The Good Stuff: The Legacy is the newest H. Upmann offering from our friends over at Altadis U.S.A. The cigar was released this passed month and features a Ecuadorian Sumatran wrapper stuffed with vintage tobacco from 2008. The Legacy is manufactured in Honduras and is the first blend in the H. Upmann portfolio to feature Ecuadorian Sumatra tobacco. The Legacy comes in 3 size: Corona (5 ½ x 44), Robusto (5 x 54), and Toro (6 x 52). They are packaged in boxes of 20 ranging from $5.85 – $6.85 a stick. These samples were provided to us by Altadis.

Size: 6 x 52
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan and Dominican
Body: Medium
Strength: Medium
Price: $6.85
Pairing: Santa Fe Brewing Happy Camper IPA (6.6% ABV IPA)

Prelight: H. Upmann’s Legacy is a beauty. The wrapper on this bad boy is incredibly oily with a few larger veins, and runs a beautiful, medium brown with lots of orange, and darker brown spots. The construction on this cigar is, in a word, perfect. The cigar is heavy, and incredibly tightly packed. I could seriously knock someone out with this cigar if I had to. The wrapper is very thick, and very firm as the cigar gives absolutely nothing as I squeeze it between my fingers. The cigar is finished off with a perfectly round double cap. The Legacy sports a simple band with the H. Upmann crest in gold, orange, brown and greet ink, with the words “Legacy” printed on each side. If that wasn’t enough the cigar carries a foot band as well with the word “Legacy” once again printed in the front and “H. Upmann” printed on both side making for a total of 3 times for each combined on both bands. I doubt you will forget what cigar you are smoking.

The Legacy’s wrapper gives off a very slight tobacco and spice aroma while the foot of the cigar releases nothing more than a very subtle natural tobacco scent. The cap cut extremely easy using my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw started out with this crazy-strong black pepper taste I wasn’t expecting. In fact, it was potent enough to make my lips tingle. Underneath was some soft cedar and lots of straight up tobacco.

First Smoke: As I suspected from the cold draw, the H. Upmann Legacy started out with lots of black pepper which faded very quickly leaving behind some tobacco, spice, and char type flavors. At first, I suspected that I may have over-toasted the cigar when lighting up. But after I smoked through the samples I realized that char taste was evident on each one. The draw on this cigar was great. Each little puff pumped out tons of thick, white smoke. The Legacy gave off little, to no stationary smoke while it maintained a very sharp, very solid burnline through the first third of the cigar. The ash left behind was a bit flaky and bright white with mixed in greys which held on for an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Halfway There: Halfway through this H. Upmann Legacy and that char taste is still there. It almost tastes like burning cardboard. There is still some subtle spice, and natural tobacco but a bit of earthiness and cedar have started to show face. The retrohale is actually rather wonderful coating my nasal passage with a very sweet cedar and spice. I wish those flavors were more pronounced in the actual smoking experience. The cigar is still burning dead even while I am feeling nothing in the nicotine department while I close out the second third.

Finish: The cedar and spice that I enjoyed in the second third of the Legacy have dropped out leaving me with a very mild tobacco, slight sweetness, and that lingering cardboard type flavor. The cigar did however finish very clean and smooth with no harshness at all, all the way down to the nub. The Legacy took me about an hour and a half to take down and it didn’t need any touch ups or relights the entire time finishing the burnline just as clean as it started. I didn’t get any type of nicotine buzz from the experience either.

Overview: There are two ways of looking at this cigar. First of all, the important areas. The construction was a perfect as it gets. The Legacy is beautiful. The burn was flawless and continued to be the entire length of the cigar. Those are the most important considerations to any cigar experience given the fact that they are not subjective. No one wants to have a cigar fall apart, burn like crap, or relight the damn thing 100 times and the Legacy excels in all these areas. Now for the more subjective area. The flavors in the experience did absolutely nothing for me. First of all, I tend to lean towards full-bodied cigars with lots of flavors and lots of change-ups. The Legacy was quite the opposite. While the cigar was very mild, it carried very little flavor and the flavors that I did pick out did not appeal to me. The char-cardboard flavor was on the bottom of that list for sure. Now I have read a few reviews that have sang songs of praise for this cigar and I remind you that this is simply my opinion. Now if you like mild experience and shy away from cigars with too much flavor then I could see this cigar as one you might want to pick up. If you’re like me and crave that “Umph” in your experience then I would recommend you pass this one up.

