The Facts

Sample Provided by House of Emilio
Vitola: Toro
Size: 6 by 50
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Drink: Water
Smoke Time: 1 Hour and 25 Minutes

Pre-light Inspection

The Melete was a solid looking cigar and, while  basic, the purple and white band popped against the medium brown wrapper. From head to foot, the cigar felt evenly filled and small to medium sized veins, as well as a good amount of bumps, added character to the Nicaraguan Habano leaf.

The wrapper aroma was surprisingly soft with woodsy and earth notes, while the foot of the cigar smelled of pepper and cedar. Upon clipping the beautifully applied triple cap, I found extremely packed tobacco restricting the draw. Cutting down to the final layer of the cap, I found some relief in the draw and was underway with the Emilio Cigar La Musa Melete.

Flavors and Performance

From the first draw, my mouth filled with wildly chewy, flavorful smoke that had an impressive amount of balance all at the same time. The soft cedar notes were more prevalent in the smoke than on the cold draw, accompanied by some unique sweetness, possibly brown sugar. As I burned further into the first third of the Melete, I began to pick up on some peppery spice, which warmed my palate nicely. The first ash dropped well past an inch and I encountered absolutely no performance issues through the first third.

As I pulled into the second third, an acidic quality, along with bitterness, arrived in the mix, reminiscent of orange peel.  The bitterness was not overpowering but balanced the sweetness and richness that developed in the woodsy flavors. The ash that was white in the first third became dark gray and the burn remained right on through the middle third.

I did not perceive any nicotine through the first or second thirds. After falling into a relaxed state of mind in the final third, I realized the nicotine  must have stepped up a notch putting the strength at just the right amount for me. The Melete continued to build in richness, the sweetness stayed level throughout, most of the bitterness exited the profile, and added earth notes brought the final third of the Melete to a close.

In Closing

The La Musa Melete was an interesting and intriguing smoke. The subtleties in the profile and the change-ups kept me engaged and desiring more. I will definitely be hunting more of these down and I hope I can still get my hands on the Lancero. From this one experience with the Melete, it has already become one of my favorite smokes from Emilio Cigars, up there with the AF1 and AF2 that I adore.

The post Quick Draw: Emilio Cigars – La Musa Melete appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

Back in 2011, Emilio Cigars, owned by Gary Griffith, began making a bunch of noise within the cigar blogger community.  Several Emilio cigars received high praises, which was the start of my almost year-long search for his sticks.  While they have yet to arrive at the local retailers, I did stumble across a few of the cigars at Fox Cigar Bar in Gilbert, Arizona in mid-2012.  Instantly, I fell in love with the AF1 and AF2 lines.  On my next visit to AZ in October, I made sure to pick up some more Emilio cigars. This time I snagged the Draig K. With almost seven months of rest, it is time to see what this cigar is all about.  The Casas Fumando Team has reviewed the following cigars from Emilio Cigars:

• Emilio Cigar – AF1
• Emilio Cigars – AF2
• Emilio Cigars – Grimalkin

The Draig K is produced at Nestor Plascencia’s El Parasio factory and is available in four vitolas: Corona (5 1/2 by 46), Robusto (5 by 50), and Toro (6 by50). The K began to hit the shelves of retailers in July of 2012. While it is stated to be an “extremely limited” cigar, the Draig K is still available at several online retailers for a price in the $9.00 range.

The Facts

Price: Around $9.00
Vitola: Toro
Size: 6 by 50
Wrapper: Columbian Maduro
Binder/Filler: Nicaraguan and Honduran
Pairing: Water
Smoke Time: 1 Hour and 15 Minutes

Pre-light

The Draig K sports an extremely dark brown wrapper.  The Oscuro looking, Columbian Maduro wrapper has some medium to large veins and a nice amount of oils.  Half of the cigar closest to the foot has some sponginess, while the other half is firmly packed. I hope this doesn’t lead to any performance issues.

The triple cap has been applied very sloppily, with some bunching on one side. A shallow cut of the cap has opened up a beautiful, free draw. I got so excited to light up this bad boy that I forgot to do my usual pre-light ritual of checking out the aromas off the wrapper and foot.

