Vegas Robaina Clasicos 1999

This is such a great cigar, such a great size, and a great name, arguably as times have progressed.  Don Alejandro Robaina has passed on, and Hirochi Robaina is said to be taking over with a huge enthusiasm and dedication. 
But back to the cigar, a thing of beauty.  The smoke is a 'cervantes' factory size, and can generally be called a lonsdale.  One of my favorite sizes to be sure. 

Dark and oily and loaded with character.  It has a slight box press, but not much remains after having been cabinet-stored for 4-5 years.  A problem arises though, as I clip the cigar and fail to get much air. So I get a "brainy" idea to light the head and smoke through the foot.  But this sounded like a much better idea than it actually was.  I slid the band to the opposite end and tried it.  It lit fine, and I knew that as it burned past the hard spot at the band, it might take off.  And it certainly did. 

The unravelling of the wrapper I mean.  I knew better.  And yet I did it anyway.  So I got a daub of honey and rolled it back up.  It smoked fine despite the handicap I saddled it with.   This was a really strong and smooth, well-balanced smoke with stark coffee and nut tones.  The finish was generous and thick, coating the palate with a creamy, cool vanilla.  This continued from lighting to one inch burned.  It forged along a bit bolder and more rooted in toasted tobacco taste for most of it's length.  It would offer up hints of molasses, honey and herbs at times.   

The burn was perfect, even as the wrapper mistakes and sloppy repairs I made were patched up.  This is a highly recommended cigar.  This entire brand has good high points, but I find these the best of the best.  The Unicos are reputed to be fine, and lovers of double coronas will find excellence it the Don Alejandro.  The Famosos are some of the best robusto-sized cigars found in the 15 or so cigars of type Habanos offers.  This cigar, matured carefully for a decade, is a 91 point smoke.  It could have hit 93 had I smoked it properly. 

Punch Royal Selection No. 12 - 2000

Hahah, that's the way to start THIS entry, look at that thing!  A dream wrapper enveloping a perfect little bunch, screaming for a light, but patient like all great beauties.  Allowing the visual gratification a connoisseur demands; a lush, oily wrapper, translucent and fragrantly alluring.  Neatly clipped and draw tested, no major irritations present themselves, and the cigar takes a deep and fast light.  The tongue is immediately coated with a dark, herbal and creamy finish.  The body is light with a prominent aged tobacco and hay character. 

As the cigar burns down, the body becomes light with a more tea-like taste.  A citrus and menthol hint comes in about every third puff.  The fact that this cigar was not dryboxed becomes apparent near the middle as it gets a bit steamy and harsh.  I let it go out then carved out the ash and re-lit it, purging it.  It came back darkly chocolatey with some bitter coffee hints.  A core of herbs continued as the main body element.  The finish got a little shorter as the cigar got shorter, and the strength became about medium moving to high.  I put it down immediately, wanting to make sure the cigar ended as soon as the pleasure did. 

This smoke got out of hand fast, although to say it was not enjoyable is wrong.  It was just a bit too old for my palate.  I like a cigar 5 to 7 years old, or as fresh as I can get.   These are fantastic cigars for a developing palate.  Fresh sinuses, non-smokers, movers-up.  My palate was ruined young.  Ehh.  We'll see how that goes.  But these look, smell and taste powerfully funky and sweet.  They are right up somebodies alley, perhaps a slower smoker than me.  This one, 86.  It was a 83 taste and  3 points extra for the gorgeous visage.

Up for a spot of cricket, mate

There is a famous cigar website where a blogger was talking about being a Yankee fan in Cuba and having people say "Go Yankees" to him in bars or restaurants in Havana.  The another blogger commented that being from Asiatica, or pacifica, Oceana, wherever, that he has watched a little baseball in the USA during a visit.  He found it murderously slow. 

