Nice Tight Ash » Cheap Ash

First Impressions: Nick’s Sticks

Chris — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:30:03 +0000

The other night Brian and I went to our local Tinderbox to pick up a few sticks and watch the U.S. Open. There were quite a few new cigars in the humidor, but one of the sticks that rally caught our eye was the latest offering from Perdomo, the Nick’s Sticks. Not only did these cigars look good but they also came in at under $4 for a robusto. I did a quick google search to find some infomation on these sticks and found out that Nick Perdomo produced Nick’s Sticks in his early years and only sold them in small part of Florida. The Nick’s Sticks are available with 3 differnt wrappers (Maduro, Sun Grown and Connecticut Shade) and 4 vitolas (Robusto, Toro, Torpedo and Chuchill). After we left the shop we decided to record this video and give you our first impression of this revived brand.

Cheap Ash: Vista de Cuba by Oliveros

Chris — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:30:31 +0000

You can thank my wife for today’s review. I took her to the cigar shop on Saturday and asked her to pick out a cigar for me to review. I figure that would be a good way to possibly try something different without any of my subconscious biases. She didn’t disappoint, because she managed to pick out a cigar I probably never would have tried.

Name: Vista de Cuba
Company: Oliveros
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Shade
Binder: Dominican Broadleaf
Filler: Nicaraguan & Dominican Ligero
Price: $3.11 per stick
Comes in: Boxes of 20
Vitola: Churchill (7″ X 52)

To be perfectly honest the Vista de Cuba is not the most impressive looking cigar. The wrapper is extremely veiny and discolored and there are a number of hard/soft spots. This cigar can best be described as rustic. But I’m not one to write a cigar off before sampling, so I clipped the end a took a few pre-light draws. There was little resistance, and I didn’t pick up more than a tobacco flavor. Pre-light aroma was just like hay. So with a butane torch I got down to business with this cigar.

The Vista de Cuba started out mild with hints of sweetness and hay. It burned fairly straight, but produced a flaky ash that made a mess all over my shirt and pants. Oddly enough this cigar actually held a long ash. As I smoked further into the cigar I began to pick up notes of nuts along with the hay and sweetness. This was the extent of flavor changes. The cigar burned well all the way to the end, but didn’t excite my taste buds.

Overall this was an unimpressive cigar. There was no complexity to the cigar, and in a churchill that just becomes boring. However, I do think this cigar has a spot in my humidor as a “yard-gar.” Quite simply this cigar is in the perfect price range to be smoked while mowing the lawn.

Cheap Ash: Punch Rare Corojo

Chris — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:00:12 +0000

A few weeks ago I asked you to tell me what cigars you’d like to see my review, and one of those suggestions actually surprised me. It was suggested that I review some of the older brands, such as Partagas, Hoyo de Monterrey, etc. I really like this suggestion because I think the older brands, most of which are owned by a couple large companies, still hold a very important place in the cigar market. These cigars, at least to me, represent how many of us started smoking cigars. So with that said, I think I’m going to make an effort to review more of these cigars.

Name: Punch Rare Corojo
Company: General Cigar Company
Made in: Honduras American Tabaco S.A., Cofradia, Honduras
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf
Filler: Nicaraguan, Honduran, Dominica Piloto Cubano
Price: $3.50 per stick
Comes in: Boxes of 25
Vitola: Elites (5 1/4″ X 45) (Corona Extra)

The Punch Rare Corojo was introduced in 2001 by General Cigar Company. This line in the Punch family comes box-pressed and features a Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. The wrapper is a medium shade of brown and has a leathery appearance. The wrapper is dry to the touch and the tiny veins in the wrapper are not detectable to the touch. I was unable to find and hard or soft spots in this cigar and after clipping the cigar I found a wonderful draw. Pre-light aroma was light and reminiscent of cedar.

After I put fire to the end of this cigar I was impressed with the amount of smoke it produced. The smoke delivered a nice mix of nutty and woody flavors. This cigar was pretty straight forward without any complexity, but in this case I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Because let’s face it, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Looking back on the construction of the cigar I’m really impressed with the draw and just how evenly the cigar burned. The mix of good flavors, solid construction and great price make the Punch Rare Corojo Elites a perfect everyday cigar that I’d recommend to anyone. If you’re in the market for a straight forward affordable smoke then this stick should do the trick.

Tabacos Baez Serie SF

Chris — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:00:30 +0000

Welcome to my Black Friday review of a Cheap Ash cigar. The Tabacos Baez Serie SF is a new addition to Tabacos Baez line from Don Pepin Garcia. What makes this cigar different is the fact that it is made up of 70% long filler and 30% short filler. Because of the short filler this cigar is very inexpensive.I was able to acquire these sticks at a local B&M for $3.50, however they can be found even cheaper online. But that’s really no surprise.

I really enjoy these cigars. The flavors are enjoyable, and despite the use of short filler tobacco, these cigars hold up very well thought the entire smoking experience. I’d highly recommend these cigars to anyone looking or a cheap medium to full-bodied cigar. Because of the price, this cigar lends itself well to being enjoyed while mowing the lawn. However, this cigar could just as easily be enjoyed after a great meal and be paired with your favorite lager, ale or bourbon.

Diesel Unholy Cocktail

Ben — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:38:31 +0000

The Diesel Unholy Cocktail is a new cigar from AJ Fernandez who makes the Man O’ War, Man O’ War Ruination, ITC 10th Anniversary, Rocky Patel Fusion, etc. This new cigar come in one size only: 5 x 56 Belicoso. It has a Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper with filler from Esteli, Condega and Jalapa in Nicaragua. It has a basic band at the foot and comes in a pretty plain box all for around $4 a stick. Does this cigar out torque the competition or just sit there idling? Watch the video and find out.

