The Perfect Draw » The Perfect Draw

Punch Cigar Rights of America Cigar Review

Travis Lindsay — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:41:30 +0000

This one has been in the humidor a while; just sitting on its tray minding its own business… until now! Being part of a CRA sampler I got a long time ago it’s slightly oily, wonderfully constructed, maybe too tightly packed but it does look like a great cigar. Plus, it is a Punch, so I’m sure it will be, at the minimum, a solid cigar. This is in a toro size.

Spartacus Flame!

Definitely more than a “solid” cigar, this one is. Forthright spice, fleeting cherry and a few woody notes make up the flavors in the beginning of this cigar. I’m going to go ahead a peg it as a full bodied cigar, but just barely.

There is this smoky flavor that creeps its way into every nook and cranny of my taste buds. It is a nice extra dimension of flavor; it complements the other flavors well.

While the flavors are above average what I like the most about this cigar is that there is an edge to it. I like it when a cigar has a little edge to it.

In the beginning it was a full bodied cigar but after the first inch it dialed the strength down to the medium-full bodied range. After the halfway point I noticed a certain amount of earthiness creep its way through. This cigar has a good draw and a good burn.

As is the case with all the other cigars from the Cigar Rights of America sampler I will abstain from giving it a score. It suffices to say that this was a great cigar and well worth the price that I paid for it. If you haven’t already done so I would like to urge you to join CRA and help them stem the tide against those anti-smoking zealots that are becoming ever more brazen.

Top 10 Cigars 2011

Travis Lindsay — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:41:58 +0000

I tend to do these things a little bit later on than everybody else (see my lists for 2010 and 2009 to see what I mean). Now, glossing over the fact that we’re closer to February than 2011, here is my Top 10 Cigars 2011 List.

10. Padron 1964 Anniversary SI-15 Maduro

When I smoked this cigar it didn’t come as a shock that I liked it seeing as I have liked every Padron 1964 Anniversary I have smoked before. The maduro, however, is just a little better than the natural for these Smoke Inn specials. Get some while you still can (although, they appear to be out of stock right now, which is a bummer).

9. Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo

The only reason why this highly rated cigar is so low on the list is because it had the benefit of resting in my humidor for quite a bit longer than most of the other cigars listed here. That helped it out a great deal and I’m sure would help out all the cigars ranked higher. Still, amazing cigar.

8. La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel Natural

I prefer the maduro version but this one is definitely not a slouch. While it definitely is a strong cigar strength-wise it is also a strong cigar flavor-wise with flavors ranging from the spicy spectrum to the savory. Can’t go wrong with this one.

7. CroMagnon

A dash of leather, a hint of sweetness and some spice round out this addition to my Top 10 List from a little cigar company out of Texas. It’s a really nice cigar that I’m sure would age well. It’s strong, especially the first one of these I smoked, but there’s a load of flavor working its magic in the background to make it a must try.

6. Undercrown

Personally, I tend to go for the more full bodied cigars but this cigar has rekindled some of my passion for medium bodied cigars. With a good deal of complexity and flavors ranging from earthy to chocolate this is a must try cigar.

5. Tatuaje Fausto

The first one of these I smoked didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. But I smoked another and a couple more after that and I realized that this cigar is something special. Loads of spice and strength, for sure, but there were a number of other flavors that joined the party. (Spoiler Alert: I like the Tatuaje Avion more; review to come shortly.)

4. Oliva Serie V

The Oliva Serie V is one of my all-time favorite brands and I find myself going for the bigger vitolas more and more, which is counter to my normal operating pattern. With amazing chocolate, earth, leather and bitter spice flavors filling the flavor profile it’s no wonder I like the bigger vitolas – who would want this cigar to end?

3. Liga Privada T52

Not just another full bodied cigar, the Liga Privada T52 is an amazing example of restrained intensity. The Liga Privada No. 9 is a great cigar and all but I prefer this offering from Drew Estate more.

2. La Sirena

Like this list, I was late to the La Sirena party as well. This, my friends, is an awesome cigar. Meaty and earthy with some spice and sweetness. It was like a kaleidascope of flavors that just would never end. Two drawbacks: sparkly crap on the wrapper and the band is a bit ridiculous.

1. Padilla Miami Salomon

I don’t know what it is about perfectos but some of my favorite cigars come in this vitola. This Padilla Miami is the best specimen from the line because all those creamy and nutty and spicy flavors are enhanced to their full extent. This was, barely, my favorite cigar of 2011.

