The Nomad Cigar Company was founded by Fred Rewey and introduced itself in 2012 with the release of a single cigar, the Limited Edition Fugitive Perfecto.  While that particular cigar is no longer made, the line has expanded with the addition of six other sizes:  Fugitive II Perfecto (6×51), Vagabond Perfecto (4-5/8×54), Rambler (5×50), Renegade (5-1/4×54), Navigator Torpedo (6×52), and Drifter (6×60).  2013 saw the release of the Nicaraguan lines Esteli Lot 1386 (very limited and now difficult to find) and S-307, while the Connecticut Fuerte came onto the market this year.  Here is Fred’s philosophy on the creation of Nomad which can also be view of their website here:

Understanding my thought process behind the Nomad Cigar Company can really be boiled down to the same three things that make a great smoke…

1. Great Tobacco
2. Great Blending
3. Great Construction

Some companies, big and small, cut corners. They think you can have two out of three and hit a home run among smokers.

I don’t believe that for a minute.

Your favorite cigar, your mainstay go-to cigar, is just that. It is a blend that you like and always an enjoyable smoke.

I wanted the quality of Nomad Cigars to “run with the big dogs.” Not just as a solid stick of tobacco, but across the entire line of offerings.

If you are looking for a quality $2.00 cigar…keep looking. It can’t be done without sacrificing pretty much all of the three things I mentioned above.

But you can make a incredible cigar at a fair price…

I wanted Nomad Cigar Company to be as close as you could get to create your own cigar – an elite club indeed. It is also no secret that I modeled the business side of my cigar companies after some of the world’s best – but with my own twist, passion, and influence.

I truly hope you enjoy Nomad cigars, tell friends, and join me* on this incredible journey.

Fred “GodFadr” Rewey
Founder, Nomad Cigar Company, Inc

PS> *When I say “join me,” I mean it. I respond to every email (although it takes me awhile sometimes). I also like Twitter. Send me a tweet, tell me about your latest smoke, or better yet, tell me where you are enjoying a Nomad Cigar (I may just show up and join you). Twitter: @Godfadr

I had the opportunity to meet Fred a couple of weeks ago at an informal “meet and greet” at one of my local cigar shops, J & J Cigars in Seattle, and had a great time chatting with him and listening in on some other very informative conversations.  Having previously had a couple of the classic line robusto sized Ramblers, I decided to pick up a few of the short perfecto Vagabonds while I was there. Nomad’s cigars are created at Tabacalera L & V in Tamboril in Dominican Republic.

Size:  4-5/8×54 perfecto
Wrapper:  Ecuadorian Habano
Binder:  Dominican
Filler:  Dominican
Price:  ~$7.75 (I can’t remember exactly, but I’m sure I paid more than that due to Washington state’s stupidly high tobacco taxes.)
Pairing:  Fremont The Brother Imperial IPA (Imperial IPA 8.5% ABV)

Pre-light: The Nomad Vagabond sports a faintly yellowish, medium brown wrapper with a few splotches of darker brown.  There is a fine tooth to it with a few very minor veins.  The cigar appears to be very well constructed with a firm, almost seamless, roll, although the foot is just a bit squishy.  It wears a band that appears to pay homage to Fred’s love of motorcycles, with a winged Maltese Cross in shades of red, brown, and black, with silver accents, and Fred’s “@GodFadr” Twitter handle in small print on the side.  The wrapper exudes a faint fruity sweetness accented by tobacco, while the foot aroma is of tobacco and a slightly mossy earth.  An easy clip reveals an ideal draw featuring sweet spice notes and a light woodiness.

First half: (Due to the short stature of this cigar, I will divide this review into halves, rather than thirds.) The Vagabond lights up very easily to show sweet cedar, earth, and leather with some spice in the background.  Pepper is evident on the retrohale.  Soon, a rich musty/musky tobacco joins in the fray.  The burn line is sharp, but a bit uneven, as it is pretty breezy out today.  The first ash fell onto my lap at about an inch, which I also attribute to the wind; my two previous experiences with this stick had the ash lasting a good two inches.  A sweet and tangy citrus component comes in next, while the pepper has backed off.  As the cigar nears the halfway point, the smoke texture is smooth both in the mouth and on the retrohale.

