Camacho Triple Maduro

Well It’s been a while since I’ve written a review.  Lately I’ve been going back to my true and tested stogies knowing that I won’t be disappointed when I’m done.  So I decided to kick myself out of my routine and try something new.  When I’m trying something new I usually have my pen and notepad with me to capture any thoughts that I’m having so that I can share them with you guys.  This time I didn’t do that.  This story starts with me planning my day going to the golf course and what was I going to pack in my travel humidor.  Lone and behold I packed up the Camacho Triple Maduro and off I went. 

To give you a little background on this guy I took the 6×60 cigar with me.  This cigar falls in line with Camacho’s Premium Cigar line.  This is a full bodied cigar and the wrapper, binder and filler are all made of Maduro leaves all from Honduras. 

Appearance and Construction – (12/15) The appearance is what attracted me to this cigar.  Looking at the picture it is very dark and oily and it looks like it will knock you on your ass when smoking it.  Well as you know, looks aren’t everything.  For the most part construction was solid, pinching it I discovered a few soft spots but nothing to be overly concerned with.  It burned well, I only had to touch it up a couple of times.  Smoking in the beginning was creating a few draw problems.  It seemed I had to puff extra hard to get a good draw.  After a while this fixed itself. 

Flavor– (20/25) As mentioned earlier, the look of the cigar is attractive and I happened to be a fan of the darker and spicier cigars.  So my expectations were high going into this.  I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with the flavor.  Don’t get me wrong, if you want a triple espresso shot with chocolate and woody flavors, as the Zohan would say “there is no better”.  For me it only had the one group of flavors and that was it.  I thought the cigar was very one dimensional. 

Smoking Characteristics –  (23/25) The draw was producing very thick smoke you feel like this is a man’s cigar.  Again the flavors didn’t overwhelm each other, but they complimented each other.  This was the very first cigar to combine all Maduro leaves together and problem doing so was to get the cigar to burn properly because of the leaves being thick.  Christian Eiroa did an excellent job accomplishing this.   

Overall Experience – (30/35) I have to say for the value I would pass on this one again.  I bought the cigar at a local store and at nearly $16 a stick.  I feel that I have a lot more cigars in my box that produce a lot more flavor and at a lot less in price.  I’m sure you can find them online for cheaper, but still this cigar wasn’t to my liking.  So for you hard core Maduro fans give this one a shot, tell me what you think. (Score – 85) – sandbagger

Cocinero Liga Especial & Landscaping Trials

For the past week I have been contemplating what to do with a yard of rocks that rendered one piece of my backyard useless.  Unless of course you like rolling in the rocks.  Grasshopper can attest to this, since he visited my house last week and noticed the lack of landscape.

When we purchased our home last August, the previous owner found a quick landscape solution; deco-rock.  I figured I would take a shot at landscaping, which is much more relaxing & satisfying than other political arenas of my profession and the sporadic and unpredictable haggling from the significant other.

This week I completed laying sod and installed a fountain.  Initially I considered a small Koi pond, but with children you cannot take the chance of a tragic mishap.

So as I worked on a portion of my “man conrner” I enjoyed one of TinderBox’s exclusive products;  The Cocinero Liga Especial.  This label is the product of Victor de la Cruz, formerly a two decade employee of Davidoff.  I had purchased a sampler pack in July of 2008 and they have been resting in my humidor since.

Size: Torpedo 6.50  x 52

Wrapper: Brazilian Maduro Leaf

Binder: La Canela Dom. Republica

Filler: Pilato Cubano, San Vicente Seco & Olor Domincana

Strength: Medium to Full-Bodied Smoke

Appearance: Small veins ran throughout the wrapper. The wrapper had a dull appearance.  There were no soft or hard spots. Overall the cigar appeared sound in construction.

Smoking Characteristics: Smooth draw.  The ash was grey and flaky.  The ash lasted approximately one inch, before falling off.  The smoke was light and I had to work at producing smoke to fill my mouth.  The aroma was pleasant.

Flavor: Their was a prominent cedary flavor for the first 3rd of the product.  Midway through, this stick presented a woodsy/buttery taste on my pallet.  As I continued on, the cigar maintained the woodsy/light butter flavors.   Light peppery notes came through on the finish.

