivar, almost all of it's Ediciones Regional are papery and disappointing.  Or so says people who smoke em.  There are a few cheerleaders here and there, but maybe they are just propping up some cigars that have every right to be head-exploding Rolled Gold, but instead, do no justice to the name Bolivar.

I think it's because since the revolution occurred, Cuba STILL has not treated havana cigars as unique brands.  They are just a way to make hard currency with a beloved old product.  But in the old days, the Hoyo de Monterrey cigars were famous because of a special flavor that came from the tobacco being grown at one famous plantation, the Hoyo de Monterrey.  Partagas was world famous for it's mindblowing spice and pepper and inimitable taste and quality.  But the people who had a stake in building the brand, marketing it worldwide as better than this cigar or that cigar, all that individual drive is gone.  Replaced by a marketing organization that markets them all as one product.  How can you properly CARE about your cigar brands if they are all basically the same cigars?  And it wouldn't be the only time someone has whispered that the cigars are all the same inside except for the bands.  Am I saying that now?  Of course not.  There are a lot of things wrong with Communism.  The difference is, I don't CARE about communism.  You can run your country however you like Vietnam.....China....Cuba.  Knock yourself right out.  But that is no way to support a time-honored trade like the production of Cuban cigars.  The problem is, no one in the whole process really seems to care.  I will grant it that being a torcedore is great job in that system.  Better even to be a factory manager or marketing director.  But in a country where all brands are one, there is no reason to be great.  Cuban cigars stopped being utterly sublime the day Fidel Castro rolled into town on a jeep and nationalized all the cigar manufacturers.  They stop being great after the soviets pulled out.  Now they are perched at very good, staring ho-hum in the face.  It's not too late to save the whole thing.  It's too late to give the brands back to the original owners and expect them to come back in and pick up where they left off in 1960.  But it's not too late to tell Orlando Padron, "Hey, come back and take over this plantation and develop a Cuban Padron".  Or to say, Senor So and so, you are a top notch tobacco man.  I want you to take over Romeo y Julieta, in a factory that rolls only Romeo y Julieta,  You grow it, cure it, roll it and box it and we will buy it at Habanos and sell it to the Americans.  I know this is innefficient.  I know they have PRACTICALITY in spades down there on the island.  But what they gave up to get there, to me, has diminished the product, clearly.

Hey, I don't know how to fix it, I just know it's broken.

LSU WINS!! And I smoke.

I like starting a blog entry with that, LSU WINS!  What the hell business do I have saying anything on the internet.  If anyone has any idea, make sure and let someone in the area know.  Oh, wait, I remember now.  I am so cheap, that cable is something I have no idea about, it's those rich people what's got that.  So I went  to the Fox and Hound and watched LSU for about 30 mins with the sound of a different game playing in the background.  Then we asked that they switch the sound to LSU and things really picked up. I smoked two cigars while watching LSU WIN, the first, smoked in reverse order of expected wow factor, was the Cohiba Maduro Secretos from a 2007 box of 25.  From the first puff it was a creamy bomba of a small cigar, the format Habanos excels at.  I can't think of a single small cigar made by the island's monopoly tobacco company that is a disappointment.  That's good news for a cigar smoker.The medium-dark brown wrapper had smoothed out a bit from it's boxing date of 2007.  I lit it up when I realized that I was about 15 minutes early for the game, and had a Samuel Adams because the waitress couldn't find Abita.  What a fantastic cigar, the spice and brute force of the dark, oily wrapper had mellowed to a perfect pitch in the cigar's flavor profile.  These were a little less balanced in 2007 and 08 when I smoked them last.  Very much creamy and grassy Cohiba goodness with some serious espresso and chocolate notes in the taste.  I have to burn off little tiny imperfections in the wrapper, and I tend it because it is otherwise SO well behaved I don't want to let a ragged burn bother me.  Perect draw, burn and taste.  Very rich and powerful with a ton of good, sweet smoke.  It paired well with the Samuel Adams and I left about an inch in the ashtray as LSU began to not WIN, but kind of "Saints" it along with a two QB system an d decent drives ending in turnovers.


