Up for review today was the newest offering from Kristoff Cigars the Corojo Limitada. I keep a nice supply of Kristoff products in my humidor because I have found that, when I have friends over, it's a brand that normally goes over well from the most experienced smokers to the new guys/gals. 

From what I can find online, and from what Glen Case (owner of Kristoff cigars and all around one of the nicest guys you will meet in the cigar industry), told me the Corojo Limitada is the fullest in strength cigar they have in production at this time. 

A quote from the Kristoff Cigars Official webpage "The new Corojo Limitada is for the fan of Nicaraguan tobacco. Nearly a puros Nicaraguan blend, this medium-full bodied cigar is loaded with spice, nutmeg, toasted nut and a sweet-spicy finish. Made with 100% Habano seed tobacco that is double and triple fermented, the Corojo Limitada maintains the Kristoff tradition of flavor and smoothness. The signature of Kristoff Cigars."

I tend to lean more towards Nicaraguan cigars in my personal taste, so the quote above sounded good. On to the review...

Vitola: Robusto
Length: 5.5
Ring Gauge: 54
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan & Dominican
Price: $8
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: Water

Hey everyone. I am not able to attend this event this year (I actually will be in Miami the day after it, hard luck I know). But I wanted to give a plug for it because I went last year and had an absolute blast. In my opinion this is the best event of it's kind and should be attended at least once if you are a serious cigar fan. Cigarfest and Big Smoke have nothing on what the guys from Smoke Inn put on every year. After the jump are details about the event, and some new features for this year.

If you go have a blast and tell them Dan sent you.

Today's cigar for review is the next installment from Drew Estate in the Flying Pig line. The Feral Flying Pig is a departure in size from the previous two pig releases (the Flying Pig #9 and the Flying Pig T52) and is quite a bit bigger. As well as the size being different, Jonathan Drew has posted online that it is a completely different blend than the other releases and that it is significantly stronger. Steve Saka (President of Of Drew Estate) has also been quoted saying this is the best Flying Pig release yet.

In this video that we did back in June of 2011 Jonathan speaks briefly about the stick  (at the 6:58 mark)

Video - Interview: Jonathan Drew, My Uzi Weighs A Ton - Burning Leaf, Chicago Illinois - Cigar Explorer from Cigar Explorer on Vimeo.

I'd heard a lot of hype for this stick for the last few months, so I was excited to finally get my hands on some because, currently, they don't seem to easy to come by. Now, on to the review...

Vitola: Big flying pig :)
Length: 5.375
Ring Gauge: 60 (at it's fattest point)
Wrapper: Connecticut broadleaf
Binder: Brazilian Mata Fina
Filler: Nicaraguan Price: $17 and some change in Columbus
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: Water

Today's review comes from a brand that I don't smoke all that often, but one of which I have had my fair share.  Although I am a fan of a few of the La Flor Dominicana blends (more specifically the Limitado IV), I  had never had one of their cigars blow me away.

The LFD Factory Press IV was released in Novemeber of 2011. The Factory Press line has been a pretty big hit for La Flor Dominicana and I wasn't surprised that a new version of this stick had hit the shelves.

A quote from Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana. (Taken from their Facebook page) "For years I have been fascinated with our cigar box-pressing system. Many times I have thought how great it would be to share the process with our fans. That is why I'm offering a very special cigar shipped in the actual factory press. Because the concept is so special we needed to blend a cigar that will be totally unique to La Flor Dominicana"

Like I said above, for me, La Flor Dominicana has had some winners and some losers. I was eager to find out how this particular stick fares.

Vitola: Box pressed Double Toro 
Length: 6.5
Ring Gauge: 60
Wrapper: Mexican
Binder: Ecuadorian
Filler: Dominican
Price: $15 and up
Smoking Location: Governor's Smoke Shop
Beverage: Water

This year I am attending the 2012 Pro Cigar Festival in the Dominican Republic. I've heard wonderful things about this festival and can't wait to see what it has to offer. This will be my second trip to the DR and I can't wait to get back down there and out in the fields with the people.

Some information from the Pro Cigar Festival 2011 website: In its fifth year, the Procigar Festival remains the cigar smoker’s ultimate experience. Where else can a devotee of the leaf spend time touring some of the world’s best cigar factories, hiking through fields of tobacco, and spending time one-on-one with the leading cigar makers while eating, drinking, and most importantly, smoking great and sometimes new, unreleased cigars?  Procigar Festival 2012 will be held on February 19-24 in the Dominican Republic - Cigar Country.

Starting in the illustrious Casa de Campo, located in La Romana, on the southeast coast of the island, our guests will have the opportunity to relax at the beach under the tropical sunshine, play at the Dye Fore golf course, visit Tabacalera de García and an array of many other activities offered during the Festival.

The fun continues one step further in the cigar capital of the world, Santiago de los Caballeros, about 160 miles from La Romana, for a diversity of options to choose from, including cigar factory and tobacco field tours to General Cigar, Davidoff, Matasa, La Aurora and Corporación Cigar Export....

More after the jump.

Happy Holidays everyone! For this special time of year, I thought I'd try something new for my site. Last year, and again this year, my friend from Japan Kenji Fukui (@madoqa on twitter and his blog http://shortash.blogspot.com/) sent me a nice little Christmas present consisting of some Cuban cigars. The difference between last year and this year is, after I sent him a thank you note, he responded with a "review them" request. SO Kenji, here is your review, and consequently my first Cuban cigar review posted on this site. I hope you enjoy it.

