Now let me just toss this out there.. One thing I’m not happy about when it comes to AJ’s cigars is the restricted distribution and sale of most of them, namely through cigar.com and all it’s affiliates such as cigarsinternational.com. I don’t have a problem with those retailers, but they seem ot have a problem with the awesome people North of the border since they don’t ship to Canada. So needless to say, they are more difficult for me to get my hands on. This also affects a lot of people who prefer to purchase cigars from local B&M’s. Ok, so now that we got that out of the way, what else do we know about this cigar.

Well, the Morro Castle brand actually has roots in the Cuban cigar industry but A.J. Fernandez took ownership of the brand and began blending and manufacturing them in Nicaragua. He also gave what seems to be a throw back to the original heritage by using some Cuban seed leaves in the filler. I stated the MSRP below as being $5 but if you get them by the box and catch them on sale, they can actually be had for prices well below $4 per stick in the Belicoso vitola. Other available vitolas include the Robusto, Toro, Torpedo and Churchill.

We have quite a few other reviews from AJ’s massive resume on the site as well, some of my personal favorites include the Man O’ War Armada, Man O’ War Virtue and a more recent popular cigar that Tony reviewed, the San Lotano Oval. So I think this cigar has a lot to live up to and hopefully it’s lower price will give it a slight edge in the final thoughts section. I received most of my samples through trades and/or gifts, the cigar I’m lighting up today comes from a trade made this past Christmas, let’s see how it stacks up!

Cigar: Morro Castle
Drink: Lindeman’s Cuvee Rene Lambic Beer
Vitola: Belicoso (5 x 52)
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Cuban Seed Nicaraguan and Honduran
Price: MSRP $5.00
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The outside of this cigar looks very shiny and smooth, it’s glistening with oil and has a nice golden-brown glow to it
• Even though there are no large veins, the cigar is fairly bumpy. Most likely due to a rough binder
• The cap of this cigar is finished very cleanly and with expertise as the leaf blends seamlessly into the rest of the cigar
• The length of the Morro Castle has a nice little spring to it as I squeeze it lightly
• The foot appears very well packed and cleanly finished, it’s easy to see a lot of care went into the construction
• Cutting the cap was clean and easy, I didn’t have to cut much and I’m left with a good draw

Burn:
• The foot did not want to co-operate wit ha slow toasting and just refused to start glowing, but after a few draws it seems to have evened out
• Despite a somewhat challenging toasting, the Morro Castle is burning razor sharp through the first couple of inches
• I ran into a few wrapper issues that caused some burn problems, but I’m attributing these to the cold day today, I can’t knock the cigar since the first half burned perfectly

Smoke & Ash:
• There is a ton of smoke coming from this Morro Castle cigar, just one draw seems enough to provide a thick cloud of smoke
• Even when resting, there seems to be a fair bit of smoke coming from this cigar
• The ash seems to be coming along with a nice white color but it seems a little flaky so far, we’ll see how it progresses
• Even though it looked a little flaky and weak, the ash managed to hang on for about 1.5 inches and it stayed a nice shade of light grey/white for the whole way through
• Another solid ash lasting past the 1 inch mark, showing some good construction quality on this cigar even with the very cold temps today

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper gives off very little aroma, maybe just a touch of woodsiness
• The aroma on the foot is also fairly faint but it brings out a little bit of cedar and some mild baking spice notes
• The pre-light draw brings more cedar and a little more of those baking spices, now with a bit of sweet paprika mixed in
• The first few draws after lighting had an extremely bitter and dry after-taste that I’ve never really had so early on in a cigar
• As I slowly progress, the bitterness is tapering off a bit, I hope it completely disappears soon
• Flavor wise, the Morro Castle is kicking out a spicy cedar mix with a touch of earthiness thrown in
• The body seems to be hovering in the low end of medium right now and retrohale has just a slight bite and smooth yet dry cedar finish
• It took about an inch of the cigar before I can say the bitter dryness is completely gone, I’m now left with an enjoyable profile of cedar, mild baking spices and earthiness
• The whole balance of this cigar is really hitting it’s stride as I get to the halfway mark, the spices and cedar have developed nicely
• There is a bit of sweetness sneaking into the mix too, maybe like a roasted nutty caramel type of profile, very interesting.
• The earthiness is still lingering and the finish has changed from the dry start to a creamy sweetness, much, much better!
• The body and retrohale haven’t changed much as I get into the final stretch, maybe just a touch higher in the medium range on the body
• The flavors seem to have all melded together in the last third, they aren’t bad but they aren’t as interesting as they were in the middle
• The flavors stayed tasty to the nub with no harshness at all, a good finish

Final Thoughts:
I think it’s pretty easy to tell that I wasn’t a fan of the first inch of this cigar. That bitter dryness is not a great way to make a first impression. But I’m glad to say I stuck it out and kept going because this turned into a pretty good quality cigar. It had a nice array of flavors and the burn was damn near perfect. When you factor in the price you can get these at by box purchase, it makes them a worthwhile purchase. I had a few in this vitola and they all seemed to suffer from bad starts so if I were to purchase them again I’d probably opt for a larger vitola to get more of the sweet spot in the experience.

Pairings:
I took a bit of a risk with this pairing today. I’m no Lambic aficionado like Tony, but from the few I’ve had I know that they are very sweet and usually flavored with some sort of fruit such as raspberry or cherry. They are tasty, but probably not a great pairing for a cigar. So I found this lambic that doesn’t seem to be flavored, I knew it was going to be sweet but I hoped it would still work out. It’s from Lindemans brewery in Belgium and is called the Cuvee Rene. So it is sweet, but not nearly as sweet as their flavored offerings and it’s got a fair bit of carbonation. Surprisingly though, it seemed to work well with a cigar, especially one with a bit more body and a touch of spice to counteract the beers sweetness. It’s sort of hard to describe a lambic beer but I guess you could compare it to an alcoholic version of pop. This particular one has some citrus notes to it so maybe like a delicious and alcoholic version of 7UP or Sprite? I’m probably way off but that’s what I think, lol. Either way, it was tasty and went well with the cigar. Other options for the Morro Castle would be a porter or dark ale, maybe a strong coffee and even some black tea.

The Late Harvest might sound familiar to any wine aficionados we have around here. In the wine world, some grapes are harvested later in the season to produce a slightly different type of wine typically called a Late Harvest. It’s even a popular method of making Ice Wine which is a very interesting dessert wine especially common to the Niagara region wineries up here in Ontario.

Contrary to what the name actually seems to mean, the Late Harvest cigar from Viaje is not actually produced with tobacco leaves harvested later in the season. It’s trademark is actually that the filler being used is sourced from the last priming’s of the tobacco plant. These last priming’s are left on the plant slightly longer and are also exposed to the sun longer, this produces a darker, thicker, oilier and stronger leaf. The blend is said to have about 90% of it’s filler from these last priming’s.

To put the limited blend into perspective, the Late Harvest is made in 125 boxes of 35 cigars each making a grand total of 4375 cigars(if my math is right). The Late Harvest was debuted at IPCPR 2011 and it seems like Andre is planning to make a yearly release of it, although the yield could change from year-to-year. The production factory of these cigars is located in Honduras, the popular Racines Cubanas factory which is part of Casa Fernandez Cigar company.

My one gripe here is that there’s no indication on the band of the production year. Although I know this one is a 2011 release since it’s brand new, I would have liked to see an indication for future years to compare with and keep track of when aging. I guess we’ll have to be vigilant and make note of them if you’re not buying a box. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, lets see if these cigars are worth aging and worth trying out next year…

Cigar: Viaje Late Harvest
Drink: Wychwood Brewery Wychcraft Blonde Beer
Vitola: Toro (6 x 48)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: About $9.00
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The Viaje Late Harvest is a bit of a rough looking cigar with a few medium sized veins running up and down along with some bumps here and there
• The wrapper presents with a medium cinnamon brown colour with some dark speckles here and there, it’s also fairly coarse
• The top of the cigar is finished with tight little pigtail on top of a triple cap that looks clean and well applied
• A little squeeze produces almost no give, the Viaje Late Harvest is fairly firm from foot to cap
• With a quick glance at the foot it’s easy to see this is a well filled cigar with almost no gaps to be seen
• Clipping off the cap with my double bladed guillotine cutter was fairly easy and left a nice clean cut

Burn:
• The foot of the cigar lit up very quickly and easily while toasting
• The initial burn has an interesting zig-zag pattern… let’s hope it tightens up
• Zig zag seemed to calm down and although it’s a bit wavy we’re off to a better start now
• A couple small corrections were needed in the first half but they were very minor and did not affect the flavor of the cigar
• A couple other small touch-ups through the cigar but nothing major, it burned very well for the most part

Smoke & Ash:
• The Viaje Late Harvest is producing a good amount of smoke from each draw, it’s not super-thick and billowy but it’s not light either
• Resting smoke is also fairly moderate, nothing over the top but it is notable
• The ash is looking to be a pretty dark tone of grey as I smoke through the cigar
• I’m also getting some flaking so I don’t think the ash is going to last too long
• It started to look really weak at about an inch so I tapped it off into the ashtray
• As I hit the halfway mark it seems the thickness of the smoke has been slowly increasing, getting a nice billowy thickness now