Cheap Ash: Casa Fuego Toro

Brian — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:51:48 +0000

The Casa Fuego is a budget friendly stick from the maker of the well received J. Fuego Delirium, Grand Reserve Corojo No. 1, and the new 777 Corojo that Ben recently reviewed here. It is a Nicaraguan Puro rolled in Honduras. From what I can gather, this line is exclusive to Cigars International and they can be found all over CI’s auction site, CigarBid.com. You may wonder how this qualifies as a cheap ash review when retail at CI is just over $4/stick. Well, I put it in this category because these sticks are constantly available on cigarbid for under $40/box. With that being said, is this stick worth the patience it sometimes takes on cigarbid to get it at that low of a price? Let’s find out…

PS. Don’t forget to get over and enter our fall contest to win a 10 pack of cigars.

Cheap Ash: Padron Londres Maduro

Brian — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:30:23 +0000

This week I have a wallet friendly smoke for you. The Padron Londres is part of the regular line from Padron. According to the Padron website:

“All tobacco in this line is sun-grown habano that is aged for a minimum of two-and-one-half years. Every cigar in this line is available in natural and maduro wrapper. This line offers exceptional quality and value.”

Today we are smoking the maduro version. Based on price, the Londres fits into that “exceptional value” claim made by Padron. Now let’s see about the quality portion.

Cheap Ash: Gispert Lonsdale

Chris — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:00:23 +0000

The Gispert line of cigars is produced by Altadis U.S.A. These cigars are produced in Honduras and are draped in a Connecticut Shade Ecuadorian wrapper. Looking back at many of my past reviews I noticed I was smoking a lot of medium to full bodied cigars, so I’m hoping this stick will be a pleasant change of direction. Since I paid $4.00 for this cigar, and it can be found cheaper online, it definitely qualifies as a cheap ash. Check out the video to find out how it smokes.

Cheap Ash: Perdomo Fresco Maduro

Charlie — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:01:13 +0000

It’s been awhile since we’ve done a Cheap Ash review (and I hadn’t done one yet), so I thought I’d smoke a cigar that’s pretty new to me, the Perdomo Fresco Maduro in the robusto size. It’s a 100% long-filler bundled cigar available for $3 or less. It also comes in a natural wrapped version.

This is one of my longer reviews in a bit, clocking in at a little over 16 minutes. I talk about bundled cigars in general, temporary cigar storage solutions, how finding a place to smoke is getting tougher, and how tough it can be to find a good value priced cigar in a small vitola.

Bahia Blu B500 Robusto

Ben — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:40:39 +0000

The Bahia Blu got a lot of talk on Twitter with the BOTLs, so I decided to try a bundle. A couple of clicks and I had one ordered from CigarsInternational.com. The Bahia Blu is a medium bodied cigar that is a Nicaraguan puro made by Tony Borhani. The wrapper is a 3 year aged corojo wrapper with 5 year aged long fillers from 3 Nicaraguan provinces: Jalapa, Esteli and Leon. The cigars are then aged for 180 days in cedar to let the three distinct tobaccos merge flavors.

The cigar comes in three different vitolas:

B500 – robusto – (5” x 50)
E653 – torpedo – (6.5” x 52)
L600 – toro – (6” x 50)
U700 – Churchill – (7” x 50)

Appearance:

The wrapper has a nice mocha color to it and is relatively smooth. There are a few large veins in the cigar. I hope these don’t affect the smoking of the cigar. The cap is rather rough also, but held together nicely when I cut. That’s really all that matters.

Pre-light aroma and draw:

The draw is a very free. I’m going to have to watch this cigar to make sure I don’t get it too hot. It’s not too free though. A little like drinking through a straw. The wrapper has a barnyard smell or like the stockyard. Not….well, not too poop like, but more like a livestock and hay smell. The draw has hints of this along with some toasty tobacco notes and earth.

First third:

The barnyard is there. It’s not unpleasant actually. It’s like a stockyard smell mixed with some hints of fresh coffee. There is the tell-tell Nicaraguan pepper on the back of the palette, but just a hint. All these flavors come on in small waves and then meld together quite nicely. The burn is a little off, but I’m smoking outside and it’s pretty windy on the Mississippi Gulf Coast today so I attribute it to that and not the cigar.

Second third:

Ok, this cigar just jumped up several notches on the tasty scale. There is a natural sweetness to it now along with the other flavors. I believe it tastes like the cinnamon covered nuts you get in the cone bags, usually in the mall. Another BOTL described it like white chocolate macadamia nuts. I can see that as well, but for me, there is more of a spice flavor that I more associate with cinnamon. Whatever it is, it’s very nice and I’m really into this cigar now.

Final Third:

The sweetness and spices have taken over and dominate everything now. There is a stronger hint of coffee on the finish. The pepper has died down and I have to concentrate now to detect it. There is a nice cedar taste that comes on in the finish that is pretty nice. It’s like the cigar revs up to the spicy sweetness on the finish. Pretty impressive.

(sorry for this crappy pic!)

Overall Impressions:

I’m pretty damn impressed with this cigar. This is bundle cigar? Seriously? The way it burned, the aroma, the taste and the loads of smoke it put off hints at a cigar that has a much higher price point. It’s a medium cigar that leans some to the mild side. The flavors are just great to me. It’s a constant progression from start to finish that shows this cigar is well blended. The robusto bundle is only $29 for 20. You can’t beat that with a stick. I high recommend this cigar. Definitely go out and get you a bundle. You won’t be disappointed.