Reviews by Brock
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CI Knock-Offs: Cohiba
“Pequeno” in size, “Grande” in flavor…
For those who pay attention to detail, I whipped up this review the day after CIGARfest 2012, still jacked up from the weekend’s festivities.
As we wrapped up the CIGARfest 2012 aftermath, I was embarrassed, humiliated, and appalled at the fact that I didn’t smoke many cigars. Between drawing raffles, running between the band stage and the main stage, chatting with cigar customers and vendors, striking out with the lovely CI models, and performing my alter-ego “Cornelius Quincy Corne” for 3,000 people, there just wasn’t much time for me to enjoy a fine puro.
The life-saver for me was a tiny little morsel I like to call “CI Knock-Offs Cohiba” (Note: Cohiba is a registered trademark of General Cigar Corporation.) The size I prefer in this blend is called “Pequeno” which literally translates into English as “small” or “little”. These small 4.2 X 34 pequenos provided a nice, quick burn while I was on the fly. These little guys are a great value as they come in small bundles of 30 sticks for a little under a buck a cigar.
The Cohiba Knock-Off uses a chestnut Cameroon wrapper which exudes a hint of spice with ample sweetness. [Insert educational portion of cigar review here, Brock.] Ok folks, I’m being informed that I must “learn” you on tobacco in this portion of my analysis. The Cameroon wrapper is a rare wrapper leaf literally cultivated in small growing regions in the country of Cameroon, Africa. It is quite difficult for tobacco buyers and brokers to purchase this tobacco and, furthermore, requires a high level of carefulness during production. Due to its delicateness, only the most skillful “torcedores” (rollers) in a cigar factory are permitted to roll cigars utilizing Cameroon tobacco.
In many cases, Cameroon tobacco is used as binder due to its ugly appearance and lackluster vein structure. When used as a wrapper, numerous manufacturers use cedar or tissue paper to cover up the ugly vein structure and spottiness. However, the Cohiba Knock-off Pequeno uses no cigar band.
This Dominican treat is mellow in body but very flavorful. My only problem is the majority of these are rolled fairly loose which produces an easy, yet quite hot draw.
Let’s cut to the chase, I like this brand because it’s cheap, flavorful and has a true Cameroon taste. The flavor presents a hint of spice with an ample natural sweetness and just a small fraction of nuttiness. No bones about it, this is a good every day, coffee break cigar.
If you’re a fan of Cohiba, Rocky Patel Cameroon, or any kind of cigarillo that comes in a tin, this value is for you.
Brock’s Flavor Rating: “80”
Brock’s Value Rating: “92”
Expert Philosophical Insightful Thought for the Day: “Guy walks into a bar. Ouch!”
92
5 Vegas Gold Maduro
One of my favorite people to visit when I travel down south to cigar country is Nestor Plasencia, Jr. I don’t know whether it’s the greeting of a cigar and Cuban coffee when arriving to his Esteli factory, the bales-upon-bales (properly called “pilones”) of tobacco at his fabrica in Ocotal, or possibly the delicious feast his family puts on at his home outside of his Danli, Honduras facility. Either way, when meeting with Nestor, you will be well-nourished with cigars, Cuban coffee and tasty traditional cuisine.
I was told at one time, “If you ever want to get into the cigar industry, contact the Plasencia’s.” Well, if you’ve ever seen the amount of tobacco this generational tobacco growing family possesses, you would be flabbergasted.
For us here at CI, Nestor Plasencia, Jr. has somewhat become the face of the 5 Vegas brand. Though 5 Vegas has a fairly diverse group of cigar-makers which comprise the brand as a whole, it is the Plasencia-made gems that have been the real heavy-hitters in recent years.
One of the newer Plasencia-comprised 5 Vegas blends that really impressed me is the 5 Vegas Gold Maduro. The Gold Maduro, a rich blend of perfectly aged tobaccos, has maduro fans grinning from ear-to-ear…full on Ross Perot size ears. The 5 Vegas Gold Maduro is rich in taste, mellow to medium in body and skillfully produced by Plasencia.
What makes this puro stand out is the gorgeous maduro wrapper that is grown, not in the tropical fields of Central America, but, in the horse-and-buggy-laden landscape of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. The Pennsylvania broadleaf maduro wrapper, which is grown only corn fields away from a shoe-fly pie bakery, blends perfectly with the Cuban-Seed Nicaraguan and Honduran long filler tobaccos. Plasencia has done it once again; this time captivating the lovers of dark, oily maduros.
<>The flavor profile of the 5 Vegas Gold Maduro: all-natural organic maple syrup on Bisquik buckwheat pancakes…oh wait, that was breakfast yesterday at Perkins. This tasty morsel, which is offered in 6 different sizes, smoothes into a nice flavor of rich coffee and cedar, with just a slight touch of pepper. It has taken 4 years of skillful blending and re-blending to master this cigar, but, just like the year 2012, it’s finally here.
Jason Brown, an enthusiast of the Gold Maduro and employee at the CI Super-Store, once told me, “The 5 Vegas Gold Maduro is leaving stores as fast as it’s being brought in. On a lighter note, did you know Amish buggies have turn signals?
