The Good Stuff: As cigar prices continue to skyrocket, there are a few cigar companies out there doing what they can to reduce the dent made on cigar smoker’s wallets. Kristoff is amongst those companies as they created the Kristania with value in mind. The Kristania originally debuted at the IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas in 2011 and has been rolling out to retailers ever since. The Kristania starts off with a Nicaraguan Criollo wrapper poured over a Dominican Habano binder and filler. The Kristania comes in 3 sizes, the Robusto (5×50),  the Toro (6×52), and an unnamed size (5.5×60) and come in at a very modest price, ranging from $5 – $6.50.

Size: 5×50  –  Wrapper: Nicaraguan Criollo  –  Binder/Filler: Dominican Habano  –  Body: Medium

Prelight: This Kristoff Kristania is the epitome of a rustic looking cigar. Seriously, this cigar looks like it has had much better days. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and in my opinion, this is a beautiful looking cigar. The medium brown wrapper has lots of bumpy, webby, darker shade veins throughout the entire body of the cigar up to the round, Cuban style triple cap. Although the wrapper may look a bit troubled, It’s actually very thick and tough, giving off a beautiful shine as lights reflects off all the crazy oils that coat this cigar. The band has some neat, rustic design to go along with the appearance of this cigar. The band is a neat, brownish purple with “Kristoff” printed in white, “Kristania” printed in black with some interesting design, and “Elite Cuban Taste” along with “Dominican Republic” and “Hand Made” in gold. The cigar itself is really firm, and give lots of pushback as I try to compress it.

The wrapper on the Kristania gives off a whole ton of mossy, muddy, earth aromas while the foot has some fun cinnamon, and spice. The Kristoff Kristania clipped like butter against my Palio double bladed cutter. The cold draw is really deep, and meaty, letting lose a very deep woodsy, earthy, spicy flavor.

First Smoke: Kristoff’s Kristania lets loose a massive, MASSIVE cloud of insanely thick, white smoke right off the bat. The draw on this cigar is remarkable. As stated on the band, the cigar actually has some very Cubanesque flavors, starting out with some subtle cedar, lots of earth tones, saltiness, honey, all wrapped in an overall mild approach. The Kristoff Kristania only lets loose a subtle amount of smoke as it sits in my ashtray, which really resembles the overall mossy, earthy flavors with a matching aroma. The cigar could be burning a bit cleaner as waves continuously form in the first third, but I haven’t had to touch it up yet. The ash is a very bright, and medium grey which is very tightly compacted holding tight for a little under an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: I am glad to say that the burn line on this Kristoff Kristania has cleaned up tremendously by itself. It’s now burning razor sharp with only a few slight waves. The flavors are much the same as they were in the first half only with a slight ramp-up in cedar, and a large ramp-up in that mossy-earthy flavor. The only bad thing is the flavors are so mild they are borderline cardboard. I really hope that they changeup into the final third or this cigar may just dud out.  The retrohale on this cigar is really nice, and really smooth, faintly coating with a lot of earth and cedar while I feel absolutely no nicotine at all.

Finish: Deep into the final third of this Kristoff Kristania and the flavors have still yet to change up. The only added feature to the cedar, mossy-earth tones, and slight cinnamon is the dryness I am getting in my mouth while I smoke it. This is very common and I know that there are certain tobaccos that are actually added to blends to promote the formation of saliva in your mouth. Obviously Kristoff forgot to take that in consideration when blending this cigar. I am still not getting any nicotine at all, nor did I experience any built up harshness all the way down to the nub. The cigar did begin to burn a little hot around the one inch mark though.

Overview: I think it’s pretty obvious that I was going to conclude this review on a disappointing note. To me, Kristoff cigars have always been hit or miss. Needless to say this one gets filed in the miss section. The cigar has good intentions of resembling Cuban cigars, but falls completely flat in the taste category by doing so. Honestly, this cigar bored me from the start, and continued to do so the more I smoked it. There is a glimmer of hope out there though. This cigar reminded me a lot of some of the standard, popular Davidoff blends out there. If you are a fan of those, like I know so many are, than this cigar is definitely something you will want to look into, especially at the price point. But if you are looking for a cigar with some interesting, or bolder flavors, or a cigar that resembles a Cuban, then I would take a pass on this one.