There were a few great cigars that were left off of this list but, overall, I am happy with it. Hopefully you are able to get some ideas from this list for your next purchases.

The Vicissitudes of Cigar Ratings

Travis Lindsay — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:41:15 +0000

With the Top Cigar List season coming to an end (it officially closes once I have published my list at some undisclosed date in the future – so check back regularly) I have been giving some thought to how cigars are rated. What really got me thinking about this was a conversation with a good friend of mine about the rating process followed by cigar reviewers. Take Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 List, which has some surprises and some really big surprises. How exactly did they come to their conclusions? How do any of us?

In Cigar Aficionado’s case they sampled over 700 cigars over the course of the year to come up with their Top 25. What this entails is the sending of their purchasing guy all over the place (e.g. New York because when you live in New York “all over the place” is limited to the Big Apple) and he (or, I suppose, she) procures Cuban cigars somehow. How they get Cuban cigars (do they smuggle them in via cigar mule or do they take the bus up to Canada to legally smoke Cubans?) is a wrinkle I haven’t completely figured out but they have so that should suffice for now. I’m guessing the purchasing guy/gal will also search out other popular cigars but I’m not sure of that.

Anyways, after the purchasing is done the impartial purchasing man/woman will take the bands off each cigar and put new bands on for identification purposes. The tasters (side note: they have pretty cool jobs) receive the cigars and then smoke them. From what I’ve seen/read they will smoke each cigar under basically the same conditions; e.g. smoking in the office around the same time of day.

Ratings are given and then the process of whittling those cigars down begins. There are probably a few rounds of tastings that go on and this will eventually lead to a ranking of the Top 25, which has to be agreed upon by a committee of tasters. As far as I understand it that is their process.

For others, and by “others” I mean yeoman bloggers, the process is a different. Tastings aren’t blind, lists aren’t done by committee and the sample size is usually significantly smaller. Take me for example. I may smoke around 800 to 1,000 cigars in a year but I know what I’m smoking and the number of unique cigars is probably somewhere around 100 to 150 or so. Of those there are a number of “dog walk” cigars that don’t really stand a chance of winning any prizes. Taking that into consideration there are something like 60 to 90 (less are actually reviewed by me) cigars that are up for my Top 10 lists (2010 and 2009 lists for your reading pleasure).

With either system there are pluses and minuses. But that’s not what’s important here. With either system there are a number of potential pitfalls. Here’s a list:

Time Spent in Retailer’s Humidor: Even if you are the Cigar Aficionado boy/girl you have no way of knowing for sure how long cigars have been eagerly awaiting their emancipation from the B&M’s walk-in humidor. Maybe that Opus X has been resting comfortably for two years while that Fausto arrived last week. I could be wrong but I don’t think there’s a way to correct for this with much certainty.

Reviewer’s Mood: We all have good days and bad days. If I’m having a bad day that’s going to hurt the score I give to a cigar. That’s part of the reason behind my, and most other cigar bloggers, policy of smoking multiple examples of the same cigar before delivering an opinion. That doesn’t happen at Cigar Aficionado unless the cigar makes it past that first round.

Environment: Cigar Aficionado probably does a better job at controlling for this than most others but there’s no getting around the fact that the environment in which you smoke your cigars plays a significant role in what you think of that cigar. Cigars that you think are great on a warm June evening can become merely good when smoked on a brisk autumn evening. That’s especially the case if your baseball team has just missed the playoffs for the second straight year.

Storage: Even Cigar Aficionado and other such “official” cigar publications must run into this problem because there’s no other way for them to taste all those cigars other than having to store them on premises for a period of time. Once you do that there will be changes, however limited, to a cigar’s performance. If a reviewer stores their cigars in multiple humidors they will be stored in different environments. The differences may be small but there are still differences.

Cigars Previously Smoked: If you are smoking more than one cigar a day each subsequent cigar after the first cigar will be effected by the previous cigars you have smoked. You can cleanse your palette and do a rain dance but your taste buds have already been affected. At least my taste buds are affected for a couple of hours after smoking a cigar, which leads me to reviewing a cigar with as fresh of a palette as possible.

Food/Beverages Consumed: Smoking a strong cigar on a light stomach does nothing good for that cigar. Conversely, a big lunch will mute the impact of a milder cigar. Factor in the different flavors you get from food and drinks and there will be some effect on your taste buds.

Non-Blind Tastings: Cigar Aficionado and the like have this over on most cigar bloggers because they do blind tastings (that’s what they say and I believe them). Unless you are able to be completely unbiased there will be some kind of a bump given to brands we already like and demerits given to those cigars we haven’t liked before. Even though this is probably true to some extent I think we do a pretty good job of keeping our biases out of our ratings.