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper of the Viaje Late Harvest has a fairly strong barnyard aroma to it, smells like it’s fresh from a farm!
• The foot, on the other hand, is strong with earthy and woodsy aromas followed by just a touch of peppery spice
• Pre-light draw brings an interesting mix of fresh cedar, earthiness and a touch of sweetness
• Initial draws bring more of the woodsy and earthy flavors I caught onto earlier, with a touch of very mild spices
• After a few draws there is a kick of pepper to this cigar, you can feel it on the back of your throat as well
• The Viaje Late Harvest is starting off in the mile-medium bodied range and the retrohale is giving a nice little bite with a smooth cedar finish
• The strong pepper faded as quickly as it appeared and I’m back to a nicely balanced cedar and earthy flavor profile
• There is a touch of tart sweetness that I’m picking up now and again although it’s not too strong right now
• The woodsy flavors are developing nicely and I’m getting a nice bready flavor coming in all wrapped up with a smooth and creamy finish
• The bite on the retrohale is pretty much gone now but it’s still giving me a smooth creamy cedar finish that I’m really enjoying
• As I creep into the final third, some of the spices are starting to make a comeback. It’s not the strong pepper like before but rather a more mild white pepper profile
• The Viaje Late Harvest finished on a smooth medium note with no harshness at all, I enjoyed it’s creamy finish and sweet tart cedar flavors right to the nub

Final Thoughts:
This was an interesting and unique cigar and I’m glad I was able to give it a try. As I mentioned, my access to Viaje cigars is pretty limited so it’s always a treat when I get a few sent to me in a package and this one was not a disappointment. It had an interesting variety of flavors that were very well balanced along with a smooth creamy finish to round it all out. The burn had a couple small touch ups but nothing worth complaining about. Considering the type of filler used here I was expecting a much stronger cigar but I ended up with a smooth medium bodied stick that I really enjoyed. The price on these is also fairly reasonable considering the limited production runs they are offered in. If you can track down some of these they are definitely worth a try. I’m curious to see if they change much from year-to-year…

Pairings:
Today I have another offering from Wychwood Breweries. Just recently, I tried out their winter ale called “Bah Humbug” with the Tatuaje TAA and I’ve also done a full review of their buby beer called Hobgoblin. This particular brew is their Blonde beer called Wychcraft. It clocks in at a light 4.5% alc./vol. and is triple hopped and filtered. It made for a perfect midday beer with lots of citrusy and malty flavors to it. An interesting combination since most blondes don’t carry too much of the malts with them, but I guess that’s where the triple hopped process makes a difference. I found that the Wychwood Breweries Wychcraft paried quite well with the Viaje Late Harvest. The cirtusy sweetness of the beer complimented that tart sweetness that sometimes made an appearance in the cigar and neither of them over-powered the other. I’d recomend sticking with a lighter pairing similar to the Wychcraft with the Viaje Late Harvest, choice such as a thick stout or strong coffee might drown out the cigars flavors.

(Sorry Lou, I just couldn’t get rid of the goatee! lol)

Before announcing all our winners, I’d like to send a big thanks to Paul Maldonado of The Maldonado Dynasty for all of his awesome support during the fund raiser and his generous donation of a box of “The Mogul”. As you know by know, we’ll be giving away 5-packs of “The Mogul” cigars to 4 lucky winners along with a 5-pack form my personal humidor. My sincerest thanks goes out to you Paul!

Paul Maldonado would also like to share a short message with all our readers, here’s what he has to say:

The Maldonado Dynasty of Beverly Hills would like to thank Tony Casas and Daniel Temos at Casas Fumando for offering us this great opportunity to contribute in the fight against cancer. We thank all of you who supported Daniel in this noble campaign and congratulate the Winners! Enjoy our Ultra-Luxurious, Super-Premium cigar “The Mogul,” and keep up with The Maldonado Dynasty at MaldonadoDynasty.com, “Always demand the finest.”

We also wish to announce that we are in the middle of planning our tour schedule for 2012 and look forward to meeting you in person soon. We are also very proud to announce that The Maldonado Black & White Jazz Affair benefiting charities will be hosted in a limited engagement across major U.S. cities.

Respectfully,
Paul Maldonado
President/C.E.O.

Thank you for the kind words Paul!
Now without further adieu, let’s get to the prizes!

Prize #1: 5-pack from Daniel’s Personal Humidor

I mentioned in my Week 1 post(read it here) that I would be giving away 5 cigars of my own to a random person.
The winner of this prize is: Lou Bozzelli

Prize #2: 5-pack of the Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul”

The first prize of “The Mogul” goes to the person who kindly donated the most amount of money to my Movember campaign. Clocking in at a SUPER generous $50…
The winner of this prize is:Brent Cossairt

Prize #3: 5-pack of the Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul”

This prize goes to the person who came up with the best name for my stash, you can see them posted in the comments section of my Week 2 and Week 4 updates. Paul was given the honor of choosing from the hilarious list of names. The name chosen as the best was “The Mo’Gul” and Paul said that it ties everything in well with the Movember Campaign and the cigar name. Well done! We had some funny ones that I’ll post at the bottom for a good laugh. So who came up with that name…
The winner of this prize is:Jeff Oda

Prize #4: 5-pack of the Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul”

This prize pack winner was chosen at random from the list of people who generously donated to my Movember Campaign.
The winner of this prize is:Craig Vanderslice

Prize #5: 5-pack of the Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul”

Similar to the above, this prize pack winner was also chosen at random from the list of people who generously donated to my Movember Campaign.
The winner of this prize is:Charlie Greenbacker

For all the winners, please email CasasFumando[at]gmail.com with your address. I want to send out a giant THANK YOU to everyone who supported me! As one final laugh for the Movember campaign, I leave you with the awesome Stash names that you all came up with and my favorite picture from Movember.

• The Conquistador
• Lil Danny boy
• IL Dulce
• The Larry-Curly
• Dalamoustachio
• The Toronto Tickler
• The ‘Mo’-gul
• The ‘Stache With Te’mos
• The Little Mo-maid
• The Magnum
• The Mooooostache
• The Yosemite Sam

Yesterday I took advantage of the fact that all my clients would be off celebrating. I decided to stay home and light up a good cigar with a tall glass of beer and enjoy the slightly warmer weather. I decided to sit down with this years Monster release from Tatuaje, dubbed the Wolfman. If you didn’t know, Pete Johnson has been releasing a Halloween themed cigar each year for the past few years and it’s called the Monster Series.

Last year, Tatuaje released “The Face” which we reviewed here. Before that you would have seen the Boris, Frank or Drac. Each one is inspired by a horror creature from a story or film. This years Wolfman release is no different, named after the infamous werewolf. The cigars came packed in a limited selection of dress boxes with 13 cigars as well as a slightly larger release of 10-count plain boxes. They were sold out very quickly across the country so I’m glad I was able to snag a few to get a review in.

The Wolfman comes in with a shaggy foot to keep inline with the character of the cigar. Pete wanted to give it a sort of “ugly” unfinished look to match the theme. Other than the shaggy foot, the cigar looks to be of excellent construction. The band on this cigar also has one new thing from the older Monster Series sticks. On the sides of the band you can see “MONSTER” and “HALLOWEEN” written beside the normal Tatuaje name. Normally, there was nothing else on the bands aside from the brand.

Now I know I’m coming in a little late to the game with this review but it did take quite a bit of digging and asking around to get these cigars. Especially up here to Canada where they aren’t sold and very few B&M’s are even willing to ship to. Tony’s local shops also don’t seem to get these in so we were both in a bit of a bind trying to track a few down. Alas, determination leads to success and I got them. So here I am, sitting down and getting ready to light this cigar and write down my thoughts for your reading pleasure.

