The Good Stuff:

Jose Seijas is no stranger to the cigar world. Jose played the role of Vice President and General Manager of the Tabacalera de Garcia factory in La Romana, Dominican Republic for over 30 years under Altadis U.S.A.. He then retired from the company in 2012 and spent a few years working at La Flor Dominican with Little Gomez producing a selection of their cigars at his factory in La Romana before Jose announced his brand, Matilde cigars during the 2013 IPCPR show. It’s natural for a branded headed by someone of his stature to make waves, and Matilde has. From this, the Renacer was born. The Renacer features a Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, a Dominican binder, and Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers. The Renacer is created in a unique way featuring only a single cut to the wrapper leaf, leaving much of the tobaccos veiny characteristics in tact. The Renacer is available now and comes in 4 sizes: the Corona (5.5 x 44), The Toro Bravo (6.5 x 54), The Robusto (5.25 x 54), and the Grande (6 x 60). All four sizes come packaged in boxes of 20 and range from $7.50 to $9.00 a cigar.

Size: 5.5 x 44
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Dominican Republic
Filler: Dominican Republic and Nicaraguan
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium
Price: $7.50
Pairing: Sound Brewery Dubbel Entendre (8.8% ABV Belgian Dubbel)

Prelight:

The Matilde Renacer starts out with this beautiful, shiny, oily wrapper. The light just glistens off of the thick oils found throughout the body of the cigar. The wrapper is silky smooth with a ton of leaf webbing, and smaller sized veins running the length of the cigar’s slender body. The wrapper itself is a consistent medium brown with nice orange tints. The wrapper tobacco is laid perfectly hiding the seams in the tobacco leaf. The Renacer is capped off with a perfectly round, seamless triple cap. The Renacer carries a brown, white and gold band featuring Matilde’s logo in metallic gold in front, and the words “Matilde” printed on each side.

Matilde’s Renacer is incredibly pungent in aroma. I can smell the cigar as it rests in my ashtray. The wrapper gives off a very strong barnyard/grassy aroma while the foot of the cigar is more neutral with some soft spice, tobacco, and cedar scents. The cap cup very clean, and like butter using my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw was very grassy and oaty with soft hints of cedar and spice.

First Smoke:

The first few puffs on Matilde’s Renacer showcase some very soft pepper which quickly faded to let the cedar, dirt, grassy and earthy flavors in which all danced with the more natural tobacco flavors showcased in the cigar. The draw is a bit tight, but not too bad while the burnline is absolutely flawless sporting a razor sharp burnline and a probably one of the prettiest ashes I have ever seen. Bright white in color, super compact, and dead even. It looks like a stream of cement coming off my cigar. The ash held on for an inch before falling with a “clunk” into my ashtray.

Halfway There:

The draw has really opened up into the second third of the Matilde Renacer, and with it, the flavors as well. The cigar is now pumping out some strong cedar and spice notes wrapped around some interesting floral and grass flavors and a bit of honey and molasses. The retrohale is incredibly smooth coating my nasal passage with some interesting coffee notes that before that, weren’t evident in the smoking experience. The burnline is still dead even and the ash is beautiful. I am feeling absolutely no nicotine as I close out the second third.

Finish:

The final third in the Matilde Renacer is where the cigar really showcases what its all about. The spice and cedar have elevated to a whole new level while lots of sweetness, molasses has swept in finishing with some creamy coffee and soft floral flavors. The strength of the cigar has increased significantly as well and is now in the medium/full realm. The Renacer took me and hour and a half to take down and I experience absolutely no harshness at all. I was impressed with how well this cigar developed and in the end, had a hard time putting it down. It left me with absolutely no nicotine kick at all.

Overview:

This is a little cigar with a whole lot of personality. The flavor profile is pretty different, but a breath a fresh air showcasing some great floral and sweetness combined with some nice spice, and natural flavors which all developed at the right moments to keep my on my toes. Matilde’s Renacer is one of the better Dominican-rich cigars that I have smoked in a long time. The cigar delivers a super-premium experience and a value-premium price. This is a box worthy purchase for sure. I smoked a 3 of the four sizes (Robusto, Toro, and Corona) and lean towards the corona out of the three. It delivered a more heavy bodied experience than the other 2.