Pairing: Having smoked a few of the Legacy’s, I went in knowing that the flavor profile wasn’t for me. It lacked, in my opinion so much. As I stated before, I am a more full-bodied smoker so I wanted to try and pair this cigar with a beer that could really help uplift the palate. An IPA was my first choice. I didn’t however, want a strong, piney, hoppy IPA cause that would have buried any chances to pick up the flavors in this smoke, so I reached for one of Santa Fe Brewing’s Happy Camper IPAs. Happy Camper is brewed at the Santa Fe Brewery in Santa Fe, New Mexico and comes in at 6.6% ABV. One of the reasons why I like this beer so much is instead of feeding off the piney hops, it boasts of strong, zesty citrus flavors with a hoppy and malty aftertaste. While those flavors really helped in adding a little something to the cigar experience, it wasn’t enough to either overpower the smoke, or bring it up to the next level.

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The Good Stuff: The Montecristo Epic is labeled as the boldest Montecristo blend in the Altidas U.S.A. portfolio. The main story in the Epic is the inclusion of Dominican tobaccos that date back as far as 2007.  Along with the Dominican filler the Epic also includes Nicaraguan fillers, Nicaraguan Binder, and a Ecuadorian Habano wrapper.

The Epic is available in  3 different sizes (Toro, Robusto, and Chruchill) with a limited edition No. 2 format available later this year. I’m not sure how much the limited edition vitola will run for, but the standard Epic sizes range from $12 to $14 a stick and will come in boxes of 10. These samples were sent to me by Altidas U.S.A.

Size: 6 x 52
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Dominican (some aged since 2007)/Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: ~$13
Pairing: Weihenstaphaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel (5.3% ABV)

Prelight: Lately I have had the pleasure of smoking some remarkably well constructed cigars, and Montecristo’s Epic, falls right in line. This cigar is a beauty. Starting with its crazy thick, oily, toothy, consistently medium brown wrapper with some slight, webby shades of dark brown. There is a lot of smaller, webby veins, but not really any larger ones that might mess with the burn during the experience. The large, beefy body leads up to a beautiful, round double cap. The Epic is finished off with your standard, brown and gold, Montecritso band and the addition of a secondary gold, yellow, and brown label carry the words “EPIC” and “Premium Selection ‘07” printed on it. This cigar is incredibly firm, it’s almost rock hard. There isn’t a single dense, or soft spot throughout the body of the cigar. I just hope it isn’t too tight when it comes down to smoking it.

The wrapper on the Montecristo Epic gives off a very tart, citrusy cedar aroma while the foot of the cigar pumps out a very creamy, spicy, cedar and coffee aroma. The cap on the Epic took a little extra attention to clip using my Palio double bladed cutter, but I was left with a very nice, clean cut when it finally when through. The cold draw produces some really sharp, tart cedar with some coffee and natural tobacco flavors.

First Smoke: Surprisingly, I was greeting with quite a bit of black pepper on the first couple of draw of the Montecristo Epic.  Once the pepper began to fade away this crazy tart, and I mean TART flavor took over. It reminded me a lot of orange peel only with more tart, less sweetness. Underneath the tart flavor is a nice, bold coffee, natural tobacco, cedar, and nutty profile. Despite my earlier reservations, the draw on the Epic was magnificent. Every little puff kicked out a ton of thick smoke. The burnline was razor sharp with only some slight waves leaving behind a flaky medium and dark grey ash. The ash only held on for about a third of an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: The tartness started to let off a bit in the second third of this Montecristo Epic. As the tartness faded the cigar became much more creamy with some sharp cedar notes laid over lots of coffee, chocolate, and nutty flavors. The retrohale is way too sharp and tart for me, so I only did it once or twice before calling it quits. The burnline is now burning dead even and still razor sharp and I am feeling no nicotine at all at this point.

Finish: I was really hoping that by the final third of the Montecristo Epic the tart flavor would have fizzled out. No luck. In fact, along with all the other flavors, it’s actually beginning to ramp up. Other than the tartness there is still some very sharp cedar, very bold coffee, and creamy tobacco with hints of spice. The Epic didn’t require a single touch-up or relight as it took me almost 2 hours to take this cigar down. I felt a slight nicotine kick after finishing the cigar, but nothing too powerful.

