Quicklook: Cohiba "Red Dot" Robusto

Cigar Specs:
Wrapper - Cameroon
Binder - Indonesia
Filler - Dom Rep
Size - Robusto (5.0 x 49)
Price - B&M: Unknown; Online Retailer: ~$10 per single

Construction:
This cigar was very well made. No blemishes/flaws were detected in the construction, though the draw was tighter than I usually like. After taking some pre-light draws I was a little worried the cigar might plug up on me, but this never happened...the stick did demand some extra puffing effort though. The ash was light grey and white in color, firm, and held on for about 3 inches before falling. The burn line was perfectly even and the burn rate seemed faster than other similar sized cigars.

Flavors:
The flavor category was a little disappointing in my opinion. I picked up natural tobacco flavors that at times were best described as being almost damp like. There were also citrus notes detected that came very close to bordering on the sour side. The combination of the above were not necessarily harsh, but the thought of the cigar heading in that direction certainly crossed my mind as I burned through it.

Overall Impression:
I walked away from my cigar cave feeling a little neutral about the Cohiba "Red Dot". I can't say I liked it, yet I can't say I hated it either. I was impressed with the overall construction (draw was the only ding), however, the flavors weren't up my alley really.

Recommendation:
I recommend trying one for those who have not tried these, but I would certainly shy away from a box purchase and would be reluctant to recommend a five pack. These cigars are pricey and for the price I think they fall a little short in the value department. I acquired three of these over the last 9 months via different samplers and I don't think I will seek these out as a primary purchase in the future. I am curious about the other vitolas, but probably won't be carving out room in the humidor for these down the road.

~ Beezer

Quicklook: Chateau Real by Drew Estate

As part of what has developed into a morning routine I woke up this morning and checked out the cigar blogs off on the left margin of my blog to see if any new reviews were posted. One of the regulars I read, Keepers of the Flame, had a new post on the Chateau Real by Drew Estate. These were introduced back in 2006 and are one of several traditional cigars produced by Drew Estate out of Esteli, Nicaragua. Over the last six months I have managed to acquire two of the small club coronas (4.0" x 44) from a coworker of mine, Rich M., and these little guys have been nested away in my humidor for quite some time. Needless to say, after reading the review on Keepers of the Flame I decided to pull one out and enjoy one with my coffee.

Cigar Specs:
Wrapper - Ecuador
Binder - Brazil
Filler - Dom Rep, Nicaragua
Price - $4-5 for a single; $107-121 for a box of 32

Construction:
This cigar was masterfully constructed and burned perfectly throughout. The cigar felt a little light and the draw seemed initially a little loose, but once lit these fears were dispelled by a heavy volume of smoke on each draw.

Flavors:
Faint amount of spice from what I believe was the brazilian binder and a bit of earth and nuttiness throughout. Overall this was a fairly mild cigar almost drifting into the medium range.

Overall First Impression:
This was a quick smoke given the small size and went real well with my morning coffee. After a busy couple weeks it was real relaxing to sit on the back deck at 0530 this morning and kick back listening to the birds in the treeline that surrounds my house. Doesn't get much better.

Recommendation:
I would recommend trying one for no other reason than to check out a traditional (non-infused) cigar made by Drew Estate. The creme de la creme of traditional cigars out of Drew Estate seems to be the Liga Privada No. 9, but I have yet to try one of those...maybe next time. For now though, the Chateau Real was a nice departure from the ACID, Java, and Tabak Especials that I have come to know Drew Estate for. The Chateau Real may not cause you to fly out of your chair and make a box purchase, but these are certainly quality cigars and worth the time to try one.

-Beezer

Perdomo Reserve Champagne Series

Up for review is the Perdomo Reserve Champagne Series (Robusto 5x54), which was gifted to me several months back by R. Ray Wagner. According to CigarCyclopedia.com this cigar was initially introduced in 1998 and was initially known as the La Tradicion Cabinet Series Perdomo Reserve. All but the toro size were discontinued in 2008, but this robusto was obtained in a sampler offered by Thompson's Cigar Co.

Cigar Specs:
Rolled - Esteli, Nicaragua
Wrapper - USA/Connecticut
Binder - Nicaragua
Filler - Nicaragua

Quick Review: The cigar was packed full with no soft spots or pertruding veins. The wrapper and band seemed to blend together well and was aesthetically pleasing. Once out of the cellophane, I detected a faint tobacco scent but nothing else all that noticeable. I used my torch lighter to fire this cigar up and it lit easily. The burn was a little wavy, nothing big...and required only one touch up in the last third. The ash was firm and held for at least 3 inches. In the flavor department this cigar reminded me of buttered toast. The butter-like notes were rich and creamy and there was a smooth toastiness. This cigar is pretty mild and would make for a great morning companion while relaxing outside enjoying a cup of coffee. I really enjoyed this cigar and if I can find a leftover box somewhere I would consider picking one up. Perdomo released a 10th Anniversary Reserve last year and I'll have to try some of those out to see how they compare.