And then I lit the Partagas Serie D No.4.....When I cracked the tubo of the Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill and poured out the Partagas Serie D No.4, I was kind of shocked.  I had forgotten placing the 2009 cigar into a tubo for some kind of transport earlier in the month.  Wowee, what a perfect cigar.  It was strong, spicy, smooth and leathery.  Perfect burn all the way to the 1.5 inch mark and then I let it go out.  I picked it up about ten minutes later and removed all of the ash.  It lit right back up and poured out a great flood of sweet creamy, spicy smoke.  This was the best performing cigar I think I have smoked in 2010.  Other burns have been as fine, tasted as rich, but the award for balance and all the rest certainly goes to this PSD4.  Just a stellar performance.  EVEN though I could not really describe the 'flavors' of this smoke, I could TRY and get by by saying, a "rich, opulent example of perfect Partagas spice that was consistent and enjoyable from first to last puff."  Is that powerful enough tribute to give the general idea that this was a 93?  I'd like to give it a higher score, but I know there are other cigars AS satisfying, but with better, more magical flavors.  I would hate to sell those cigars short.  This was good and just short of approaching epic. Not much left but the photo, thankfully snapped by my man J during my general, constant homering for the Tigers.  Otherwise I could just SAY I smoked these two up. 

Those were two of the most satisfying cigars I have had in months.  I am glad I decided to take them out to accompany my LSU watching.  I will conquer a few more this weekend, I have a 2008 Cohiba Robusto that needs to be smoked.  Who knows what could burn this weekend.  I THINK I get the Saints tomorrow on TV.  It's not easy here.  Mostly scheduling luck-ups.  But winning the Super Bowl helps too, in no small way.  HAHAHAHA, GO TIGERS!

Partagas Serie P No. 2 - late 2005 vintage

This picture was taken after the cigar had burned for 2/3 of it's length.  The crack was smaller at the outset.  It was dropped on a hardwood floor from waist level and was deemed smokeable, but just not right to give to someone.  I let it sit out for an evening, and then decided to light it and go for a long walk.  I already know this is a bad idea.  My lungs are old man lungs and do not like the extra distraction of steady excercise breathing.  But I was not expecting much from this one now, and thought it would be fun.  

It was perfectly aged, that was apparent from the first puff.  Light on smoke due to the cracks in the wrapper.  It drew as if there was a slight leak and indeed there was.  But the smoke was decadent, aged and creamy.  5 years spent in a cedar box with the lights turned off was very good to this piramide.  Very manageable pepper from it's Partagas heritage, nothing overpowering but very firm and balanced.  It was not dry and smoked cool and burned very straight.

It was not a pleasure to smoke while walking, but when I arrived back home, I laid it down, showered, then dug out the ash and re-lit the cigar.  It was delicious, but clearly suffering the effects of walking and smoking and mis-treating the smoke.  I had no high hopes for the cigar, so I was not disappointed in it's medium performance and conversely quite sorry that I had dropped it.  This is clearly a blue ribbon smoke and as much as I hate to just pat myself on the back, it is perfectly aged with years and years to go.  Flavor like this could go on for decades.

I took it a little closer to the end, but part of walking and smoking is kind of a rough buildup at the back of the throat, and it was not very enjoyable past the last photo,  Since I abused it, I won't bother grading it, it would be unfair.  Had it come out of the box perfectly and been smoked under optimal conditions, however, I have no fear in predicting a 90 on this smoke.