These were the factors that I was able to come up with but I’m sure there are others that I have overlooked. All in all, I think all of these top cigars of the year lists are true barometers of what reviewers objectively perceive as being the best cigars they smoked during the year. As cigar consumers it is our job, nay, pleasure, to find reviewers who share a liking for the same kinds of cigars that we like and use their lists and reviews throughout the year for purchasing ideas.

No related posts.

Merry Christmas!

Travis Lindsay — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 06:19:46 +0000

I realize it is a little late in the day but I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. My present to you is this little video about what Christmas is really all about.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Travis Lindsay — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:06:19 +0000

Hopefully you are all having a great Thanksgiving. If not watch this clip from a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and you’ll get to see Linus wax poetic about Thanksgiving. Nothing like know-it-all kids on TV, right?

Oh, and the best part is Snoopy. Enjoy!

God Bless America

Travis Lindsay — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:46:56 +0000

Happy Fourth of July everyone. I hope that you all have a great day.

To help make your day just a little greater watch this rendition of America the Beautiful by Ray Charles. It’s amazing.

Walking Dogs While Smoking a Cigar

Travis Lindsay — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:20:58 +0000

Theoretically smoking a cigar while walking the dogs always goes so smoothly and is a wonderful joy for all involved. I am at the park smoking a good cigar and the dogs are galloping around and not getting muddy from the tip of the their noses to the end of their tales. Alas, that never happens.

My first problem is that it’s inevitably windy at the park and it wrecks havoc on the lighting of my cigar. I have to crouch in a ball and say a prayer to get my cigar lit well enough. When I do this I must look a lot like a gigantic armadillo in the presence of a predator. Then, once it’s lit the burn line will almost always give me problems. It burns a little to fast on this side and on the other side it doesn’t burn fast enough. Rotating doesn’t work because it seems like the winds can sense me turning my cigar and will shift itself accordingly.

But that isn’t where my problems end, oh no. The taste of the cigar is off too. It’s not like the cigar is waste, it still tastes good, but it’s different. Whether it be to the smells of the park, the walking around or thanks to the helping hand my friend the wind has given me the cigar always seems to lack as much flavor as when I’m smoking it sitting down.

There’s more. Now that I have my cigar lit and have started to walk my dogs, two chocolate labs weighing 75 and 95 pounds, have already sprinted off to make sure their scent is still on that tree and the thousand others at the park. No bother, I say to myself, no one else is here! And that is usually the case except for when it’s not.

Sometimes other people will show up at the park and sometimes they will have the gall to bring their dogs as well. And then sometimes they will have the temerity to ask me to leash my dogs. Well, I think you can see the beginnings of a problem here since I have two dogs and three things to hold: my cigar, with its misbehaving burn line, and my two substantial dogs with enough energy to run for miles. Oh, and the bag I have to carry that holds leashes, water bowl and an Epipen since the more substantial dog is deathly allergic to bees and wasps.

So what choices do I have? I can either throw the cigar away, which is a cheaper cigar but it’s still a cigar, or I can sling the bag under my left arm, hold both of the leashes in my left hand and continue smoking. More often than not I choose the latter option because I’m stubborn.

That’s usually the worst that happens when I’m walking my dogs with a cigar. Occasionally things are worse. As was the case the other day when within a couple of minutes of getting to the park my boys find a girl dog in heat. And I’m smoking a cigar. And all the dogs are off leash. So here I am pulling 170 lbs of dog away from the thing they most want in this world with a cigar in my mouth.

Once I have finally separated them from the female dog I am dumb enough to let go of them for a minute so that I can get leashes on them. As you may have guessed, that was stupid of me so I had to do my best impression of history and repeat myself. But this time the leashes were ready and the cigar was safely resting on a picnic table not made out of wood (the likelihood of starting a fire if I had put my cigar on a wooden table is basically zero but still not worth it).

In the end I just let the cigar go out and walked my horny dogs on leash for the remainder of the walk. I was somewhat angry with them at the time but that was pretty dumb because they are dogs and I don’t think they could have stopped themselves from doing it like they do it on the Discovery Channel if they had tried. And it’s not like either of them was about to try that Herculean task of self restraint either.

One of the other negative situations I am faced with while smoking a cigar while taking my dogs on a walk is when my dog walking friends are also at the park. They aren’t the kind of people who will complain about dogs being off leash since their dogs are also off leash but some of them are the kinds of people who will overtly hint at their disgust of cigar smoke.

