September and October 2015 Recap

Most Memorable Cigars Smoked

1. Crowned Heads – Las Calaveras 2015
2. La Mission du L’Atelier
3. Tatuaje – La Riqueza
4. Mel Caribbean Corp. – Bella Dominicana

 September and October Cigar Reviews

Review Highlights

Jeremy’s Reviews
Mel Caribbean Corp. – Bella Dominicana 

Bella Dominicana delivered medium/full flavors at the start and transitioned to more of medium smoke throughout the last two third. The strength behaved exactly opposite with reaching medium/full at the end. I would characterize the core of the smoke, or the most consistent flavor, as sweet, rich woodsy notes with no lack of complexity and change-ups and a fair amount of pepper spice.

J. Fuego – Vudu Sacrifice and Vudu Dark, Famous Smoke Shop Exclusives

Sacrifice: Right of the bat, the Sacrifice delivered full-flavors that were full in body and medium in strength. I have absolutely no complaints in the performance department. While the draw was stiff at the pre-light, once lit, the draw was fine and the burn and ash was exceptional for a cigar less than $3.00. Not overly complex, but highly enjoyable smoke that I could see picking up in the evening and standing up to fuller body beverages.

Dark: The Vudu Dark is my cup of tea. The flavors of earth, cocoa, and pepper suited my palate with an evolving strength that moved from mild to medium/full throughout the smoke. Compared to the Sacrifice, the burn-line was not nearly as even, but was of no concern. I actually ordered up a jar of No. 7s, and I believe you may be hard-pressed to find a better cigar for the price.

Macanudo Estate Reserve 2015

Macanudo Estate Reserve 2015 delivers medium flavors, body, and strength, sometimes pushing full, with an effortless performance. The sweetness noted in the first third brought a nice balance to the dark and sour/floral flavors and was sorely missed once it exited in the middle third and never made a return. The sour floral or grapefruit essence held my interest throughout but I longed for the return of the sweetness.

Carnage, a Famous Smoke Shop Exclusive

Famous Smoke Shop’s Carnage blended by Nestor Plasencia delivers medium flavors and medium/full strength with a consistent profile with a core of rich woodsy notes and pepper spice, with some subtleties that are much more noticeable if this cigar is not hot boxed. The Carnage Robusto required one touch-up, but other that I don’t have any complaints on the performance.

Tatuaje La Riqueza Lancero

The core of the flavors were dark and spicy, with lots of subtleties in the profile and change-ups in each of thirds kept me engaged the entire time. Each time I burn through one of the Tatuaje lanceros in the Limited Lancero Collection, I feel like I just found my new favorite Tat. As it stand today, this may very well be my favorite.

Tony’s Reviews

Padron – Damaso No. 8

In my case, I was pretty disappointed in the lack of everything that you have come to expect from Padron in the case of the Damaso. The body was lacking, the flavor profile was less than stellar, and the price point was way too high for what the cigar delivered. Not to mention that I really tried to take my time with this cigar, but even then it burned way too quickly. It seriously only took me about 50 minutes to smoke this down to the very nub.

Crux Du Connoisseur

Each of Crux’s cigars have been hits in our book, and the Crux Du Connoisseur is no exception. In fact, it’s probably one of my favorites by the company. The cigar sports lots of character with a complex and interesting flavor profile that isn’t too far over the top.

Guest Reviews by Jeff Oda

L’Atelier Extension de la Racine ER14

Looking over my review of the first release of the Extension de la Racine (ER13), it appears that this one is quite a bit different in the flavors it presents, and I have to wonder if the shape of the cigar has something to do with that.  I definitely missed the Asian spice and floral elements that were present in the ER13 and that I enjoyed so much, so perhaps the Parejo shape is a better fit for this blend than figurado.

Roberto Duran Cigars – Neya 

The flavors were enjoyable and reasonably complex, and the experience was very much in line with the Duran EPF target.  The previous two that I had actually lasted about ten to fifteen minutes longer than this one, so YMMV.  At four bucks, I think that this cigar is an absolute bargain, and I have no qualms about recommending it to someone who’s looking for a high-value medium-plus bodied stick.

AJ Fernandez Enclave

The AJ Fernandez Enclave turned out to be a solid smoke, which while not the most complex around, provided a good range of flavors with enough transitions to keep me interested in it.  Construction and burn were top-notch, it smoked nice and slow, and the price is absolutely consumer friendly.

