Origin : Nicaragua
Format : Robusto
Size : 5.25 x 52
Wrapper : Ecuador
Filler : Nicaragua
Binder : Nicaragua
Hand-Made
Price : $190.00 for a box of 23
More info about purchasing Don Pepin Garcia My Father cigars...

Introduced in 2008, this brand was created in honor of Jose “Pepin” Garcia by his son Jaime. The wrapper comes from Ecuador which is different from the traditional Nicaraguan wrapper used by Don Pepin Garcia. The cigar line offers different vitolas for enjoyment: a Torpedo (No. 2 -5.5 X 54); a Toro (No. 3 – 6 X 49); Long Panatela (No. 4 – 7.5 X 38); Grand Corona (Cedros Deluxe Eminentes – 5.6 X 46); Lonsdale (Cedros Deluxe Cervantes – 6.5 x 44); and today’s feature cigar, the No. 1 Robusto. The No. 3 was named “2009 Best Cigar of the Year” by Cigar Aficionado, and it received a very high rating of 94. The cigar features its own website; however, the section that covers the My Father’s line is still under construction.

Appearance : 5 out of 5 stars
The wrapper is a Havano-Rosado which has a very nice milk chocolate color to it. The cigar does not seem to have an oily sheen to it although it seems very soft in the hands. The wrapper offers barnyard and hay notes.

The cigar consists of a triple cap although it is hard to make out all three caps.

The band represents a beautiful work of art with an elaborate “MF” written in a large cursive font. The family’s name “Garcia & Garcia” is written under the MF. The band has a salmon colored background which matches well with the red tones of the cigar. Other smaller drawings round out the design of the band.

Construction : 4 out of 5 stars
The cigar appears veiny which may be a cause of concern. There are no noticeable soft spots in the cigar; it is a very firm cigar.

The Robusto No. 1 offers a bit of resistance in the pre-light draw although this could be due to how tight the tobacco seems to be packed.

The smoke is not too abundant, and it seems to rise fairly quickly. The ash seems pretty tight although some spots were flaky. The color is very bright white. The cigar has a beautiful and even burn.

A good inch ash was obtained before having to tap it off on the ashtray.

The band was glued very tight, and rather than damaging the cigar by removing it, I decided to leave it around the cigar.

Flavor : 5 out of 5 stars
After cutting the cigar with a Boston Cigar Company Little Guy “V” cutter, the pre-light draw has notes of honey and molasses. The foot offers a sweet, floral scent which resembles honeysuckle or even lavender.

Upon lighting up the cigar, hints of pepper and leather were immediately noticed. The finish is definitely a very long one. On the retrohale, a very nice leathery aroma lingered in the nasal passages, and the retrohale itself was not very overpowering.

About halfway into the cigar, roasted nuts were perceived. This was a well-pronounced taste.

Value : 4 out of 5 stars
This cigar is an expensive one (around $8.25/stick) for a Robusto. This one falls under the category of a special occasion cigar. For me, it is just a bit too much money for a “go-to” daily cigar. However, a box of these would make a nice gift to honor any cigar smoker’s father.

Another “philosophical” problem I have with this cigar is that since I could not remove the band, I really smoked about 3.75 of the cigar. Now, I am sure that with some work, the band could have been removed, and I would have been able to enjoy an extra 0.5 in. or so. Again, I did not want to take a chance and damage the cigar.

Overall Rating : 4.5 out of 5 stars
This No.1 Robusto featured a very nice range of balanced flavors. The only problem I found was the price; one can get extremely good robusto cigars at a more affordable cost.

It was a very enjoyable medium-to-full body smoke with a long finish and a pleasant retrohale. I am a big Pepin Garcia fan as I have not found any of his cigars that I did not enjoy.

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Origin : Cuba
Format : Robusto
Size : 124 x 19.84 mm
Ring : 50
Weight : 11.66 g
Hand-Made
Price : ~$15 each
More info about purchasing Cohiba cigars...

This guest review was submitted by a good friend of this blog, Richard Bui. Happy reading!

Cohiba is one of the cigar brands that need no introductions. The flagship brand of Habanos S.A. and the personal brand to Dictator Fidel Castro, Cohiba is the cream of the crop for Cuban cigars and you certainly pay top dollar for that.

As the Robusto is my favorite cigar vitola, it should come as no surprise that the Cohiba Robusto would be a cigar I would be interested in. I have looked forward to having one for a very long time and opportunity came knocking. Here are my thoughts.