Overview: While the Montecristo Epic is one of the better Non-cuban Montecristos blend I have had, it just didn’t do it for me. That tartness was a bit too overpowering, had it not been there, or even a bit milder then I think I would have really enjoyed this cigar. When you factor in a $13 price point, I just don’t see myself pulling the trigger on these. Check them out for yourself, let me know what you think. I know that there are far more reviewers out there that really enjoyed this cigar then there are who didn’t.

Pairing: Ahh yes, another wonderful German beer. Weihenstephan is labeled as the oldest brewery in the world. It takes some great beer to be around for that long and this brewery can do no wrong. Today’s selection is one from their very few darker offerings. The Hefeweissbier Dunkel, or Dunkelweizen is one of my favorite brews they make. Brewed at the legendary Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan in Germany, this modest 5.3% ABV is packed with flavor. The dark ale starts out with a bitter wheat followed by orange, coriander, cinnamon, and prune flavors. This is a great after dinner summer beer. It’s heavy, sweet, and paired quite nicely with the tart/sweet flavors in the Montecristo Epic.

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The Good Stuff: Debuting at this year’s IPCPR show just a few days back, Oliva showcased it’s newest addition to their already vast portfolio. The Serie V Melanio. The Melanio was created to pay tribute to Melanio Oliva, who has been growing tobacco for Oliva since 1886. Here is a bit of background on Melanio taken from the Oliva site:

Melanio Oliva first grew tobacco in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba in 1886. His growing operations were suspended while he fought in Cuba’s War of Independence. After returning from war Melanio resumed his operations. In the early 1920’s Melanio’s son Hipolito Oliva took over the growing operations. Hipolito cultivated the Oliva family fields for several decades. As Cuba became over-run by communist the tobacco landscape changed. Hipolito’s son Gilberto Oliva shifted from growing to brokering tobacco. In the early 60’s the pressure became too great and Gilberto traveled from country to country in search of the distinct Cuban taste. His travels took him to Honduras, Panama, Mexico and even the Philippines. Gilberto finally found fertile ground in Nicaragua. Today Gilberto along with his family are Nicaragua’s second largest grower of Cuban-seed tobacco.

The Melanio is composed of all Nicaraguan fillers and binder. Like all of the cigars in the Serie V, the cigar contains some of the most aged tobaccos. Along with the aged tobaccos Oliva concentrated on tobacco grown in the Jalapa region of Nicaragua. The Melanio actually uses more Jalapa tobacco which adds much more flavor, but less strength. The cigar is then wrapped with Sumatra seed wrapper grown in Ecuador by Oliva. This is the first cigar made using this wrapper and the first Ecuadorian Sumatran wrapper on any cigar since the Master Blends 2. The Melanio will come in 5 sizes, all box-pressed: Robusto (5 x 52), Torpedo (6.5 x 52), Churchill (7 x 50), Pettit Corona (4.5 x 56), and a crazy figurado (6 x 52). All will come in boxes of ten and will range between $8 and $14 a stick.

Size: 5 x 52  Box Pressed
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Sumatra
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $9.50
Pairing: Schneider & Sohn Aventinus Dopplebock

The Oliva Serie V Melanio reminds me of the Master Blends so much as far as shape, and appearance are concerned. The cigar starts off with a nice, rounded box-pressed format. I’ve said it too many times to count, but this elongated box-press has to be my favorite format. It fits perfectly in your hand, perfectly in your mouth, and always pumps out a perfect draw. The wrapper is a very dark brown with lots of medium brown, light brown, and orange inconsistencies. Again, I love when a cigar’s wrapper looks as natural as this. I’m not one for dye. The wrapper is very hard and very thick and displays only one, tiny vein all the way up to the stubby round double cap. There Melanio feels tough, and very well packed with no soft-spots. The Melanio sports the exact same brown, gold, and red “Oliva Serie V” band as the rest of the Serie V cigars only with two exceptions. The words “Gran Reserva Limitada” written around the large band, and the addition of a smaller secondary band with the words “Melanio – Gran Reserva Limitada” embossed on it.

The wrapper smells of very sweet tobacco, deep spice, and cedar while the foot gives off a very powerful, pungent tobacco and sharp pepper. The cap cut clean from the Melanio and the cold draw produces a lot of the same flavors I would expect from the Master blends. Lots of sweet tobacco and a ton of cedar. The main difference is with the sweetness I also got a whole ton of spice and black pepper. Needless to say this is going to be an interesting experience.