Second half: As the Vagabond begins its descent down its narrowing taper, it continues to be smooth and cedary, with some musty tobacco, light earth, and that citrus note in the background.  The pepper has transitioned into more of a smooth white pepper without the pepper bite, if that makes any sense.  The burn line has completely self-corrected and is still burning razor sharp.  Coming down the final stretch, outside of the addition of a bit of a savory flavor creeping in, the core flavors are pretty much the same, but have intensified while remaining smooth to the nub.  I felt just a little bit of a nicotine hit by the end of this 55 minute smoke, or perhaps it was the beer doing its thing.

Final thoughts: First off, I have to point out that this was my third go around with the Vagabond, and the smoke time on this one was quite a bit shorter than the previous two, which lasted in the 70-80 minute range.  I have to attribute that to the effect to the wind present today, causing a quicker burn and perhaps making me subconsciously smoke a little faster than normal.  The Nomad Vagabond is a truly enjoyable and nearly perfectly constructed stick.  While it doesn’t have a ton of different flavors, the ones it does have are great and the shape allows transitions in the way they show themselves, and I never had to even think about pulling out my lighter to do a correction or re-light.  In my mind this is easily a must try cigar, and I certainly will be buying more.

Pairing: The Brother by Seattle’s Fremont Brewing Company is an Imperial IPA carrying an ABV of 8.5%.  With flavors of citrus and other fruits (apricot, perhaps?) and malty sweetness with a good hoppy finish, it paired very nicely with the Nomad Vagabond.

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As for me, life has been pretty busy and it will surely continue to be that way until the big wedding day coming up in September. I did manage to sneak away last week and put together a review of the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared. Try saying that 10 times fast! haha.

Now Viaje is a brand I don’t really get to see a lot of North of the border in Canada. Due to their mostly limited production they also have a fairly limited distribution and they also seem to be well sought after, making them even harder to come by. The few I have gotten come from trades or bombs, just like this one did. Today’s Viaje is part of their Oro line up and is the limited edition version, so it’s even more limited production so I’m happy to have a chance to review this one for everybody.

There isn’t a ton of info on the Viaje brand or this particular cigar but I’ll do my best to give a little bit of background. The brand owner is Andre Farkas and he naturally portrays the brand as a boutique cigar company which specializes in small batch cigars. The actual name Viaje is a Spanish word that translates to ‘Journey’ and Andre currently has 7 lines under the Viaje flag. The Oro lines is produced at the Raices Cubanas factory and comes wrapped with a Corojo99 leaf and a double binder.

Now if you can get your hands on a few of these, they’ve all been pretty darn tasty from the small samplings I’ve had so far. They are all Nicaraguan puros, so if you are a Nicaraguan fan, you will be at home here. So let’s jump on in and see if the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared lives up to the reputation that I’ve come to expect from the brand so far.

Cigar: Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared
Drink: Unibroue Raftman
Vitola: Double Torpedo (5.25 x 52)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo 99
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: About $9
Burn Time: A little over an hour

Construction:
• The Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada is an interesting looking figurado shaped cigar with a very dark brown wrapper that has a few golden highlights
• The wrapper definitely has some toothiness to it and isn’t afraid to show off a little bit of oilyness
• The cap of the cigar is finished cleanly with a single leaf that blends away into the wrapper
• There is definitely a soft springiness to this cigar, more so near the foot, I’m hoping it doesn’t translate into an open draw
• The foot itself is almost closed, with maybe just a quarter inch visible so I can’t really tell if it’s well packed or not
• A couple medium sized veins show through on the wrapper but they are fairly short and don’t look like they will be a problem
• The stick I have has a small crack in the wrapper near the band, probably from shipment, hopefully it doesn’t cause any problems