Pairing:

I took a bit of a gamble on this pairing, but it turned out great. This beer isn’t one I’ve actually had before. I mean, c’mon, I drink plenty of the style but I have yet to see any Sound Brewery beer in these parts. Lucky for me, I have friends and high placed and Jeff (yes, the Jeff who’s been kicking out guest reviews left and right) sent this bottle my way. After smoking my first Renacer I knew I wanted to pair it with a Belgian style Abbey. When I opened my beer closet this one stood out to me so I took a risk and paired it up. Sound Brewery is based out of Washington, and the Dubbel Entendre Belgian Style Dubbel comes in at 8.8% ABV. Right off the bat, the Dubbel Entendre leads with a whole mess of sweetness, honey, and banana with a very light mouthfeel as it finishes rather crisp with lots of fruit and caramel notes with just a hint of spice. I loved the way all the fruit and sweetness meshed in with the more organic flavors in the Renacer creating a wonderful new level to the experience while the spice and caramel married in with the already existent flavors in the cigar. This cigar would go great with some afternoon coffee, any Belgian ale, or a nice sweet bourbon.

The post Matilde Renacer Corona appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Good Stuff: The Gigantes features a blend very similar to the Rothchildes starting with a Mexican San Andreas Wrapper, Criollo 98 and Corojo 99 Binders, and an all Nicaraguan filler using Aganorsa leaf. While the blend profile remains the same, Dion Giolito who owns Illusione, aimed to bring a much richer and fuller experience with the Gigantes. The cigars are made at TABSA in Esteli which is the same factory where the Rothchildes are manufactured. The Gigantes will only come in one size a 6.5 x 56 which comes packaged in cabinets of 50 and will run you $7.99 a stick. I bought a whole mess of these from Smoke Inn. Last time I checked they still had a few in stock. You may want to hurry, first run of these cigars are very limited but Dion plans the Gigantes to be a regular production line. (Thanks to Halfwheel.com for breaking the news on the release and providing the specifics on this cigar)

Size: 6.5 x 56
Wrapper: Mexican San Andreas
Binder: Criollo 98 (Esteli), Corojo 99 (Jalapa)
Filler: Nicaraguan Aganorsa
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $7.99
Pairing: Kasteel Cuvee Du Chateau (11% Belgian Quad)

Prelight: Much like the Rothchildes, Illusione’s Gigantes carries a very deep, dark brown wrapper with bits of medium brown and spots of a darker brown around the veins and webbing in the tobacco leaf. The wrapper is incredibly tooth and feels almost like sandpaper with a good amount of oils. The wrapper is solid, thick, and very hard. It feel like I could probably sound down my next woodworking project with this cigar. The wrapper actually has a very rustic, crude look to it as it showcases the natural characteristics of the tobacco leaf. Considering how much Illusione I smoke, holding one with a ring gauge as large as this is a bit of a departure from what I am used to. The cigar is heavy and dense as the body leads up to a perfectly round triple cap. The Gigantes is polished off with a band identical to what we found on the Rothchildes. The only differences being the word “Gigantes” and of course the purple color instead of the red. I absolutely love these bands. The remind me of an older era. Think Henry Clay.

The wrapper on the cigar gives off a sweet aroma of chocolate and tobacco while the foot of the cigar is much more natural leading with lots of earthiness, and spice over natural tobacco aromas. The cap cut clean, but took a bit of extra pressure from my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw produces are really nice spice over some pepper, espresso, and natural tobacco.

First Smoke: Illusione’s Gigantes starts out really bold with some strong cashew and raisin over some spice, natural tobacco, and cocoa with a nice tart twang on the aftertaste. I was expecting much more pepper but was pleasantly surprised with the sheer amount of flavor the Gigantes kicked out right off the bat. The draw is remarkable as it takes almost no effort to get a mouthful of very thick, white smoke. The burnline is a bit wavy, but razor sharp leaving behind a trail of very compacted white ash which held on for an inch and a half before giving way.