Cigar: Tatuaje Wolfman – Monster Series 2011
Drink: Trafalgar Ales & Meads – Smoked Oatmeal Stout
Vitola: Box-Pressed Torpedo (7.5 x 52)
Wrapper: Sumatran
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: MSRP $13
Burn Time: a little under 2 hours

Construction:
• The Tatuaje Wolfman is a nice looking cigar with a chestnut brown wrapper
• The wrapper is slightly rough with some veins running through it but none look to be large or worrisome
• The whole cigar actually feels a little soft when squeezed
• The cap is finished with extreme care and blends into the cigar with ease, the foot is left uncovered and shaggy but still looks to be fairly well packed
• Cap cut cleanly and easily and left me with an easy draw, make sure not to cut too much off this cigar or it will be very open
• As soon as I finished burning past the unfinished foot the draw got super-tight so I needed to cut the cap a bit more and now we’re all happy

Burn:
• Toasting seems fairly easy and even and took a good 30 seconds or so to get the foot glowing, I was expecting a messy toasting with the unfinished foot but it wasn’t messy at all
• Burn got off to a wonky start on one side that needed a quick correction early on
• After that correction, things have been burning a lot smoother with a nice sharp and even line
• Another small correction as I pass the halfway mark, nothing major and didn’t affect the flavors

Smoke & Ash:
• There’s a ton of smoke from each draw as I’ve come to expect from pretty much all of Pete Johnson’s cigar, he really knows how to nail the thick billowy smoke
• The ash from the unfinished foot was super weak and fell off quickly, before I even had a chance to snap a picture
• Seems that suicidal ash is the trend today, lost the first two ash to the floor after about an inch each, sigh…
• The ash seems to be fairly weak and a little bit messy with a light grey color to it
• Considering there is so much smoke on the draw, the isn’t much resting smoke to be found on the cigar and it’s giving off a nice cedar aroma

Tasting Notes:
• The aroma off the wrapper is slightly sweet with a peppery touch
• The foot adds a hefty helping of cedar added to the sweet and spicy notes
• Pre-light draw brought more of the cedar to the mix, quite a nice flavor
• Initial draws after lighting were mixed mostly of cedar and a spicy pepper undertone, no sweetness at this point
• The pepper seems to be staying as a soft undertone but now I’m getting some other more interesting spices in the mix, mainly like a nutmeg or clove type of flavor
• I’m also picking up on some leathery and earthy notes on this cigar, lots of flavors going on here
• The cedar flavors continue to dominate and I think I’m getting some coffee notes in the mix now too but that might be the stout I’m pairing with
• The body of the cigar has been a nice comfortable medium since the start, a good well balanced smoke so far
• The retrohale brings with it a slight peppery bite and smooth cedar finish
• A little past the halfway mark I’m starting to pick up a little bit of that initial sweetness, let’s hope it develops a little more
• The sweetness didn’t really develop any further and faded soon after, but the coffee and cedar really grew together into a nice mix
• All the flavors slowly ramped up near the 2 inches but the body stayed in a nice smooth medium range
• No harsh or bitterness right to the nub, enjoyed every last cedar and coffee filled draw

Final Thoughts:
I think Pete Johnson has another winner in the ever popular Monster Series of cigars from Tatuaje. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s his best ever but these are tasty right out of the box and they seem to have some aging potential as well. Other than a couple minor touch-ups the cigar burned fairly well and offered a lot of complexity to the palate that kept me interested the whole way through. And that is sometimes a hard task when the cigar is this length of vitola, I tend to have a short attention span, lol! The Wolfman was quite balanced and smooth through the whole experience and I enjoyed it from start to finish. They are getting harder and harder to come by each year (especially for a Canadian!) so I’m glad I was able to grab a few. If you manage to find some, definitely pick a couple up for a special occasion!

Pairings:
Today’s brew comes from a local brewery called Trafalgar Ales & Meads which is located about 45min from where I live in a place called Oakville, Ontario. I don’t actually see many other brews from these guys but I have picked up this brew a few times. It’s called the Smoked Oatmeal Stout. The first time I saw this I thought it was going to have a heavy smoked flavor like a scotch or something, but that’s not the case at all. It’s actually a fairly light stout but it’s got the most head out of any beer I’ve seen before. I mean if you shake this bottle even a tiny bit, it’s going to explode when you crack it open. And pouring it takes like 30min to let the foam settle, it’s ridiculous but worth it. The flavors you get are chocolate, coffee and a malty deliciousness that mix together so well. The array of flavors also makes for an excellent pairing for nearly any medium to full cigar, it would easily overpower a mild stick though. I think a nice Tawny Port would have gone excellently with the Wolfman or possibly even a strong coffee or black tea.

As you should know by now, our friend Paul from The Maldonado Dynasty has graciously donated a whole box of “The Mogul” cigars to help raise money for my Movember campaign. Review of “The Mogul” can be found here. Just yesterday, he also posted a VERY interesting article/interview about his history and how The Maldonado Dynasty came to be. I highly suggest giving it a read over here: http://www.maldonadodynasty.com/dawn-of-a-dynasty.html

Don’t forget that you can also pick up a sampler pack or a box of “The Mogul” directly from the Maldonado Dynasty website: http://www.maldonadodynasty.com/The-Mogul.html

Now here’s a nice summary of how you can win one of the 5 prizes we have up for grabs:
1. Donate to my Movember campaign and help raise funds for Cancer Research
2. “Like” Casas Fumando on Facebook
3. Make up an awesome name for my Stash! See some names from the Week 2 post here

And of course, a quick reminder of the prizes up for grabs:
1. 4 prizes containing a 5-pack of Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul” Cigars
2. An awesome prize of 5 specially selected cigars from my humidor

So let’s get some more donations in before Movember officially ends next week. Every little bit helps and every little bit is truly appreciated. Hit up my Mo’ Space page and make a donation now! Lots of cigars are up for grabs so make sure you get your entry in!

As of this morning, I’m only $27 short of hitting the $500 milestone! Who’s gonna help push me over the hump?!?! Here’s the link again, make sure to get to Donating! http://www.movember.com/m/1819178 As mentioned, the local support for Movember is awesome. I was at a wedding this weekend and there were tons of people sporting a sweet stash. It was like a 70′s high school reunion or something! And in proper form, I decided to “Suit Up!” for the wedding. Here’s my best Barney Stinson impression for everyone!

Isn’t that picture Legen- wait for it…… dary?! (btw, if you’ve never watched the TV show “How I Met your Mother”, the above joke will be completely lost on you, sorry! lol)
And as a friendly reminder, let’s recap the awesome prizes up for grabs!

Thanks again to Paul from the Maldonado Dynasty for donating this awesome box of cigars to give away for this great fundraiser. Make sure to read this post for the rules on winning one of these prize packs.
And a reminder that “The Mogul” cigars are available for sale as a box or sampler pack directly on the Maldonado Dynasty website

The next prize is…

I’m donating these out of the goodness of my heart to help raise some Mo’ money! Here’s the post with the rules on how you can win this great prize!

So best of luck to everyone, and let’s get some more money raised for this awesome cause! Thanks for everyone’s support so far! And just in case you missed my 1000000000000 links above, here’s the link one more time! haha http://www.movember.com/m/1819178

I’ve raised over $400 already and I hope to keep pushing on! If you haven’t donated on my Movember page yet, please be sure to do so! You will get entry to win a fantastic cigar prize pack for every dollar you donate. Make sure to read the contest post I made last week to see what you could win.

Now for this weeks EXCITING NEWS! Paul Maldonado of the Maldonado Dynasty contacted me last week after seeing my initiative on the Movember Campaign. He was very impressed and proud that I was giving away a Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul” as part of my awesome prize pack for the Movember Contest that he went ahead and one-upped me! Paul is sending us an ENTIRE BOX OF “THE MOGUL” TO GIVEAWAY as part of my Movember Campaign!!! How awesome is that?! Thanks so much to Paul and the Maldonado Dynasty for offering up this awesome bonus for such a great cause.

Paul also gave me a little news to give out to our faithful readers. If you haven’t read about “The Mogul” yet, be sure to check out my review I posted awhile back. It’s clear to see I really enjoyed that cigar and I’ve smoked my way through almost 2 boxes ever since. A lot of people who follow us on Twitter and Facebook have asked how they can get their hands on “The Mogul” to try it themselves. As of this moment, boxes of the Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul” are available directly on their website located here: http://www.maldonadodynasty.com/The-Mogul.html

Now for those people who like to sample their cigars before committing to a box, you’re in luck! Paul told me that “The Mogul” will be available for sale as a Sampler pack of 5 starting this week! A picture of the cigars included in the pack will be available next week. So make sure to order yourself a sampler and if you trust my judgement, go ahead and purchase a whole box, you won’t be disappointed! Here is the link one more time: http://www.maldonadodynasty.com/The-Mogul.html

So I bet you’re asking, “How do I win some of the Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul” for myself?” Well, we decided we aren’t going to give the entire box away but rather we are going to split it up into 4 separate prize packs of 5-cigars so more people get a chance to try this tasty cigar! Since these were donated as part of the Movember Fund Raiser/Contest, the only way you can win these is by donating (the rules for the original 5-pack I posted about last week will still stand for that prize)

“The Mogul” 5-Pack #1 – Most Donated $$$ for Movember
“The Mogul” 5-Pack #2 – Funniest name for my stash or campaign (Posted in the comments below)
“The Mogul” 5-Pack #3 – Random selection from Donation List on my Movember Page
“The Mogul” 5-Pack #4 – Random selection from Donation List on my Movember Page
Daniel’s 5 Pack! – Don’t forget I’m still giving away my Awesome 5-pack I posted about in my Movember Contest last week.

Now remember, you MUST DONATE TO RECEIVE ONE OF THE ABOVE PRIZE PACKS. At least $1 to be entered for these prize packs and every additional dollar gets you entry into the prize I posted last week in the Movember Contest. So get out your wallets and start donating folks, it all goes towards a great cause!

Now let’s see some funny Stash Names for my Mo’ in the comments below!