Well as it happens, I was trying to catch a LSU game online, and stumbled onto a site that had it, plus cricket and CFL games, too.  So not knowing how the heck Cricket is played, I decided to watch one night.  Sometimes I would ALMOST have it figured out and then something would happen to make me think, "NO, that can't be right."  I WAS struck by how one side does all it's bowling or batting at one time, then the other team tries to top their score after switching off halfway through.  After three hours, I finally figured it out.  But I had to check back in the next day to watch the complete on-demand version to make sure the other team DID in fact get to bat.  They ended up losing by a few points, it was NZ vs Bangaladesh.  The kiwi gents lost.  But even as I waited for the intolerable interval between when the bowler, from WAY off, ran up to the line and bowled the ball, at times the action was quick enough.  And I THINK the long run-ups to bowl are all show and confusion.  I saw a guy bowl just as effectively from 5 feet behind the line.

But if you've never watched cricket, surf over to ESPN3 and watch a match some time. 

http://espn.go.com/espn3/player?id=100289&league=Cricket

If you can't figure most of it out after one match, look up some rules videos for idiots.  Fascinating, yes.  Exciting, not really exciting per se, like the man said about baseball.  But still I can't stop watching cricket, at least if by that, one means once a month, hah.  It's power as an oddity on the shelf for me is strong.  The more I watch, the more I learn to look for this or that in particular and focus just on that facet.  How sometimes hits just keep coming and cats are running all over the pitch.  Then in this one I watched today, it was dink, dank, dernk.  I still watched it, though.  It was fascinating.  The entirity of it is too much. 

I'll PASS, Shorty.

I agree with many of the things that Habanos S.A. has done to maximize the profit from any given year's tobacco crop.  But one of the things I do not like, and now I can fairly say, never WILL like, is the absolute explosion of petit robustos, and to a smaller extent, petit piramides.  I understand that more cigars can be rolled with less wrapper leaves, and even that some wrapper leaves that could only be used on a perla or minuto can suddenly be found dressing a much fatter, and therefore more costly cigar.  What started with the Petit Robusto of Hoyo de Monterrey has now gone on to play some part in nearly every marque in the entire Habanos portfolio.  The place they have done the most damage is the Ediciones Regional and Ediciones Limitada series.  Here you have the effect of hypnotizing the customer into thinking, "here is a EL or RE cigar that I can afford 25 of."  25 of these tiny cigars may cost less than a box of Sir Winstons or even some lesser churchills or piramides.  But the satisfaction, to ME, is nothing like the same.  There are many cigar lovers who will say that they H. Upmann Magnum 48 Edicion Limtada is a fantastic smoke, and it is certainly very good.  But how many people have been utterly disappointed with the Bolivar Petit Piramides, the Bolivar Short Bolivar, the Partagas Serie P No.1?  When not disappointed with overall flavor, many people seem to come to a place of wanting for more once any burn issues burn themselves out after lighting and things get rolling.  Good manufacture or bad, Love it or hate it, the flavor you get is all to quickly over and you are holding a stub thinking, what just happened? 
Lots of people like the Hoyo Petit Robusto, but now there are even Short Robustos T.  A great cigar in it's full robusto size, but hardly worth the money in this Petit size.  Montecristo Petit Edmundos are also very hit and miss.  I heard rave reviews for them for a few years running, but every one I have had has shown come construction problems and run up one side like it's a race. 

Here is an idea for Habanos...Instead of rolling 25 of these cigars,  roll me a cabinet of 50 delicious, fine-burning, well-blended Minutos?  Franciscanos, Trabucos.  I will even pay a little more for the product.  Right now, I know that you feel like this is a good strategy, but to me this format has long over-stayed it's welcome.  I don't much care for them, based on the ones I've had.

"Mechanics of Smoke taste"

Someone asked about my "theory" that the flavor does not come from the smoke in a cigar.  This is probably a mis-reading of what I wrote, which is not hard to do.  My sentence structure always gave my teachers a headache, too.