Construction

I’ve read from a number of sites that construction issues plague Cohiba; complaints range from loosely rolled cigars to cracked wrappers. Fortunately the three Cohiba Robustos I sampled exhibited no problems, physically anyways.

The Cohiba Robusto has very small, minor veins on it’s otherwise ordinary looking milky chocolate wrapper. When squeezed, there is some slight sponginess, but no soft spots so no odd burning issues are anticipated. The burn is decent, I did touch it up a few times with my Zippo Blu. The ash is an unimpressive flaky salt-and-pepper color that refused to hold for more than an inch at a time.

Flavor & Taste

Pre-light draw revealed very subtle hints of…hay/grass…? The foot of the Cohiba Robusto smelled like nothing but perhaps the subtle scent of floral.

The first third of the cigar is the worse in flavor. A combination of what I can only describe as chewing on wet, bitter grass. Of the two Cohiba Robusto I smoked, as well as my buddy who had one, that inital crap taste was consistent on all three. Yum.

By the second third, things definitely started getting better. The bitterness resided and flavors of coffee as well as dark chocolate began to overtake.

The last third is where this baby starts to shine and becomes what one would expect of a Cuban cigar. A touch of pleasant spiciness develops and becomes an enjoyable smoke.

Despite all the talk about the strength, power, and kick of Cohiba cigars, I hate to say it but, it is overstated. The Cohiba Robusto, in my opinion, is more of a decent medium body cigar compared to, say, the Bolivar Royal Corona. But let me add, what I consider a strong cigar isn’t one that necessarily is overpowering, kicks the crap out of you and churns your stomach like drinking heavy liquor on an empty stomach, but rather the quality and complexity of taste.

Value

At $15 a cigar, the Cohiba Robusto, to me anyways, is hardly a value buy. A box purchase of 25 will certainly set you back a pretty penny. Had this cigar been more enjoyable from the get-go, it would be worth having a few stickslying around in the humidor for those special occasions.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, I’m sure some readers may find my observations and experience with the Cohiba Robusto a bit harsh, but when a cigar passes the $10 mark, I’d expect to pay for more than just the brand name. Given the many Robusto choices, I have to say I’m more likely to reach for a Bolivar Royal Corona or a Montecristo Petit Edmundo for more half the price of a Cohiba Robusto. Obviously everyone’s taste varies, but for my taste, despite how much I’ve been looking forward to having a Cohiba Robusto and finally having one, the experience came up short.

I’m sure down the road, I may consider trying a couple or few more to be sure, but that won’t be anytime soon.

Appearance : 3.5 out of 5 stars
Construction : 4 out of 5 stars
Flavor : 2 out of 5 stars
Value : 1 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating : 2 out of 5 stars

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!

Origin : Nicaragua
Format : Toro
Size : 6 x 52
Wrapper : Nicaragua
Filler : Nicaragua
Binder : Nicaragua
Hand-Made
Price : N/A
More info about Jose Carlos cigars…

Today we’ve got a review from The Tollaficionados, as they call themselves. Enjoy!

Well, being that this is our first article I would assume that a short introduction is in order. My name is Nicholas Tolla, Jr. and my Fathers name is Nicholas Tolla, Sr., collectively known as The Tollaficionados. For well over 20 years we have been sharing quality time together with a fine cigar in hand. It is the pinnacle of Father & Son time for us. We sit back, enjoy a quality smoke and discuss anything that comes to mind. Quite often our minds are on the cigars.

After all the time that we have spent with the tobacco gods, and all of the people that have come to us asking our opinions on various smokes, we have decided that it is about time to put pen to paper, (or finger to keyboard if you will) and give everybody that is interested our take on some of the many cigars on the market. Yes, there are a lot of people out there giving their opinions on the quality and enjoyability of the stick-of-the-day, but we want to take a slightly different approach to the task at hand. Let me explain…

I will preface this by stating that I mean no disrespect to those who explain their smoking experience differently than I do. In fact, I thank all of them for the variety of phrases and unique (sometimes outright abstract) descriptions that I have read. We will do our very best to refrain from orange peel and nutmeg undertone phraseology. They don’t put it in the tobacco, and I won’t put it in my articles. I have not recently been kicking back to enjoy a $10 Dominican Maduro, to all of a sudden find myself chewing on a peanut or some toast that magically appeared in my mouth as a result of the cigar I picked to smoke. I am not going to tell you what I think I taste in the form of a food, drink, herb or otherwise. You won’t be able to find the same thing no matter how far into the depths of my handy thesaurus I go. So I won’t do it. Let’s cut to the chase here. Words like sweet, spicy and bitter will work fine for all of us. Connoisseurs and novices alike can enjoy a layman read, and probably relate to it better than most of the other summaries out there.

