The Good Stuff:

The CLE Prieto is the third installment in Christian Eiroa’s CLE brand. Unlike most cigars created by Eiroa, the Prieto is one of the very few that does not feature a single Honduran leaf. Instead, the Prieto (meaning “dark”) carries a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan filler. The Prieto comes in four sizes: The 550 Robusto (5 x 50), 646 Corona (6 x 46), 652 Torpedo (6 x 52), and the 660 Gordo (6 x 60). All are soft-box pressed and come packaged in boxes of 25 cigars running between $8 and $10 a stick. This past year Cigar Aficionado ranked the Prieto as it’s #17 cigar of the year so I am am excited to give it a run. Big thanks goes out to Ana Cuenca and Cuenca cigars for passing these my way. You can purchase them directly from them here.

Size: 6 x 46
Wrapper: Connecticut Broadleaf
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium
Price: $8
Pairing: Borderlands Brewing German Chocolate Cake (Porter 7.3%)

Prelight:

The CLE Prieto starts off with a bright silver and black band with the CLE logo as well as the words “Prieto y Presado” on the front. Next, a majority of the cigar is wrapped in white tissue carrying the CLE and Prieto branding. Once the tissue is removed the cigar showcases an extremely dark brown, almost black wrapper. The wrapper is consistent in color while it carries a few medium sized veins located throughout the cigar’s body. The texture is both very toothy and very oily. The soft box pressed body feels so comfortable in my hand. The cigar is tightly packed yet pretty soft as the body leads up to a round triple wrapped cap.

The wrapper on the CLE Prieto gives off lots of bold cocoa, spice, and earthy scents while the foot of the cigar gives off some great sweetnesss, spice, pepper, and coffee aromas. The cap cut clean and easily using my Xikar XO Double bladed cutter. The cold draw pumps out lots of coffee, cocoa, and spice flavors.

First Third:

The CLE Prieto starts out with a blast of pepper which left my tongue and lips tingling. After a few draws the pepper began to fade out and I was left with a whole mess of chocolate, spice, gingerbread, espresso, and bold natural tobacco flavors. This cigar reminds me of German Christmas treats (which is why I paired it with what I did.). The draw is perfect. Each little puff kicks out clouds of thick, white smoke while the cigar pours out stationary smoke as it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is a bit wild, but I haven’t had to reach to my torch yet as it leaves behind a tightly compacted trail of medium and light gray ash which held on for 3/4 of a inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the CLE Prieto and the chocolate has really taken center stage backed by the gingerbread (which I am astonished is still in the mix), spice, espresso and some nice almond with a nice natural tobacco tartness on the finish. The retrohale really brings the pepper back into the mix, but I am really liking how smooth this cigar is so I don’t find myself retrohaling too often. The burn line has completely corrected itself and is now burning like a champ as I close out the second third with nothing in terms of nicotine.

Finish:

Into the final third of the CLE Prieto and I wish this thing wasn’t coming to an end. The flavors are still heavily led by the rich chocolate backed by almond, spice, and espresso. The body has ramped up significantly at this point yet the strength has never reached higher than medium. It took me an hour and a half to smoke this cigar down to the nub and I experienced absolutely no harshness nor extended heat. I close out the cigar with no signs of any nicotine at all.

Overview:

I have liked every single cigar CLE has released and quite frankly, the Prieto is so far the top on that list. It’s bold, yet very well balanced creating a heightened experience that won’t knock you on your ass. The flavors are incredible and suited my palate beautifully and the cigar isn’t going to break your budget. This is something I can easily see become a staple in my humidor when I am looking for a great, bold cigar. Especially if it’s as a dessert after a great dinner.

Pairing:

German Chocolate Cake is a 7.3% ABV chocolate coconut porter brewed by Borderlands Brewing Co. in Tuscon, Arizona. The German Chocolate Cakes leads with heavy dark chocolate, roasted malt, almond, caramel, and a great natural coconut flavor with a very light mouthfeel before finishing crisp with more dark chocolate, sweetness, coconut,  and some light spice. The flavors in the cigar reminded me of the German Chocolate Cake and Gingerbread treats we’d each every Christmas so this pairing was obvious, and amazing. I think this cigar would also pair great with any black coffee, Belgian dark ale, or quad.

The post CLE Cigars Prieto appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Good Stuff:

While not the first cigar that Christian Eiroa has made using all Maduro leaf, the CBT Maduro is quite a departure from the normal. Created at Christian’s El Aladino factory in Honduras, the CBT Maduro features a Maduro wrapper, binder, and filler tobaccos. “CBT Maduro” stands for “Capa, Binda, Tripa” which stands for “ Maduro Wrapper, Binder, and Filler”. Christian didn’t disclose the origin of the tobaccos used, but he aimed at created a full-strength, full-bodied cigar using Maduro wrappers that are naturally darker in color due to the nutrients an sun exposure versus a darker color due to other processing. The CBT Maduro will come in 4 different sizes all offered in boxes of 20: 48 x 4 Prensado, 50 x 5, 54 x 6, and 60 x 6 ranging between $9.16 and $12.16 a cigar. At this time, there is only enough tobacco available to make about 150,000 cigars.