Pairing: Uerige’s Doppelsticke isn’t a stranger to this blog either. This is a hard to find brew, but when I do find it, I buy it in bulk. Doppelsticke is a 8.5% powerhouse brewed at the Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei GmbH / Zum Uerige in Germany. This Altbier, and most, if not all other traditional Alts are brewed in Düsseldorf. Old, loosely translates to “Old” describing the longer brewing processes used to create said beer. The strong brown ale boasts of strong, dark malts, caramel, honey, orange, apple, and orange. This is a very flavorful, yet smooth beer that pairs perfectly with just about any cigar, and meaty, hearty meal. The glass I decided to drink this out of is actually an “Altbier” style glass from the Gaffel house in Düsseldorf. My intern at the time visited Cologne and took the glass from the brew house for me. An interesting note on the glass is that at the brew house customers drink from the exact glass minus the gold trim. VIP members are awarded the gold trimmed glass to distinguish their excellence, among with other perks.

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I have been dying to get the chance to smoke this cigar, and thanks again to the wonderful group over at smokingstogie.com, this time in particular Steve Valle, I finally have a chance to take on Drew Estate’s Liga Privada MF-13.

If you haven’t checked out smokingstogie’s site before, then I suggest you do so, NOW. Steve, Brooks, and now Patrick work hard over there bringing you some of the best reviews and photography of some of the most expensive, rare, and exclusive cigars the internet has ever seen. Alright, now onto the review!

The Good Stuff: The Liga Privada MF-13 is a new, pre-release cigar that may, or may not ever see full Liga Privada production. Drew Estate is still in discussion as to if they will release the blend to the public or not. As for now, the MF-13 is only seen when it is shared with Drew Estate’s friends, or at Drew Estate events. The MF-13 pre-release I have is in fact the final blend, not just a sample. As with all Liga Privada samples shared, Drew Estate will not alter the blend should they decide to release it. The MF-13 is a reblending using the Liga Privada T52 as a starting point. The blend has been tweaked numerous times, the initial blend being the MF-4, and now all the way up to the MF-13. One thing to note is, Steve Saka actually told me that if they were to release the MF-13 it would not be added to the T52 line, but would be a new feature in the Unicos series. The main difference between the T52 and the MF-13 is the filler recipe of the MF-13 is more Esteli Valley-centric, which makes it a much spicier, bolder smoke. The “MF” in MF-13 stands for what you think it does, but not due to the strength but rather the first thing Steve Saka said when he sampled the blend; “This is Mother F’ing Good”. Gotta love those guys.

Size: 5 x 52 Parejo  –  Wrapper: CT Grown Stalk Cut Habano – Type 52 Seed  –  Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina – Sungrown – Plantation Harvest  –  Filler: 5 fillers, all Nicaraguan.

Prelight: The Liga Privada MF-13 starts out with a very nice, orangish dark brown wrapper with a whole ton of different darker and lighter spots. This cigar is said to contain the same wrapper as the T-52, but it seems so much darker than any of the ones I have on had. I know there is color differences in all leaf and cigars are boxed by closest color, but it’s almost as dark as the No. 9! Anyways, the wrapper is very tough, very firm, and very toothy. This thing feels like a rock giving almost not resistance as I squeeze it. The construction is perfect with only mild veins running through the length of the body up to the round, double cap. The band is identical in design to the Liga Privada No.9, only it has different text. This one actually says “Pre-Release Sample Blend  – Liga Privada”. And of course, the “MF-13” markings. I really like that Drew Estate takes the time to put finishing touches on the band of even their pre-release blends now. Not just ink and paper thrown through a inkjet-printer.

The wrapper gives off a very bold, woodsy aroma. Really deep with slight hints of cherry. The foot is a bit more interesting. There is just a ton of spice coming out of there with nice little notes of chocolate, and wood. This cigar smells like a lumber yard. The cap was very easy to cut, and clipped clean using my double bladed Palio cutter. The cold draw is nice and loose giving off this really robust, strong tobacco and wood flavor with little hints of berry.

First Smoke: Holy Crap! The MF-13 starts off with this just ridiculous amount of pepper. Wow! After a few initial draws the pepper lets up just enough to pull out some really interesting, very strong grassy, earthy, woodsy flavors with even a tiny note of lime, and what I could only imagine weed would taste like. Of course I haven’t even tried the stuff, but the scent of it reminds me of a very small note I picked up in the beginning of this smoke. All I can say is be ready for this one. It starts off with a bang and quickly separates itself from the T-52. As I mention Saka said it was a “tweaked” version of the T-52 blend which only goes to show how much of a delicate process each blend actually is. The draw is perfect, kicking out massive clouds of thick white smoke with every puff.  The stationary smoke on this cigar, as well as any other Liga Privada blend is insane. Tons of lightly scented cedar smoke spills from the cigar while it rests in my ashtray. The burnline started slightly wavy but quickly corrected itself during the first third and is now burning dead even leaving behind a nicely compacted trail of medium grey ash which held on for a little over an inch before giving way.