We will tell you what we think throughout the duration of the smoke, and give the cigar a rating from 1 to 10 (10 being the best) OK. Enough of that. Let’s get started with our first Father & Son rating with the line of cigars called Jose Carlos.

The Jose Carlos line is named after an orphan from Nicaragua that so impressed the owner of this cigar brand that he named them after this child who always seemed to find the brighter side in things. Consisting of three blends and only one size, we felt that this brand would be a good place to start this little adventure. There is a Habano, a Connecticut and a Corojo, all are 6 inches with a 52 ring. They come 26 to a box. With a philosophy of “Do things right, not fast” being the way they describe the quality of their product, let’s see if they hit the proverbial bulls eye. Please follow us into the lounge won’t you?

First up, the Jose Carlos Habano. This cigar is a blend of long filler tobacco (and a touch of some that has been specially aged) from the three growing regions of Nicaragua. The wrapper, also from Nicaragua is Sun Grown Habano.

At face value the cigar seemed to be well made. It had a mild aroma to it and a sturdy looking cap. A very smooth, dark brown leaf rounded out the aesthetics. When putting cutter to cap – eureka! – it held up just fine. Now the fire…

Upon lighting this cigar it put out a cool smoke that had a bit of tang to it. (Can I say tang? Am I breaking my own rules? Well deal with it!) It almost immediately turned bitter. This bothered Nick Sr. more than myself in that his palate and the back of his tongue held onto the bitterness far longer that it should have. I just didn’t particularly care for the taste. Not a stellar start. There were no draw problems, but will that be enough to resurrect our opinions?

As the cigar reached the end of its first third, its light grey ash held tight. The body of the cigar began to soften from the increasing heat felt right through wrapper. The taste at this point could be called mild. Not exactly what you would expect from a Habano looking like this. From this point on, the cigar did build in strength and flavor. I’m not saying that we completely enjoyed the flavor, but it DID improve. It just wouldn’t lose that annoying aftertaste for either of us. And on top of that, it began to burn unevenly. Very unevenly. Canoe unevenly.

I refrained from touching it up with the torch to see if it would correct itself in time. It did, but that didn’t make up for the heat that this stick was beginning to pump out or the thickness that we both felt on our tongues. We agreed that we didn’t want to get our stinky food holes too close to anybody in the immediate future.

And the finish. Much like the rest of the experience. A continued, lingering bitterness on the tongue and palate, though softened slightly as time passed. Slightly more flavorful and a whole lot hotter right to the end.

The Ranking: We give it a 5. As much as we complained about some of the qualities of this cigar, it wasn’t completely repugnant. There were some periods that we put the bitterness aside and just enjoyed the act of smoking and tried to fish for the good things that the Jose Carlos Habano could provide. We have had worse in the past, but we have had a lot better as well, so a 5 will have to do for this one.

Come back next time when we rank another cigar. Who knows, you may even see the other two Jose Carlos sticks in the future. But after this do you really want to?

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El Triunfador #5

Reviewed by Dan at   Crooked Burn

Dan at Crooked Burn does a good job reviewing the series of the latest El Triunfador smokes from Pete Johnson.
Read the full review here…

EO 601 Red Label

Reviewed by Matthew at  Toasted Foot

9.1 seems quite a good mark for this cigar from United Tobacco.
Read the full review here…
Read our take on the EO 601 Red…

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!

Santiago, DR 12 March 2010 As with their very successful Preferidos, Cien Años and 1495, La Aurora has taken their time in the next step in their 107 year history as Dominican’s oldest cigar maker.

“We had defined our goal early on,” said Guillermo Leon, La Aurora VP, “and that was to bring the smokers a medium bodied, richly flavoured smoke with a fair amount of spice – at a very attractive price.”

Using Dominican, Nicaraguan and Ecuadorian tobaccos, the blending process went through dozens of iterations before achieving a cigar that brings a balanced flavour that is peppery, sweet and provides toasty notes.

According to Vice President, José Blanco, the cigars are being packed in boxes of twenty-one (21) and will come in three (3) sizes priced from $6 to $8:

• Robusto (4.5 x 50)
• Toro (5.5 x 54)
• Belicoso (6.25 x 52)

“I firmly believe we have a smoke, providing excellent flavour, strength and balance,” José Blanco told a gathering of cigar aficionados at a dinner in New York, “that matches the standards we have adhered to in creating the other great cigars that have brought us high regard and high ratings.”