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The Good Stuff:

The Padron Damaso is the first Connecticut wrapped cigar to enter the Padron Family’s portfolio. Not only is the wrapper a first for Padron, but the Damaso is also the first all round format released to date. The name “Damaso” comes from Damaso Padron, the grandfather of current owner Jose O. Padron. The blend features an undisclosed Connecticut seed wrapper, Nicaraguan binder and Nicaraguan fillers. The Padron Damaso is offered in four sizes, each of which is named after the ages of each of Jose Padron’s grandchildren: The No. 8 (5 1/2 x 46), the No. 12 (5 x 50), the No. 15 (6 x 52), and the No. 17 (7 x 54). The Padron Damaso comes packaged in boxes of 20 running between $12.50 and $17.50 a stick. They were recently released and have bene slowing trickling into shops around the U.S. I picked these up from out good friends over at 2 Guys Smoke Shop.

Size: 5 1/2 x 46
Wrapper: Connecticut
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Body: Medium
Strength: Mild/Medium
Price: $12.50
Pairing: Ommegang Hennepin (Saison 7.7% ABV)

Prelight:

The Padron Damaso starts out with a very consistent, light brown wrapper. The wrapper carries a very oily, silky smooth texture with absolutely no sign of tooth. There is some mild veins running through the length of the body and some very small, slightly darker webbed areas running through the wrapper leaf. The cigar itself feels pretty light, yet very tightly compacted and hard with no soft spots whatsoever. The wrapper is very thin and delicate. I actually cracked one of the cigars I smoked when I was squeezing softly, inspecting the foot. The Padron Damaso is capped off with a beautiful, round double cap. The Damaso is polished off with a beautiful white version of the gold and maroon anniversary band we have all grown so familiar of. There is a secondary white, maroon, and gold band with the word “Damaso” located just below this one.

The wrapper on the Padron Damaso gives off a very oaty/grainy aroma with just a bit of sweetness while the foot of the cigar is much more potent leading with strong spice, tobacco, and cedar scents. The cap cut very clean and easily using my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw on the Padron Damaso is way more bold than I expected leading with a very strong spice and malt with some great cedar flavors and a bit of pine.

First Third:

The Padron Damaso lead into the first third with some mild black pepper, spice, cinnamon, cashew, and cedar with just a touch of sweetness. The flavors are pretty subtle, but preform well as a whole. The draw is flawless. Each little puff pumps out a good mouth of thick, white smoke while the Padron Damaso gives off almost no stationary smoke while it rests in my ashtray. The burn line is razor thin and dead even leaving behind a very tightly compacted trail of black and dark gray has which held on for a little under an inch before giving way.

Second Third:

Into the second third of the Padron Damaso and the body has began to simmer down quite a bit. The cashew and cedar now lead the way with some slight spice, pine, and sweetness in tow. The retrohale actually brings a lot more life into the cigar as it coats my nasal passage with a good amount of sweetness and strong cedar. The Padron Damaso is still burning dead even and razor thin while I close out the second third without any sign of nicotine whatsoever.

Finish:

The final third of the Padron Damaso finished much of the same. The cigar carried a decent amount of cedar and cashew with mild spice and pine. The sweetness was absent in the final third. There was a bit of a resurgence in the pepper department, but that too was short lived. While the Padron Damaso hasn’t been a very bold cigar, one thing it does have going for it is it’s incredibly smooth and creamy. The while cigar took me a little over 45 minutes to take down to the nub and I experienced absolutely no harshness, and no extra heat. If anything, the cigar became more smooth and more creamy as it progressed especially into the final inch.

Overview:

If you evet smoked a Padron and thought to yourself “Man, this is great, but I’d really like one that’s not as flavorful, and not nearly as strong”, then this one might be for you. In my case, I was pretty disappointed in the lack of everything that you have come to expect from Padron in the case of the Damaso. The body was lacking, the flavor profile was less than stellar, and the price point was way too high for what the cigar delivered. Not to mention that I really tried to take my time with this cigar, but even then it burned way too quickly. It seriously only took me about 50 minutes to smoke this down to the very nub. What I’m trying to say is that going in, I expected this to be milder than the other cigars in Padron’s portfolio. But I also expected it to be much more than just your standard Connecticut wrapped cigar. I guess with Padron you always expect something special, and that special something wasn’t found in the case of the Damaso.

Pairing:

I know I needed to pair this cigar with something that could compliment it, while raising some of the body, but wouldn’t overpower it at the same time. That perfect mixture came from Ommegang’s Hennepin. Hennepin is a 7.7% ABV Belgian style Farmhouse Saison brewed in Cooperstown, New York. Hennepin leads with some bold wheat flavors, lots of spice and cinnamon, some slight sweetness and a very light mouthfeel before finishing crisp and clean with malt, citrus, spice, and pine. It’s obvious why I chose this cigar for this pairing as the flavors matched up extremely well. The flavors in the beer were much more dominant than the ones I found in the cigar, but since they palates were so similar it helped bring the lacking body in the cigar up into a new level. Alternate pairings for this cigar would be a nice Belgian golden ale, a light marzen, or just your standard black coffee.

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