Halfway There: One of the more interesting characteristics of the Illusione Gigantes is the aftertaste. There is a very bold woodsy, cedary, fruit, tart flavor that’s left behind for minutes after each puff. It’s incredibly enjoyable and only enhances the already potent flavor profile which is now running with tons of cocoa and spice over fruit and cedar with hints of espresso. The burnline is still a bit wavy but I have yet to have to reach for my lighter so no complaining there. The retrohale is ridiculous coating my nasal passage with so much cedar and spice. While the body of the cigar is just piling up, the strength of the cigar is remaining rather tame as I close out the second third with no nicotine kick at all. Gotta love when cigars do this.

Finish: The final third of this Illusione Gigantes is where the deeper, richer experience really comes into play. That crazy aftertaste I spoke off is now dominating the smoke leading off with really heavy smoked woodsy flavors with strong spice backing it along with some great fruit, cocoa, and tobacco. This is where the cigar really separates itself from the Rothchildes. Along with the ramp up in flavor the strength has began to ramp up as well. It’s not too strong, but I definitely feel the difference. Over the course of the 2 hours it took to take the Gigantes down I never once had to touch up or relight the beast, I experience absolutely no harshness, and only a small about of extended heat into the final inch or so.

Overview: Dion does it again. I can’t say much more about the Gigantes other than how much I thoroughly enjoyed it. The bold and complex flavors are right up my alley and I love that he produced them without having to create a cigar that was all about the strength. I think that far too often cigar manufactures think that you can’t have a bold cigar without having all the strength, and Illusione proves that to be wrong with almost every blend they create. Although the cigar has a rustic look, the burn performance was close to flawless. The price point is absolutely spot on, and actually probably a lot lower than I’d be willing to pay for the Gigantes. I am so glad that I opted to purchase half a cabinet of these and even then I worry that might not be enough. For the price, this is a cabinet purchase for sure and I fear that I may even want to have more than that on hand is this cigar is incredible and is going to make for another strong contender in our top 10 cigars of the year. And to think, we are only half way through.

Pairing: Kasteel’s Cuvee du Chateau is an 11% Belgian Quad brewed at the Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck N.V. in Belgium. This is one of my go to Belgians as it fits all the main categories I look for in a good beer, at a reasonable cost. Cuvee du Chateau runs about $5 a bottle and carries a big, boozy body loaded with strong fruits (fig, apple, pear) flavors over some sweetness and spice finishing with a bit of malt and cinnamon. The fruit and spice is what had drawn me to pair this bad boy with the Gigantes as they married up perfectly. The woodsy flavors form the Gigantes actually added a bit of a smoke profile to the beer resulting is one badass pairing.

The post Illusione *G* Gigantes Cigar Review appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Now the label on the Onyx Reserve has no information on it other than its name and the word “handmade”. I actually did no research on this cigar prior to smoking it and I’d never really read much about it before so that allowed me to give a more unbiased review. A little research after smoking it and making notes revealed to me that this cigar is made by Altadis. Historically I haven’t really hit alignment with the flavor profiles of most Altadis sticks, so will smoking it without knowing that ahead of time affect my opinion???

A little more research showed me that this cigar has an interesting mix of three different fillers and if you check out me pre-light inspection notes below you’ll see I actually picked out three distinct coloured filler in the foot. I thought that was interesting that they are so easily discernible. It’s also wrapped with a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper which Tony and I are both big fans of.

There isn’t too much other info on the cigar out there but I can tell you that it is made in the Dominican Republic. It also seems to have some pretty good ratings from a variety of sources, mostly outside of the blogging world though. I especially liked the vitola here today, it’s a box-pressed Mini Belicoso and you don’t see many of those around. Reminded me of the Oliva Serie G Belicoso. So let’s jump right in and see what I though of the Onyx Reserve by Altadis Cigars.

Cigar: Onyx Reserve
Drink: Chimay Yellow Trappist Ale
Vitola: Mini Belisoco (5 x 52)
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Dominican, Peruvian and Nicaraguan
Price: A little over $4 (Gifted by Lou B!)
Burn Time: A little over an hour

Construction:
• A nice darkly colored cigar with fairly consistent dark chocolate tone
• There is a nice bit of oiliness on the wrapper as well as very few veins to be worried about
• The tapered cap is finished cleanly with a single leaf that blends in almost seamlessly
• The foot is well packed and I find it interesting because I can pick out 3 distinctly different colors of filler, possibly the different types of leaves from the blend or just a coincidence?
• The cigar is quite firm from cap to foot with almost no spring to it, hoping that doesn’t cause a tight draw
• The cut was pretty easy and even, also kept itself in a neat and clean pile
• Draw ended up being a little tight, maybe it’s cause I didn’t cut much but a couple pokes with my toothpick opened it up nicely