Now if you havn’t heard of Movember before let me give you a brief summary pulled from their website:

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces around the world. With their “Mo’s”, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face. For the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words, they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

The whole event started a few years ago in Australia and has quickly become a global phenomenon. I work frequently with people across the globe at the office and I’m hard-pressed to find someone that hasn’t heard of Movember before. In 2010 alone this movement raised well over $70 million dollars for Prostate Cancer and Men’s Health research!

So now you’re all wondering, what do I do and what can I win? To help promote this awesome event I’m giving away this awesome 5 pack of cigars. Make a donation here and you could win the following:

Here’s a list of the cigars and links to the reviews if we have it on our site:
-Arturo Fuente Opus X Perfecxion No. 5
-E.P. Carrillo New Wave Connecticut Robusto
-Cohiba Siglo VI (box date is from 2006!)
-Maldonado Dynasty “The Mogul”
-San Cristobal Robusto

What I will be doing is posting an update every week for the “Status update” of my ‘Mo’. Cheap shots are permitted, but only if you donate first! lol

So how do you win the cigars? Here are the 3 ways to gain entries for this contest:
1. Visit my Movember page and make a donation. You will earn 1 ENTRY FOR EVERY DOLLAR YOU DONATE!
2. “Like” us on our facebook page to get 1 entry (You already have the entry if you’ve “liked” us before)
3. Post this on Facebook or Tweet this twitter, make sure to mention me or Casas Fumando in it: “Casas Fumando is giving away FREE cigars and raising Movember money for Charity, go here and donate! http://wp.me/pNC63-1op”

So please use the donate option and let’s raise some money! If we get a good amount of response from this we will be adding additional prizes and I’ll let you know if that’s happening in one of my weekly updates. Keep a lookout for those! the contest will run until the end of November but please get your donations in early!

So please visit my “Mo Space” page here and donate, it’s all for a great cause! And without further delay, here is my launch day picture for week 1, freshly shaven and ready to grow my Mo’!

So the pairing I decided on today to celebrate Halloween is the Grimalkin by Emilio Cigars. If you’ve been following our reviews over the last couple months you would have seen Tony post up two reviews from Emilio, the AF1 BMF and the AF2 Toro. If you take a glance through Tony’s reviews you’ll see that he enjoyed both of them quite a bit. I also had the chance to smoke them and thought they were both quite enjoyable. So does the Grimalkin continue that trend?

If you haven’t heard of Emilio Cigars don’t be surprised. They’ve been making a larger splash in the market recently but up until a few months ago I hadn’t really heard of them either. They are slowly expanding distribution and getting a name out for themselves. You can check the Emilio Cigars website for information on retailers near you that carry their products. Emilio Cigars is owned by Gary Griffiths and there isn’t too much info available on this cigar.

From what I can find, the Grimalkin is made in Esteli, Nicaragua from selected and limited tobaccos. The yield of this cigar is limited based on the harvest amounts of the various tobaccos. So what this basically means is that each year will have a different production amount based on the amount of required tobaccos they manage to harvest. I like this approach, it’s fairly practicle and it’s not limiting production to a set amount of boxes every year. A quick google search shows them available in a few shops so that’s a good sign as well.

Now I found the band here to be kind of interesting… The name “Grimalkin” seems sort of like some creepy monster, maybe like a more evil Gremlin, and it goes nicely with the ominous yellow cat-like eyes on the wrapper. What seems odd to me is that the text is printed in curved pattern which makes it look sort of like the cat is smiling at me? Am I crazy? It’s not really an evil smile either, it looks happy to me! Seemed to take away from the spooky aspect since it made me laugh, lol. But maybe it’s just me? I’ll stop talking now… let’s get to the review!

Cigar: Emilio Cigars Grimalkin
Drink: Huyghe Brewery Delirium Nocturnum
Vitola: Robusto (5 x 52)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: about $7.00
Burn Time: 1.5 Hours

Construction:
• The is a very nicely constructed cigar that is evenly round and has almost no veins on it at all
• The wrapper is smooth and oily which compliments its dark cinnamon brown color
• The Grimalkin actually feels a tad firm along it’s whole length, I’m hoping that doesn’t mean a tight draw
• The head of the cigar is finished with a triple cap, it’s not overly neat but not messy either
• Not the foot looks to be as tightly packed as could be possible, there are almost no gaps here at all
• The cut was pretty easy considering the firmness of the cigar but the draw was definitely suffering at the start
• Within an inch the draw definitely opened up which I wasn’t expecting but is a pleasant surprise

Burn:
• Toasting took a bit longer than I expected for this vitola and got a little messy as the wrapper edges started to burn a bit
• Got started off to wavy burn and it’s continued that way through the first inch or so, hasn’t gottne worse and seems to be nice and sharp
• Burn seems to be improving slowly, staying sharp and getting straighter
• It’s actually burning very slowly and easily too, no need to constant draws to keep it lit
• The burn did round out and burned razor sharp through to the end

Smoke & Ash:
• Despite a fairly tight draw I am getting a ton of smoke each time, really fills your mouth
• The resting smoke seems non-stop but at least it’s somewhat moderate, gives off a nice aroma too
• The ash is coming along nice and clean, looks to be strong but we’ll see how long it lasts
• White is the dominant color of the ash with some light grey tones, very nice
• I knocked the first ash off at just about an inch as I could see a crack forming along it but it stayed clean and strong
• The thick billowy smoke continued to the end and so did the nice looking ash

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper aroma has an interesting cedar and grassy touch to it, I usually don’t get much grassy aromas on the wrapper
• The foot offers more woodsiness, but this time it’s just a generic chopped wood type of aroma, not really cedar. Along with that I’m getting some dirt-like earthiness and a bit of the grass aromas again
• The pre-light draw brought lots more interesting cedar and a bit of earthiness
• The initial few draws are very tasty, filled with a smooth cedar, some earthiness and a bit of a cinnamon/nutmeg/clove mixture
• The body seems to be in the low medium range at the start and comes with a small bit on the retrohale and a cedar finish
• The mixture of spices is really picking up in flavor intensity as I get near the halfway mark, I’m also picking up some coffee notes which are accenting very well
• Not sure if it was intentional at all but the mixture of flavors in this cigar seems to pair perfectly with this time of year
• As I continue, I got some toasted almond type of flavors mixing in, this keeps getting better
• The woodsiness made a big comeback in the last half, at times it seemed a little overpowering “roasted”. Not quite burnt though
• The spices, coffee and almonds are still around but with less intensity now
• The retrohale has pretty much remained the same and the body is gaining a bit of ground and more in the high range of medium now
• The general flavor profile didn’t change much in the last third and the flavors each took turns being the prominent flavor
• I was able to smoke the cigar down to my burning with almost no harshness at all, a nice finish

Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed this cigar quite a bit, not sure I would call it a top 10 or anything but it made for a good relaxing afternoon. It had a variety of flavors, burned well and kept me interested the whole time. I think the balance was a lot better in the first half but it wasn’t bad at all in the second half, just had a little more of the woodsiness versus the other flavors. The band still makes me laugh a little but oh well, lol. The flavors seemed to be perfect for fall for some reason, they reminded me of what you would find in pumpkin pie or something. I think I would definitely pick up a few more of these to keep in the humidor. The price is just a touch higher than I would want for this flavor profile, but considering it is a limited release it’s not over the top either.

Pairings:
This pairing was actually a recommendation I got from our resident Belgium beer connoisseur, Tony. I happened to find it down in Florida a couple months ago and finally decided to crack it open today. I thought the weird label fit well into the “silly spookiness” of the Grimalkin. There’s not much I can say about this label other than it looks like someone was high on something when they came up with the idea of a pink elephant dancing in a blue and yellow vortex type of thing… It is made in Belgium by the Huyghe Brewery and clocks in at a nice 8.5% alc./vol. The name itself is called the Delirium Nocturnum and claims itself to be simply a Belgian Ale. Now aside from the crazy label and interesting stone textured bottle, the brew is actually very good. It’s got a nice amount of hoppy bitterness on the finish and when it first hit’s your mouth you get a wake up call to your senses. There’s all kinds of flavors going on including a burst of fruitiness, a nice helping of malt and there’s even some roasted flavors in there. All in all, it’s a great brew and definitely worth trying if you can find it. I know they don’t sell it here in Ontario which is disappointing
Now did it pair well? Hell yes it did. Tony is lucky this time! lol. The fruit, malt and bitterness made an excellent pairing to the coffee and spices of the Grimalkin and I think it would pair excellently with a ton of different cigars and various strengths.

The Man O’ War Armada is available exclusively at Cigars.com and Cigarsinternational.com as with the other Man O’ War lines. The other blends in the series include the Ruination, and untitled Man O’ War, the Virtue, and the Puro Authentico. The Armada is the special edition of the Man O’ War line and priced rightly so for that purpose at a hefty $20 per cigar.