Halfway There: Now into the second third of this Liga Privada MF-13 and it is still the flavor bomb it started out to be. The pepper is still present, but no where near as strong as it once was. The flavor profile now consists of really deep oaky wood flavors with still a tons of earth tones, spice, and just a little bit of the black cherry I picked up in the cold draw. This cigar is strong, and I am feeling it already, but at the same time it’s smooth and really easy to smoke. Very well balanced. The retrohale is still packed with spice and I don’t find myself doing it too often at all. It’s a bit much for me with this cigar.

Finish: Into the final third of the Liga Privada MF-13 and the body is still steadily increasing in strength without losing any flavor. The final flavors in this cigar are still a very robust woodsy flavor, a bit of leather sneaked in, still holding on to the pepper and some spice, and a tiny bit of the cherry. Being that this is such a strong cigar, it is relatively easy to smoke developing no harshness at all, even into the final inch. This cigar was very hard to put down, it smoked really slow but even then only took me slightly over an hour to finish.

Overview: Before getting a chance to try the Liga Privada MF-13 for myself, Steve Valle and I had a quick conversation on how he actually liked this cigar better then the No.9. As you can imagine, this shocked the hell out of me, and going into this cigar I was a bit biased and compared it greatly to the No.9. Was it better in my opinion? No. But was I disappointed? Not in the least. Despite being based from the T52 blend the MF-13 is (if released) part of the Unicos blend for a reason. It isn’t anything like the T52 or the number 9, it stands alone. It’s kind of funny, Steve was talking to Jonathan Drew and I on twitter and actually made mention of the MF-13 being like the No.9, the T52, and the Dirty Rat all rolled into one. He nailed it. Imagine that concoction of a cigar and you have a MF-13. The cigar is VERY strong, and that alone puts it in another category. The craziest part about it was just how smooth, and relaxing the experience was for such a strong cigar. It takes a lot to get that sort of balance, and for me, that says a lot about the cigar. The MF-13 was strong yet smooth, very complex, and just an all around damn good cigar.. For SURE it’s not a cigar I would recommend for the casual or novice smoker. But if you are a seasoned cigar smoker, or a Liga Privada lover, then you may want to pick up quite a few of these, they are well worth it. I’m not certain on the price tag, but I would guess for the robusto it would be in similar Liga Privada range, $10 – $12, albeit a bit expensive for most, I think it’s a completely legit price point and would gladly pay it towards a box purchase.

Pairing: Knowing that this was a strong cigar going in, I decided to pair it with a very strong beer. The Asylum Quadruple Ale from Left Coast Brewing Company in California. Asylum is a spicy, fruity, tart strong Quadruple ale. Boasting an 11% abv, this isn’t a beer for the faint of heart. The beer paired nicely with the cedar notes from the cigar, but I found it overpowering at times, and even a bit sour. Needless to say I took my time with it as to not hinder the taste of the cigar. I think I actually only drank about a third of the bottle before finishing the cigar, then gulping down the rest. Ideally, with the deep flavors from the MF-13 one would want to pair it with a nice light stout, a porter, or a brown ale. But I’m stupid and like I often do chose power over flavor. It wasn’t the worst pairing, just wasn’t too great. If I had to pair the MF-13 with anything else I think it would go perfect with a nice glass of port, some Dr. Pepper, or some black coffee.

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The Good Stuff: The Singulare Phantom is the first Limited Edition run that Illusione have kicked out since they have been creating cigars. The Phantom is an all Nicaraguan blend, 6×50 that comes in boxes of 15 running about $180 a box.. There are only going to be a total of 1,000 boxes released. The Singulare series will be a limited run, ran once a year and will feature a different blend and size every year.

Size: 6 x 50  –  Wrapper: Nicaraguan  –  Binder/Filler: Nicaraguan  –  Body: Med/Full

Prelight: Illusione’s Singulare Phantom is an almost-toro sized cigar. The wrapper is a milky-brownish-orange with a whole ton of oil. I can actually feel some of the oil from the wrapper come off on my fingertips as I am handling this cigar. The construction is near flawless despite a few larger veins running the entire length of the body. I have noticed that a lot of Dion’s cigars sport more veins than you would expect, but they never really cause any problems. Needless to say, I’m not worried about this one either. The lengthy body is polished off with a seamless, round, triple cap. The Phantom is relatively firm, with no soft spots at all. The band is very similar to all the other bands that Illusione kicks out, only with 2 main exceptions. The first is, this is the first of the bunch with silver metallic embossed ink instead of the black and gold we are all used to. The second is two, very small, black, old English styled letters on the back of the band “E” and “L”. I am assuming this stands for “Edicion Limitada”.