For a while I would just politely let my cigars go out whenever a nonsmoker dog walker would pop by but then I realized that I just don’t like some of these people. Fortunately, the ones I like are also smokers, mostly cigarette smokers, but they will at least not pretend to need to cough when they get within a country mile of cigar smoke. So, for this situation at least, there is an ancillary benefit to smoking a cigar while walking my dogs.

Oh, I almost forgot about the one thing that unites, or at least should unite, all dog walkers: the poop bag. For whatever reason, my dogs have decided that the park is the best place to take a crap. Actually, they usually take many craps down there. So I have to hold the cigar in my mouth, take out the blue plastic bag, open it up and turn it inside out with my hand inside, take the cigar out of my mouth so that when I bend over to pick up the poop I don’t choke on the smoke and pass out into my dog’s feces, pick up the poop, stand up and put the cigar back in my mouth, tie the poop back together so that it won’t smell so bad in the trash can and then throw it away in the trash can. Yes, it’s a complicated process but it’s the right thing to do. I always hated stepping in crap when I was a kid at the park.

I guess now is as good a time as any to make your reading of this post of dog walker angst worth your while. So here are some tips if you too want to smoke a cigar while walking your dogs:

Bring one of your cheaper cigars along since it won’t be as good as it would be if you were sitting down.
Bring a cigar with a little extra body to it because mild cigars will end up tasting like nothing at the park.
Know your dogs, if they are going to be a pain in your butt most of the time then don’t smoke that cigar.
Light your cigar in the car so that you can mitigate the wind’s interference.
Keep your lighter on you because you will probably need to do some burn line maintenance along the way.
Watch out for other people with dogs because if your dogs are anything like mine they will get more unruly around other dogs.
Go at a time when the park will be almost completely empty like early morning, the afternoon or at night.

Do you have any dog walking stories?

Happy Father’s Day

Travis Lindsay — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:26:50 +0000

To my dad and all the other fathers out there I hope that you have a wonderful Father’s Day. Go watch a movie, have lunch with your kids, start a bonfire or smoke a cigar with your kids.

Happy Easter

Travis Lindsay — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 21:13:04 +0000

Happy Easter everyone.

Don’t have much else to say but, if you find yourself directionless for about half an hour you should watch this video; it’s pretty funny. On the other hand, if you really love your family and don’t mind spending every second with them on Easter then keep on keepin’ on.

Top 10 Cigars 2010

Travis Lindsay — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:31:37 +0000

As I sit here earnestly smoking an Arturo Fuente Short Story I realize that now is the time to do another Top 10. It was just a year ago when I published my first Top 10 and much has changed in the world. Instead of getting philosophical and patter on about this or that I’m just going to present the list (you of course know that these lists don’t matter, right?).

10. Carlos Torano Casa Torano Toro

This is the only mild cigar that makes this list but it does make this list because the grassy and oak flavors are very good.

9. Nestor Miranda Collection Dominicano Robusto Grande Rosado

Medium-full bodied treat with a whole host of flavors ranging from maple, earth, cream and so on.

8. CAO La Traviata Favorito

With this cigar you will get lots of flavor in the spice and leather mold. Full bodied and reasonably priced.

7. CAO Lx2 Rob

A full bodied cigar with some very good flavors ranging from spice to oak and some complexity.

6. Alec Bradley Family Blend T11

A delicious medium bodied smoke that delivers on flavor and complexity. The reason why it’s not closer to the top is because I have smoked more of these since I reviewed it last and my opinion of it has slackened off a bit.

5. Padilla Dominus Robusto

Oak and spice and everything nice. This is one of my favorite Padilla made smokes.

4. Guillermo León Gran Corona

Medium bodied cigar with loads of flavor and complexity. I love this cigar because it offers the right amount of wood and leather flavors without too much of a kick strength-wise.

3. Tatuaje Anarchy

Loads of spice and leather with some nuttiness acting in the background. Another awesome cigar that you must try (but you are going to have to act quick because this is only a limited edition cigar and once they’re out they’re out).

2. Camacho Coyolar Titan

Leather, meat and spice make up the flavors for this cigar. I love this cigar, an absolute must try.

1. La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel Maduro

Insanely good cigar. Tons of flavor and complexity. Fits right into what I like about a cigar: spice, leather and some sweetness.

There was an Opus X that scored extremely well, but since the Opus X line had a representative last year I decided to disqualify it for this year’s Top 10. As you can probably tell this is not an exhaustive list but this is what I liked for 2010.