The Good Stuff: CLE stands for Christian Luis Eiroa. Sound familiar? Well it should. Christian and his father owned the infamous Camacho cigars up until the point in which they were acquired by Davidoff in 2008. While Christian remained president over Camacho cigars it wasn’t until this year that he decided to create his own company, CLE Cigars.

The CLE cigars are produced in the Tabacos Ranchos Jamastran factory where Camacho bases it’s operations. The CLE Corojo 2012 was one of two blends released at this years IPCPR show. The other being the Cuarenta. One thing about Christian is his passion for cigars, and the cigar industry as a whole. I can’t remember where I read it but I read a recent quote by the guy concerning CLE cigars where he basically said that he doesn’t know what his future holds, weather it’s in CLE, Camacho, or Davidoff, but the one thing he knows for sure is that his passion will always be dedicated to doing something in the cigar industry.

While the specifics of this blend remain a mystery, I can say that this cigar comes in a Corojo Seed wrapper. What a guess right? I dug around a bit and I read that the cigar contains aged long filler Cuban seed tobacco out of Honduras. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but if I had to guess I would have thrown Honduran in the mix somewhere. The blend comes in 5 sizes: 11/18 (6 x 54), Corona Gorda (5.7 x 46), Robusto (5 x 50), and the Sixty (6 x 60). I picked these up over at Bonita Smoke Shop.

Size: 5.7 x 46
Wrapper: Corojo
Binder: ?
Filler: ?
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium
Price: ~$6
Pairing: Chimay Grande Reserve (Blue) Belgian Strong Ale (9.0% ABV)

Prelight: The CLE Corojo is a fine looking cigar. Starting with the beautiful, oily, shiny, consistently medium brown wrapper. This wrapper is carrying some serious oils. The wrapper is very tight, and only displays a few seamless veins throughout it’s slender body. While the wrapper feels a bit on the fragile size, the cigar is very tight, and firm all the way up to the seamless triple cap. The only soft spots were located right around the foot area of the cigar. The Band on this cigar is just awesome. I love simple, elegant bands and that’s exactly what the CLE’s have. Much like Illusione and Tatuaje the CLE has a simple, thin, black band with only the CLE logo in silver ink on the front, and 2012 in red ink in the back. Love it.

The wrapper on the CLE Corojo gives off a VERY pungent earthy, tobacco aroma. You can smell this cigar as soon as you remove it from the cellophane. The foot of the cigar gives off a very oaty, grainy aroma. It almost smells like wheat bread.  The cap cut clean, but gave me a little bit of a fight using my double bladed Palio cutter. Come to think of it, I have had this one for quite some time and It’s been acting a bit dull lately. Maybe it’s time to trade her in. Anyway, the CLE pumps out some very strong bready, earthy tobacco flavors on the cold draw. Much like the aromas I picked up from the wrapper and filler during the prelight.

First Smoke: The CLE Corojo fired up with ease using my single flame torch. Given the amount of black pepper this cigar started out with I am surprised that I didn’t pick up any pepper in the cold draw or prelight. While the pepper was strong enough to tingle my lips and my tongue, it only lasted through the first few draws before fading back and letting the bold tobacco, cedar, and spice flavors take over. While the CLE Corojo didn’t start off with a ton of different flavors, the few it did carry were very strong and meshed very well with one another. The Cedar really helped bring out a nice sweetness in the tobacco as I neared the end of the first third. The draw on this cigar is spot on and the smoke is VERY heavy and thick while the stationary smoke is almost non-existent. The burnline is a bit crazy producing lots of waves but nothing that needed any extra attention from my lighter yet. The Ash left behind is a dark grey and black with lots of flakes. It only held on for an inch before falling into my lap.

Halfway There: The spice in this CLE Corojo has really ramped up into this second third. When I say spice, I mean as in a flavor not to be confused with pepper. I’m not chef but it’s like a mashup of cinnamon, nutmeg, and maybe some herby goodness all mixed into a subtle flavor. Alongside the spice the cedar has also ramped up making the CLE Corojo a much sweeter experience while the natural tobacco flavor kept the same and a leather flavor was introduced. The retrohale is really nice and mild coating my nasal passage with a slight cedar and tobacco. Much to my surprise the crazy burnline I experienced in the first third of the cigar has completely corrected itself without any help from me. No nicotine can be felt in this experience up to this point, and with the smoothness and creaminess of the experience I don’t really expect that to change much going into the final third.