Now I have to say how much I love these bands. I think I mentioned this in my Man O’ War Virtue review as well. This particular band has the gold Spartan mask with hints of metallic green in it all splashed on a black background. It really stands out and gives the cigar a “mean” look! lol Maybe there’s a hint of inspiration from the “300” movie here? hehe

The boxes of these cigars are packaged in impressively made chests of 32 cigars that also include a humidifier and a hygrometer. Currently, the Man O’ War Armada is only available in a single vitola, the Toro Grande. There are also two limited edition boxes that come with a few other cigars and include an Armada. These two boxes contain the Armada in a Perfecto and Box-Pressed Robusto Vitola.

The Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper is extremely rare and all the tobaccos used undergo an extensive fermentation and aging process before being put into any cigar. The fillers in this cigar are ligero from AJ’s farm in Nicaragua, specifically the Esteli and Ometope regions. The Armada is also produced in limited quantities of only 10,000 of this cigar each year. All these key features come together to justify the higher price tag. Now all that is fine and good, but if it doesn’t have a delicious profile and excellent construction to back it up, most people probably won’t buy it right? So let’s see if it has that important last piece to the puzzle.

Cigar: Man O’ War Armada
Drink: Brights Canadian 74 Port
Vitola: Toro Grande (6.5 x 56)
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $20 MSRP
Burn Time: A little over 2 hours

Construction:
• Now this is a beefy looking cigar with mean face! The dark brown wrapper glows in the light with a nice oils it has
• The whole cigar is super smooth and evenly constructed, although it does have a few sizeable veins
• It’s also a fairly heavy stick, feels substantial and has no soft spots to be found. Just a tiny bit of spring when squeezed
• The foot of the Man O’ War Armada is finished super clean and looks fully packed
• The cap on this cigar is also damn near seamless and even the exact same color, wonderful construction all around
• The first cut was clean and easy but the filler was so packed near the cap that I barely got any draw
• I went in for a second deeper cut and the result was a little better, but still tight. The amount of filler in this cigar is beyond comparison

Burn:
• The toasting took a bit of time but rounded out nice and even with a perfect glow
• I can tell right away that this cigar is gonna burn SUPER slow, especially with all this filler
• The burn for the first bit was razor sharp and not wavy at all, it continue to burn at a turtles pace
• I’m getting a bit of a wave near the middle of the cigar, hopefully it evens itself out
• Did I mention how slow this thing is burning?!?!
• The wave in the middle corrected itself but I got another one soon after, turned into a pretty long peninsula that needed a correction
• Got another peninsula shortly after correction, just seems one part of the wrapper just stops burning
• It’s still burning super slow by the way

Smoke & Ash:
• Despite what seemed like a tight draw I’m getting super full smoke from every draw, it’s thick and creamy as it coats my palate
• There is a good amount of resting smoke coming off the cigar, not over powering, and it smells almost like the burning wood of a campfire
• The ash on this cigar is strong, clean and an awesome white color with occasional dark grey bands. With all the filler in this I would expect no less
• Although the ash looked amazingly strong, it gently fell into my ashtray after just over an inch
• The other ashes fell off on their own at a similar 1 inch length
• The smoke stayed super thick and creamy right to the end

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper has a mild coffee and cocoa aroma to it, very pleasant and light
• The foot is a different beast, bringing a full sensory aroma of cedar, floral, earthy and a touch of spice
• The pre-light draw is bursting with spices, I’m getting some pepper, cloves and maybe nutmeg, along with some cedar and earthiness
• Initial impressions are impressive, lol. I’m getting a really full and balanced cigar right off the bat. It’s not in your face but it seems so full flavored
• The flavors on the first few draws are filled with cedar, spices, earthy notes and a super smooth creamy coffee finish
• I have to stress how amazingly balanced this cigar is so early on, and the finish is so smooth and tasty, I really hope it continues
• The body is starting off in the medium range but I have a sense that this is going to be a powerhouse of a cigar (which is why I busted out my trusty port wine!)

• I’m surprised to say the retrohale is very subtle and laid back, almost no kick to it and a smooth/light cedar finish
• Just an inch or so in and the flavors gave me a nice change up. The coffee notes are much more pronounced, most of the spice is settled in although still lingers, and the smooth cedar rounds out the profile nicely
• Did I mention how wonderfully balanced this cigar is?!?!
• I’m getting another tasty change-up just past the halfway mark. Although I feel the body increasing the flavors are getting a touch sweeter and I’m also picking up some vanilla and cocoa notes
• The spice is making rare appearances in more prominent bursts, then settles nicely into the background
• The intensity of the flavors and body is really starting to burst out in the last third, but it’s still balanced amazingly well
• It seems like all the flavors are making a comeback and playing nicely together now, coffee, cedar, earthy, spicy, vanilla-y (lol?), sweetness and a touch of cocoa
• I’m finally getting a bit of a nice bite in the retrohale now but still nothing over powering, still keeping the smooth cedar finish as well
• The body is really shining through into the full range now
• The flavors started to fade a bit in the last inch and I was left with mostly woodsy and leathery notes. Very surprised to get very little harshness on such a full cigar

Final Thoughts:
I’ll admit I had my reservations going into this cigar. I haven’t had too many AJ cigars that wowed me but I also haven’t had any of his newer ones. Also, with a $20 price tag, this cigar set the bar high from the start. I have to say I’m not at all disappointed and it was $20 well spent! The flavors in this cigar were excellent and the balance of them all with incredibly spot on. It kept me on my toes and going back for more to see what flavor would be the dominant one on the next draw. My only real complaint here might be the draw, which was a bit tight even after a few pokes with a toothpick. But the construction on this cigar was something to admire and AJ Fernandez’s skills in the blending department definitely shined through! The price may be out of range for most people to purchase a box but I think it’s definitely worth getting a few to sit in the humidor for a special occasion. Take note that this cigar does have some kick and power behind it, so pick your pairings well and don’t give it to a new cigar smoker as they may not be able to fully enjoy the complexity and balance that this cigar offers. Perhaps this will be a contender on our 2011 list??

Pairings:
I was pretty excited when I found this bottle at my local liquor store. More Port wines are produced in Portugal and it’s fairly uncommon to find them produced by many other wineries. I’ve only come across a small handful that are made in Canada and this one happens to be from one of my favorite wine regions, Niagara, Ontario. The winery is called Brights and this particular bottle is called Canadian 74 Port. I fully plan to visit the winery on my next road trip to the Niagara region and see what else they have. Why you ask? Well, because this port is fantastic! It has a light start with cherry, current and blackberry fruit notes along with a woodsy touch. But the real treat is the finish, when it builds in body and gives you a full heavy red wine flavor, similar to the Merlot wines I’ve come to love from the Niagara region. It’s incredibly tasty and I will definitely be buying more, especially at a super cheap price tag of only $12 even after all the ridiculous liquor taxes here.

But the question is, did it pair well with the Man O’ War Armada? You’re damn right it did! the light fruity start complimented the flavors of the cigar extremely well and the full smooth finish contended the full body of the cigar perfectly. This was a powerful cigar but I find a good port wine really helps counteract any nicotine effects you might feel. I’m not sure there is a better pairing for this cigar but if I had to choose I might pick out a smooth aged scotch or possibly a strong cuban coffee with a couple sugars to combat the nicotine. A full stout might also work well here.

Nestor Miranda is the founder of the Miami Cigars and Company and has recently started producing his own blends that come attached to his name. These include the Nestor Miranda Collection 1989, the newer Nestor Miranda Special Selection and the recent Casa Miranda. The Art Deco cigar also carries the Nestor Miranda blend and is currently sold in 3 vitolas, all of which are over 50 ring gauge.

The Art Deco is a joint effort effort between Nestor Miranda & José Pepin Garcia. I think we all know that Don Garcia is no stranger to success in the cigar industry and if he has a hand in the blending, you can usually be guaranteed it will be a quality cigar. The blend consists of 60% Nicaraguan Corojo 99 and 40% Dominican San Vicente, plus Dominican Criollo ’98 & Nicaraguan Habano 2000 binders rolled and triple-capped in dark, shimmering Nicaraguan Corojo ’06.