Other Perdomo News...I found the below message from Nick Perdomo posted on several cigar forums and on the bulletin board of his website. Deals with SCHIP and the steps Perdomo is taking in response to it. My hat goes off to Mr. Perdomo.

Good afternoon friends:

Many people are still in the dark on what cigar manufacturers are going to do with this tax. While many in the industry are telling us that most are having price increases on their cigars and passing the tax on to the consumers. With our prices going up every day, I can truly understand their positions. I cannot speak for other companies, but I felt it was very important to speak to you directly on Tabacalera Perdomo's stance.

Here it is:

1. We will absorb (eat) all the SCHIP tax on over 70 percent of our portfolio (Yes, you read that correctly).

2. On all Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary we will eat the entire SCHIP tax (Yes, you read this correctly also).

3. On Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary, we will also be having a Price Decrease (Again you read this right). We are dropping our prices on all our Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary by $25.00 to $37.00 per box at retail!!!

4. Perdomo2, Perdomo Habano and Perdomo Lot23 we will just pass on the tax. Believe me the prices are still fantastic on these great and popular cigars.

If we don't then I will have to start walking the street with a tin cup in my hand asking for money.

You might ask yourself "Has Nick gone Crazy?!" Well friends, I am doing this because in my heart I don't think we can afford to raise prices. Matter of fact in the last 16 years in this business I have raised my prices only once and that was a nickel. I also believe in these tough times going against the tide and eating most of this tax and in some cases dropping our prices on a very popular brand shows our true commitment and good will to each of you, our loyal customers. As most of you know, we don't spend much money on magazine advertisements. We spend our hard earned money on grass root efforts in events and shows. That's where I and my staff have met tens of thousands of you. We spend our money in growing the finest Cuban seed tobaccos. As you can clearly see our priorities are our customers. And by the grace of God, we have grown this small family run company yearly, where even my mom still works. You are all to thank for this. Our retailers and consumers have spread the word on Perdomo throughout the years and this is our payback to the industry that I dearly love. In these tough times we are all taking it on the chin.

I truly believe that I have made the right decision and we also believe that we will continue growing our company and continue growing the Perdomo name by offering great cigars at even greater prices.

Again from the entire Perdomo team here in the United States and in Nicaragua, we want to thank you for your support.

Sincerely,


Nick Perdomo
President Tabacalera Perdomo S.A.
www.PerdomoCigars.com

Xikar Xi3 Redwood Cutter

For my birthday last month I decided to finally splurge and pick up a Xikar cutter. After searching high and low for the best deal I finally settled on purchasing the Xi3 Redwood cutter from Cheaphumidors.com who had them for about $54 after the 10% MARCHMADNESS coupon. I'm usually not one to buy expensive accessories, but with a lifetime warranty and a reputation for excellence I went ahead and bought one.

These are good looking cutters! I have always liked the shape and feel of Xikar cutters in the hand and the wood finish adds a nice touch. The first cutter I purchased was one of the cheapos normally found near the register at your B&M...I think it cost $3 and was a double blade guillotine with plastic handles. After a couple months of use one of the plastic handles broke off and for a long time I was without a cutter and relied on a pair of cigar scissors instead. Now with the Xikar Xi3 I can confidently cut any cigar and should I ever need the blades sharpened or if I experience a problem I can mail it off under the lifetime warranty. Can't beat that!

While shopping around for a Xikar cutter I, like many I've spoken with, was confused about the difference between the Xi, Xi2, and Xi3. I stumbled on a great resource provided by Cigarmony ...According to Mark at Cigarmony, Xikar cutters all have the same exact blades, the only difference are the finishes used for the handles. All "Xi" cutter blades are made of high quality 440 stainless steel with an HRC of 57. All "Xi" cutters will cut a 54 ring gauge cigar in half. Depending on how much cap you cut, they will cut up to a 58 ring gauge cigar. All Xikar products come with the Xikar lifetime warranty.

There are many brands of cutters out there I have yet to try, but of those I have tried...the Xikar cutters rank among the best IMHO. For those scared away by the retail price of these...good deals can be found from some online retailers and on auction sites.

What kind of cutter(s) are you a fan of?

Complete Idiot's Guide to Cigars...

I was unable to carve out the time to post a review this week, so I thought I would instead post on cigar related references available in print and online.