First Smoke: The first couple of draws on this Oliva Serie V Melanio shaped up exactly how I was expecting. The cigar opened up with lots of sharp, back pepper, strong tobacco, coffee, and chocolate flavors back by lots of sweet cedar and spice. What I wasn’t expecting is for the pepper to fade so quickly and all the remaining flavors to blend in so perfectly. Seriously, this is starting out as one seriously creamy, balanced, flavorful cigar. The draw on the Melanio is just perfect. Every little puff kicks out a massive amount of thick, white smoke. The cigar doesn’t give off much more than a tiny amount of tobacco scented stationary smoke. The burnline has only a few small waves as it exposes the cigar’s tightly compacted, white and light grey ash. The ash held on well over an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Halfway There: The Oliva Serie V Melanio continues to be this creamy flavor bomb. The sharp spice from the aged tobacco has really started to take the forefront into the second third. Backing the spice is some soft cedar, a bit of a grape flavor, coffee, bitter chocolate, and sweet tobacco with just an undertone of leather. The amount of flavor in this cigar are ridiculous. The retrohale was not even close to as sharp as peppery as I thought it was going to be coating my nasal passage with a soft cedar and spice. I am feeling some slight nicotine from the Melanio already, but nothing close to the standard Serie V.

Finish: I am happy to report that both the secondary and the large band came off with ease. I really hate when bands are glued to the wrapper of the cigar, but I have never had a problem with Oliva. The strength of the Melanio really ramped up into the final third of this cigar. Along with the strength so did the body. The main flavors are now a strong coffee and tobacco with lots of cedar, sweetness, chocolate and fruit undertones. I’m really impressed with all the flavors in this cigar while the experience has stayed overall smooth and creamy. I didn’t experience and harshness at all into the final inch. All in all it took me and hour and a half to smoke this cigar and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Overview: Needless to say, this was one hell of a cigar. The Master Blends series have always been my favorite Oliva blends, and some of my favorite cigars of all time followed by the Serie V and Serie V Maduro series. You can guess how excited I was when I heard about the Melanio. I had hoped that it would be a Serie V/Master Blends love child, and that’s exactly what it was. The Melanio brings the Serie V to a whole new level with it’s full bodied, flavorful, aged tobacco wrapped up in a sweet, cedar package. This is by far one of the best cigars to come out of the Oliva factory. The blend and format are perfect, not to mention the appeal this cigar will have to cigar enthusiast based on it’s complexity and balanced flavor while it comforts the novice smoker with a full-bodied, but not too strong experience for those who want to venture into the premium market. This is box worthy for sure, and I urge any of you to pick up quite a few once they start landing in your local shops. Really, I know the price tag may be high for the normally value-priced Oliva, but it’s well worth it.

Pairing: Want to see a perfect pairing? Look no further than the Oliva V Melanio and Schneider & Sohn Aventinus. This German Wheat-based Dopplebock is produced at the Weisses Bräuhaus G. Schneider & Sohn and rings in at a whopping 8.2% ABV. As soon as I decided that this week’s review was going to be the Melanio, the only beer that I could think of for pairing was Aventinus. This isn’t your normal Dopple. Aventinus is a dark, wheat based dopple with more character than most. Instead of the thick, malty build up most dopples produce, Aventinus lets looks a ton of natural flavors such as clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cherry all wrapped around in chocolate malt and barely. Mouth watering yet? It should be. This is by far the best pairing that I have had lately.

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The Good Stuff: The Padilla Artemis was amongst the crazy amount of cigars released at this year’s IPCPR show in Las Vegas. I’m openly a Padilla fan. Ernesto is one of the people in the cigar business who constantly hit it out of the park with just about every blend they make. The Artemis is handmade in Honduras at the Raices Cubana factory using Cuban-seed Nicaraguan fillers and binder, wrapped with Cuban seed, Nicaraguan grown, Criollo/Corojo I’ve read that these will be a limited release, but I haven’t really seen any official word on that.  The Artemis will be available in four sizes, all boxed pressed: Robusto – 5 x 54”, Toro – 6 x 54”, Torpedo – 6.2 x 54, and the Double Torpedo – 6.7 x 56 and range $10 – $13 a stick.