A brief history on Trinidad Cigars (From Wiki):
According to Adriano Martínez, a former executive of Habanos SA, in Min Ron Nee's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Post-Revolution Havana Cigars, the Trinidad brand was first produced in 1969 at the El Laguito factory in Havana. In the early 90's, the cigar received much attention in Cigar Aficionado after an interview with Avelino Lara (formerly the manager of El Laguito, and a producer of cigars for the Graycliff Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas until his death on October 27, 2009). In the 1992 interview, Lara claimed that Trinidad was an ultra-exclusive brand that only Fidel Castro was authorized to hand out as diplomatic gifts. Lara also claimed Trinidads were of a higher quality than the much-lauded Cohibas that had formerly been diplomatic exclusives before their mass-market release in 1982.

The cigar for today is the 2010 Limited Edition release from Trinidad and happens to be in one of my favorite sizes. (Due to the size of this cigar, this review is only in two parts instead of the traditional thirds.)

Specifics
Vitola: Short Robusto 
Length: 4
Ring Gauge: 50
Wrapper: Cuba
Binder: Cuba
Filler: Cuba
Price: $15 and up
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: Water

Today's cigar review is on a stick I have had sitting in my humidor for awhile now. A few months back, I was sent a very generous package from Miami Cigars which , amongst some prototypes and some other new releases, included a pair of Casa Miranda robustos. I have no excuse as to why it took me so long to smoke this, other than there are so many new cigars coming out each week and once a stick goes into my humidor, it might not see the light of day again for weeks or months.

The official Press release from Miami Cigars about Casa Miranda: Rolled exclusively by level 9 rollers from world re-nown factories in Cuba. The cigar is being manufactured in historic Calle Ocho by Titan de Bronze blended by master blender Willy Herrera. 

This was a good looking cigar that I really didn't know a lot about. I do know that they were on display at the 2011 IPCPR, but these are the first two that I've had the opportunity to smoke.

Specifics
Vitola: Robusto 
Length: 5
Ring Gauge: 50
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $10
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: Water

Every year most blogs put out a end of the year "best of" list.  I myself haven't ever done one before, so this is my first attempt. All of the opinions in this list are my own and do not reflect my partner's favorites of the year. Maybe I can talk Mario into making his own list but I can't make any promises. So here we go...my top five cigars of 2011.

Every year there are a couple annual releases I really look forward to smoking. Like I've mentioned before, the Monster series from Tatuaje, the Holiday Blend from Viaje, and the Opus X are always on the list. With that said, the release that might top this year's list is the Family Reserve from Padron. Everyone has heard of Padron cigars. Padron has been a staple in the industry for producing extremely high quality cigars for decades. The Family Reserve line is their crème de la crème cigar each year.

Quote from Jessica Padron about this release: The Padrón 85th was released to commemorate my grandfather's 85th birthday. Jose O. Padrón founded Padrón Cigars on September 8th 1964. Recently, we celebrated our 47th year in business. We hope you enjoy this cigar along with the history and tradition behind Padrón Cigars.

Two years ago, the Padron Family Reserve 45th was awarded the Cigar of the Year title from Cigar Aficionado magazine.  I thought last year's release the Padron Family Reserve 46 (which I reviewed here) was even better. Now on to the smoke...

Specifics
Vitola: Robusto
Length: 5 1/4
Ring Gauge: 50
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $20.00
Smoking Location: House of Cigar
Beverage: Water

Up for review today is a brand new cigar from Subculture Studios (a subsidiary of Drew Estate) that has been discussed in length on many cigar message boards. Instead of restating all of the info about this release, I'm going to copy and paste a quote from Jonathan Drew that he posted on the BOTL website that sums it all up nicely:

Quote Jonathan Drew: MUWAT "BAIT FISH", is a 4x44 in the MUWAT "EF" Collection. The EF represents Fuerte due to the increase in strength from the other BAIT FISH blends that we worked on AND the regular 60 RG collection that the brand is released in.

Please remember that the MUWAT brand itself, as originally released, is supposed to be truly medium bodied (seems to be a bit over medium). So when we began working on the BAIT FISH samples the blend was tweaked up from the beginning, to "M" and "F". The finished blend that was selected was the F, so I thought it would be logical to call this SPECIAL, EXCLUSIVE selection "EF" cause its got Extra from the Original MUWAT.

As I was introduced to Dan at NHC at this year's IPCPR we were able to spend a little while getting to know each other a bit better. I have been watching him as a truly passionate retailer and one who prides himself on good quality, special cigars in a boutique environment - I offered Dan the Exclusive for BAIT FISH. He seemed pretty jazzed about the concept, and we began to review blends.

I'm looking forward to the introduction of the 4x44 into the MUWAT line just as the weather gets cold. It should be 30 to 40 minutes of happiness for the people in the freezing areas. I hope that some of you guys enjoy them.

Now that we know more about this release, let's move onto the review to see how it held up.

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

Specifics
Vitola: Petit Corona
Length: 4
Ring Gauge: 44
Wrapper: Mexican San Andreas
Binder: Connecticut Shade
Filler: Brazilian, Nicaraguan
Price:  $6.10
Smoking Location: New Havana Cigars
Beverage: nothing