Last week I made it's way to Washington D.C. for Cigar Rights of America and interviewed 6 times Grammy winning artist, Arturo Sandoval. Personally I am big fan of Arturo since 80's. This video is 1min Trailer, so more to come for full interview! Stay tune!

Interview with Glynn Loope & Arturo Sandoval at the capitol step in Washington D.C. on May 11, 2012.
This video was shot by Sony HDR-CX580V.

URL:
cigarrights.org
arturosandoval.com

Buy Arturo's music at itunes.apple.com/us/artist/arturo-sandoval/id75007

Last week I received a package from Smoke Inn which contained two of the cigars up for review today. I honestly hadn't heard of these cigars until they were on my doorstep. Erik Espinosa was one half of the popular, but now defunct, EO brands. I had been a fan of EO for a long time so I'm happy to see that both Erik with this E Doble and Eddie with his Serie D are still in the  tobacco business. One thing to note is I do not know who is making this cigar, but I do know that it is not where the EO brand cigars were made in the past. I'm sure someone knows who is making it, and if you are reading this, please add a comment with the answer. On to the review.

Specifics
Vitola: Robusto
Length: 5
Ring Gauge: 50
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Habano
Binder:Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: $2.50
Smoking Location: NHC Office
Beverage: water

My review today is the 2012 release from Padron for the Tobacconists' Association of America, Ltd.  According to their mission statement, the Tobacconists' Association of America (or TAA) is a membership group of select retailers and manufacturers that get together to:

To provide an open forum of ideas, strategies, and problem solving between retail tobacconist and vendors to the trade.

I don't know much about the TAA, as I have not really looked into the group because of its primary focus on retailers, however I do know that some of the manufacturers make a special cigar for each shop in the group and in the past some of them have been very well received.  Let's get this cigar fired up and see what Jorge and the Padron crew have in store for me this time. On to the review.

Specifics
Vitola: Toro
Length: 5 1/2
Ring Gauge: 54
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder:Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: ?
Smoking Location: My Back Deck
Beverage: water

Up for review today is an interesting cigar; one that combines two great companies in the cigar industry for the first time. The Nat Sherman Timeless collection is a combination effort from Nat Sherman's executive director of retail and brand development, Michael Herklots, and the Quesada family of MATASA factory fame.

A quote from Michael Herklots about the Timeless line of cigars: "The Timeless collection represents a culmination of feedback from over 200 retailers and consumers, each offering suggestions on flavor, packaging and price. The four sizes are blended in a way that allow each format to offer a different experience.  Rather than modifying the fillers to maintain a consistent flavor across the four sizes, we maintained the proportions and ratios of the filler, so they interact differently with the wrapper and binder. The Timeless collection is a completely new look and experience for Nat Sherman Cigars." 
 
I've had the chance to smoke this line in its smallest size, but not yet in this vitola. I've really enjoyed some recent stuff from MATASA. I hope this goes the same way.

Vitola: Hermoso
Length:  5 1/4 
Ring Gauge: 54
Wrapper: Honduran
Binder: Dominican
Filler: Dominican and Nicaraguan
Price: $?
Smoking Location: my back deck
Beverage: water

Today I have reviewed something a little different. Over the past few days, I've smoked all three of the CAO cigars that are part of their latest promotion called "Last Stick Standing".

Info on the promotion from the press release: "CAO’s senior brand manager Ed McKenna explains, “Rick Rodriguez has been developing blends with our team in Nicaragua and has come up with three which we think are all great. So we’re calling on CAO fans to help us pick the blend that will ultimately be launched as a new CAO collection, to be released late this year, or in early 2013.

A special three-pack tin called the Last Stick Standing is now available for free with the purchase of any six CAO cigars at participating cigar shops across the U.S. Each tin contains three distinct blends, aptly named C, A and O. The cigars all measure 5 1/2” x 54, which is what Rick Rodriguez considers to be the ideal size for allowing consumers to truly evaluate each blend."

It looks to me like there will be a tour and all kinds of giveaways associated with the promotion. If you want to read the rest of the press release, Shawn & Ben from Nice Tight Ash have it posted here.

For my review, I'm going to do a three part post with one section for each cigar. Hopefully I can give a brief intro to each one and maybe just the major flavor characteristics that made them different or the same.