Finish: I am starting to pull a neat little zest flavor from the wrapper of this cigar. It’s almost like a sharp, orange peel. Along with that the pepper that greeting me into this CLE Corojo has re-introduced itself into the mix. While the body if this cigar seems to be ramping up, the flavors have remained incredibly smooth, and creamy the entire time.  The sweet tobacco, cedar, and spice have all taken turns being the center of attention into the final third of this cigar. The burnline has been clean ever since the second third and required absolutely no touch-ups or relights the entire experience. It took me about an hour and a half to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I experienced no harshness, no hot fingers, and no nicotine the entire time. Pretty impressive.

Overview: Being a strong fan of Camacho I have learned to expect a lot from anything that carries Christian’s name on it. The CLE Corojo 2012 certainly did not let me down. There seems to be phases in the cigar business. The last phase was a ton of stronger, bolder cigars angled towards younger cigar smokers. Then there has been a quick reappearance of the larger ring gauged cigars. And now with a lot of this year’s IPCPR releases there have been an influx of milder, very full bodied cigars. This, in my opinion, really shows how great some tobacco blenders are. The CLE and the recently reviewed Cuenca y Blanco are perfect examples of how great mild cigars can be when they are done right. The CLE Corojo is a mild/medium cigar that packs so much strong, creamy flavors in a perfectly balanced combination that you don’t even realize that it’s not a stronger cigar until you are finished. The cigar starts off with just enough pepper, continues with tons of flavors and finishes smooth and creamy, just the way an experience should. I am anxious to try the other releases in the CLE line now as I am sure that if they are anywhere close to on par as the Corojo, they won’t disappoint.

Pairing: This pairing kind of speaks for itself. Chimay Grande Reserve is probably one of the best, easy to find, decently priced Belgian beers. Brewed at the Bières de Chimay S.A. in Belgium this Belgian style strong ale comes in at a whopping 9.0% ABV. This bottle in particular was part of a handful of Belgian bombers my wife so graciously got me for my birthday (I caught a good one, I know). This beer pairs perfectly with just about any cigar that carries enough flavor to keep up with it. Needless to say the CLE Corojo fit the bill perfectly. I smoked a handful of these cigars so picking out the perfect pairing was no trouble. The deep woodsy, fruity, caramel flavors in the Chimay Blue went perfectly with the smooth, creamy, bold flavors of the CLE. One note was just how perfect the woodsy and fruity (cherry, orange) flavors of the Chimay paired up with the sweet tobacco and cedar flavors in the CLE Corojo. Given the time of year you have to know I have a cabinet full of craft beer and it was an easy decision to pair these two together. The cigar would also go great with a strong porter, a bruin, or dubbel. Specifically one with lots of flavor and strength.

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Contrary to what you might expect, this cigar is not made at the amazing and famous My Father Cigars Factory in Esteli, Nicaragua. However, it’s production location is not too far away at the Tabacalera Cubanas S.A. factory, also in Esteli. Now the actual name behind this cigar is El Rey de los Habanos, the company Don Pepin Garcia started in Miami(Little Havana) when he landed state-side. The headquarters is still located in there as well as a smaller El Rey de los Habanos factory .

This blend was released be Don Pepin to the public in 2006. From what I’ve been able to gather, the various names of the original 7 vitolas in this line all correspond to important years in Don Pepin Garcia’s life. However, I wasn’t able to find the significant milestone behind the year 1979. It seems also that although there were 7 vitolas available at some point, there are only 5 easily available now.

The band on this cigar has also changed slightly over time. As it stands now, there are two bands. The top band has a black background with a nicely scripted “Don Pepin Garcia” in the middle surrounded by some gold and red filigree designs. In an older band, the red and gold filigree was slightly different. Below that band is another thinner black band that says “Cuban Classic” with a line of gold and red on the top and bottom.

Now the Black Label is touted to be the strongest of the Don Pepin Garcia cigars. The other blends in this line are the Blue Label and the Series JJ (White Label). I’m going into this cigar with high expectations as I’ve come to know from many different Pepin Garcia blends. It’s a gorgeous day as I sit outside to spark up this cigar, so let’s see how it fares.