Overal Impression: To be fair, I did not grade this cigar. I was mostly focused on the landscape and did not sit back to critique the product fairly.  This is a medium bodied smoke.  Good on taste, but short on the finish.  No long lasting flavors left on the pallet.  I would say that Cocinero is a fairly good to good cigar.  This would be the type of cigar to take on a fishing trip or while doing yardwork.  The type of cigar you would not stress over if you had to put it out early.  It is not a bad stick at all. Try for yourself. Now back to the landscape project~ Tortuga

Rocky Patel Fusion Double Maduro

Twenty-three days since my last review.  Initially I was not going to comment on this cigar, but Grasshopper has placed me on double probation for not posting anything in some time.  He’s not even my Sergeant and he still exerts his influence over me.  Well, in some aspects anyway. Haha…chuckle.

Here is my Grading Scale:  15 possible total for appearance/ 25 possible total for Smoking Characteristics/ 25 possible total for Flavor/ 35 possible total for Overall Impression

04-11-2009, the boys met at Blintz’s cigar stop and I brought with me the Rocky Patel Fusion MM.  The Rocky Patel line is known for it’s complex flavors and rich character.  From the RP Vintage 90 to the Vintage 92; you will not be disappointed.  Goobers introduced me to the Rocky Patel line and I have not been disappointed, until today.

Size: 6 1/2 x 52

Wrapper: Brazilian Mata Fina

Binder: Nicaraguan Habano

Filler: Dom. Republic, Nicaraguan

Strength: Medium to Full-Bodied Smoke

Appearance: 13 for appearance.  There were a few small veins and one small discoloration spot.  This stick felt firm between my fingers. Overall, the cigar was dark brown and had a beautiful sheen throughout the wrapper.

Smoking Characteristics: 15 for smoking characteristics.  Firm draw.  The ash was dark grey and slightly flaky.  The ash lasted approximately two inches, before falling off on its own.  The smoke was aromatic and thick.  For whatever reason, the wrapper began to unravel closer toward the middle of the smoke. Interestingly enough,  Grasshopper experienced the same problem.  My humidor has been sitting at 70 degress and 68% humidity.  Grasshopper and the rest of us surmised that the recent cold & hot temperature fluctuations may have played a part in the “unravelling” mystery.  This is just not something Rocky Patel’s product is know for.

Flavor: 23 for flavor.  Although smoking this cigar presented somewhat of a challenge with construction, I cannot complain about the flavor.  There was a prominent chocolate taste throghout this cigar.  I did not notice any flavor changes, other than a slight peppery taste toward the last 3rd of the cigar.  I was unable to finish this cigar, as it seemed to explode in my grip.

Overal Impression: 25 for overall impression.  This brings the score to 76.  The overall score is due to construction issues and has nothing to do with the flavor.  This is a heavy bodied smoke.  I would not discourage anyone from trying the double maduro.  I just happened pick one with challenges.  I’m sure I will enjoy the next RP Fusion MM. ~ Tortuga

Blintz & Grasshopper

Tempus by Alec Bradley

As promised, I did a little researching on the Internet to find out which Tempus I had this past weekend. I believe it was the Terra Nova, which was the robusto 50 x 5″ cigar.

First Impression: This a beautifully made cigar. The wrapper is on the dark side, but according to Famous Smoke this is their natural wrapper. The cigar was firm and had small veins. I think the bands are some of the best visual additions to the cigar that makes it very appealing to an aficionado.

Flavors: I had no burn issues and I could taste coco and coffee flavors through out the cigar. The smoke was very smooth and did not leave a lingering after taste on your palate. Towards the end of the smoke there some light spices. I finished this cigar until there wasn’t much left. I was burning my lips and fingers just trying to get everything I can out of this wonderful cigar.

Score: 90. I would buy this cigar again. In fact, I still have one or two left in my humidor and I can’t wait to see how they taste after being in there for a few months. ~~Grsshppr

Slumdog Millionaire

My wife wanted to rent this movie when it came out on DVD because her friends told her how great of a show it was. I had heard the same thing, but I had convinced myself how good of movie can it really be? I mean it’s a low budget show about a man in India who is playing the TV game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

So after Blintz and I had our first cigar for the day, we moved back into the house to spend some time with the rest of the family. I saw they had rented the movie and they con me into watching it. I sat down on the couch thinking to myself that I was going to be bored for the next 90-120 minutes.