What I said was that the buring tobacco at the lit end is not where the flavor comes from, but from the smoke's traveling through the bunch towards your mouth and it's interaction with the leaves.  As the unlit leaves in the bunch warm up, they release flavors which load the smoke with taste and nuance.  I said molecules, and I tend to believe that this is so although I am not a chemist, lol.  This is the same principle I guess as what hot water does to tea.  You are not drinking hot water, you are drinking tea.  But the hot water releases flavors and tannins that are locked into the structure of the dried tea in much the same way as the smoke leaches flavor from the cold tobacco in the bunch.  So while you are smoking the product of the lit end and nothing else, that smoke does not come off the cherry loaded with flavor.  That flavor only arrives at your mouth because it is drawn from the leaves, the part of the bunch that is not burning. 

Again, this is just what I think, maybe a flavorologist will step forward with the real truth, haha.

1998 Punch Corona -

Seems like every December around the first third of the month, I pull these out for a delicious smoke.  And every one I have had has been fantastic until this one.  And I smoked this one without complaint.  But it was no great smoke.  But at the same time, this being the "Special Period" for US havana smokers, I tend to forgive the little things and focus on the fact that I am lucky to have it.  The first thing you notice is the beauty of the toothy wrapper.

This type of wrapper makes me a little excited.  For one thing you don't see them anymore, at least not very often.  Very little if any colorado in the color.  The toothiness means there is good oil in the wrapper to aid in combustion.  And it burned straight as an arrow.  The cigar is perfectly rolled, at lest in it's initial appearance.  A quick look at the foot however, shows that things may get a little tight.

That's an awful lot of tobacco in there.  The bunch is very even, though, not rolled up like a Temsco machine might do it.  And once she is lit, sure enough, there is little air coming through.  This greatly affects the flavor.  For those who are unfamiliar with the mechanics of taste in cigars, the taste does not come from the burning end.  Rather, the coal simply creates the smoke which travels through the bunch and warms the tobacco which releases oils and molecules that creaste the flavor you taste.  The flavor RIDES on the smoke through the cigar and the tobacco in the bunch filters it and loads it up with taste.  Class dismissed, lol. 

A cigar like this must still be appreciated because they are not making 98 Punch Coronas anymore.  In any box of havanas, a smoker must accept that 10% or so are going to be totally disappointing.  Or at least as disappointing as this one.   It smoked down to my usual lay-down point without going out.  It gave up mild and uninteresting smoke, tobacco flavor with a little musty oak and fine aged tobacco.  But outside of that, there is not much to reccomend here.  It's not like you can go out and buy these, so there is no harm in scoring it so low.  It won't affect sales.  And tonight, I will smoke the other one sitting in my humidor and balance out the review.  I am going to fire up the Jimmy Buffet and make myself a Strawberry Daiquiri with some 7 year old Havana Club Rum and salute the brothers of the leaf WAY down south.  I will also salute the "followers" here at the blog.  I really do not like that term.  They are friends, members, readers...not followers.  Disciples, sure, haha.  Thanks for showing up and reading this blog.  I do not advertise it outside of my little home in the crazy house, and still I end up with someone to read it.  I do not use advertising, because I do not LIKE to dig through all that junk in other people's blogs.  I thank Guugle for allowing me to present it without any advertising if I choose.  And frankly, I do not think there would be that much money involved with making it a going concern.  Not to mention, it would be wrong to profit from it, given the subject matter and the sensitivity of it.  So Thanks again to all.

Viva Cuba!

I know I have a few friends down on the beautiful island who view this blog occasionally.  I know that I do not always portray them in the best light.  And by them I mean the tabaco industry.  But the people behind those jobs are strong and interesting people with a wonderful homeland and great pride in their it.  Feliz Navidad mi amigos, y gracias por el regalo maravilloso de tabaco cubano!  Su trabajo me trae gran alegría. 

It is my hope that soon we may sit down and smoke a fine cigar and drink a toast to your homeland.  Again, Feliz Navidad y un Año Nuevo bendecido.  Gracias.