The cigar, named La Aurora 107 in honour of the company’s 107 years in business, will be released in a series of steps, commencing 1 April. “In conjunction with Guillermo and Jose we have planned an exciting series of events to introduce tobacconists and their customers to this cigar,” Nestor Miranda said at the same gathering in New York City.

“As for the name, La Aurora 107, following on the heels of Cien Años, which marked the company’s 100th anniversary,” Leon told the group, “it was decided to keep it simple and meaningful… and easy to remember, hence, La Aurora 107 – La Aurora’s 107th year!”

La Aurora’s distributor, Miami Cigar & Company, has announced that the new cigar will only be available in brick and mortar tobacconists.

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!

• Chuck won the 10-cigar sampler consisting of premium cigars
• kenballone won a $12 Amazon gift certificate

Congrats to the winners! I will e-mail you tonight, so make sure the e-mail doesn’t end up in the spam folder :) As usual, stay tuned for more contests!

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!

Origin : United States
Format : Perla
Size : 4.25 x 40
Wrapper : Nicaraguan Corojo
Filler : Nicaragua
Binder : Nicaragua
Hand-Made
Price : ~$95 for a box of 20
More info about purchasing: Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic cigars

After last week’s debacle with the Series JJ White Label I usually would have put Don Pepin’s products out of my lineup for at least a short while to get the sour taste out of my mouth and intended to do just that. Shortly after writing the review, however, I received gifts from two separate individuals and each contained a Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Blend. Neither had read the Series JJ review and although this blend is not uncommon, I found it an interesting coincidence that they would both send a stick from the line. Always on the lookout for shorter smokes, I put the Perla 1952 size in my desktop humidor to rest and stowed the larger in my coolidor.

Five days later, I found myself staring into my humidor in an attempt to determine which victim would meet my torch that day. While scanning over the various smokes, my eyes kept coming back to the Black Label I had just added. Although I almost never smoke a shipped stick without at least a week’s rest, I felt myself continually compelled to pull this one out to compare to the White Label from last week. Finally giving in, I removed the small stick and closed the humidor lid.

The Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Blend sports the same ornate band that the Series JJ does with the exception that the background is black instead of white. Not surprisingly, this design has not grown on me within the past week; it still seemed a bit overdone. The wrapper, however, is quite smooth with only faint veins being visible. Most of these are so slight that they do not even protrude from the barrel’s surface. I am quite impressed with the cap on this one because it is very clean with three sharp lines defining the triple layering. Inspection of the foot reveals a uniform fill with very little in the way of large veins/stems. Tentatively pinching the length of the stick reveals no soft spots whatsoever. The cigar has a slight give but always bounces back. Overall, the construction is very promising.

Cutting the cap was effortless and very clean. Prelight, the draw is much tighter than the Series JJ, which combined with the solid fill, is likely to provide a steady, controlled smoke. Taking a couple of cold draws, I find myself met with the same hay, grass, white pepper and cherry wood notes as in the Series JJ but in a slightly different array. Where the White Label was rather flat, outside of a very mild sweetness and hay profile, the Black Label has a much stronger white pepper taste. The cherry wood also leaves a more pronounced sweetness on the tongue and lips. Something nutty is in the background as well, similar to oatmeal.

On lighting, the small cigar toasts quickly and soon has a nice red ash going. The tightness of the draw compliments the sharp burn, leaving behind a tight white gray ash in its wake. Initial puffs amplify the cherry wood flavor that was found during the prelight. Through the course of the cigar I had a hard time placing why this was so familiar but finally I had it. It reminds me of the Swisher Sweets wood tipped cigars that we used to smoke as teenagers camping and fishing. Before you completely give up on this stick and my reviewing abilities however, let me explain.

Although the flavors are similar, they are by no means the same. Where Swisher Sweets uses the cherry flavored wood tip to mask the inferior quality of their tobacco, Don Pepin’s blend utilizes the flavor from the tobacco to actually compliment the rest of the blend. Earth tones and white pepper cut the initial sweetness while each of those flavors asserts itself. These three strive for dominance through about the first third of the stick.

At about the second third the flavors stop competing and blend together into a balanced, albeit complex, smoke. The sweetness fades here and the cherry wood morphs into cedar. A short while later I was confronted by an odd, almost soapy, feeling on my tongue and pallet. Finding myself quite put off by this sensation, having never experienced it before, I set the smoke down to rest for a minute to see if the fault lied with smoking too fast and letting the smaller cigar get too hot.