The wrapper of the Singulare Phantom gives off a sweet, earthy aroma with the foot of the cigar kicking out a much more pungent, tobacco smell.  The Phantom cut very clean and easily with my double bladed cutter.  The cold draw gave off a very grassy, earthy flavor with just a slight sweet, spice aftertaste.

First Smoke: The Phantom lit up with extreme ease under my triple flame butane torch. Instantly I am greeted with a very subtle, and light pepper taste. The pepper soon fades into a creamy earthy, grassy flavor with hints of honey and spice. You can tell almost instantly that Dion was behind this stick, even if you had no idea what it was. The draw is incredible. Effortless, and thick as hell throwing out a massive, thick cloud of wood scented smoke. The Phantom gives of little to no stationary smoke. As in with almost all Illusione’s the burnline is thick and clean, leaving behind a nice trail of compact, darker grey ash which held on for almost 2 inches before giving way.

Halfway There: The pepper seems to be coming and going, but into the second third it’s completely apparent and almost in your face. Outside of the pepper (which again, faded completely after a while) the back-end flavors had a change up as well. The dominant flavor is now a really rich cedar, with the honey and spice still shining through. The retrohale is amazing, priming my nasal package with a deep cedar flavor. There really isn’t much nicotine coming through on this cigar yet. The burnline has become slightly wavy but it quickly corrects itself. I have a feeling the breeze has something to do with that.

Finish: The Singular Phantom burned slower than most Illusione that I am used to. All in all it took almost 2 hours to smoke this guy down to the nub. The band, and of the many reasons I love illusione, slid off with ease. The burnline was almost perfect, and cleared itself up anytime it wasn’t, with no touch-up or relights. The final flavors were perfect for the finish of this cigar. Tons of cedar/wood notes, a very slight return of the pepper, sweet honey, and spice. The Phantom finished VERY smooth and creamy. I was able to hit the crap out of this cigar without any complications or harshness even into the final inch. No nicotine kick. This is a perfect cigar no matter what time of day.

Overview: Dion is on fire. Just about anything that this guy has created have been right up my alley. Recently, I had a chance to sit down, enjoy a cigar, and talk shop with Robert at Gran Habano cigars and Dion’s name came up. We spoke about how he is so damn meticulous and it shows. His blends are pretty much produced with his taste in mind, and he knows exactly what he wants out of his cigars. Meaning, if you are a fan of a few of his sticks there is a good chance you’ll love them all.  The Singulare is a very smooth, medium, creamy cigar with a ton of flavor change-ups. At about $15 a stick this is a great cigar, but not something I’d smoke every day. Needless to say though, it’s worth the coin (especially if you buy enough to share with me). Box worthy by far.

Pairing: Winter to me, is the beer season. With all the warm porters and stronger stout seasonal’s the winter has to be my favorite time of the year, at least as far as beer goes. Because of the creamy, lighter bodied blend of this Singulare, I decided to pair it with a long-time seasonal favorite of mine, Brouwerij Huyghe’s Delirium Noel. Delirium Noel is the winter seasonal selection from the “Delirium” series which feature the wonderful “Delirium Tremens”, and the not so wonderful “Delirium Nocturne”. Delirium Noel comes in at 10% ABV and is packaged in a very festive white, painted bottle with red foil, and a metallic coated label the cute, iconic Delirium Pink Elephants ice skating in the snow, and carrying Santa clause who is dumping a ton of delirium bottles on a snowman (random, I know).  The reason I mention this is due to the “friendly” packaging this brew has actually been banned in Texas, as well as a ton of other states. It’s a pain in the ass to find, but a real treat when you do. The Belgium Strong Ale is a beautiful amber color. The ale produces a malty, spicy, mixture with a ton of fruit. It’s almost as if someone threw some apple cider in this ale. The  beer paired ridiculously well with the honey, creamy composure of the Singulare, not to mention due to the small lunch I had it buzzed the crap out of me. The Singulare would also do well with some sweet tea, a heavy Pilsner, and even an IPA.

Stay tuned this week. On Friday I will be posting a contest for a rare, and very nice accessory furnished to us by the wonderful people at Bonita Smoke shop! Next week we will also be posting our “Top ten cigars of 2010”. With all the new cigars that hit the scene this year this was a tedious task! Next month I will also pair a cigar review with a beer that I have been brewing myself over the past few weeks. Can anyone say chocolate/cinnamon stout? MmmmHmmmm!

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