Burn:
• The foot is so small on this cigar so toasting was obviously super easy, now let’s see if it works out to be a nice burn too
• I always tend to have a lot of burn issues at the start of tapered cigars like this but this one seems to be starting off pretty well
• Through the first inch the burn is a bit wavy but it seems to be staying within a decent range and not requiring touchups
• The waves got the better of the burn and I needed to give it a quick touch up near the halfway mark

Smoke & Ash:
• Even from the tiny tapered foot at the start this cigar started producing massive amounts of smoke from each and every draw
• The resting smoke was consistent but not overpowering, just a nice light line steadily emerging from the foot
• The initial ash is nothing pretty, it seems pretty uneven and dark grey or black in most spots
• I tapped it off after about an inch since it looked like it was gonna fall anyway
• The ash also has no smooth burn lines to it, weird to see that it’s all just chunks here and there
• The next ash lasted a bit longer than an inch but it was still fairly weak and pretty much exploded when hitting the ashtray

Tasting Notes:
• The aroma on the wrapper is fairly light with only a little bit of woodsy aromas shining through
• The foot is very small so the aromas were pretty much the same as the wrapper here
• The pre-light draw carries more of the woodiness through but this time it’s much more noticeable and comes with a bit of clove and fresh vegetal notes as well
• The initial flavors are very similar to the pre-light with a lot of woodiness and vegetal flavors, plus a bit more of the clove spices
• The spices started to pick up as I head past the 1 inch mark, lots of interesting peppers, nutmeg and a bit of saltiness I usually only find in cubans
• As with a lot of sharply tapered cigars, I tend to get a bit of the oils coming out of the cap that make it a little bitter. Cutting it a bit more usually resolves this problem
• I’m getting a bit of leather in the mix now and the wood flavors have become more toasted now
• For the most part, the whole cigar has been in the medium bodied range and it’s had a nice bite on the retrohale with a smooth woodsy and clove finish
• Just past the half-way mark I’m getting a nice espresso flavor mixing in with the spices and woodsiness, this is getting better and better!
• All the flavors really started to gain some intensity near the end and balance out amazingly
• A nice tasty and flavorful finish without any harshness to worry about, bravo!

Final Thoughts:
I haven’t had too many Viaje’s in my days, mostly because they don’t reach Canada in distribution and of course they are fairly limited. But all-in-all I quite enjoyed this one! The ash may not have been pretty but we’re not here for good looks, we’re here for flavors and the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared did not miss the mark there at all. Tons of interesting flavors that kept changing made me wonder what the next draw was going to bring me, I love having that in any cigar. There were a couple issues on the burn but nothing major that I would knock this cigar for. The price is a bit up there at the $9 mark but even at that price I’d say it’s worth trying a few of these. That is, if you can find them cause they are pretty much all gone from what I can tell.

Pairings:
I’m not gonna re-invent the wheel here, I already did a good write up on the Unibroue Raftman when I paired it with the La Reloba Seleccion Sumatra. Here’s the rundown from my last post:

Next to the Scottish brewery of Innis & Gunn that I paired last week, another of my favorite breweries is none other than Canada’s own Unibroue. This place is based out of Quebec and has a HUGE inventory of brews with a ton of different and unique beers that are a rare find. Today’s brew is called Raftman and I only found a case of these while actually in Quebec, I’ve never seen it in any other stores so far. Now this brew was very interesting as the label says it is brewed with Whisky Malts so I just had to pick it up and give it a try. Well I’m glad I did cause this is one tasty brew and yet again another winner from Unibroue. It’s a fairly light amber beer but it packs in a ton of flavor. The whisky malts are very obvious as they give a classic touch of whisky, as if you just put a little whisky inside a good beer. Along with that it also has a delicious malty finish and some notes of sweetness as well.

As for the pairing, I found it made an awesome compliment for the Viaje Oro Edicion Limitada Perfecto Squared. The unique and interesting flavors on the cigar made for an awesome experience to go with the beer. Other good selections could have been a nice Porto, or a flavored coffee seems like an interesting idea here.