Boy was I wrong! I really enjoyed this movie. Basically, this is a movie about a man’s life living in the slum areas of India and doing anything he can to survive. He decided to do the game show as a way to get his long lost love to see him on TV. He does really well on the game and he has the chance of winning the $20,000,000 rupees grand prize. He was arrested and accused of cheating; because how can an uneducated Slumdog be so smart? This is what the movie is about. He answers all the questions to the game based on his life experiences. I really recommend this movie as it is a must watch in my book.

Score: B+.

PS- The only reason why I didn’t give it an “A” was because I like movies that are action packed, sci-fi, or have a lot of great CGI parts. This movie is a drama with a bit of a love story in it.~~ Grsshppr

Punch Rothschild

Another weekend has come and gone. This time the majority of the SalasHerf guys had other things to do for this weekend, so it was just Blintz, Goobers, and me sitting around for a cigar. I just checked our website and found that there was only one semi-Punch Rothschild review on here. I was amazed there wasn’t more reviews for this little cigar because a lot of my friends enjoy this smoke. Matter of fact, this is one of my favorite cheap short cigars. This was actually my second cigar for the day as Saturday was a wonderful mid-70’s day. My first cigar was an Alec Bradley Tempus, but I couldn’t remember which specific cigar it was. I have to do a little research tonight and once I find out which one it was I will post another review later in the week, but back to the Rothschild review.

First Impression: This cigar was a bit on the firm side for me. However, it was well wrapped with a double maduro wrapper. I noticed the cap was put on crooked, but that didn’t bother me because I clipped it with a “V” cut. A pre-lit draw on the cigar was a little tight, which confirmed this smoke was wrapped firmly.

Flavors: There is not much to this smoke. There were only two flavors noted and they lasted the entire cigar. It was mostly on the spicy/peppery side with some earthy flavors noted. I enjoyed this smoke. What can I say…it’s a Punch and how can you go wrong on this stogie. The majority of the cigar was medium, but towards the end, it turned to a full bodied cigar. That’s probably because of the nicotine build up. Also, the cigar burned evenly and the ash held on very well. I only had to flick the cigar three times.

Score: 87. Since I don’t take price into consideration when I rate my cigars, but it is worth mentioning that this smoke is about $3 a stick on the Internet. Like I said, for the price and flavor of this smoke, you might want to stock up on these cigars and let them mellow out in your humidor for a few months. In fact, the Punch I smoked this weekend had been sitting in my humidor for about 6 months and it was way better this time around than when I first got them. ~~Grsshppr

La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial No. 5

Happy belated Easter! I hope everyone had a wonderful day. For me, since I’ve worked Sundays for the longest time, this year I decided to take Easter off to do family activities. First of all, God didn’t strike me down as soon as I walked into church and my kids had a great time during the Easter Egg Hunt. I didn’t have a cigar on Easter Sunday, but I did take the time to enjoy a smoke with the SalasHerf club on Saturday. Since this was a special weekend, I elected to have the Cigar Aficionado’s #4 cigar of the year; the La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial No. 5.

I bought this cigar in January and it had been sitting in my humidor ever since. This smoke is a combination of some of my two favorite brands of cigars; Ashton and Jose “Pepin” Garcia. So how can one go wrong with this wonderful stogie? After grabbing a Coca-Cola, the boys and I went outside to our normal smoking place. I sat in my normal chair with my sweater, golf hat, and sunglasses on. I remembered it being a little windy outside that day, but not cold. Actually, I probably looked a little goofy because I was wearing shorts with a winter sweater on.

First Impression: The La Aroma De Cuba cigar was a pretty stick. It had a medium colored wrapper with small veins noted. There were no hard or soft spots on the cigar. I clipped the cigar with a double guillotine cutter. When I did that, the top part of my wrapper exploded. I wish I would have taken a picture of the cigar, but I didn’t have a camera around. So after trimming the damaged wrapper, I lit her up with no problems.

Flavors: I found this smoke to have a lot of flavors, but at the same time, it didn’t leave a lingering taste on your tongue. I could taste spices, coffee, and earthy flavors. I was able to smoke 3/4 of the cigar before my wrapper totally came off. Despite the wrapper problem, I still continued to smoke the cigar without a wrapper on it. I have to say this was the first time I had smoked a cigar without a wrapper on it. I was amazed how flavorable the smoke was until the wrapper came off. I recently learned that the wrapper holds approximately 60% of the cigars’ flavor. When I first heard that, I couldn’t believe that much flavor could be held in a thin wrapper….well I believe it now! Once the wrapper came completely off, there wasn’t much flavor after that. Actually, the cigar turned harsh and I put it out.