Specifics
Vitola: Double Robusto
Length: 5 1/2
Ring Gauge: 54
Wrapper: ?
Binder: ?
Filler: ?
Price: Free with the purchase of any six CAO cigars at participating cigar shops across the U.S.
Smoking Location: My back deck
Beverage: water

So last week I did the review of the Mini Mum on Friday because it was Friday the thirteenth and that went well with the horror/monster/Halloween theme. Today I'm doing the review of the Lil Drac not for any other reason than I wanted to smoke it. Out of all of the new Little Monster cigars, the Lil Drac is the one that intrigued me the most. I've always found myself I little out of the norm on the overall public feeling on the original Drac release. To put it bluntly, I liked it a lot and almost all the other people I have talked to about the cigar have ranging opinions from "It's just OK", to "I though it was bad." Yes, the original release had issues with the packaging (not the look, which was awesome), but after I stored the cigars outside of the box for a bit, I really thought they smoked great. Just another case of to each their own.

Enough chat. Let's get down to the review. (This is a sample from my recent trip, so it is unbanded. I can't wait to see the return of the black and red band because it looks bad ass with this dark wrapper.)

(Due to the size of this cigar, this review is only in two parts instead of the traditional thirds.)
 
Specifics
Vitola: "Fang" (Mini Torpedo)
Length: 5
Ring Gauge: 48
Wrapper: Habano Ecaudor Maduro
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $75.00 for a sampler box of 10 cigars
Smoking Location: My back deck
Beverage: water

Today is something special. It's Friday the 13th and I thought it would be very fitting to post a review of the new Mini Mum cigar coming from Pete Johnson. If you've checked out our site recently you will probably know that I took a trip to Nicaragua with Pete (and others) where I was lucky enough to smoke all of the new "Little Monsters" that should be hitting the shelves in early summer. The Mini Mum is the largest/longest of the new releases. Could it be a foreshadowing to the full blown Mummy Monster release in October? We will have to wait and see. (I'm lying. The full-size Mummy is a beast, measuring 7 3/4 by 48; a long Churchill, if you will)

The whole Little Monsters concept (Link to a video Jerry Cruz of Stogie Review did with Pete explaining the concept) is a cool idea in my opinion because I know many guys who never got their hands on some of the first Monster series releases and this will give them a chance to try them without paying crazy after market prices.  Packaging them in a sampler style box and making them smaller in size only makes it easier and more affordable to try them all. (Plus there may be some other cools things coming with the packaging.)

Specifics
Vitola: Corona 
Length: 5 3/4
Ring Gauge: 42
Wrapper: Nicaragua Sun Grown Criollo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $75.00 for a sampler box of 10 cigars
Smoking Location: My back deck
Beverage: water

Today's review is a pre-release sample that my partner Mario (@cigarexplorer on twitter) gave me last week. I'm not sure where he got it, but if I had to guess, it came from Governors Smoke shop (@GovernorsSmokes on twitter) -- one of the newest, and definitely fastest, growing brick & mortar cigar shop in Columbus. The Room 101 San Andres is a tiny little cigar that I would bet is meant to compete with sticks like the MUWAT Baitfish and the Tatauje Petite Cazadore.

A quote from Matt Booth (@room101cigars on twitter) about the San Andres: Rolled on the juicy hindquarters of models from Jay Zs big pimpin' video from the finest Botswana funk leaf.

You know, I thought I smelled Botswana Funk leaf on this one. ;)  On to the review...

(Due to the size of this cigar, this review is only in two parts instead of the traditional thirds.)

Specifics
Vitola: Perla
Length: 4
Ring Gauge: 40
Wrapper: Mexican San Andres
Binder: ?
Filler: ?
Price: $?
Smoking Location: My back deck
Beverage: water

Avo Uvezian 86th Birthday - - Grand Havana Room, New York, NY on March 22, 2012.

Event Video for AVO's 86th Birthday unveiling AVO's La Trompeta cigar (LE12)

*** This video is 15min long but we captured everything for the night. Enjoy! ***

This video was shot by Sony HDR-CX580V & Nikon D7000, Nikon 50mm F1.2 AIS Lens.

All music are from Avo's album "Legacy".

Buy this music at iTune Music Store

URL:

www.davidoffusa.com
www.davidoffnewyork.com
www.delaconcha.com
www.cigarrights.org

Tonight's cigar is one that was on display at last year's IPCPR show, but as far as I know, has yet to be seen on any retail shelf. Unlike the MK ULTRA, which was released once before a few years ago and again this year, this extension to the ULTRA line is a completely new release from Illusione.

My friend Dan from New Havana Cigars told me that he expects to get a small shipment of these shortly, so I thought it was finally time to smoke the one sample I have been holding onto for some time. The MK ULTRA was the number one cigar I was looking forward to in last year's releases and it delivered. Time to see how one of it's big brothers performs.

Vitola: Robusto
Length:  5 
Ring Gauge: 50ish
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $?
Smoking Location: my back deck
Beverage: water