Author Archive
Tatuaje Black Tubo
Two weeks ago I smoked the Tatuaje Verocu Tubo with you. This time I’m lighting up the companion release, the Tatuaje Black Tubo. The Black is known as Pete Johnson’s personal smoke, and came out in two other sizes previously, a corona gorda (my favorite) and a robusto. It’s a Nicaraguan puro, and features an unfinished foot. It’s a little pricier than the Verocu tubo at a MSRP of $14, and comes in the same 10 count boxes.
Nestor Miranda Collection Dominicano is Launched
Nestor Miranda and Miami Cigar teamed up with Don Pepin Garcia and My Father Cigar Company about 9 months ago, and their latest collaboration is now available, the Nestor Miranda Collection Dominicano. This cigar was definitely a collaborative effort with La Aurora S. A. providing the tobacco, and Don Pepin doing the blending and manufacturing. It uses Nicaraguan filler and binder, and a Dominican Corojo wrapper. It’ll be in the $7–8 price range.
Xikar Ultra Cutter & Lighter
The Xikar Ultra Lighter and Cutter combination earns high marks for both form and function, and is a must buy for cigar smokers.
Tatuaje Verocu Tubo
Back in the summer of 2007, Tatuaje released a more full-bodied blend of their Havana VI line (a.k.a. the Tatuaje Red Label) called the Verocu. Two sizes were released: the 5″ x 54 Zona del Este and the 6″ by 52 Lado Occidental. On a take off of the Cuban regional release, the former was distributed east of the Mississippi River and the latter west of it. They proved to be popular, but only a finite number was made, and except for trades, the original Verocus are longer available. In November 2009, Pete Johnson released a new version of the Verocu in a tubo. The blend and wrapper remained the same, and are now delivered in a 6-1/8″ x 52 torpedo in a bright red aluminum tube. (A Tatuaje Black tubo was also released at the same time, and I’ll be smoking that with you next week.) The Verocu Tubos come in beautiful 10 count red boxes that are incredibly heavy in comparison to most cigar boxes, and MSRP is $11 per cigar.
Restrictive Measures Proposed for Maryland Tobacconists
A new bill has come up before the Maryland legislature that would greatly harm all of the tobacconists (and by extension, cigarsmokers) in the state. House Bill 88 would, among other things, restrict tobacconists to purchasing cigars solely from in-state distributors. This would increase the wholesale cost of cigars to the retailers, who would be forced to pass the cost onto you, the consumer. Please take action, and tell your representatives to oppose HB88.
New Ash: Viaje Exclusivo
Pete Johnson has the Tatuaje Black. Steve Saka has the Liga Privada No. 9. And now Andre Farkas has the Viaje Exclusivo. What do they have in common? They started out as their personal smokes, and when other people got the opportunity to try them, they clamored for them to be released to us, the little people. The new Exclusivo from Viaje is a limited release Nicaraguan puro with an oily Criollo wrapper and a short pigtail at the top. It’s limited to 100 jars of 35 cigars each, but for such a limited cigar it has a fairly reasonable MSRP of $9.50.
E.P. Carrillo Edición Inaugural 2009
Ernesto Perez-Carrillo is most associated with his original cigar creation, the La Gloria Cubana. After rave reviews in the first issues of Cigar Aficionado, the brand help lead the industry into it’s first big boom in the mid-1990s. In 1999, Swedish Match/General Cigar purchased the company from Ernesto, and he stayed there for 10 more years, until the spring of 2009. Wanting to return to his roots as a family-run boutique cigar manufacturer, he started a new company, EPC Cigar Co., along with his two children, Ernesto III and Lissette. Limited to 150,000 cigars, the Edición Inaugural 2009 is the first release from this new venture, with their first full release due in April 2010. Billed as medium bodied, the mix of Nicaraguan and Dominican filler are bound by two 5 year old Piloto Cubano binders, one from Nicaragua and one from the Dominican Republic, and is encased in an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper that has been aged for 3 years.
State of the Ash Address 2010
My fellow ash-holes,
Today marks the first anniversary of Nice Tight Ash! It has hard to believe that it was only one year ago that Chris and I launched this site, hoping to contribute to the cigar community that has given us so very much. We hope we have been able to contribute something back to that community as well.
Charlie’s Top 10 Cigars of 2009
It’s that time of year where Top 10 lists abound, and hey, we’re no different. I’m kicking off a week long look at our favorite cigars from 2009. Any of the cigars we’ve reviewed this year were eligible for consideration. One of the things about doing a site with 3 other great guys like Chris, Ben, and Brian is we don’t always get to review everything we want. Other guys get to it first, and we think, “Damn. I really like that cigar.” So you won’t just find stuff I’ve reviewed in my list. But I have smoked them all, whether I mentioned them or not. I didn’t pick cigars purely on taste. Price and availability also came into play.
Sunday Fiver – 2009 Cigar Trends
Every industry has trends, and the cigar industry is no different despite it’s long history and tradition. A lot of “new” trends are really old ideas that have been refreshed, and brought back anew. Other trends are totally new, and may or may not stand the test of time to become part of the cigar tradition. I’ve picked out what I think are the five biggest trends from 2009.