H. Upmann Coronas Major en Tubos

Picked up a handful of these, and I am going to go fairly in depth on these for a few reasons.  First off, this cigar is awfully fresh, and as such can be touchy to review without a very representative sample.  Secondly, the HU Coronas Major is a Jeckyll and Hyde act when smoked wet or dry.  Slide one out of the tube and light it up and you have a cigar as mild, bland and smokeless as a can of old skoal.  Leave one out on the table overnight to dry, and it will slap you and call you Nancy all the while smoking you out.  Our last president could have used this to smoke out the terroirists had he ever found any.   Clearly the best performance is to be had with a standard habano moisture content of 65 and below.  While still too young to review with tasting notes that are very revelatory, I can say that it is halfway between medium and full bodied, with a lot of loud, unorganized flavors and cubic yards of smoke.  To someone with better sinuses than mine, it might simply be medium bodied.  I tasted old leather, creole mustard, earth and flinty-edged woodiness.  I made that last part up.  I have no idea what that means, flinty-edged.  What I should say is that you need to check back in future entries of this blog to get better tasting notes, as the cigar is not balanced at present.  Clearly it is going to be a really great little cigar soon.

If you were to pop one out of a tube and light it right up, I am afraid you would not likely smoke this cigar again.  Surely not if it was something you had to pay for.  Moist, this cigar has nearly NO flavor to speak of, a hint of twang poking through on good draws.  That brings up another point.  The three I smoked all drew perfectly.  Tubos sometimes get a bad rap on draw, and most people do not think about drying a cigar from a tube to increase the flavor & pleasure.  Certainly no one should ever LIGHT a cigar that does not draw air.  That is just a waste.  Better to let it dry out completely, or until it WILL draw air.  But I smoked two of these dry and one wet, and there was no comparison whatsoever.  Just a fantastic dry cigar.  None of the sticks burned straight. But given that, the burn was never a runaway bad burn, canoe or tunnel.  They performed well across the board.  I liked them.  Perhaps not enough to ever go out and stock them in bulk, but nice, low-priced cigars.  Score across 3 cigars, 77.   Look for future, more detailed smokings and photos.  I ain't done with you yet.

La Gloria Cubana Medaille d'Or No.3

A wonderful cigar for a gorgeous fall morning that isn't actually fall....is it?  Yeah it is, right?  Anyway.  Lit this up while I built the fire for today's smoking of some baby back ribs and some chicken wings.  Firm draw that gives up good enough smoke, the smoke gentle and creamy with a little orange peel and lemon zest notes in the background. 

Burn was great, but pics are short, as I was busy smokng meat.  Poured some Bacardi Select with some Dad's Root beer into an insulated mug for a beverage.  The sharp, sweet root extract paired well with the cigar, and between the dog wanting some love, the meat in the smoker and revelling in the beautiful weather, I barely noticed the cigar.  But it was a great smoke all the same.  The firm draw helped with forcing me to draw gently, but knocked a few points off the score. I give it a solid 78.

As for the ribs, a hair too much smoke I think, and all I had was oak to smoke with, so they only rate a 98.

Bolivar Coronas Junior 2003

My favorite cigar, hands down, bar none.
Not too easy to say that, given the excellent cigars available from habanos, but then this is no JUNIOR cigar.  This particular example is BEAT UP.  It is squared off and tightly packed.  And yet I have no fears about a poor draw. 

I clip it and it lights right up and slaps me across the face with a giant blast of powerful habano goodness.  Bold strikes of leather and spice, with a creamy, round undertone from the first puff and loads of smoke.
The cigar burns laser straight, the draw is medium and offers loads of delicious smoke.  I taste butter, herbs, sweet spices, toffee and cream.  I have never had a bad Bolivar Coronas Junior and I suspect I never will.  These are sporadically available and boxes should be stocked in threes and fours when available and onsale.  it has long been my opinion that habanos never shines as brightly as when it offers a minuto or perla.  The Montecristo No.5, the Partagas Short, the San Cristobal El Principe, the Ramon Allones Small Club Corona:  All spectacular cigars featuring wonderful flavors, construction and value for the price.

I think it's clear that I enjoyed this one.

And while we are on that subject, take a look at the lineup for this weekend.

many reviews to come, obviously.