Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Cigar Review
A couple of nights ago I was at the Tiki Bar Herf and the conversation drifted towards movies. Normally, I think I can hold myself pretty well in a conversation about movies but not so in this situation. One of the herfers, I am told, worked as an editor on 24. Most of the other herfers have at least 15 extra years of movie watching experience on me as well. So, to say the least, I was outmatched.
But listening to the conversation gave me a mental checklist of movies that I should consider with one of those being “The Road.” I decided that tonight, Sunday night that is, would be the night where I poured myself some nice Scotch, smoked a quality cigar and watched an extremely depressing movie about a man and his son in a post-apocalyptic world. Unfortunately for me I picked a cigar that I have not reviewed yet: The Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Belicoso with the natural wrapper.
It really surprised me to find out that I had never done a review for one of these cigars. I’ve definitely smoked enough of them to have done a few reviews. But, for whatever reason, here I am doing a review while watching a depressing movie.
Depressing movie or not I’ve got to press on with this review. After taking the cigar out of the cellophane I am greeted by a rather powerful combination of smells ranging from leather to spices. Pleasant aroma really. The construction looks mostly good. There are some bumps and raised veins though. It is an oily wrapper.
Cigar Stats
Torpedo
Lenght: 5 ¾″
Ring Guage: 52
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: $10.00/Single | $220.00/Box of 24
75% Road Flame!
Just as the movie gets the story moving along quickly this cigar gets the flavors rolling along just as quick. White pepper is quickly followed by some woody notes and a faint but noticeable sweetness. It’s an interesting mixture of flavors and I think it works. One other thing noticeable in the early goings is that this cigar leaves a fairly dry feeling left in my mouth.
Viggo Mortensen and his son are traversing through the ruins of a dead Earth. Trees still stand, there is still water, even a can of soda every now and then. But those trees are dead, the water is lifeless, and the soda was probably flat. Even with all this darkness on the screen in front of me I am still enjoying this cigar.
The second third still has some white pepper and wood. However, the main flavor impression I am beginning to get is floral. There is some sweetness to it but not that much. Like the movie, the flavors are still engaging more than halfway through.
With about a third left there is one more major change in the cigar. Woodiness has come back as oak. There is also a toasty flavor that comes through late in this cigar.
Overall, this is an above average cigar. There is enough there to hold my interest from beginning to end. My one complaint would be that everything about this cigar tends towards being dry. The flavors themselves are dry and, as I mentioned earlier, this cigar leaves you with a distinct dryness in your mouth. In the end, however, this is a sturdy medium-full bodied cigar with a good draw and burn that will not disappoint.
90 points
PS: Watch “The Road” – it is a very good movie. Depressing but good.
Casa Magna Oscuro Cigar Review
I like the Casa Magna Colorado. It’s a very good cigar.
Full disclosure: I received this cigar from Cigars Direct. All reviews are my own.
Wrapper: Honduras | Binder: Honduras | Filler: Honduras & Nicaragua
Vitola: Toro – 6″x52 | Price: App. $33.oo/5 pack
0/3: Good looking cigar. Very dark wrapper. Feels dry to the touch.
1/3: Bitter chocolate and dry wood. It’s starting out a little interesting. Not quite sure if it’s a good or a bad “interesting” yet. Can already tell that I’m not liking it as much as I liked the Casa Magna Colorado. The Oscuro seems like it may lapse into being harsh over the course of the cigar.
Also am getting some grassy notes during this third.
2/3: Retains a lot of that bitter chocolate flavor. There is also some graham cracker apparent during this third. This is the third where it begins to become a little too harsh for me. The flavors are okay but nothing spectacular.
3/3: Getting a little too bitter at this point and it has its spots of harshness. It’s a medium bodied cigar with a good draw and burn.
4/3: While this cigar does have its moments where it is good I’m afraid to say that for the majority of the time it under performs. Too bad, really, because I had such high hopes for it.
2.5 points – Prove me wrong, get this sampler to try the Casa Magna Oscuro.
CAO Brazilia Cigar Review
I remember reviewing this cigar once before but it turns out I have reviewed this cigar twice before. Those two reviews were on the Samba vitola (6 ¼” x 54) but this one is on the Gol! (5” x 56), so it should provide some valuable information for you. This cigar was given to me by Cigars Direct.
Chubby cigar with a decent sheen of oils on it. The wrapper is dark with a multitude of little white specs. There are a couple of holes; one rather largish. A bunch of thin veins span the distance of the cigar. Fairly tightly packed.
Cigar Stats
Robusto
Lenght: 5″
Ring Guage: 56
Wrapper: Brazil
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: $33.00/5 Pack | $95.00/Box of 20
Maloof Fire!
Starts out very well. Earth, chocolate and spice are the troika that makes up the flavors in the beginning. Those flavors add on a meaty flavor after an inch or two. Some saltiness too.
It is not a very powerful cigar but I would still peg it as being full bodied. Well, medium-full bodied. The flavors are quite nice; most CAO cigars are pretty good in my estimation. The draw is good and so is the burn. Those holes that I told you about haven’t hurt the performance of the cigar.
Flavors are very lively. Maybe a little too much on the bitter side for my taste but it is definitely a very enjoyable cigar. Just as I wrote that it got a little bitterer. It’s quickly approaching the Rubicon of being too bitter.
