Cigar Journal: Cuban Stock Part II
A couple of weeks ago and wrote up the first part of my review of four Cuban Stock cigars. Today I’m smoking the last two cigars that were sent to me from Cuban Stock Cigar Company. If you missed my review of the first two you can find them here.
Cuban Stock Reserve
Name: Reserve
Company: Cuban Stock Cigar Co.
Wrapper: Connecticut
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic (aged 10 years in wine barrels with Dominican tree roots
Comes in: Box of 20
Vitola: Toro (6″ x 50)
Cuban Stock Reserve production is limited to 200 boxes or 4,000 cigars per month. This cigar also utilizes filler tobacco that is aged in a way I’ve never heard of before. Although I’ve heard of tobacco being aged in wine barrels before, the addition of tree roots is a bit of a curiosity to me. I regrettably didn’t notice this fact until I was finalizing my review and wish I would have had time to ask “why the roots?”
Punch Cigars announces new Rare Corojo 10th Anniversary
General Cigars will be releasing a 10th Anniversary edition Rare Corojo that should be hitting the stores shelves by the end of March.  This cigar will feature a Connecticut Corojo wrapper in a 5 x 50 robusto size. The MSRP is $6.50. Below are some pictures of the artist renditions of the box, label and cigar. Hopefully I will be able to get a review up of the cigar soon.
Zino Embassy 2010 Limitied Edition Belicoso
It seems like every year someone release yet another limited edition cigar especially around the holidays. Zino has their Embassy which I missed out on last year and will how well it was received, I knew I couldn’t miss out on it this year. The Zino Embassy is released in a box of 10 with an MSRP of around $10. It uses the same Selection 702 Ecuadorian Sun Grown that was on the Davidoff Seleccion 702 Limited Edition in 2009. Pretty amazing price for what you get and a Zino at that. Doesn’t really matter though if it doesn’t live up to its and Zino/Davidoff’s standards. So, the question is it an international star or an international incident? Watch the video and find out.
Zino Embassy
52 x 5 1/2″
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun-grown Selection 702
Binder: Piloto Domincan Republic
Filler: Piloto and 3 types of Ligero from Domincan Republic
Vitola: Belicoso
MSRP:Â $10
Reviewer:Â Ben
Date:Â 2/25/2011
Press Release: Jon Huber, Formerly of C.A.O., Creates New Cigar Company
Jon Huber, the former director of lifestyle marketing for C.A.O. International Inc., has formed a new cigar company with three other former employees of C.A.O. The new venture is called Crowned Heads LLC.
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, where C.A.O. was located until it was moved to Virginia, Crowned Heads consists of Huber, Mike Conder, formerly C.A.O.’s senior VP of marketing; Michael Trebing, who served as C.A.O.’s creative media manager, and Nancy Heathman, who was C.A.O.’s graphic designer.
“It’s going to be very different from what we did at C.A.O.,” said Huber, who said Crowned Heads would be a boutique company that eschews titles, offices and cubicles. The company has begun to meet with tobacco brokers to develop a brand and by year’s end it hopes to have a cigar with five sizes on the market. Huber said that having a cigar ready for the industry trade show in July was a “possibility, but not a probability,” and said he would try to take cigar smokers “behind the scenes” to see how the company develops its products along the way.
Vudu by Rocky Patel
The Vudu is produced by Rocky Patel in his Tabacalera Villa Cuba, S.A. factory in Esteli Nicaragua. This cigar was blended by Amilcar P. Castro and is sold exclusively at the Famous Smoke Shop.
Name: Vudu
Company: Rocky Patel
Made in: Tabacalera Villa Cuba, S.A.
Wrapper: Mexican Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $5.00/stick or $79.99/box
Comes in: Box of 20
Vitola: Robusto (5″ x 50)
Pre-Light
The Vudu was a well made cigar finished off with a traditional cuban triple cap. The wrapper was a dark shade of brown and was surprisingly dry to the touch. The cigar also felt solid as my hand as it appeared to be jammed packed full of tobacco. Pre-light aromas were barnyard on the wrapper and wood/hay on the foot.
Bella Torres – BestCigarPrices.com
This week, I’m reviewing the second budget friend cigar sent to me by BestCigarPrices.com. This one is the Bella Torres by Havana Cuba who also make the Oliveros cigars. This cigar is the same vitola as the Medici, 4 1/2 x 60, robolo. This cigar hails from the Dominican Republic with the same ~$4.00 price point. How does this cigar compare to the Medici? Watch the video and find out.
Cigar Journal: Cuban Stock
Recently I received a package from Cuban Stock Cigar Co. that included 4 cigars, all from various lines. Instead of doing a series of four “First-Impression” reviews I thought it would be interesting to write up what I’d characterize as journal entires for each of the cigars sent. In this post I’ll be taking a look at the Joya de Havana and Exquisito Limitado.
Cuban Stock Cigar Co. first entered the industry in 1995 under the name Crown David. Founded by Yaniv Levy, Crown David first released the Cuban Stock cigar and in the years to follow changed the name of the company to Cuban Stock to pay homage their flagship cigar. They name Cuban Stock comes from the companies dedication to using old cuban techniques of growing tobacco, curing/fermenting tobacco and rolling cigars. Their factory is located in Satiago, Dominican republic and according to the pamphlet I received they currently produce 10 lines of boxed cigars and 6 lines of bundled cigars.
Medici by Alec Bradley – BestCigarPrices.com
This week I’m doing a budget friendly review of a cigar sold exclusively by BestCigarPrices.com called the Medici. BCP sent me two samples to try and review in their new size, the Robolo. The Robolo is a short, fat gordo size of a smoke that is priced around $4.00ish. I’m quite fond of Alec Bradley smokes and the name Medici, a ruling family of the duchy of Florance, Italy during the 15-18th century (patrons of Leonardo Di Vinci, Michelangelo and Galileo), really intrigued me as I’m a HUGE history nut. The only information I have is that the tobaccos are from Honduras. So, does this budget smoke reign supreme or take a dagger to the back? Watch the video and find out.
Contest Winner: 262 Paradigm Robusto 3 Pack
Last week Brian and I sat down and reviewed the Paradigm Robusto from 262 Cigars. At the end of that review we announced that we’d be giving away a three pack to one of the folks that left a comment on that post. Well a week has gone by and now it’s time to announce the winner. I used Random.org to pick the winner. In the interest of full disclosure I actually had to generate the pick twice since the original pick was Clint (owner of the 262 brand). With that said, the big winner is Brian who left the 9th comment.
Thanks for all the comments and we hope to bring another contest in the near future.
La Aurora Broadway
Recently, New York was hit with a hefty tax of 75% on cigars which really hurt local cigar shops. This drove up the price of cigars drastically and pushed many cigar smokers to buy their cigars online or from catalogs instead of their local shops. Because of this, La Aurora decided to bring out a cigar with an affordable New York City price with the tax already built into the price of $12.25. This cigar is only available in New York and is only availabe in one size, Sumo Toro (5 3/4 x 54).
- Wrapper:Â Dual – Ecuadorian Sumatra, Nicaraguan Habano
- Binder:Â Dominican Corojo
- Filler:Â Dominican, Nicaraguan, Peruvian
How does this cigar fair? Its it the star of the show or just an understudy? Watch the video and find out.
