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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post Movember Fundraiser/Contest Winners! appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Drew Estate Tabak Especial Cafe Con Leche

Outside of mail order, I hadn’t been able to find the Cafe Con Leche in any of the local brick and mortar shops. A few had looked into them for me, with no prevail. I finally gave in and mail ordered a few. I hadn’t tried a dual-shade wrapper prior to the Cafe con Leche, and I was quite interested to see how it turns out. The Negra, and Dulce, although both coffee infused cigars have very different tastes. Not to mention torpedoes are my vitola of choice.

The Good Stuff: The Cafe con Leche is a limited edition half-breed of the rich, dark, Tabak Especial Negra Maduro and the creamy, smooth Tabak Especial Dulce. Combine those two magnificent cigars together, add a bit of torpedo, and the outcome is pure genius. The Cafe con Leche is composed of aged, coffee infused Esteli-grown Nicaraguan long filler wrapped with a dark, Connecticut Broadleaf maduro foot and head, and a soft shade-grown Connecticut leaf.

Size: 5.5 x 54  –  Wrapper: Connecticut Maduro/Connecticut  –  Origin: Esteli, Nicaragua

Drew Estate Tabak Especial Cafe Con Leche

Prelight: Outside of the obvious dual-shade wrapper, the Cafe Con Leche sports incredible construction. I was unable to find any soft spots, or signs of unwrapping. There are two prominent veins, but nothing to worry about. The Cafe Con Leche sports two beautiful bands on both the head and foot of the cigar. I have always loved the bands on all the Drew Estate cigars, and this is no exception. I honestly think the thought put into the marketing, and appearance of cigars is almost as important as the construction of the cigar itself. Upon unwrapping the cigar is scented with strong cocoa, and coffee aromas. Especial in the maduro regions. The light body of the cigar is scented with hints of spice, chocolate, and light creamy coffee. The cigar is packed full and loose with medium colored filler tobacco.

Drew Estate Tabak Especial Cafe Con Leche

First Smoke: This Tabak Especial lit up real quick under my little single flame torch. The first few draws is as expected, remarkably sweet. Being that I love infused cigars, that’s a great thing. The cap itself is very sweet. You are immediately thrown into a frenzy of dark chocolate, mixed with rich, raw, espresso like coffee. The Cafe Con Leche produces large amounts of very dark, thick smoke. The smell of the smoke is amazing, and not annoying at all. The cigar is increasingly sweet after a few puffs, but not overpowering in anyway. At this point the burn is PERFECT, lets hope that keeps up. I got over an inch and a half before the ash gave out.

Halfway There: The taste of the cigar evens out a bit as you get to the lighter shaded body of the Cafe con Leche. The cap of the cigar is still really sweet, but the smoke itself is well balanced, and incredibly smooth. I could go at this one all night if possible. The flavor is still holding tight with the strong, raw coffee and rich chocolate. Honestly, I can’t think of anything better to infuse a cigar with other than coffee. Oddly I can say this cigar would probably go really well with a glass of milk. Too bad I’m lactose intolerant.

Finish: I nubbed the hell out of this cigar. The Cafe con Leche had a perfect burn all the way through. I never had to touch it up. Drew Estate has always been known for perfection and the Tabak Especial is no exception. Towards the nub of the cigar the chocolate coated espresso bean taste increased in strength, as well as the tobacco as well. This made quite an enjoyable finish, a bit strong, but well balanced.

Overview: This is one hell of a cigar. Due to the looser construction the nub itself burnt a bit hot, but nothing unbearable. I absolutely love the Tabak Especial line from Drew Estate, and I am really glad all the trouble I went through to get this cigar payed off. I would recommend it not only to an infused smoker, not only to a non infused smoker, but to anyone interested in starting cigars. The medium-bodied experienced was very smooth, and would win over even the toughest of critics.

The post Drew Estate Tabak Especial Cafe Con Leche Cigar Review appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.