 Size: 6 x 54  –  Wrapper: Nicaraguan Criollo/Corojo  –  Binder/Filler: Nicaraguan

Prelight: The Padilla Artemis is a beautiful boxed pressed format cigar. I’ve always come to expect great construction from anything that carries the Padilla name. The wrapper is this silky smooth, and sports this crazy calico color palate. It goes from medium to dark brown, parts of incredibly dark brown, and even spots of orange before coming to a perfect, round, triple wrapped cap. The band carries a gold and brown Padilla lion crest, followed by a brownish orange “Padilla” Shield as well as a smaller, orange, secondary band with the words “Padilla Artemis” embossed on it. The cigar feels incredibly firm, and gives very little when I squeeze on it, but the wrapper feels really thin and delicate so I didn’t want to handle the cigar too recklessly. The only soft spots I found were right around the foot of cigar.

The wrapper of this cigar smells like old shoe and burned paper. It’s not very welcoming at all, but as I said before, some of the worst smelling cigars end up being the best tasting. The foot of the cigar gives off some nice sweet tobacco and spice aromas.  The Artemis cut clean using my double bladed cutter. The cold draw was really interesting. I got some of the sweet tobacco flavor as well as a little of the spice, but then there was this strange cardboard flavor. I took a few more draws just to make sure that was the flavor I was picking up before writing it down, and sure enough it was in there. Let’s hope it’s just a cold draw glitch.

First Smoke: The Artemis light up with ease using my single flame butane torch. I am glad to report, there was no cardboard flavor in the first few puffs. What did surprise me though was the amount of pepper this cigar started out with. The Artemis came out with both pepper guns blazing only to defuse the pepper completely a minute later. The pepper was replaced with some nice tobacco flavors, soft hints of spice, and some really ripe earthy/grassy flavors. The draw on this cigar is excellent pumping out tons of thin smoke while leaving behind a perfectly even and sharp burnline. The ash however, isn’t as pretty. It’s a very flaky medium grey with some darker areas. The ash held on for an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: Into the second third of Padilla’s Artemis and the flavors really haven’t changed up much. There was the introduction of some very slight cedar, but that also came with a pairing of what tasted like some charred paper. Outside of that the tobacco and grassy/earthy flavors have remained the same. The Artemis does however give off some mean-cedar smelling stationary smoke as well as a hell of a sweet cedar priming on the retrohale. The burnline is still absolutely perfect and at this point I am not feeling anything in the nicotine department.

Finish: A little bit of clove sneaked into the flavor mix in the final third of this Artemis, but not much else. It’s still this grassy/tobacco/burned paper mixture and holding solid at that. The burnline has been awesome in this cigar though, perfect from start to finish with absolutely no touch-ups or relights. I am feeling just a very slighting bit of nicotine, even into the final third of the cigar. All in all it took about an hour and a half to smoke this cigar down to the nub. I had to put it down a little earlier then usual though due to the fact that it burned extremely hot into the final inch.

Overview: Is it wrong to say that the only thing I really liked about this cigar was the size? Ok, that’s not entirely true. It’s not a terrible cigar, I guess I have just learned to expect a little more from premier companies such as Padilla. The cigar fell flat for me, it was quite bland, and really lacked complexity. Nothing really stood out. Minus the construction, which was absolutely perfect. That being said I think this cigar would be alright if it carried a price tag half, or even a quarter of what it does now. Needless to say I probably won’t be buying anymore of these in the near future. Don’t let that stop you though, keep in mind this is just one man’s opinion. Read my tasting notes, maybe it might appeal to you.

Pairing: The pairing I chose actually brought some life into the cigar. This week I decided on Samuel Adams’ Chocolate Bock. I haven’t seen these for sale by themselves yet this year, but I wouldn’t doubt it if they started appearing. This was part of the annual holiday pack which Sam Adams puts together (and I am sure to purchase) every single year. This beer weighs in at 5.8% ABV and is brewed, along with all the other Sam Adams beers, in the Boston Beer Companies brewery in Boston. The chocolate bock, as it says, is a nice double bock with a hint of chocolate. And when I say “hint” of chocolate I really mean a whole crapload of chocolate. It’s not overpowering though. The chocolate blends in perfectly with the nutty, caramel, malt flavors of the double bock. This beer tastes a whole lot like Mackeson Triple stout, which I absolutely love, but cannot find anymore. Needless to say, this beer gave a little bit, much needed dimension to the Padilla Artemis.

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