I actually picked up this cigar as part of a box set which included 4 Nestor Miranda Special Selection Ruky’s (2 Oscuro and 2 Rosado) along with an Art Deco. I’ve also enjoyed a few singles of the Robusto Grande vitola bought separately. I want to mention how awesome I think this band is. It’s so retro and different and the colors really pop. The cigars are also packaged in retro tins with the same neat design. But as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover! So I think that’s enough chatter, let’s get onto the review

Cigar: Nestor Miranda Art Deco
Drink: Unibroue Don De Dieu
Vitola: Robusto Grande (5.5 x 54)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo ’06
Binder: Dominican Criollo ’98 & Nicaraguan Habano ’00
Filler: Nicaraguan Corojo ’99 & Dominican San Vincente
Price: $8.50
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• This looks to be a wonderfully constructed cigar, very even in diameter with a dark golden brown wrapper
• The whole cigar is very firm when squeezed and has almost no bumps on the wrapper
• The head of the cigar is finished off with an extremely clean triple cap, it’s easy to see some extra care went into making this cigar
• The foot looks to be mostly well packed with a one gap that looks a bit under-filled
• The cut was fairly easy despite the firmness of the cigar
• The draw seems to be a bit more open than I’d typically like but it’s not terrible
• Seems that the draw tightened up a bit near the halfway mark making for a perfect draw each time

Burn:
• The cigar toasting was very easy with a short time frame to get the foot evenly glowing
• The initial burn was a bit wavy but it quickly corrected itself and started burning razor sharp after that
• Through the first half I have no complaints about the burn here, it’s still razor sharp and requires zero attention from me

Smoke & Ash:
• The smoke from each draw is fairly full but it’s actually not that thick in density
• The resting smoke here is almost non existent at times, it’s a very friendly cigar to have while non-smokers may be nearby
• The ash is starting off with a nice light gray color and looks to be tight and clean
• I’m getting some awesome striping on the ash and its staying clean and strong
• It lasted nearly 2 inches before making an awesome nosedive into the ashtray. A perfect 10 anyone???
• The next ash only lasted about an inch but it stayed clean and crisp and fell off easily into the ashtray

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper on this cigar gives a strong earthy and barnyard aroma with a touch of cedar
• The aroma on the foot carries through with the earthy and cedar notes but adds in a slightly sweet spice, maybe of raw cinnamon
• The pre-light daw brings an interesting mix of sweet notes on top of the cedar, possibly some dried cherries
• Initial flavors are stong in the cedar department with that slightly dried cherry taste in there, very interesting!
• The cedar has stuck around through the first inch but the initial sweetness has tapered off a bit
• For the most part, the cigar has started off in the low end of the medium range with a small bite on the retrohale
• As I continue along, I’m getting a bit of leather and the initial earthy aromas are making an appearance in the flavor department now
• As I pass the halfway mark, the mix of cedar, leather and earth has me seeking a little something more. It’s not bad or harsh but I feel like there’s something missing since the sweetness disappeared…
• As the cigar continued I started getting a bit of the sweetness returning here and there along with some slight nuttiness
• The body is building ever so slowly in the last third, heading into the high medium range
• Some toasted nutty/almond flavors are making this last third a lot more interesting along with the dried cherry sweetness that keeps rearing it’s head here and there
• The nice final mixture of flavors stuck through to the nub with almost no harshness, a very nice finish

Final Thoughts:
As with all of the Miami Cigar offerings I seem to come into them with high hopes. They’ve had such a great track record recently that I only expect the best. The Nestor Miranda Art Deco is a well balanced cigar with a variety of flavors. The first and last 3rds of the cigar were interesting and kept me on my toes but the middle portion seemed to lack something. The burn was excellent the whole way through and overall construction was top notch. The price is also very reasonable so it’s something I would probably buy again, perhaps in the Coffee Break vitola (4.5 x 50). I think that size may be the sweet spot and keep the interesting flavors going from start to finish. If you like a good medium smoke with an interesting profile these are worth checking out.

Added note: I asked Tony his thoughts here and he’s only smoked the Coffee Break vitola and loved it. I’ve only had the Robusto Grande, so I think my guess that a smaller vitola would make this cigar great is probably a good guess!

Pairings:
So this beer comes with a funny sort of story.  I’ve done a few other reviews with Unibroue brews and always loved them, not to mention they are also Canadian which is a plus in my eyes!  Unfortunately, most of their brews are actually not even available for me to purchase cause of the ridiculous taxes and restrictions in my province. The brewery is only about a 5 hour drive away, but it’s in another province… So, I actually picked this bottle up in Florida. Yes, that’s right. I drove 1600 miles away from the brewery to actually buy it! I guess that speaks to the silliness of our taxes here! lol
Enough of my complaining, let’s move onto the actual beer. I had no idea what to expect from this as I’ve never had it before and the bottle doesn’t really explain what type of beer it is. The name of this beer, “Don De Dieu” literally translates to “Gift from God” so I figured it can’t be that bad!
After doing a bit of research, I found out this is a triple fermented wheat beer that is also unfiltered, giving it a cloudy appearance in the glass. The flavors in this brew are excellent, mixing a little bit of fruit, maybe some vanilla and very smooth malty finish. This is not your average wheat beer though, it packs in 9% ABV and the triple fermentation without filtration makes it feel a lot fuller bodied than you might expect. I found it to be an excellent pairing with the Nestor Miranda Art Deco as it offered up lots of interesting flavors. I think a fine tawny port would also be an excellent pairing here or perhaps keep it simple with a dark soda.

Smoke Inn’s Microblend Series is aimed at reproducing the effects that Microbreweries have had in the beer industry. As many of you know, microbreweries have made a big impact in their industry and really opened up the market to new types of beers that a lot of larger breweries don’t seem to try. Stepping out of the comfort zone as some would say. Smoke Inn has done the same thing and is making use of smaller yield tobaccos to produce new blends that would previously not have been created. They have also utilized a variety of different manufacturers to achieve very different flavor profiles.

I’m not gonna lie here, Padron is a brand that I typically enjoy everything that they do. They clearly have a name in the industry that speaks to their high quality and excellent blending. Their 1964 Anniversary Series is part of their more premium line of cigars and with that they always carry a larger price tag. In my experience, the higher price tags on this line are usually justified by smooth, tasty cigars and perfectly burning tobacco leaves.

Converse to what you might expect from Padron, the SI-15 blend made form Smoke Inn is a huge vitola (6 x 60 to be exact). The Padron lines are usually available in a variety of smaller vitolas with the occasional larger ones and I found it odd to see a single blend made only in this larger vitola. I should make note that I’m not a huge fan of these large ring gauge cigars. It seems that I always run into burn issues, or draw issues or just a plain bland profile from too much filler. From what I could gather, the blend doesn’t really differ from other vitolas in the 1964 line but since there is so much more filler, the cigar has it’s own unique profile. Let see if that holds true and read on through my review! (Cheesy, I know… lol)

Cigar: Padron 1964 Anniversary Series SI-15 Natural – Smoke Inn Exclusive
Drink: Sierra Nevada Stout
Vitola: SI-15 (6 x 60)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: Gifted by Smoke Inn ($18.50 MSRP)
Burn Time: About 2 hours

Construction:
• This is a hefty looking cigar with a significant ring gauge and a slightly box pressed look
• There are quite a few visible veins along the length of the wrapper but none seem to e large enough to cause any burn issues
• The color of the wrapper is a very soft medium brown and gives off a slight shimmer in the light, showing some of it’s nice oily qualities
• Surprisingly, the top of this massive cigar is covered by only a single cap, and it does a good clean job of it too!
• The whole cigar is consistently firm when squeezed with very little give
• From the foot, you can see some gaps in the filler, hopefully this won’t lead to any tunnel issues which I seem to run into often with larger ring gauge cigars
• My double bladed guillotine cutter was barely able to fit on this huge ring gauge, but it managed to get a nice clean cut
• The draw is very open even with my small cut

Burn:
• Toasting was a bit uneven as can be expected with larger ring gauge cigars
• Burn is going very well through the first inch, it was a messy start but I’m happy to see a good auto-correction!
• The cigar is also allowing me to smoke it slowly without any problems or worries about it going out
• Through to the half way marked I’m impressed by a razor sharp burn
• I started to get some wavy burn in the last couple of inches which needed a couple small corrections

Smoke & Ash:
• I’m getting surprisingly less smoke than I was expecting, perhaps a downside of the very open draw
• In hindsight, I think I should have gone with a V-Cut or Punch with this cigar
• The resting smoke on this Smoke Inn Padron 1964 SI-15 is fairly minimal and gives off a pleasant woodsy aroma
• The ash has a very nice white color to it with only a few spots of black here and there
• It’s also holding on strongly with no flaking or curving
• First ash lasted nearly two inches before gently being tapped off into the ashtray
• The smoke picked up thickness around the halfway mark and now I’m getting a big mouthful from each draw
• Second ash also held nice and clean for nearly two inches, great construction as I would expect from Padron

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper on this cigar has a typical Padron aroma, giving off slight hints of coffee and some tobacco sweetness
• The foot seems to tell a bit of a different story, it had a lot more sweetness to it, mixed with some cocoa and a touch of spice
• The pre-light draw tastes mostly of tobacco and a bit of earthy notes, nothing exciting about this part of the cigar
• Right off the initial draw I get a very interesting baked bread type of flavor
• I have to note that this cigar is extremely awkward for me to hold and smoke, it’s just too large of a ring gauge than what I’m used to
• Along with the baked bread flavors, the Smoke Inn Exclusive Padron 1964 SI-15 has some mildly bitter coffee flavors and slight hint of sweetness once in a while
• The body of this cigar is starting off in the higher end of mild, it’s not quite medium. From the retrohale I get a small bite a smooth cedar finish
• The bitter coffee flavors continue to develop nicely and I’m really enjoying them. There is also some cedar and spice sneaking in as the sweetness disappears
• The body is slowly creeping into the medium category as the coffee flavors turn into the wonderful bittersweet espresso flavors I’ve come to love from most Padrons
• The bitter espresso notes have really taken control with about 2 inches left to go
• I’m also getting hints of a strong bitter chocolate here and there along with some cedar, a very tasty profile I must say!
• The bitterness turned a tad harsh in the last inch, but nothing terrible

Final Thoughts:
I’m pleasantly surprised to say I really enjoyed this cigar. I came into this with some serious skepticism about the vitola as my experiences with 6 x 60′s has been fairly poor. This cigar did not suffer from those same problems! The flavors were not muted by all the filler and the burn was spot-on even after a poor toasting (for the most part). Despite the larger ring gauge, the Padron 1964 Anniversary Series SI-15 kept the signature flavors I’ve come to enjoy in all the Padrons I’ve smoked. I think Smoke Inn has a definite winner of an exclusive on their hands here. Be sure to check out their website and order some to try if you can. They are a bit on the high scale in terms of pricing but if you compare to other Padron 1964′s it’s on par, and so is the flavor! If you are a fan of 6×60′s this is definitely something to add to your wishlist! You can buy there here from the Smoke Inn eShop.