Size: 5 x 50
Wrapper: Maduro
Binder: Maduro
Filler: Maduro
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $10.18
Pairing: Rogue Double Chocolate Stout (Imperial Stout 9% ABV)

Prelight:

We’ll start with the wrapper on the Eiroa CBT Maduro. This thing is DARK, I mean, it’s almost so dark brown, it’s black. It’s very consistent too it almost looks unreal. The texture is very rough, and very toothy. It feels like straight up sandpaper. The wrapper is very hard and dense too as its laid seamlessly throughout the body of the cigar. This cigar could probably do a good amount of damage as a weapon in a street fight. Anyhow, the CBT Maduro is capped off with a beautifully round double cap that blends so perfectly into to body that it’s difficult to even find where the cap ends. The CBT Maduro is polished off with a silver, black and red band carrying the Eiroa crest.

The wrapper on the Eiroa CBT Maduro’s wrapper gives off a very strong chocolate and coffee aroma while the foot of the cigar showcases some subtle sweetness mixed in with the spiced tobacco aromas. The cap cut like butter using my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw was very, very sweet with lots of chocolate and spice notes.

First Smoke:

The Eiroa CBT Maduro starts off with a huge bust of black pepper that I wasn’t expecting. After the first few puffs the pepper faded out and I was left with a ton of dark chocolate, espresso, spice, and raisin. The flavors are very creamy, and very deep while still experiencing a bit of strength even at the start of the experience. The draw is perfect. Each little puff results in a good cloud of thick smoke. The burnline is a bit wavy to start, but looks to be correcting itself as I close out the first third. The ash left behind is a bit flaky, and zebra striped light and dark gray which held on for an inch before falling to it’s doom into my ashtray.

Halfway There:

As I venture into the second third of Eiroa’s CBT Maduro, a really strong, deep, cedar has began to make it’s presence known in the flavor department. Wrapping around the cedar is the dark chocolate, espresso, spice, and raisin I picked up before. This is an incredible mixture of strong flavors which melt in seamlessly with one another resulting in a very creamy and balanced experience. The retrohale is really sharp with lots and lots of pepper backed by chocolate and cedar. It’s not very easy on the nasal passages. The burnline is now rocking pretty damn evenly without any touch ups and razor thin. I am feeling a bit of nicotine in this full strength smoke as I close out the second third, but nothing too daunting.

Finish:

The strength has really ramped up into the final third of the Eiroa CBT Maduro. The flavors have began to take a step back and all mashed into one another creating a very smooth and creamy finish. The main flavors are still much of the same with the deep cedar, dark chocolate, espresso and raisin while there is a more spice and a lot of sweetness making it’s way in. The CBT Maduro smoked very slow, and in the 1.75 hours it took to take this cigar down I experience absolutely no harshness at all. In fact, the cigar had gotten considerably smoother as the smoke progressed. The CBT Maduro did leave me with a nice little nicotine kick. I have to say, this is probably one of the more potent cigars that I’ve had from the hands of Christian Eiroa, but not once did the power impact the pleasurable smoking experience.

Overview:

Eiroa’s CBT Maduro has been out for a few months now and I am honestly quite surprised that it hasn’t generated more buzz than it has. The rich flavors, full-body, and full strength entice even the more sophisticated cigar-smoking palates while the old school maduro presence will bring the more traditional, and novice smokers out of the woodworks. Sure, the CBT Maduro does come with a premium price point, but it’s one that I would gladly pay over and over again for the complex, balanced, and flavorful smoking experience. I’ve been a long-time fan of Christian’s work and now, more than ever, is the man showcasing quality production. I would urge you to pick up a few of these while you can. I’ve had a real good run of nothing but great reviews as of late, and the CBT Maduro just adds to the pile of consideration for the best cigars of 2014.

Pairing:

This pairing was pure bliss. The natural choice of pairing such a deep chocolate enriched cigar with a deep chocolate enhanced beer was an easy one. Rogue’s Double Chocolate stout is brew at the Rogue Ales Brewery in Newport, Oregon. Coming in at 9% ABV this imperial stout leads with very strong chocolate and spice notes, with a heavy mouthfeel and a creamy, spicy, milky aftertaste. I especially liked the way the spice and the subtle coffee flavored matched up with all the spice and espresso from the CBT Maduro. This pairing was much like having tiramisu with a cup of creamed espresso. The CBT Maduro will pair perfectly with any coffee mixture, any stout, and most spicy red wines.

If you haven’t already, make sure you check out Jeremy’s review of the Riot, a Stogieboys exclusive to find out how you can win a full box of the cigar for you very own.

The post Eiroa CBT Maduro appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

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.

The post CLE Corojo 2012 appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.