Score: Regardless of the problems I had with this cigar, I still gave it an 88. If the wrapper would have stayed on, I probably would have given this smoke a solid 90-91. I would really recommend this cigar to anyone and I would buy this one again.~~Grsshppr

Don Pepin Garcia Imperiales

This past Saturday we had more than our usual cigar buddies getting together for a smoke. Blintz, Goobers, Turtle, Ciro, Brad, George, Dan, and me enjoyed an Italian sausage BBQ and mid-70’s temperatures. In fact, I got sunburned again!!! Damn, when will I learn to put sunblock on me before heading out into the sun. LOL!

I dug around in Blintz’s humidor and located a Don Pepin Garcia Blue Label Imperiales cigar. I love the blue label cigars, but I haven’t tried the torpedo yet. So I grabbed my golf hat, sunglasses, a couple of bottles of Heineken beer, and headed out to the patio to join the rest of the SalasHef brothers. The women were off shopping in San Jose, so it was pretty close to a perfect day…LOL! (Don’t tell my wife that).

First Impression: What a lovely 6-1/8″ x 52 cigar. The cigar was firm and the wrapper did not have any large veins. I’m not much of a natural wrapper type of guy. I recently heard that the wrapper of a cigar holds about 60% of the flavor of the smoke and I have found that the lighter wrappers are not as strong as the maduros.

Summary: I loved this smoke. Well, I wasn’t expecting anything less that an excellent cigar from Don Pepin. I noted peppery, leathery, and some coffee flavors through out the cigar. The burn was even and I never had to touch up the stick. The draw was good, but not too loose. I actually smoked this cigar to the very end.

Score: 88. I definitely recommend this smoke, or any of the Don Pepin cigars, to anyone. I actually had another cigar that afternoon. I had a Punch Champion. I’ve already done a cigar review for that smoke, so I won’t do that one again. But as usual, the Champion was an good follow up smoke of the day. ~~ Grsshppr

Te Amo #4

Grading Scale:  15 possible total for appearance/ 25 possible total for Smoking Characteristics/ 25 possible total for Flavor/ 35 possible total for Overall Impression

04-03-2009, I started the night off with a few warm glasses of Junmai Sake.  As I sat alone drowning my sorrows(not really), I pondered the thought of enjoying a short cigar to top off the night.  Two weeks prior I had visited the Cigar Box, located in south Salinas, to check out their selection.  I came across Mexico’s Te Amo brand, which I had not yet to experienced and purchased a Te Amo #4.

Size: 5″x42

Wrapper: Natural

Filler: Mexico tobacco & binder

Strength: Medium Bodied Smoke

Appearance: 10 for appearance.  The cigar had a few soft spots and was somewhat veiny. This did not take away from the overall appearance of the cigar.  The color was consistent throughout the wrapper and I did not observe any discolorations.

Smoking Characteristics: 23 for smoking characteristics.  The cigar lit effortlessly and had an easy draw.  The ash was dark grey and the burn was consistent.  No unevenness.  The ash lasted approximately two inches, before falling off on its own. The smoke was aromatic and light.

Flavor: 22 for flavor.  The initial 3rd of the cigar presented itself as chocolaty, which lasted through the middle of the cigar.  As I continue to the middle of the cigar, I was picking up hints of anise, which can be best described as black licorice. As I neared the last of the cigar, the anise flavor intensified and I began to pick up a touch of spice, most likely due to the nicotine.  I also noted faint earthy tones as I neared the last of the cigar.  This is the same flavor I noted prior to lighting this short stick.  The anise and chocolate flavors continued to the last portion of the cigar.  The finish was long with anise flavors lingering on my pallet and lips.