Cigar: Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic 1979 Robusto
Drink: Erdinger Weissbräu Weißbier Dunkel
Vitola: Robusto (5 x 50)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Rosado (Corojo 99)
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Niaraguan
Price: $4.50 – $5.50
Burn Time: Just short of 1.5 hours

Construction:
• The Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic has a light brown wrapper with a very nice orangey glow to it
• There are hardly any visible veins and the wrapper has a slight roughness and toothiness to it
• From head to foot, this cigar has a nice little spring when squeezed that is just about right
• The triple cap is finished off very cleanly and the foot looks to be fairly well packed but not overly full
• The draw on this cigar is just about perfect after a small slice with my double bladed guillotine cutter

Burn:
• Toasting was very easy and even, I sometimes have a hard time getting it right on bright days since you can’t see the flame, but this one toasted up evenly without any problems at all
• Through the first inch the Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic has had a flawless and even burn
• The burn continues to be just about perfect as I roll into the halfway point, nothing to complain about here, just a razor sharp burn
• It’s also allowing me to smoke slowly, never seems to go out
• A tiny touch-up was required because the extra glue on the band cracked the wrapper, so it caused a bit of a funky burn line

Smoke & Ash:
• Each draw is bringing a nice amount of smoke with no extra draws required
• After setting the cigar down, there is almost no visible resting smoke to be seen although it still gives off a nice campfire aroma
• The ash is very strong, even and clean with no flaking to be seen anywhere
• The nice light grey colors on the ash are very nice too
• Unfortunately, I knocked the first ash off accidentally and it went flying to the floor
• Each ash was easily hitting the 1 inch mark but since I didn’t have a proper ashtray with me today I had to tap them off early. You’ll also notice the ashtray picture is missing today.

Tasting Notes:
• The wrapper on the Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic gives off a mostly woodsy aroma, not much else to it
• The foot brings more woodiness but this time it’s a lot more fresh, like a fresh strip of cedar wood, very nice aroma
• On the pre-light draw I’m getting more of the cedar flavors but also an interesting fresh taste, almost like a light and refreshing mint
• Initial draws bring none of the typical Pepin kick you might expect, it’s more of a subtle roasted wood and almonds type of flavors
• The is a bit of leather flavors being thrown into the mix here and there along with some coffee notes that are starting to sneak in slowly
• As we get near the halfway point I can safely say the cigar has barely passed into the medium category so far
• The retrohale is bringing just a tiny bite along with a smooth cedar and coffee finish
• The coffee flavors continue to develop nicely, more of an espresso flavor now and the leather flavor took an interesting turn into a black licorice type of flavor
• The strength of the cigar started picking up closer to the final third as it launched into the high end of the medium range
• In the last third all the flavors started coming together and balancing even better as their intensity kicked up a notch
• There was a huge burst of awesome roasted almond and espresso near the end and the cigar finished with no bitterness at all, very nice ending

Final Thoughts:
I hadn’t had too many of these before so I didn’t have many notes to fall back on but what I did find was mostly good. And judging by my experience today, I’d say the don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic is another winner from this renowned blending master. I was happy to see another blend that didn’t have the pepper kick at the start but still had tons of flavors that were enjoyable. I’m not sure I would go for a Churchill vitola in this blend but as a Robusto it was excellent and I would definitely buy more. The flavors were enjoyable even if not overly complex and it burned amazingly even. My only real complaint was a little too much glue on the band that ended up cracking the wrapper a bit, not a huge deal. This might also have been because I tried sliding the wrapper rather than taking it right off. These are definitely worth trying if you haven’t had one before and definitely worth buying again if you have. I know it is a staple in many people’s humidors and it’s easy to see why. One thing to watch out for is the price, I saw a huge variety of prices and these can be easily had for under $5 if you look hard enough, and at under $5 this is a great value cigar!

Pairings:
This isn’t my first review with Erdinger’s Weissbräu Weißbier Dunkel and it definitely won’t be my last. This dark ale from Erdinger’s German brewery is a classic and tasty brew that I’d say falls somewhere in the middle of a dark ale and a porter. The unique consistency probably comes from the fact that this is a dark WHEAT beer, so it’s a little different from the rest. It’s not quite as light as a dark ale and not quite as heavy as a porter. It’s got an awesome array of roasted malt, dark berries, coffee and a tiny bit of bitterness to round out a very flavorful brew. It makes a great pairing with the Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic as well as many other cigars. Other suggested pairings here would include a dark roasted coffee, a stout or porter, and of course, some tawny Porto!

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I smoked a few of these cigars, but this one in particular was actually sent to me by our good friend Mike at Mikestogies.com. Mike was the man who actually sent over the sticks I did on my first blind review set which you can view here. He’s a great guy, with great reviews.

The Good Stuff: Each year Camacho releases a limited release cigar called the Liberty Series.The tradition started back in 2002 and is one of my favorite annual releases. They retail anywhere between $18 and $22 a stick and come in boxes of 10 individually coffin-boxed cigars. If you’d like to read our review of the 2009, you can see Daniel’s take on it here. Again, the scenery may look a bit different. I am doing yet another review at my favorite local shop, Tobacco Rd.