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Drew Estate ACID Subculture Def Sea Perfecto

If I am not mistaken the only place you can get these are through Cigars International. They’re awesome, and provide super quick shipping out of Pennsylvania.

I would imagine most other subculture blends will be equally hard to find. I have been blessed to have stumbled across 2 other subculture cigars. One was the largest cigar I have ever had. The ACID Hawg. This one was found in my hometown of El Paso, Texas at Kern Place cigars. The place is great, and Brad, the owner is an amazing conversationalist. They have two locations on the West side, one in the Cincinnat Entertainment disctrict and the other a bit further down mesa. They also have one (in which I frequent most often) snuggly hidden just off Lee Trevino on the east side.

The other is the ACID Toast. This I was lucky enough to receive in an infamous Acid Tin. Contents of these tins vary, but they are incredibly easy to find.

The Good Stuff: The entire subculture line boasts “taking cigar manufacturing to new limits”. Each small batch cigar is not only aged an extra year, but is also the most intuitive of infused blends. The ACID Def Sea is no exception. The Def Sea is a smoothly blended cigar wrapped in Sumatra seeded tobacco leaves and infused with the insane blend of flavors from honey water, to jasmine.

Size: 6 x 52  –  Wrapper: Sumatran  –  Strength: Medium  –  Shape: Perfecto  –  Country: Nicaragua

Prelight: The ACID def sea is a perfecto shaped cigar. This means it holds a torpedo shape at both the foot, and the head. Torpedos have to be my favorite shapes as they burn almost perfect every time. The cigar holds a very oily, creamy, dark Sumatra wrapper. It’s very close to a maduro, but no where near as sweet. Sadly from the picture above you can see that my cigar didn’t come in the best condition. Not only does it have a few cracks but the head of the cigar looks like its been smashed one time too many. Outside of that the cigar is great in construction, I can’t image how hard it is to roll one of these.

First Smoke: Kinda funny, but every time I smoke a cigar my wife takes the shaving from the head left on my cutter and sucks on it. Since she isn’t a cigar smoker this is how she bases her reviews. Oddly enough she looked at me with a sad face. She obviously gave this one a thumbs down. Being a man, I felt my review would be much different. The first hit was enormous. That had to be the best part of this cigar outside of the shape. It sports a very large, thick draw. Not nearly as big as the Ambrosia Kaya I reviewed recently, but large none the less. The taste. This is what caught me by surprise. Maybe I’m not a Jasmine fan but I really didn’t like the flavor produced by this cigar. It was really sweet (a good thing), with hints of honey, jasmine, pine, and cedar. The cigar itself wasn’t that flavorful at all and actually felt more like I was smoking a traditional cigar than an aromatic. The cigar was very easy to light, and burned very clean.

Halfway There: Another surprise was the fact that shortly after the first few draws not only did the cigar ash off (not even a half inch in, this may be due to the condition the cigar was in), but the burn seemed to have a mind of its own as you can see here:

Drew Estate Acid Subculture Def Sea Perfecto

One minute its burning great, the next its powerful on one side, then the other. It was kinda interesting to watch. Also note in the picture you can see the wrapping beginning to come undone.

The flavor is still there and hasn’t increased as of yet. As much as I would like it to. The draw has increased a bit and again, its the best part so far.

Finish: On a good note, outside of the image above there were no further defects in the wrapping. The cigar finished very smooth, but still lacked in flavor. I didn’t take it to the nub, but close enough to call it quits. This cigar just wasn’t as “Action-Packed” as I was hoping for. The cigar was still very smooth, and did not increase in strength as I smoked along.

Overview: Would I try this cigar again? Probably not. Would I suggest it to anyone else? Yes, especially if it is someone that solely smokes traditional cigars, or has a fear of infused cigars. I’m not at all unimpressed with this cigar. A lot of work goes into the subculture line and it clearly shows. The flavors in this guy just wasn’t my cup of tea. I still have the “Toast” in my humidor, and the “Hawg” was one hell of a cigar. It actually took me two days to smoke that one down (thank god, and my wife for my Cigar Savor).

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