Burn:
• Toasting was almost too easy, the whole foot lit up evenly without much effort or time
• The first bit of the cigar was smoking dead even with a single wave to be seen
• Through the whole first half this cigar burned razor sharp without a hint of problems at all
• It also stayed lit without the need for extra attention, this is how all cigars should burn! Let’s hope it keeps up
• I spoke a little too soon… right after ashing in the middle area the burn started going a little lopsided so I gave it a little correction
• No more corrections required right to the end, great overall burn on this Onyx Reserve cigar

Smoke & Ash:
• The smoke from each draw is a little light on this Onyx Reserve, even with a few extra draws it just doesn’t seem to produce a very thick smoke
• The resting smoke is very very light, after just a couple seconds you actually can’t even see smoke anymore
• The ash is looking awesome, very white with only a few darker accents
• The cleanliness of the ash is also looking great with no flaking or signs of weakness
• Ash is holding on nicely just past an inch, gonna tap it off now to prevent any messes tonight
• Subsequent ashes kept holding on past the 1 inch mark with ease, very nice construction here

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper has very little aroma on this Onyx Reserve, maybe just a touch of sweet tobacco and thats about it
• The foot is pretty light on aroma too but there is a bit more sweet floral scent there
• The pre-light draw is pretty light on flavors as well, just a bit of the sweet tobacco again
• Initial draws are pretty flat, no interesting flavors here to start but nothing harsh either, just a sort of mild sweet tobacco taste
• For the most part, the cigar is in the mild range and the retrohale has a bit of woodiness to it and a smooth tasteless finish
• There is a bit of woodsy flavors making an appearance with the sweet tobacco notes, maybe a little leather in there too
• It seems the body creeped into the medium area somewhere in the middle but the flavors are still very washed out
• There isn’t much to report here, the profile hasn’t really changed as I approach the final third
• I’m still getting some light wood and leather flavors backed by the stronger tobacco notes

Final Thoughts:
The Onyx Reserve didn’t quite do it for me tonight. It had some good elements to it and definitely had some quality construction but the flavors were just a little too weak for my liking. For the price, it could be a decent cigar to hand out but I think there are better options out there for the so-called “yard-gar” ideal. I’m hard-pressed to see why this got such high ratings in other places. Perhaps there is a market for the more bland tobacco flavored cigars? Maybe they appeal to past cigarette smokers a little more? I’m not quite sure but for me it just wasn’t the profile I enjoy. It might be worth trying if you are looking for something different to add to a regular rotation but I’d suggest opting for a sampler before you venture into a whole box here. One thing I can take away from this cigar is that it is another stick that confirms Altadis and me just don’t agree on flavor profile. I’m sure there are people that disagree with me but this is just one little fishes opinion in the big pond.

Pairings:
Another Belgian Trappist ale on Casas Fumando? Yup, you got it! But this time it’s not from Tony! Chimay is one of the few Belgian brands I can actually find regularly here in Ontario. Mostly it’s the Yellow label or the Red label and today we have the Yellow. Now I should note this particular brew is also sometimes known as the “White’ and it is actually a Tripel although it doesn’t really say that anywhere on the front label. This bottle clocks in at a full 8% alc./vol. and is definitely a lot less fruity than a lot of other Tripel’s. It’s super carbonated and has a bit of citrus backed by a heavy malt and slight bitter flavor. I think I missed the pairing here though, a darker more robust beer would have gone better. Perhaps a dark ale or stout, even a coffee, would have matched up better.

The post Onyx Reserve Mini Belicoso appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

In case you missed any of our other Quick Draws, here are the links and the cigars contained:

• Quick Draw Episode 1 – Gran Habano Connecticut #1 and Cohiba Siglo VI
• Quick Draw Episode 2 – P. Benitez Connecticut and Padron’s Serie 1926 #6
• Quick Draw Episode 3 – Quesada Oktoberfest Bavaria and Cohiba Maduro 5 Secretos

If you haven’t read one of our Quick Draws before, it’s basically a quick review of a cigar we’ve recently had. Perhaps revisiting an old one, trying a new one, something we didn’t intend to review but surprised us, or whatever other reason we can think of. Without any more blabbering, let’s just jump right in.