Size: 6 x 54 (11/18)  – Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatran  – Binder: Honduran Corojo  – Filler: Honduran Corojo and Dominican Ligero

Prelight: The Camacho Liberty 2010 holds true to all the past Liberty series in terms of presentation. The Liberty starts out encased in a dark blue, shiny, painted coffin box. Each box has a sticker with each cigar’s unique number. This one happens to be 775 /40,000. Once the seal on the box is broken I was showcased with a nice cedar scent and a tissue wrapped cigar placed carefully inside the box. Once then tissue is removed you are presented with the standard, flashy, black and silver Camacho band that you would expect. One interesting thing about this band is out of all the 2010 Liberties that I smoked, this was the only one with  a black band. All the rest of them had a dark blue similar to the color of the paint on the box. The band is very similar in design from the previous years. The Liberty 2010 also comes fitted with a nice little foot band that simply states “Liberty Series” in silver on dark blue ink. The wrapper on the Liberty is a very light, very consistent, milky brown. The smaller foot leads up to a much wider body before tapering off to a smaller, rounded cap that matches the size of the Liberty’s foot. For the most part the cigar is very firm to the touch with the exception of the foot. There is a crack at the top of the cigar from the head to about the middle of the band. Mainly just a wrapper crack. It looks as thought it didn’t harm the binder. Normally I wouldn’t review a cigar that already has a crack in it, but this is my third Liberty 2010 from three totally different boxes that have similar cracks. Not to mention I had a few similar issues with the 2009’s I smoked last year. This just must be a delicate wrapper. The wrapper has this immense scent of straight up cedar. It seriously smells like the inside of a brand new humidor. which happens to be of my favorite scents in the world. Some how the foot has an ever stronger cedar scent with just a little whiff of spice. The Liberty cut very clean with my double bladed cutter. Lucky enough, the crack didn’t increase much in size.  The cold draw kicks out this wonderful milky, cedar flavor and leaves behind just a tiny bit of spice.

First Smoke: The Liberty 2010 starts off slightly different than I expected. Instead of being smacked in the face with soft cedar, the cigar starts off bold, with some earthy, leather notes. Not long after the cigar turns into this just massive cedar bomb, holy crap. This is the reason why I love these Liberties. Outside of the cedar there is a slight spice sneaking into the mix. All around this cigar is starting off very smooth and flavorful. The draw is easy, and plentiful, but the main story is the stationary smoke. The Liberty 2010 gives off a ton of cedar scented stationary smoke that even overpowers the other three cigars that are going in the room at the time. The burnline is slightly wavy, but I always have that problem with this size. They almost always fix themselves. The ash is a very light grey with some slight flakes, but overall tightly compacted. The ash held on for a little over an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: One major difference with this year’s 2010 Liberty is a big one for me. The cigar burns so much slower than the previous year. The 2009 was soooo good, but at the price point I was always hesitant to spend the money to buy a cigar that would burn so quickly. The cedar is still rocking very hard into this second third. The spice is still there as well with notes of leather and some really creamy chocolate. The retrohale in this cigar is absolutely amazing. After a few retrohales I swear my nasal passage made me feel as if I have been locked in a humidor for the last 3 days. The body is slowly starting to creep in as well. It’s not full, but it is noticeable. The burnline has completely fixed itself and is holding solid as I expected. The ash is ugly, but the experience is wonderful.

Finish: The cedar has begun to fade a bit into the final third of this Camacho Liberty 2010. The cedar is still the main flavor with the backing flavors of spice, and this really strong leather flavor. The body has really ramped up too, which is totally unexpected.  I’m even getting a slight nicotine kick from this one. There was a slight harsh build up into the last inch but nothing too concerning, it was almost expected.  All in all the cigar finished very smooth, a bit heavier than I expected, and burned much slower taking about an hour and forty five minutes to finish.

Overview: The Camacho Liberty has always been a cigar that I look out for every year. The similar blends are just wonderful. The cost is a little high, but it’s a great cigar, for those special times. The slower burn was great, but it had its own drawback. Towards the end of the experience the cedar starting to get overwhelming and it made me want the tobacco flavors to come in and really take over. The crack really didn’t make much of a difference, and seldom does in this cigar. All in all, it’s a good cigar, at a decent price. But the Liberty is not something that I would put in my regular rotation due to the price, and availability. I do however love to keep a few of these on hand to satisfy those cedar cravings.

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