First Third

The burn is off to a crazy start.  I was forewarned by a Casas Fumando reader to dry box the Draig K prior to smoking to help alleviate burn issues.  The Draig K has been resting around 60% humidity, a little dryer than normal for me, but it may not have been enough.  There is a youngness to the smoke, almost grassy,with a touch of sweetness.  Additionally, there are notes of earth, leather, pencil shaving, and pepper, along with a minor spice. The finish of the smoke is of black coffee and a slightly charred flavor.The burn line is all over the place and several touch-ups were required in the first third. The dark grey, flaky ash held to an inch before dropping. The flavors are at the high-end of medium and strength is in the low medium range.

Middle Third

No change in the burn as I make my way into the second third. The pencil-shaving flavor is now at the front of the profile, along with the earthiness. The spice is warming my mouth and leaving a slight irritation at the back of my throat.   The Draig K has a tanginess to it that is unique and something I rarely pick up on.  The retrohale brings out sharp pepper and tons of spice. The finish has become very smokey and reminds me of  the smell of a campfire. Halfway into the second third, the draw has become a little more firm and the burn line seems to be correcting itself. I believe I finally reached the area the cigar felt more firmly packed. As I examined the ash mid-way through the second third, there seems to have been a void in the middle of the cigar.  The flavors are full and the strength is creeping up on me.

Final Third

A smokiness is now dominating the flavor profile.  The smoky flavor is something I have picked up on with pipe tobacco but not too often in cigars. It is similar to a fired cured tobacco flavor. The grassy flavor from early on  is no longer in the flavor make-up and a good amount of earth and pepper remains.  With an inch and a half remaining in the cigar, some chocolate notes pull through and remain on the finish of the smoke.  The burn is performing much better at this point but still wavy.  After an hour and fifteen minutes, it is time to put the Emilio Draig K to rest.

Wrap-up

I really wish the Draig K would have blown me away but I was completely unimpressed. While some enjoyable flavors showed up, the smoky, charred-like flavors stole the show.  The construction and burn also took away from this stick. I probably touched-up the Draig K no less than ten times.  Even if the flavors were more enjoyable, touching-up a cigar so often becomes burdensome.  But with that said, I am still a huge fan of Emilio Cigars and several of the other lines Gary Griffith has out.  This cigar was just not for me.  I will be picking up a couple more if I stumble across them and will provide updates if they provide a different smoking experience.

The post Emilio Cigars – Draig K appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The reason is simple, we wanted to reward you, our readers, for making this, Casas Fumando, possible. You are the driving force behind this blog. We don’t run this blog to make money on advertising, to get free cigars, or to obtain any type of fame. Our reason is simply to share our love of cigars with you.

3 years ago, I started Casas Fumando. Actually at that time it was under a different name, but it was the same blog, same reviews. I actually had a personal blog in which I would share my graphic/Web design experiences. On that blog I posted a review of a cigar that I really enjoyed. Just as a little inlet into my personal life. At the time I was smoking a lot of infused cigars and that first cigar actually happened to be an Acid. Anyways, as time went on my webstats began to show an interesting trend. No one gave a crap what I had to say about design, but my one little cigar review, that was something different. It was pretty much the only article anyone ever read. Knowing this, I started Casas Fumando which at the time, was more of a catalog of my own cigar experiences, and less of a cigar review site. As I got more serious about it, I realized that I couldn’t do it alone. For the life of me, I can’t remember how he and I met, but it was at this time that Daniel T. began sharing his experiences on Casas Fumando as well.

A lot has changed since then. Daniel and I have actually became very close friends. We went from 10 page views a day to over 1.5 million a year. We average 2 to 3 reviews a week and have not only earned the respect of some of the larger cigar review blogs, but from many of the larger manufacturers as well. Most of all, we have established a form of 2 way conversation between us, and you. We share our thoughts, you tell us yours, and we make fun of Daniel along the way.

That being said, this is where the fun begins. We will be running a 9 day long contest. You heard that right, 9 freaken days. Each one of these days will be sponsored by a company that has given us their support over the past 3 years. Each contest will showcase this company, as well as what they have done for us, and the product that they will be giving away and what you need to do to enter the contest for that day.

This contest is open to anyone in the US and Canada who are 18 years of age or older. Once each day concludes we will contact the winner directly and arrange shipping. We will be shipping some of the items, and some of the companies will be shipping to you directly. It doesn’t matter how many times you have won contests from us in the past, these will be open to everyone.