Picking it back up and purging brought back the sweet cherry flavors and thankfully, got rid of the soapy sensation. The cherry is short lived and replaced by a stronger black pepper that is very enjoyable. This pepper remained for the final third and was accompanied by a bit dryer smoke. There was no problem smoking this one down within the last inch or so.

Overall, this small stick was leaps and bounds ahead of the Series JJ reviewed last week. The blend is stronger and more complex. The construction was significantly improved and not having to wrestle with the cigar at every turn proved quite an enjoyable experience. Although I may have gotten lucky with this Cuban Blend (or unlucky with the Series JJ) the improved flavor and somewhat cheaper price point would persuade me to grab for one of the Cuban Blend Black Labels over the Series JJ White Labels. The sweetness will not appeal to everyone but I would recommend picking up one of these shorter Cuban Blends to experiment with.

Appearance : 3.5 out of 5 stars
Construction : 4 out of 5 stars
Flavor : 4 out of 5 stars
Value : 4.5 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating : 4 out of 5 stars

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!

As I stated in my best cigar books post, proceeds from sale of books would be given back to one lucky reader in the form of a gift certificate. Here is the first one, for the month of December. It is a gift card for $12.00 that can be redeemed on Amazon.com (doesn’t work on .co.uk or .fr).

Just leave a comment on this post to be entered in the draw. The winner will be announced on Friday, along with the winner of the 10-pack sampler (you still have time to enter that contest, too)!

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!

Origin : Nicaragua
Format : Churchill
Size : 7 x 48
Wrapper : Nicaragua
Filler : Nicaragua
Binder : Nicaragua
Hand-Made
Price : ~$7 each, $129 for a box of 20
More info about purchasing Cuban Crafters Cubano Claro cigars...

Today I am reviewing a Nicaraguan puro from Cuban Crafters, the Cubano Claro. It is made from Cuban-seed long-filler from the Cupido tobacco field, all enveloped in a Connecticut Desflorado wrapper. Desflorado tobacco is apparently very expensive and difficult to roll. I have had them resting in my humidor for about 3 months now. Here is how the smoke went.

Appearance : 3.5 out of 5 stars
The cigar has a somewhat rustic and coarse looking wrapper. It is pretty bumpy with several large veins. The label is understated but that is okay, you do not smoke the label.

Construction : 4.5 out of 5 stars
The cigar was well packed with tobacco and exhibited no soft spots as well. I clipped the cigar and took my prelight draw which was pretty loose. This was surprising given how tightly packed it felt.
The burn was excellent with zero corrections needed. The burn line was razor sharp although somewhat wavy. The ash was dark gray and flaky. The ash fell off easily however after less than an inch or when just setting it into the ash tray.

Flavor : 4 out of 5 stars
I did my prelight sniff of the cigar and it smelled of sweet tobacco. It lit very easily. The initial taste was of just tobacco and pepper. The retrohale was very spicy and burned my nose a little… Just tobacco and cedar tastes with a peppery note. It produced lots of thick white smoke. The flavor stayed long on the pallet. In the second third the spiciness dropped off and it became just woody and cedar flavored. It was still spicy on retro. It could use a little more depth but it was enjoyable. Final third is woody and it became somewhat harsh near the end.

Value : 4 out of 5 stars
For $7 a stick I think these are an okay cigar. I do see them on sale from time to time and I find them to be a better value then. It smoked for a good 90-100 minutes easily.

Overall Rating : 4 out of 5 stars
I did enjoy this cigar and it had a nice pepper note. As I stated above it was not overly complex but it was interesting enough that I did not find myself bored. The construction was excellent although not the prettiest stick at the dance. I say give them a shot, I do not think you would be disappointed.

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!

• I very much enjoyed the Avo Domaine Perfecto that I smoked last year. Although it’s not an example of complexity, this cigar is a quality smoke.
• Jamie from Zen Cigar recommends aging the Domaine a little; the robusto is one of his go-to cigars, providing lovely flavor and consistency.
• ER Doc at Cigar Outcast also recommends the perfecto to those who prefer medium to full-bodied cigars.

Where to get it?

Although these cigars are created by Davidoff, Avo Domaine do not command an outrageous price tag. Depending on the vitola, they are available at $6 and higher per stick. Compare the prices here.

Don Pepin Garcia My Father - compare prices on one of the best cigars of the year!