The La Jugada Nunchuck is designed to resemble a pair of nunchucks. Two cigars are connected the head of the cigar and will be sold as a pair, something completely unique to the cigar industry. The design of the cigar was conceived by Danny Moya & Nelson Ruiz after being inspired by the martial arts theme of the Cigar Dojo social media app.

“Our company was coming up to its one year anniversary so we wanted to create something special, something unique. We made this limited edition cigar (1000 boxes) in dedication to the members of the Cigar Dojo. This social media community has supported us from day one, and is one of the key reasons for our company’s success.” Stated Danny Moya.

Big thanks the the MoyaRuiz family for hooking it up with samples to both Jeremy and I. You can actually check out Jeremy’s full review here.

Size: 7 x 54
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $23.50 (Per Nunchuck, 2 cigars)
Pairing: Water

Prelight:

Well, it’s a nunchuck. There you have it. Very Gimmicky, yes, but I actually applaud MoyaRuiz for thinking outside the box on this one. Not to mention it fits the Cigar Dojo theme to a tee. Looking at it from a cigar standpoint, its actually a beautiful thing. The wrapper is absolutely beautiful. The color consistently dark brown with some slightly darker webbing spanning the body of the cigar. The wrapper carries some mild tooth and a impressively thick layer of oil coating the entire cigar. There are a few slight veins but nothing too worrisome. The Nunchuck is very thick, dense, and heavy and the wrapper is as hard as a rock. The beefy body leads up to a round, double cap with a tobacco-made string that runs from the center of the cap of one cigar to it’s pair. The La Jugada Nunchuck is polished off with a massive white band that spans box cigars with the words “La Jugada Nunchuck” on the front of it.

Draw/Burn:

The burn line started out a bit wild as I lit up the La Jugada Nunchuck, but cleaned up about an inch in and remained solid the entire length of the cigar. The burn line was razor thin and left behind a very tightly compacted trail of medium and dark gray ash which held on for and well over an inch before giving way. The draw on the Nunchuck is incredible. Each tiny, little puff kicks out a massive cloud of thick white smoke. This cigar lets loose a ton of stationary smoke as well as it rests in my ashtray.

Flavor Profile:

The La Jugada Nunchuck starts out with a nice little black pepper bang which actually carried itself through the first half of the experience. Underneath there was some deep cocoa, coffee, cedar, and a bit of leather. Halfway through I started pulling out some subtle floral flavors as well some strong sweetness. The cigar finished very creamy with a ton of cedar and sweetness. There was no harshness at all and I was very impressed with how bold the experience delivered by the Nunchuck was and how balanced the strength was.

Thoughts:

I’ve been impressed with all the cigars under the La Jugada brand, and the Nunchuck just added to the list. The cigar is decently complex, bold, and finished smooth and creamy without the strength overpowering the experience which is exactly what I look for in a cigar. Again, it’s a bit of a gimmick, and the price point is up there, but this was a fun cigar, and a damn good one.

The post Quick Draw: MoyaRuiz La Jugada Nunchuck appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

The Good Stuff:

The Epicurean Carnavale is one of the newest offerings from Epicurean to hit the market. Created at the Plasencia Cigars S.A. factory in Esteli, Nicaragua the cigar features a Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro wrapper from the Jalapa region of Nicaragua, American Broadleaf and Honduran dual binder, with Nicaraguan Ligero fillers. The Epicurean Carnavale is offered in four sizes: Lancero (6.5 x 38), Petite Corona (5.5 x 48), Toro (6 x 52), and the Trabajdor (5 x 56) all coming in boxes of 20 with a total of 1,000 boxes of each released ranging from $8.60 to $10 a stick.

Size: 5.5 x 48
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro
Binder: American Broadleaf and Honduran
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Medium/Full
Strength: Medium/Full
Price: $9
Pairing: Prairie Artisan Ales Funky Gold Amarillo (Sour Ale 7.5% ABV)

Prelight:

The Epicurean Carnaval Petite Corona is a pretty small cigar, but the box pressed format makes it fit comfortably in your hand without it feeling too tiny. The cigar starts out with a very consistent, very dark brown wrapper. There is a bit of darker splotches around both the foot and the cap o the cigar. The wrapper features some very minor veins along with a lot of natural webbing in the tobacco leaf. The cigar has a nice firm, oily texture to it with a decent amount of tooth. The long, slender, box-pressed body leads up with a stubby, round double cap. The Carnaval is very firm and only carries a few softer areas around the foot of the cigar. The cigar is polished off with a beautifully designed band featured a mask similar to those that you’d see at a Carnival event along with a gold “Carnavale” logo embossed into the front.

The wrapper on the Epicurean Carnavale gives off nothing more than a slight cocoa aroma while the foot of the cigar has some soft spice, pepper, and a bit of natural grassiness.  The cap cut very clean and very easily using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw produces a really mild mixture of cocoa and tobacco and not a whole lot else.