Tatuaje Monster Series #1 – The Frank – Tony

It’s been a while since I personally have done a Quick Draw. Mainly because, well I don’t know really. It’s been a crazy last couple of weeks. Busy at home, work, you get the idea. Anyways, recently I was lucky enough to fire up one of the most sought after cigars in the country. Tatuaje’s Monster Series #1, the infamous Frank.

I know some of you wanted a review of this, but quite FRANKly (rimshot), there really is no point. This isn’t a cigar you will be able to find unless you already have a few lying around, or you have a really awesome friend (right Daniel?). There is some good news though. Recently Pete Johnson rumored that he might be making a “mini monster” series. Smaller vitola versions of the current line-up. And rumored to be amongst those blends is the mini-Frank, or whatever he called it. So keep a look out for those.

Anyways, I was a HUGE fan of the Boris. In fact, I think that was one of the best blends Pete has ever released. And the Frank is supposed to be the same blend, only with a Connecticut Broadleaf Wrapper. I’m a sucker for Broadleaf so you know I jumped all over that. Anyways, the cigar is a monster (double rimshot). Seriously, this thing is a huge. Beautiful looking deep, dark, toothy wrapper. I was surprised that almost 4 years later it still had so much oil! The flavors were exactly what I had imagined, some very, very sweet tobacco, lots of chocolate, woodsy and even some maple flavors with a splash of spice. After only a few puffs in I could totally taste the resemblance to the Boris, except, it seemed very subtle and washed out. The more I smoked this cigar the more flat it became. I really wish I had smoked one of these at it’s initial release so that I could make a comparison, but I think that all the age on this cigar worked against it. That’s not the first time that has happened to me. Not all cigars age well, and through all the hype I would have to imagine this was another blend that fell into that category.

Ahh well. At least Boris’s are still around through trades (I smoked the heck out of mine), and if the mini-monster series of this does get released I can make a solid judgment on it.

Alec Bradley American Classic Blend – Daniel

The weather in Toronto continues to be totally wacky lately, just 2 weeks ago we were wearing shorts in awesome high 70’s temps and just yesterday we had freezing rain. It makes no sense! But luckily the temps have been somewhat favorable for cigar smoking outside so I try to make the most of it. I’m always looking for new sticks to try and even revisit old brands I may not have had good luck with. Today I’ll be hitting up the Alec Bradley American Classic Blend.

The AB is a beefy looking cigar with it’s thick 60-ring gauge and at 6 inches, it’s not the faint at heart smoker. Be prepared for a nice long smoking session when you choose this stick. The cigar itself offers up a nice smooth wrapper and fairly springy consistency when squeezed, even though the foot appears to be quite well packed. The cap clipped easily and the foot toasted up nicely using my favorite culinary/creme brulee torch (get one of these if you don’t have one, I love mine!)

The cigar itself I felt was another classic Alec Bradley. I seem to have mostly the same opinion when it comes to Alec Bradleys and this is how it went. I started off the cigar with a nice mix of medium body flavors including a bit of woodsiness, leather and a touch of earthy flavors. There was some spice that snuck in now and then as well. Now my biggest gripe here was that those flavors didn’t really change much through the whole time I smoked this. A massive 6×60 cigar that is fairly one-dimensional gets boring for me very fast. That’s not to say the flavors were bad, they were fine but I needed and wanted a change up within the first third. That seems to be a continual event with me and Alec Bradley sticks. So a shorter vitola probably would have held my attention but in this monster size, I got bored pretty quick. I might pick a smaller vitola of this blend one day but I don’t think it’ll be on my primary shopping list any time soon.

Now I need to point out that the brew I paired this cigar with was damn fantastic! It was a Tripel from La Trappe breweries, a traditional Trappist ale. Seems like Tony has something right about this Belgian brews. IT was full of a mix of dark and light fruity flavors, everything from citrus to a nice deep blackberry, mixed with a ton of malt and even a touch of toffee or caramel. Definitely worth picking this up if you can find some!

The post Quick Draw Episode 4 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

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 post Emilio Cigars Grimalkin appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.