Unbelievable - 2010 Montecristo Grand Edmundo EL

Fooled you.  This Edicion Limitada was NOT unbelievable.  What was unbelivable is that in all my time handling havana cigars, I have yet to have a beetle hatch under my roof.  Well, until today.  I was just poking around and opened the box, and saw some weird, fine brown dust on the cigar on the far right.  I had shuffled the cigars around once before.  I like to put the problem cigars on the far right side of a box so that I can polish them off first.  Light cigars that show underfilling, magazine rolls, super-heavy sticks.  Well, three weeks ago there was no sign of trouble.  Tonight, the dust.  So my eyes immediately went into danger mode.  WHERE was it.  I know you didn't make dust like that without coming out from.....there it was.

Now I have a firm true-ism where havanas are involved.  I have never had a single hatchout in a authentic cigar or box of cigars.  And now I was faced with this situation.  And I was not happy.  But I was definitely cutting it.  I would rather smoke a tight cigar than a loose one, and looseness and underfill was the reason for moving this cigar to the right.  And now I had to smoke it.  And it did not impress.  Some light cocoa and a little tea, but not much else.  Just too airy to properly develop flavors.  I stuck little tobacco cones into the holes, from pieces of clipped head.  I don't even feel like this cigar has any pedigree issues.  But finding a mature beetle and a twisting larva that was apparently not happy with the lights being turned on had me a little POed.  And yes, there were two exit holes.  If there is a good thing about the box being "infested", it's the tight-fitting lid on these boxes.  I have no fear of migration of the problem.  But DAMN, I am upset.

The cigar IS young, I'll say that in it's defense.  And as I said, it's the bad apple in the box, now in more ways than one.  But I expected to find great flavors that would have made me say, "aha, I sure didn't want to smoke one of these this early, but man, was it worth it".  But as you can see by the butt I left in the end, I was not going to get that experience.  In 4 years when I smoke another one of these, I hope it's a lot better than this one.  An embarassing 80.

Partagas Chicos

I have been looking around for these, not to smoke, but to keep a handle on whether or not they remain in production.  Smoked one last night that was really great.  It smoked much more like a small cigar than a machine made mini cigar, or cigarillo I guess.  The flavor was deep and musty with a interesting hybrid of vanilla and bleach.  I know this is a disgusting thought, but two things bring about this "taste-vor".  In my first job ever, I had to clean out coolers that housed racks of plastic bins with hundreds of pounds of raw chicken.  We used wooden pallets to raise the floor level and would cover the floor of the cooler with a mixture of vanilla extract and bleach.  Nice, huh?  Not my rules or my concoction.  But at times the flavor has very positive connotations.  I guess the bleach whiff could be also called menthol, but the notes of vanilla steer my mind to other origins.  This is a cut filler cigar which requires ashing almost as much as a cigarette, but the flavor is quite intense and enjoyable. 

These are narrow ring gauge smokes about the size of a "100's" cigarette, and yet even after 8 years in a box (in cello), they retain a massive flavor appeal.  Really strong and delicious.  Certainly a pleasant surprise on a night when I was not going to smoke anything.  With notes of black tobacco and pepper, white pepper and  roasted meat, this was a really complex cigar for a machine made product.  But that can be the nature of the cut filler beast.  At any given puff, there could be a piece of ligero chopped from the end of a Esplendido or a Edicion Limitada of the choicest kind.

I only needed to devote 25 minutes to it, and if I had nubbed it and burned my fingers, it would have lasted 35 minutes easily.  Now for the hard part.  You would have a nearly impossible time finding these anywhere.  I am sure there are brick and mortar stores that have them, but online these are a tough find.  Hell, anything online is a tough find these days after the thing that shall not be named.  I am not saying go right out and get some now.  You either have them or you don't.  I also tend to THINK that these are rolled near the end of the handmade run when there is little left to roll but that which a macine can use.  This is not a review with a strong BUY BUY BUY at the end.  Just a warning that if you DO see em available, snap up a box or a five pack.  Bearing in mind that these are machine made cigars, and not to be thought of in terms of normal scoring, I give last nights edition, nearly black and covered in dots of plume, a solid 85.