First Third:

The Epicurean Carnavale lit up with easy using my S.T. Dupont Maxijet torch. The cigar starts off with a very mild black pepper blast followed by some strong brown sugar, grassiness, cocoa, and honey with some slight woodiness and bitterness on the finish. I love how comfortable this small, box-pressed cigar fits in my mouth as it produces a perfect, massive cloud of thick smoke with every little puff.  The burn line has a few smaller waves but is running razor thin. The ash is pretty flaky and only held on for about an inch before falling into my ashtray.

Second Third:

The cocoa has really taken over the flavor profile in the Epicurean Carnavale. Backing the cocoa is some light woody flavors, a bit of spice, some sweet brown sugar, and light pepper. It almost seems as the flavors have become more muted in the second third as I was expecting the opposite. The retrohale is great as it coats my nasal passage with some potent cedar and spice. The burn line has completely corrected itself and is now burning dead even and razor thin. I am feeling nothing in the nicotine department as I close out the second third.

Final Third:

Into the final third of the Epicurean Carnavale and much is the same. Lots of cocoa and wood flavors mixed with spice and sweetness. While those flavors are great, it would be nice to see a bit more change ups throughout the experience. It took me about an hour and a half to take this cigar down to the nub and I experience no harshness what so ever. The cigar always burned on it’s own and I never once had to reach for my lighter to touch up, or relight the cigar. I close out the final third feeling only a slight nicotine kick.

Overview:

The Epicurean Carnavale is a good cigar. It produces some great flavors, and a great experience. It’s not as complex as I was hoping for, and that’s probably my only gripe about it, but that falls on the subjective side as the cigar preformed flawlessly. I love the format, and the quality of the construction was perfect. I think this cigar is perfect for someone who likes solid smokes, and doesn’t normally reach for the more complex cigars. One note is going in, and knowing the blend, I was surprised with how modest the strength was. I was expecting a much stronger experience but was pleased with how balanced they were able to create the body/strength ratio in this cigar. Would I buy it again? Absolutely. While it won’t be in my regular rotation I would love to have this cigar around for those relaxing nights when I want a solid smoke to relax and enjoy some time in my backyard.

Pairing:

I took a bit of a risk on the pairing and boy did it ever pay off. Going into the smoke I knew that there was just something missing, something that a beer could easily replace making this an incredible experience. To me, that “thing” was citrus. That being said I decided to go as citrusy as it gets pairing the Epicurean Carnavale with a bottle of Prairie Artisan Ales’ Funky Gold Amarillo. The Funky Gold Amarillo is a dry-hopped sour ale brewed at the Prairie Artisan Brewery in Oklahoma. Coming in at 7.5% this sour ale leads with a nice, nippy sour punch backed by strong orange and lemon notes, with a smooth, light mouthfeel before finishing very crisp with a nice hop, citrus and spice. This is by far one of the best sour ales I have ever had the pleasure of drinking and it really helped feel that gap in the cigar’s flavor profile.

The post Epicurean Carnavale appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.

As I stated, our friend Eddie Ortega sent me one of each of his first three releases in the Wild Bunch Series. These are pre-release samples and Eddie actually told me they were pretty close to final, if not final. That being said, I am just going to give them brief write ups on my general thoughts on each blend with any specifics I know. I also paired each one of these cigars with water. Usually I’d have some awesome beer or port but since I am only giving my thoughts on a single cigar I wanted to keep my pallet as clean as possible. Also keep in mind that the bands on these cigars are just prototypes printed via laser printer. I would expect the design on the final product to be very similar if not identical to what they are on these samples.

 The Good Stuff: Here is a description of the series straight from the mouth of Eddie Ortega:

“During my time in the cigar industry, I’ve come to know lots of great interesting characters in the industry. I’ve found certain characters so interesting, that I decided to create a series called “Wild Bunch”. This series will consist of 12 characters, each of them with a unique flavor and size profile, no two will be alike.

The series will consist of a limited number of boxes 500-1000, the number of boxes produced will be based on the blend selected for the character, I want to use out of the ordinary material, specially wrappers, and I know that some of the selected wrappers I have chosen are in very limited supply.

The Series will start January 2013 and will continue through December 2013 with one character being released every month of the year, on December 2013 a final release of the completed set made up of either 12 cigars; 1 of each character or 24 cigars; 2 of each character.”

Big Bad John

Release Date: January 2013
Size: 6 7/8 x 60
Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Rosado
Binder: ?
Filler: ?
Price: ?
Strength: Full
Body: Full
Pairing: Water

Prelight: This baby is OILY! The wrapper on the Big Bad John is very silky smooth and just screams oil. This cigar gives off so much shine it almost looks like fake plastic. The wrapper is a nice medium brown and very consistent. There are quite a few very flat veins running through this very thick body up to the huge, round, triple cap. This cigar is heavy as hell and firm as a rock giving absolutely no way as I squeezed it. There are no soft spots and the construction is flawless. The wrapper lets loose a very strong, sweet cedar aroma while the foot gives off a strange gingerbreadesque aroma.