It is a consistently good cigar and, fortunately enough, it never passed that Rubicon. Solid flavors and very enjoyable. Pick some
88 points
Liga Privada T52 Cigar Review
I’m trying to remember if I have heard anything bad about this cigar. Honestly, nothing comes storming to the forefront of my memory at this moment telling me that somebody doesn’t like this cigar. I’ve had a couple of these and, well, you will just have to wait to see what I think.
The Liga Privada T52 Belicoso is a wonderfully crafted quasi-torpedo (the head is rounded instead of coming to a point as is the case with most torpedos). Dark and oily are the best descriptors for this Connecticut grown Habano wrapper. I can detect no soft or hard spots on the cigar. I could ramble on about the back story regarding the wrapper for this cigar but, to cut a long story short, it’s special and grown the right way.
Cigar Stats
Torpedo
Length: 6″
Ring Gauge: 52
Wrapper: Connecticut
Binder: Brazil
Filler: Honduras & Nicaragua
Price: $11.00/Single | $240.00/Box of 24
Bradbury Flame!
The first third is an example of restrained greatness. Creamy chocolate is bracketed by a soft and somewhat sweet spice and some cream (the actual flavor and not just the smoking characteristic). What is most impressive about this cigar in the early goings is that the flavors mix together so well with some complexity.
The penultimate third has pretty much the same flavors just in a different mixture. That creaminess has increased and so has the chocolate flavor, more like coco now. The spice has dissipated somewhat.
Spice has almost completely disappeared in the final third. That’s fine because the other flavors are still very enjoyable on their own. Speaking of those other flavors, there are some changes of note. Mainly, the chocolate has morphed into something that I can only describe as hot chocolate.
In order to conceptualize the totality of the flavors in this cigar takes a little imagination. What I have outlined above are the basic flavors. This cigar’s flavor profile goes much further than that. Overlapping all those flavors is a grittiness that increases the enjoyment of all those flavors. Furthermore, each individual flavor takes on a chameleon-like liveliness that you don’t find in many cigars.
Suffice it to say this is an extremely enjoyable cigar. Full bodied with an excellent draw and a decent burn. It excites and intrigues from the first puff to the very end, where I burned my fingers a couple of times trying to get just one more taste.
94 points
Padilla Miami Cigar Review
Last year during my trip to the La Aurora factory in the Dominican Republic I had the great opportunity to make some cigars. Ten to be exact. I have smoked some of those cigars since then and they actually aren’t awful. But one thing is consistent about those cigars: their inconsistency.
Everything about the construction of those cigars is inconsistent. The packing is varied with myriad soft and hard spots, the cigars are different lengths and different ring gauges (this somehow happened even though we used cigar presses to create some uniformity in shape) and many of the cigars have slight tapers one way or the other. First try or not it is obvious to me that the art of making a hand rolled cigar is not something that anybody can pick up over the weekend. It takes years of hard work and dedication to master that craft.
That is why I love smoking cigars that have a unique shape. Take the Miami Salomon as an example. It is a perfecto, which means the head of the cigar is shaped like a torpedo, the ring gauge increases as you near the foot until that last half inch or so where it tapers down dramatically. It’s a very impressive cigar to behold but these cigars do have one major potential problem.
The draw can be a little tight before the burn line crosses the shoulder (the shoulder being that part of the cigar where it tapers down from a rather large ring gauge to a relatively small ring gauge at the foot). After the burn line does cross that point I have found that it is smooth sailing with the Miami after that.
You already know that I am fond of the shape of this cigar. A couple of points working against the appearance of this cigar are the two smallish holes, one near the head and the other at the midway point of the cigar, and that lone vein that mars the the otherwise placid wrapper.
Cigar Stats
Perfecto
Length: 7 ¼″
Ring Gauge: 57
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: $95.00/Box of 5
Cyclopedia Torch!
One happy note about the price. If you lurk long enough on some of the deal sites you can get extremely good deals on this cigar (usually it will be paired with the Padilla 1932 Salomon, which is just as good, or better, than the Miami Salomon).
The draw is almost perfect from the outset, which shouldn’t be expected from a perfecto. This has been a common occurrence for me with these cigars; after all, they are expertly fabricated. Likewise, the flavors are expertly fabricated, if that’s the right term to use in this situation. Almost from the instant when the foot was done being properly toasted I was able to pick up an extremely dry and pure spiciness. The image that this spiciness conjures up for me is the desert floor. In other words: it’s wonderful. As the first third progresses there is an oak flavor that begins to come through. It augments the spice very well.
Progressing into the second third it is obvious that this is a special cigar. It is less a symphony of flavors than it is an extraordinary guitar solo. No, that’s not right; it’s more like a rock super group like Cream than it is a solo. The spice is the lead in this case with oak and some grassy sweetness coming on strong during the middle third. It has a perfect draw and a passable burn. Even though it is a moderately full bodied cigar the flavor is only enhanced by the strength and not overshadowed in any way.
A little after the halfway point this cigar kicks it up a notch with its flavor profile. All the aforementioned flavors are there but there is more now. A creaminess has come on board along with some nuttiness.I’m pleased to note that the remainder of this cigar never loses its greatness. It’s one of those cigar that I have truly loved smoking.
95 points