A tubo question

Now to a question on TUBOS that a member of the blog asked. "Do you take all of your tubed cigars out of the tube prior to smoking, to give them a bit of drying time?" Yes and no. A good tubo should be ready to smoke right out of the tube. The problem is that no human can be perfect, and especially havana torcedores seem to have trouble with consistency. So you can get a tight draw from a tubo now and again. But I think what I have found most true is that in most brands, a fresh and moist tubo tends to be a bit milder in flavor, and for more throttle response, you can dry them on a counter for a day or two and enjoy a totally different taste. It is best to try both methods and discover which condition suits your taste best. The best bit of info imparted to me, however, was that the blog member stocked up on the cigars in question and is in for a real treat. I have smoked hundreds of havanas and NEVER had a TRUE consistent performer until I ran into the H. Upmann Coronas Major Tubos.   The flavors in this cigar are truly remarkable.  Couple that with the fact that they are among the lowest-priced havanas available and you have a real gem.  Now, as I look back on the latest entries, this question could be pointed at statements I made concerning Magnum 46s in Tubos.  And really, either way would be a good buy.  I just recommend more the Coronas Majores due to the price being lower and the flavors really being a toss-up.  They are both FANTASTIC cigars with unique flavor profiles.  In fact, here's another tip on cheap flavor stars.  Fonseca Cadetes are very consistent and offer a unique havana flavor.  Cheaper than the HUCMTs.  And for an even better taste in Fonseca, go for the No. 1.  And as always, buy two or three boxes.  You will not be sorry.

The shape of things to come

This is hard for purchasers of most non-cuban cigars to accomplish (cello), but I smoked a cigar tonight that helped me come to a stark realization.  If you look at the foot of a cigar in a store, as a single, and your eyes can detect a pattern of any kind, you should choose another cigar.  If you look too long, you are likely to find SOME pattern.  But if you detect one right away, chances are your cigar is going to burn erratically. 

Tonight's cigar is a Diplomaticos No.1 that I received at a herf this summer.  It should be noted that ANYTIME someone offers to you an open box of cigars to select one from, it is already a very nice gesture, and no guarantees are proffered as to the eventual flavor, draw or satisfaction that it might impart.  In other words, be happy with what you get.  This was offered to me as a friendly gesture.  Once lit, it took all of a quarter of an inch to develop a run up one side. 

You can see that there is a crescent moon in the bunch, and the side opposite the crescent is the run.  The idiotic blog software has lately been rotating the photos to suit it's idiot brain.  I am tired of chasing the  rabbit, so I just left it rotated. 
HOWEVER, the cigar's draw was so firm, that it never "took off" on me and became a problem.  Well, there WAS a problem after all, and that is that there was almost no flavor to be had.  This was about as boring a cigar as I have had this year.  Now, it is widely known that the Diplomaticos cigars can offer really fantastic flavor.  "Any Given Sunday" as it were.  There was a hint of bread in the flavor, and for the first half-inch, some light tea.  But after that, nothing.  It was not sick, there was a taste to it, but so muted as to be just too little ligero in the blend to carry the taste.  I left it to go out where you see it here last.

It is a shame to paint all Diplomaticos No.1 with such a broad brush since they can be so good.  But this blog is more dedicated to "the moment" and I think that most people understand that your mileage may vary.  In fact it is likely to.  In the case where I know enough to say for sure that you should avoid ALL of the cigars of a type, I will certainly let you know.   But I love the lonsdale size in general, and these are a "dalia" in terms of factory name.  I think there is no finer smoke in habanos than the long and thin cigar.    They create such a fine draw and intensity of flavor, I can see why the great havana cigar salesmen like them so much.  BUT, back to this stick.  It would be impossible to score it higher than a 70.  And it's lucky to be there.  If I were not in a generous mood I would give it below 65.  But I do not want to scare people off of the brand or size.