Overal Impression: 32 for overall impression.  This brings the score to 87.  This cigar has a smooth draw and is aromatically pleasing. For a smaller ring size, I feel that this cigar is pleasing to the pallet, not heavy in body and leaves you with a sweet anise after-taste on the pallet. Not disappointing at all. ~~Turtle

Just Easy Cigars & JR Cuban Alternatives

First of all I would like to apologize to our readers for not posting something new in over a week. Over the last couple of weeks, we have tried some store brand cigars instead of the normal major brand cigars. At first I wasn’t going to post a review because not many people know about them, but I decided in order to be fair, I needed to post my reviews (regardless of who makes the cigars). So with that said, in the last two weeks I have tried Just Easy Cigars by Jose “Rene” Sanchez and JR Cuban Alternative Cigars. Let’s start with the latter first.

I recently received a cigar catalog from JR Cigars and they were bragging that their Cuban Alternatives were almost as good as the real thing…and for under $2 a stick, how can we go wrong? My favorite Cuban cigar is the Montecristo #2, so I ordered a bundle of their alternatives. I ordered them on Saturday and they were at my office by Monday afternoon. Great Service!!! So on my next day off, I had Blintz and Goobers come over to my house for a pizza dinner. As we waited for the pizza, the three of us retreated into my garage to try these smokes out. I have to admit that I did some Internet searching first to see what type of reviews were already out there. I found one cigar forum that talked about this specific JR cigar. I found mixed reviews. Some say they hated it, some said they weren’t even close to being the real Cuban cigar but liked it, and some said they enjoyed it and thought it was comparable to the real Montercristo.

I know there is nothing comparable to the real Cuban Montecristo #2, but nonetheless, I kept an opened mind when I started this cigar. Instead of doing my normal review, I’m just going to summarize my findings. Other than the shape of the cigar, there was nothing comparable to the real Montecristo. The JR Alternative was not creamy like the real one and the flavors were not the same. Personally, I would not advertise this cigar as being anything close to the real smoke.

But with that said, I did find that the JR Alternative Montercristo #2 cigar would be a very good beginner smoke. There were some light spices and earthy flavors. I did smoke this cigar to the end and actually told Blintz and Goobers that it wasn’t too bad of a cigar to smoke. But because I don’t like mild cigars, I still gave this smoke an 80. In a nutshell, I wouldn’t buy these cigars again. But I do have a handful of them left in my humidor and they will make perfect gifts for any beginner who shows up at my house to share a cigar with me.

 

Approximately 1-2 months ago, a co-worker and I were talking about how interesting it would be to have a Cigar Party. So after doing some searching on the Internet, I came across West Coast Cigars out of San Jose, California; which is only 70 miles from me. I checked out their website and found they hosted a party where they hired an actual Cuban master cigar roller. His name is Jose “Rene” Sanchez and he owns Just Easy Cigars out of Florida. I sent them an e-mail asking for quotes for a cigar party. To make a long story short, for Rene to fly out to California and roll 100 cigars, it was going to cost my crew $1000. WOW!!!

Well, before we dumped that type of cash out of our pockets, I called West Coast Cigars to check on Rene’s work. Hands down, they recommended him for the job. In fact, we were lucky enough to meet Rene this past Sunday. He was in San Jose/Menlo Park for a cigar rolling event and Rene had about 3 hours to kill before the party started. Rene agreed to meet Blintz, Jon, Brad, and me at West Coast Cigars on Sunday.

We got there in the morning and met the store owners’ wife, Robin, and Rene. After doing the formal introductions, Rene handed me a five pack sample of his full bodied cigars and the contract. It turns out that Rene also makes a special West Coast Cigar blend of tobacco, so I grabbed a house cigar too. After buying some other goodies and Coca-Colas, we went outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. What I didn’t expect was Rene joining us outside to have a smoke.

I have to say, Rene was a one of kind type of fella. He had some wonderful stories to share with us (Playboy Mansion was my favorite) and we talked about the Cuban cigar business. Rene spent about 2-1/2 hours with us. Each of us enjoyed two of his cigars, and I must say, both of them were great. I was really impressed for a non-major brand roller, he produced a well made cigar. No one had a problem with the draw or how they burned. They had a lot of flavor, but at the same time, they didn’t destroy your palate. I had a medium and a full bodied cigar and both rated in the high 80’s for me. In fact, Jon is expecting a new baby soon and he will order Rene’s cigars as gifts for the fellas.

So after meeting Rene and tasting his fine smokes, I for one do not feel bad on paying the large fee for him to spend the day with us at our Summer Cigar Party. On a little side note, Goobers called me last night to say he just finished smoking Rene’s cigar….and Loved It! ~~Grsshppr