Pairings:
Sierra Nevada is a brand that I can’t get locally, it seems they have absolutely no distribution in Ontario that I know of. So I picked this up along with the rest of my beer haul from Florida. I’m a big fan of stouts and porters and in general, they are hard for me to find locally. As you might guess from it’s name, the Sierra Nevada brewery is located in California and today Im enjoying their Stout with my Smoke Inn Exclusive Padron 1964 SI-15. The Sierra Nevada Stout is surprisingly smooth with a slightly bitter and full flavored maltiness. I was actually expecting this brew to be a bit thicker but it’s not as thick as other stouts while still maintaining a nice full flavor. It has a very long finish on the palate and leaves some bitter chocolate and coffee notes. This was an excellent pairing for the Padron 1964 SI-15 and complimented the flavors so well since they actually had similar flavor profiles. I would also recommend a strong coffee or port with this cigar, I think both would match nicely!

So today I bring you the AVO 80th Anniversary cigar. The AVO brand was started by a Musician and Composer by the name of Avo Uvezian and was founded in 1988. The brand was met with open arms and soon after in 1995 the AVO brand was bought by Davidoff. Avo Uvezian remained very much a part of the company and still is. The cigars are made in the Dominican Republic in the same factory as Davidoff.

Many years ago, Avo Uvezian began releasing some special limited edition blends to celebrate his birthday. Most recently, the AVO 85th Anniversary was released. Today’s cigar marked Avo’s 80th birthday back in 2006 so it has roughly 5 years of age on it. Each of these limited editions is only released in one size, and the 80th Anniversary size was selected to be a Belicoso. Also make sure to check out Tony’s review of the AVO LE2010.

The cigar is made with a unique blend of 4 leaves in the filler. They are all from the Dominican Republic and consist of select Ligero and Seco grades of Piloto & San Vicente tobaccos. The cigar is finished with a beautiful Ecuadorian Sun-grown wrapper with a very nice shine and feel to it. What I like about this Limited Edition line by Avo is they always seem to produce a good number of cigars. So even though they are limited it’s fairly easy for the average person to grab a few and they aren’t reserved for the hardcore cigar hunters out there.

Cigar: AVO 80th Anniversary
Drink: Duchy Originals Organic Old Ruby Ale
Vitola: Belicoso (6 x 52)
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sun-Grown
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic
Price: About $15
Burn Time: 1.5 Hours

Construction:
• The cigar is wrapper with a smooth and oily cinnamon brown tobacco leaf
• As with most tapered heads, the cap is composed of one smooth leaf that wraps around the cigar about 4 times
• The cigar is fairly even in diameter throughout with only a few smaller veins that are visible
• The firmness when squeezed offers very little give, a pretty firm cigar from end to end
• Foot appears very well packed which goes in line with the firmness I feel
• The cap clipped very clean and left me with a good draw
• The bands had a fair bit of glue on them and ended up taking a chuck of the wrapper with them

Burn:
• Toasting was nice and even and seemed to start the cigar off right
• First couple of inches are burning beautifully
• I like the fact that the cigar is staying lit without the need for me to constantly draw on it
• Going into the last third, I’m still super happy with the burn, no problems at all
• The cigar finished up with no issues at all in the burn department

Smoke & Ash:
• The first draw set the pace here with a big mouthful of smoke
• Even the resting smoke is fairly abundant
• The ash is showing to be strong and clean with a mostly white color to it
• Despite it’s strong and clean look, the ash fell off after about an inch
• Second ash had a sky diving accident and decided to take a plunge to the floor, but still held on for about an inch before falling to it’s doom
• All in all, the ash continued to stay nice and clean, just a bit weak

Tasting Notes:
• The aroma on the wrapper is mostly of sweet tobacco and cedar
• The foot offers the same tobacco sweetness aroma but adds to it some strong raw nutmeg
• The pre-light draw has a strong musty wood flavor to it with some more of the raw nutmeg spice
• Initial draws are not too exciting so far, I’m getting more of that mustiness with an interesting bit of bready flavors
• The musty flavors have sort of turned into a peat type of flavor, similar to a peaty scotch, very interesting
• The body of this cigar is in the mild-medium range so far and has a fairly dry finish
• I get more of the musty/peaty notes in the retrohale with a woodsy smooth finish
• The cigar is well balanced and smooth with a woodsy smooth finish
• There is an interesting mixture of spice making an appearance now and then, definitely some pepper and the original nutmeg
• Pushing into the last third, I’m getting some nice roasted nutty flavors mixed in the peaty and woodsy notes
• The body is also slowly creeping up on this cigar, getting to the higher end of the medium range
• The last third of the cigar is still progressing in body
• The flavors here have also intensified here with the peaty and nutty flavors being dominant and balanced nicely with the spice
• I’m also getting an odd cooling feeling after each draw, almost like a menthol but somewhat enjoyable and without the nasty taste, lol
• Smoked this down until my fingers were burning with no harshness at all

Final Thoughts:
This was an interesting cigar to say the least and I’m glad I had the chance to enjoy a few of them. It’s another cigar that I have to say had a very unique flavor profile to me. The strong peaty and musty notes is something I haven’t really had with this intensity before. Simply put, this cigar kept me interested the whole way through. The burn and ash were also superb on this cigar which gave me the chance to just sit back and enjoy the flavors(minus the one sky diving incident). The AVO 80th Anniversary is definitely something worth trying. The price is a bit high so I’m not sure I could justify a box of these, but having a few to try is worth it. It may be a profile you will love and opt for the box anyway. Although these were limited production cigar were released a few years ago I was still able to track some websites and B&M’s carrying them. So grab one and enjoy!

Pairings:
Today’s pairing is a new one I stumbled across the the liquor store the other day. It comes from Oxfordshire in the UK and is made by “Duchy Originals from Waitrose”. The company prides itself on providing various foods grown in sustainable conditions. In line with that belief, this is an Organic Old Ruby Ale. The “Old” in it’s title comes from the fact that it is made using an English barley that was first used in 1905, called “Plumage Archer”. The brew has some nice bright flavors to it, including a fair about of berries, malt and a noticeable hoppy bitterness. It’s a tasty brew and goes very well as a summer drink. It unfortunately was not the best pairing here though as I felt it was a bit light for the AVO 80th Anniversary and was overpowered by the cigar. With the peaty notes I was picking up from this cigar I’d have to say that a peaty scotch would have been an absolute perfect pairing. If not that, then something that can stand up to the bold flavors of this cigar such as a strong coffee or port.

In celebration of this day I thought it was fitting to dig something special out of my humidor and out of the fridge. The cigar of choice ended up being a fairly rare Cohiba. It is the Cohiba Edicion Limitada 2006. It’s a very nice looking Piramide shaped cigar. Apart from it’s normal Cohiba band, it’s also adorned with the standard Cuban limited release band. This second band is gold with raised black lettering and border which says “Edicion Limitada 2006”.

These limited edition Cuban cigars are usually fairly easy to track down when they are initially released but after a few years they become a well sought after cigar to add to any humidor. I was recently lucky enough to track down a few through a friend and I grabbed them to save for special occasions like this.

This Piramide vitola was also the vitola for Cohiba’s 2001 Edicion Limitada. It was met with such great fanfare and reviews that they decided to re-release a similar blend. Each of the leaves within the cigar were aged a minimum of 2 years before being rolled into these rare cigars. 2006 also marked the 5th year that Habanos S.A. began offering limited edition cigars on a regular basis.

