Joya de Nicaragua Antano 1970
In the early 1970’s Joya de Nicaragua was one of the most popular cigars in the American market. To commemorate this Joya de Nicaragua released the Antano 1970 in 2002. This stick is a Nicaraguan puro and utilizes Criollo tobacco.
The Antano is often referred to as a full-bodied cigar with a heavy nicotine kick. So I’ll fire this puppy up and let you know what I think.
Roberto Cigars Standard Blend Robusto
A while back I was searching for a new cabinet humidor and I came across Roberto Cigars that had the humidor I was looking for at a very reasonable price. I ordered the humidor and through some snafus in the ordering process, which I go into in the video, I began emailing back and forth with Bob Morris, owner of Roberto Cigars (www.robertocigars.com). The humidor situation was quickly resolved and Bob offered to send me some of his own sticks that he rolls himself. Bob sent two blends my way: the “Standard Blend†which I am looking at today and the “Robust Blend.†In the video I go into more detail about the cigar and the various services that Bob offers through Roberto Cigars.
The Art of the “Cigar Bomb”
It has always been my experience that cigar enthusiasts are among the most generous people on the face of the earth. It’s nothing for most Brothers/Sisters of the Leaf (BOTL/SOTL) to walk up to a fellow enthusiast and hand them a cigar, often without knowing them for more than a few moments. This generosity extends well beyond the passing out of cigars, but that’s a different article. This article is about giving out cigars, most importantly the fine art of the “Cigar Bomb.”
Now if you’re a seasoned member of one of the many cigar borards out there (i.e. Cigar Weekly, Cigar Pass, Social Cigar, Puff or Stogie Review Fan Forum) then you are likely familiar with these “destrcutive devices”. Â Cigar Bombs have filled wish lists and humidors for years. Â But for those of you who are not familiar, or perhaps want to send a few out, read these directions carefully. Not following these instructions could result in losing a limb.
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Sunday Fiver – August 23, 2009
A fiver of cigar stories from around the web.
The latest buzz in the cigar world is the (1) ISOCigars.com. Chris talked a bit about this new cigar service in his Oliva Master Blends III review. ChiefHava has a nice write up about it and his encounter with the founder of ISO Cigars on his blog Smoke Signals and Walt from Stogie Review also wrote about it the other day. It’s a very interesting concept and I am looking forward to seeing how it develops.
Elsewhere around the cigar world, things are dying down from IPCPR and reviews are starting to trickle out of all the new releases. Check out the (2) Stogie Guys review of General Cigar’s new budget smoke Brioso, (3) Walt over at Stogie Review has a review of the We the People Belicoso and (4) Barry over at A Cigar Smokers Journal reviews the Cain Maduro and gives it high marks.
Elsewhere this week the guys over at (5) The Cigar Spy reviewed the Casa Fuente House Cigar from the Casa Fuente Club at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for exciting new things from Nice Tight Ash including new contests and a redesigned, user friendly site to make things better for you, our readers.
Oliva Master Blends III
The Master Blends III is the third in a line of limited edition cigars from the Oliva Family. This Nicaraguan puro has a beautiful caramel colored Broadleaf Sun Grown wrapper and is adorned with one of the most interesting bands I have ever seen.
This video runs a little longer than I typically like, however, I brought up an interesting new site. For more information on ISOCigars.com please visit Chief Hava’s blog Smoke Signals and read the Desperately Seeking Cigars article.
Marco V Platinum Grand Reserve
Today we have a much larger ring gage cigar than you are accustomed to seeing me review. The Marco V Platinum Grand Reserve is a 5″ x 60 ring that comes from the Dominican Republic. Marco V claims that they are the only company in the world that deals exclusively in 60 ring gage cigars and I have not found any information to dispute that claim. Also, all Torcedores in the Marco V factory have at least 15 years of experience.
The Platinum Grand Reserve is Marco V’s medium bodied blend. Lets see how we do with this Gigante.
Perdomo Grand Cru Connecticut
While at IPCPR, I visited one of my favorite cigar companies, Tabacalera Perdomo. The they were not introducing any new lines, but they were presenting two additional cigars: Perdomo Patriarch Connecticut and the Perdomo Grand Cru Connecticut. Today, I’m sampling the Grand Cru cigar. Perdomo states that this cigar is a Nicaraguan puro using all Cuban seed Semilla Habano tobacco to make up the wrapper, binder and fillers. The tobacco was hand selected from the best yield of the best field from Perdomo’s farm in 2004. This cigar also comes in a corojo and a maduro wrapper. I’ve been on a Connecticut click lately (Oliva, Nub, Camacho) so I’m eager to try this.
Let’s see how it smokes.
Perdomo Reserve Cameroon
Introduced in 2003, the Perdomo Reserve Cameroon was recognized in multiple cigar publications as being an excellent cameroon wrapped cigar. The particular vitola I smoked for this review was the “R”, which is a 5 x 54 robusto.
I have some history with this cigar which I will explain in the video, but if you’re wanting to know how this stick smokes then you better watch the video. Time to cut and light.
Highlights of IPCPR 2009 – New Orleans
Four years ago, RTDA came to New Orleans and two week after the show, the mother of all storms hit us….Katrina. After 4 years and changing its name to IPCPR, it has come back bigger and better than ever with hundreds of vendors. Many cigar companies introduced a lot of new cigars and it seemed to be a lot more than I remember from 2005. Since I live so close to New Orleans, I stopped by for a couple of days with my Canon EOS 50D to try to cover as much of the show as possible. I was able to talk to most of the vendors and ask about the new cigars and their blends, sample some cigars and take home a few samples to review later for Nice Tight Ash. I took over 400 hundred pictures so I decided to post some of the highlights from the show. We will be reviewing some of these new blends in detail in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned.
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CAO Mx2 Box-Press
The Mx2 line from CAO has been out for a few years now, however a few months ago they released a new addition to the line with the Box-press. I was a fan of the original line, particularly the robusto, so I’ll give this new vitola a shot and let you know what I think.