For my birthday a few weeks back my sister-in-law's family gave me a gift card to Amazon knowing that I enjoy reading...the book pictured above is one of the three books I purchased with the gift card. For many out there this book may not offer anything new and insightful, but for me it has proven to be a pretty cool book to have on hand. I started getting into cigars last year after returning from a deployment overseas and though I have learned a lot by surfing around the internet I haven't stumbled on many worthwhile cigar related books. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cigars (2nd ed.) is written in an easy to read format and covers just about everything A-Z on cigars in just over 330 pages. The best price I've seen for this book is on Amazon with new books running for $11.53.

Another book I have considered pulling the trigger on is Perelman's Pocket Cyclopedia of Cigars - 2009 Edition. I have seen the 2008 edition offered at Cigars International, but I've never flipped through one to see whether it would be of much value to me. Additionally, the content is available online in pdf format at CigarCyclopedia.com and I can't really justify buying a copy in print when an electronic copy is readily available.

I'll continue my search for good books on cigars. In the meantime if anyone out there has any recommendations please shoot them my way! I'm interested in learning more about everything and anything cigar related...If you or someone you know is just getting into cigars go ahead and pick them up a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cigars I'm sure the reader will get a lot of enjoyment out of it!

Until next time...

Nub Cameroon Torpedo (464)

Up for review is the Nub Cameroon Torpedo (4" x 64). Last Saturday I had some time to kill and grabbed this cigar from my humidor. I picked up a fiver of these from cigarbid a few months back and if I remember correctly I paid approximately $13 for all five. The Nub line of cigars by Oliva are well known and quite popular; however, these were the first ones I had purchased/tried. For anyone interested in learning more about the Nub cigars check out: http://www.nubcigar.com/home.html

Initial Impression: These are attractive cigars to look at and the cigar band, while simple, gets a thumbs up. The cameroon wrapper had a velvety feel to it and the cigar was firmly packed.

Smoking Experience: I enjoyed smoking the Nub Cameroon a lot! This was a very smooth smoking cigar with a lot of flavor packed into such a small cigar. I picked up on the cedar and notes of creamy coffee throughout the cigar. The burnline was a little erratic and required a quick touch up about mid-way through, but it didn't suffer any problems that detracted from my overall enjoyment of the cigar.

Overall Thoughts: The Nub Cameroon are worth trying and picking up a five pack is recommended, especially if found online at a good price! I look forward to trying the Nub Connecticut and once available I'll definitely grab some Nub Maduros.

Until next time...

Oliveros Classic Collection Mulato

Up for review is the Oliveros Classic Collection Mulato (6 1/4 x 50). My buddy Dan and I picked these up from CVille Smoke Shop (formerly "Cigar Aficionado") here in Charlottesville, Va. for about $6.45 a stick. Here are the specifics for this cigar:

Manufacturer: Oliveros Cigar Company
Country: Dominican Republic
Wrapper: Brazil
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic

The weather this past weekend was unusually warm and a bunch of us got together at a friend's house to celebrate a friend's 41st birthday. With the weather nice and a reason to celebrate my buddy Dan and I fired these cigars up.

Initial Impression: This was the first barber pole cigar I had ever tried and I was excited about firing this one up. I tried to do a little research into the background of the cigar to include reading any reviews, but I really didn't turn up much information on them. Once removed from the cellophane a nice tobacco scent was picked up, but not much else. The cigar seemed well constructed with no real noticeable blemishes or anything that left a negative impression. However, when I attempted to carefully remove the bands a section of the wrapper came off with it. This was a real bummer as I went out of my way to move real slow and with caution. After cutting the cigar with Dan's Xikar Xi3 cutter the cigar had a nice pre-light draw and more notes of plain tobacco were detected.

Smoking Experience: This cigar had a nice even burn throughout and even though I was missing a section of wrapper that came off with the band this never turned into a problem nor did it become annoying. The cigar itself was fairly mild and never developed much complexity to it. The only thing Dan and I were able to pick up throughout was a basic mild tobacco taste sometimes bordering on the bland side. In the company of friends and a little scotch this cigar was made a little more exciting than it would have probably been if reviewed in quiet solitude. There was never any transition in taste/flavor just a consistent mild tobacco flavor.

Overall Thoughts: For over $6 a stick I was expecting more out of this cigar. I enjoyed relaxing with some friends with this cigar, but it didn't leave much of an impression and the Oliveros Classic Collection Mulato will not be something that has a regular spot in my humidor. Aesthetically it was pleasing and while the construction was sound it just failed to deliver anything noteworthy in the flavor category. I would only recommend these if found at a significantly cheaper price point...if staring at a $6 price tag go ahead and pass on these.

Until next time...