Cigar: Cohiba Edicion Limitada 2006
Drink: Innis & Gunn Canadian Cask 2010
Vitola: Piramide (6.1 x 52)
Wrapper: Cuban
Binder: Cuban
Filler: Cuban
Price: Originally a little over $30. No idea on current value but it’s much higher!
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• This is a rough and oily looking cigar, the wrapper definitely has signs of bumps and veins
• The color on this cigar is a very dark chocolaty tone and has some nice bloom signs of aging
• The cap is finish with a single piece of tobacco that wraps around the cigar 3 times
• The foot appears to be fairly well packed
• A slight squeeze along the length of these cigars gives a mostly firm feel with some slightly soft and springy spots
• The cut was very clean using my double bladed guillotine and made no mess
• The pre-light draw is a tad tight but we’ll see how it goes

Burn:
• Toasting was nice and slow but perfectly even, had the foot glowing nicely
• Burn line stayed nice and straight through the first couple of inches, glad to see that!
• Immediately after I wrote the previous line I started getting a peninsula on one side that soon required a little encouragement from my lighter
• After that initial touch up a few more were required as the cigar burned, I’m always disappointed when this happens on such limited release cigars

Smoke & Ash:
• Despite the tight draw, I’m getting a nice mouthful of smoke from each puff
• There is only a light amount of resting smoke and seems to come and go, it gives off a nice toasted bread type of aroma
• The Ash is coming along nicely with an interesting deep ripple effect and ashes off a little past 1 inch
• The color on this ash is mostly a medium gray with some dark accents
• Subsequent ashes were a little messier and shorter due to the touch ups
• One of the last ashes managed to hang on for almost 2 inches

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper on the Cohiba Edicion Limitada 2006 is mostly aroma-less, just a slight cedar touch, probably from the humidor
• The foot of the cigar has a nice spice note to it, maybe a mild white pepper, along with some cedar
• Pre-light draw brings more of the white pepper and cedar flavors
• Initial draws have an interesting combination of cedar, chocolate and espresso, great start!
• The retrohale on this cigar is just fantastic, a great array of coffee and chocolate notes hit my sinuses with no bite and a smooth creamy finish
• The coffee and chocolate flavors seemed to dominate through the first half with some minor appearances of white pepper and cedar
• The body on this cigar has been mild through the first half along with a great balance of flavors and a super smooth creamy finish
• Had a little tar buildup, probably due to my small cut on the cap. A little trim fixed that issue
• As I get the half way mark, there is a bit more spice and a bit more body in the cigar, bt the awesome espresso and chocolate mix is still there
• Now I’m getting something interesting, it’s a good mix of spice and chocolate, almost like a chili spice. If you’ve ever had those gourmet chocolates made with chili you’ll get an idea of how this tastes, very unique!
• The body of this cigar has also gone into the high medium range right now but still offers a smooth and creamy finish
• The cigar burned a little hot near the end and the coffee flavors developed back into a nice strong espresso flavor and kept the interesting chili chocolate notes

Final Thoughts:
The flavors on the Cohiba Edicion Limitada 2006 were extremely enjoyable right from the start to the finish. They offered some unique touches and kept me on my toes the whole time. There’s no doubt that they did a quality blending job on this cigar. I was obviously disappointed with the number of touch ups it needed but oddly enough it didn’t affect the flavors much at all. I keep all my limited edition and expensive cigars in a smaller humidor that has a perfect 65-67% humidity almost all the time. The smaller area gives me more control over it, but doesn’t seem like that made a difference. As with most limited editions it usually comes down to a matter of cost and if these are worth their dollar value. At the original price of $30 these were a hard pill to swallow and their value has only gone up since then. The closest cigar I can compare this to is Cohiba’s own Maduro 5 line which was very close in flavor profile, possible just with a bit more spice in the Edicion Limitada 2006. But for the cost, I’d rather pay for and enjoy 3 or 4 Maduro 5’s. See my review of the Cohiba Maduro 5 Magicos here. Of course, that doesn’t mean I didn’t thoroughly enjoy this rare piece of cigar history! The chocolate and chili combo was especially unique and enjoyable!

Pairings:
With my special cigar tonight I picked out a special brew and one that fit the Canada Day theme as well. It comes from one of my favorite breweries, Innis & Gunn. The beer is called “Canadian Cask 2010”. This brew was made specifically for Canada Day last year. I bought a few of them last year and had one left that I was saving for this year. I also reviewed it awhile back with the Camacho Liberty 2009. There’s not much I can say about this beer other than it is fantastic. Basically take their already fantastic Oak Aged Beer and add in some light whiskey barrel and rye flavors and you have an even better brew! Each batch is also aged a longer amount of time in the whiskey barrels, 54 days to be exact. The cigar was not over the top strong so it actually paired well with this full flavored beer. I’d also recommend a fine smooth scotch, cognac or port with this cigar. A nice coffee would also pair well here as a non-alcoholic alternative.

It seems that Perdomo is a name that many cigars smokers know about and often enjoy yet it’s also I brand that seems to do minimal advertising. I don’t seem to see them launch large campaigns or expensive sponsorship but rather it seems word of mouth and consistent quality help spread their name. I’ve also had the chance to review the Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Maduro and Perdomo Patriarch Maduro in the past. Today we are going to take a look at the Perdomo Grand Cru Maduro.

The Perdomo Grand Cru is a cigar grown and rolled with the intention of giving a Cuban-like flavor in each blend. All of the seeds used to grow the Tobacco in Nicaragua are from Cuba. The tobacco itself has also been well aged before being rolled into the cigars. Each box and cigar is clearly marked with a “Crop of 2004” label. I really like this idea and it lets you know just how old the tobacco is. If they decide to keep the same blend moving forward but change crops, I’m curious to see if they will just change the year or change the name. From what I can tell, all the cigars and boxes still say 2004. The website also says this blend is made from that crop as well so it may not change at all.

I would actually love to see that type of labelling adopted by more companies. I think it’s an excellent idea. There are other cigars that do this currently, such as the Tatuaje L’Esperit de Verite that Tony reviewed or the Camacho Liberty series (we’ve reviewed the 2009 and 2010) but those are more limited editions. Having this label on regular production cigars would be and interesting piece of information. The above linked reviews already show how much a blend can change from year-to-year. But enough about me complaining, without further adieu let’s jump into the review of the Perdomo Grand Cru Maduro.

Cigar: Perdomo Grand Cru Maduro
Drink: Delaforce 2005 Late Bottled Vintage Porto
Vitola: Toro (6 x 50)
Wrapper: Cuban-seed Nicaraguan Maduro
Binder: Cuban-seed Nicaraguan
Filler: Cuban-seed Nicaraguan
Price: $4.50 – $5.50
Burn Time: 1.5 hours

Construction:
• A rough and bumpy wrapper with a few medium sized veins, but nothing concerning
• The wrapper has a sand-paper like texture and is a consistent medium chocolate brown color
• The cap is cleanly applied with a double-cap design, almost impossible to see the second piece of tobacco
• The foot appears well packed and the length of the cigar is pretty firm with very little spring to it
• The cut was very easy and quite clean, falling in a neat little package into the ashtray
• Draw is a little tighter then I’d like

Burn:
• The burn line is not neat and pretty on this cigar but it’s not out of control either
• Felt like the cigar was starting to go out after only an inch and started needing a few more draws
• The funny burn finally hit a rut and needed a small touch up just past the half-way mark
• For the most part, the cigar burned without much effort or extra draws

Smoke & Ash:
• Despite the tightness I’m still getting a giant mouthful of smoke from every draw
• There is a small bit of resting smoke visible while the cigar sits in the ashtray, it gives off a mostly woodsy aroma
• The ash is a little flaky on this cigar but not too weak
• A very nice white color to the ash as it burns
• Each ash tumbled into the ashtray shortly after an inch

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper gives off a strong hay and barnyard aroma
• The foot stays consistent with the barnyard aroma and mixes a touch of spice into the nose
• The pre-light draw brings an interesting bakers chocolate flavor mixed with some woodsy notes
• The initial draws give off a strong woodsy flavor with some hints of coffee here and there
• As the cigar progresses I’m picking up a lot of roasted notes, a mix of roasted almonds and roasted coffee beans, very nice
• I noticed a bit extra dryness on my throat with this cigar
• As I approach the halfway mark, the body has been mild-medium and retrohale has no bite with a woodsy finish
• The flavors still seem to hover around with roasted coffee, woodsy and roasted almonds all taking a turn
• In the last third the flavors got much more intense and I started picking up some more bakers chocolate type of flavors
• The body picked up only slightly near the end, making it a comfortable medium

Final Thoughts:
The Grand Cru Maduro from Tabacalera Perdomo proved to be a nice smooth cigar that can easily be enjoyed by many experienced or new smokers. It offers a nice variety of flavors that are neither too complex or too boring making for a perfect cigar to relax with. It’s something you can pick up and smoke without paying too much attention to and still enjoy and easily pick up on the various flavors. The price is also very attractive, make sure to search around a bit as my research showed a HUGE variance in pricing on these. I’d definitely suggest picking up a few of these to try out, especially at the good prices you can find them for.

Pairings:
Yes I’m still riding the Port train and today I bring something new. This bottle is something I haven’t seen around before so I grabbed it to try something new. Damn am I ever happy I did. The Delaforce 2005 Late Bottled Vintage offers some excellent flavors backed by a robust and bold red wine flavor. A lot of Ports overdo the fruity notes but this one seems nicely balanced between a full bodied red wine and a flavorful fruity port. It paired well with this cigar but was maybe not the perfect pairing. I think this cigar was made for coffee, the roasted coffee and almond notes would have made a great compliment. You could also enjoy this with a nice dark porter with some coffee flavors.