First, there is a very easy way to gain some extra ground in these contests. Recently we started a Facebook account. It’s probably the easiest way for us to keep up with you guys as well as share all the neat things we are smoking and drinking without having to write up reviews for each one.  It’s also a great way for you to get a hold of us if you have a random question or want to tell us what you’ve been smoking. Want a free entry into each and every single one of our contests? Just “like” our page! Already a fan? Then you are already entered. On a side note, if you share our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/casasfumando) page on yours, and ask you friends to “like” us, we will give you an extra entry to each one of the contests. Alternately, if you share this page, and any of the contest pages as they are posted then you will get an extra entry into that contest as well! We want the “likes” and promise not to flood your timelines.

Again, if you are not on facebook, DON’T Worry! Tune in on each of the days listed below for instructions on how to enter! Don’t worry, we will make it as easy as possible on you. The idea is to reward all of you for reading, not make you work for it

 The being said, let’s get our mouths watering and announce each one of our contests!

Day 1 – Tuesday – 03-13-2012 – Bonita Smoke Shop

We love Jackie, and Jackie loves EVERYONE! Bonita Smoke Shop will be giving away 1 bundle of her famous “Time Warp” cigars! These cigars were hand-crafted on Miami’s Calle Ocho at the El Titan de Bronze factory by Willy Herrera (Drew Estate), formally from El Titan de Bronze cigars.

Day 2 – Wednesday – 03-14-2012 – RoMa Craft Tobac – Intemperance Volstead Sampler

From the makers of Cro-Magnon, Skip Martin has agreed to reward one of you lucky readers with a sampler of his newest creation, the Intemperance! The Intemperance Volstead Sampler comes with 8 cigars, one of each size, and each wrapper.

Day 3 – Thursday – 03-15-2012 – EP Carrillo

Ernesto has partnered up with us and has an awesome contest in store for you! EP Carrillo has agreed to part with a full box of EP Carrillo Core Line Golosos!

Day 4 – Friday – 03-16-2012 – Rocketfuel Coffee

Who doesn’t like coffee? Who doesn’t like super premium coffee? Rocketfuel has always been friends of ours, and today, they are friends with you! One lucky reader will win a gift pack containing 1/2lb Hawaiian Kona, 1/2lb Jamaican Blue Mountain, 1/2lb Rocketfuel XXX, a $60 value!

*NOTE: Cigar not included. And this blend is different than the gift pack, but you get the idea.

Day 5 – Monday – 03-19-2012 – Emilio Cigars

What can we say about Gary? He knows his cigars, and has always been a great supporter of us, as well as many other tobacco related organizations! Like the AF1 and AF2? Love the Grimalkin? Well Gary is giving you the chance to try them all with his contest containing an awesome sampler with few of each of his cigars, 10 in total as well as a pair of Grimalkin coffee mugs and an Emilio Cigar Polo shirt!

Day 6 – Tuesday – 03-20-2012 – Ortega Cigar Company

Recently Eddie Ortega, co-founder of EO Brands, ventured out on his own and started a new company called “Ortega Cigar Company”. His fist release, the Serie “D” is already making a huge splash, and you can be among the first to get your hands on them. Eddie has offered up 3.. that’s right 3 sampler boxes (5 cigars, one of each size)!

Day 7 – Wednesday – 03-21-2012 – Miami Cigar

2 years ago Daniel and I named the “La Sirena” our #1 cigar of the year. We still stand by that decision and I still love that cigar! Ever had an “A” sized cigar? Seriously, more than 9 inches of deliciousness! Miami Cigars is giving away a full box of La Sirena “A” as well as a few T-shirts!

Day 8 – Thursday – 3-22-2012 – Joya De Nicaragua

Jose Blanco has to be one of the greatest men in the business. A genius, and a friend. With his new company, Jose and Joya De Nicaragua has agreed to supply one lucky reader with a full box of Antano, one of my personal favorite cigars of all time.

Day 9 – Friday – 3-23-2012 – Smoke Inn

Last but certainly not least, Smoke Inn. Abe is another precious cigar soul and has always shown his support to new media, traditional media, and just about any cigar smoker out there. Strengthening that support, Abe and Smoke Inn has agreed to give one lucky reader a full box of the Smoke Inn Exclusive, Don Pepin Garcia My Father El Hijo, and a Smoke Inn Survival pack containing a travel humidor, hat, and cutter!

That’s a whole lot of winning! Again, start spreading out the news via facebook, be sure to tag us so that we can keep track. Stay tuned on each one of the mentioned dates so that you can find out how to win the above products! Thanks again, for the support. You guys rule!

The post Casas Fumando’s HUGE anniversary cigar giveaway! appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.