Flavors: The Big Bad John gave off very strong, bold tobacco and cedar flavors from the cold draw. The Cigar started out with some nice spice, bold tobacco, black pepper, leather, and a strange meaty type flavor. I am also getting a neat saltiness from the wrapper onto my lips. As I smoked on some nice bittersweet chocolate began to make it’s way into the mix as well as some more natural, earth flavors. The Black pepper, while it wasn’t strong, stuck around almost all the way though the cigar and gave nice support for the sweeter flavors in the experience. The cigar finished smooth with lots of body as the bold tobacco and cedar really ramped up towards the end.

Burn/Draw: Razor sharp, flawless burn the entire way though with a semi-flaky, light and dark grey ash. The draw is perfect. I am always worried about loose draws when it comes to larger ring gauges, but this one was spot on pumping out tons of thick smoke with every puff.

Thoughts: I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like large ring gauges on my cigar. That being said, there really are some blends out there that benefit from the larger formats (remember Quesada’s Oktoberfest Uber?). I really think this blend does very well in this size as I really enjoyed it. The filler flavors really got to showcase their strong, bold, yet sweet characteristics with a nice cedar blanket from the wrapper. This cigar is full bodied and full strength through and through. It’s strong, and flavorful. Be ready for it. The construction was flawless and the burn and draw were perfect the entire 2 hours it took to take this cigar down. While I enjoyed this cigar, I’d still love to see what the experience would be in a smaller format.

Iron Mike

Release Date: February 2013
Size: 4 7/8 x 54
Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano Oscuro
Binder: ?
Filler: ?
Price: ?
Strength: Medium/Full
Body: Full
Pairing: Water

Prelight: While the main story on the Big Bad John was the oil, the Iron Mike boasts one of the toothiest wrapper I have every come across. Running your fingers down this cigar feels like sandpaper. The wrapper itself is very hard and thick and consistently dark brown. This cigar too, is very firm and gave very little when I squeezed it between my fingers. There was almost not veins running up the slender body up to the round triple cap. It was hard to even tell this cigar was triple capped due to how toothy the wrapper was. It’s seamless. The wrapper really doesn’t give off much more than a slight tobacco aroma while the foot of the cigar lets loose a ton of spice and brown sugar.

Flavors: WOW. Pepper bomb right off the bat. And it didn’t just show for a bit and then fade off. The pepper stuck around as a main component in the experience almost the entire time. Outside of the pepper the Iron Mike boasts some very sweet  tobacco, espresso, cherry, and a dark wood. Halfway through the pepper started to fade a bit and the cherry and espresso ramped up before finishing off smooth.

Burn/Draw: The burn was a bit wide and rigid, but it burned cleaner as the experience went on. The ash was semi-flaky but held solid for well over an inch before giving way. I didn’t have to touch up or relight at all.

Thoughts: This cigar really starts off with a bang. It’s full-flavor, full-strength at it’s finest. Eddie actually called me a wimpy for saying that too. But this cigar woke me up! This is a great cigar if you like flavor bombs with lots of pepper as well as a complex experience.

Island Jim

Release Date: January 2013
Size: 6 1/2 x 52
Country: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Ecuador Habano
Binder: ?
Filler: ?
Price: ?
Strength: Medium
Body: Medium
Pairing: Water

Prelight: It’s interesting to see that texture on the wrapper on the Island Jim is a mash up of both the Big Bad John and the Iron mike sporting a toothy, and oily texture. The Island Jim is the lightest in color out of the bunch showcasing a medium to light brown color. This cigar has a few larger veins and the color seems to be a darker brown with bits of orange surrounding these areas. While the other two cigars were extremely firm to the touch the Island Jim seems to be a bit more soft. The construction is still spot-on but the cigar itself has a little more give in it, especially around the foot. Again, this cigar is polished off with another round, triple cap. The wrapper gives off nothing more than a subtle cedar aroma while the foot of the cigar remains modest only allowing hints of spice and tobacco to show through.

Flavors: The flavor wasn’t as bold, sweet, or strong as the other two. Usually those are the characteristics I look for in a cigar but this is another example of medium bodied done right. Lots of up front cedar and black pepper, light leather, smooth tobacco, ginger, and some neat clove hints here and there.

Burn/Draw: Right off the bat this cigar burned razor sharp and perfectly clean leaving behind a very tightly compacted, thick ash. The ash actually held on for almost two inches before giving way.

Thoughts: Let me spoil the surprise by starting off saying that this was probably my favorite cigar out of the bunch. This cigar was incredibly smooth and creamy all the way down to the nub without ever being too mild.  The smaller ring gauge really let the flavor from the wrapper come out. In all honesty, this is one of my favorite formats as well. Brownie points go out to modeling this blend after Jim. In case you didn’t know, that dude’s an awesome badass.

The post Ortega – Wild Bunch Pre-Release Reviews – Big Bad John, Iron Mike and Island Jim appeared first on Cigar Reviews | Beer Pairings | Casas Fumando.