A former fan of Macanudo Maduro, Mat Cook, commented to me once, “The masterful blending and aging of this cigar makes it my new go-to stick. Out of the bowels of the Plasencia factory dropped a fine nugget of gold."
Plasencia, the creator of the 5 Vegas Gold Maduro, hails from numerous generations of tobacco farmers and operates out of Nicaraguan and Honduran rolling factories. Cigars International is the first company to release his latest creation. Pick up plenty of these. I like the robusto.
Expert thought for the day: Just because you’re on a steady diet doesn’t mean you can’t look at the menu.
89
Graycliff Turbo Edicion Limitada 2010
With the exception of the G2 line, there is nary another Graycliff cigar available for under $10 or so. Despite the hefty price tags we sell a ton of these top-dollar cigars in our retail stores, and there are a lot of loyal fans out there who aren’t afraid to pony up 12 to 22 bucks for these Bahama made delicacies. Because of the steep prices on the premium lines of Graycliff cigars it prohibits most cigar enthusiasts from experiencing their greatness & their very unique flavor of quality and aged tobaccos. The late Avelino Lara, the legendary creator of the Cuban Cohiba brand is the man that worked for Graycliff cigars for years, and he is personally responsible for almost all of Graycliff’s blends. I’m sure Avelino himself would be very proud of the latest and greatest in the Graycliff Edicion Limitada line, and I believe it to be one of, if not the best Graycliff cigar to date.
We finally received these cigars in the downtown shop last week, and after waiting months for the cigars to properly age & ship in the factory I had them in my hands at last. First impression of the cigars – flawless perfection - leathery, toothy, oily wrappers that are a beautiful dark brown with a slight reddish hue. I was also pleasantly surprised to get a whiff of that “barnyard” aroma upon opening the mazo of 20 cigars. For those of you familiar with that “barnyard aroma” of which I speak, then you know exactly what I’m talking about – for those of you that aren’t familiar, or haven’t heard anything about that “barnyard aroma” of very fine cigars (most often recognizable upon opening a box or mazo of cigars for the very first time) then let me fill you in on a little secret; When an unlit cigar smells like it just came out of a horse’s stable (or any other ‘pungent’ part of a barn) then that means that 99% of the time you’ve got an excellent, properly aged cigar that’s going to taste extremely good, and as a matter of fact, it will taste nothing at all like anything even remotely barnyard-like when it is fired up and enjoyed.
At this point I’m wide-eyed & salivating and I’m expecting a cigar of epic proportion…but along with that I’m also expecting a hefty price to pay when I ring myself up this limited edition Graycliff – after all I know that the retail price for a mazo of 20 toros is $320.00, but when I enter this cigar into the system I am shocked to see that these are nicely discounted, in true CI Fashion, and are on sale for ONLY $79.99 for a mazo of 20. that’s less than 4 BUCKS per cigar. OK, now I’m in for a whole mazo, and I haven’t even fired up the cigar yet. Boy, am I a sucker for a great deal!
So now that I’ve just paid the bill for these brand-new cigars that I’ve been waiting months for, I cut and fire up the cigar with my newest toy – the Xikar Ultra Lighter/Cutter Combo – which I also just picked up for myself just days earlier. This cigar’s draw had the perfect amount of resistance, and it fired up nice and even after roasting the foot for a few seconds. I got tremendous amounts of flavor from the very first puff. A little earth, well-aged, sweet Nicaraguan tobacco, a hint of caramel & a touch of leather on the palate. Amazingly, this is one of the very few cigars I’ve ever had that started out with a complex array of flavors from the very first puff. The cigar is not strong, I’d say it’s a little lighter than medium in strength, but it is packed with full-flavor goodness. I could smoke this cigar first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee if I were in the mood for a full-flavored treat without the having to deal with the headiness & belly ache from a powerhouse like the Graycliff Espresso (not to mention that this cigar is $18 cheaper than a comparable size Espresso!!)
I’m about 1/3 of the way into this Turbo EL, and the ash just fell off gently into my Stinky ashtray. It rests at the bottom in a big, solid light gray lump. By this time the flavor has developed into a bit of spiciness along with that Nicaraguan sweetness, and the flavor continues to climb fuller & fuller without becoming strong. This is such a perfectly balanced cigar that I’m surprised it’s not selling for much more. At this point I’m telling everyone that walks through the door at the Downtown shop about this new gem of a cigar, and I’ve already sold through over half of a mazo. I AM IMPRESSED! (and so are a lot of my friends/customers who took me up on this recommendation. Joey B, from Wanaque, NJ tried one in the shop with me, and while enjoying it he noticed that we were getting low on them already so he picked up our very last mazo of 20 Toros.
Approaching the 2/3 point the flavor shifts to more earthiness with leather and some spice. Not strong at all, but still all the while getting fuller and fuller in flavor, I’m enjoying this ever-changing cigar so much I forgot that I was writing about it. So I’ll wrap it up and just say that this cigar was a finger-burning treat right down to the very last puff when I could barely hold onto the little stub it became. This cigar is a gem. At a measly 4 bucks per stick I’m shocked at the obviously superior tobaccos used, as well as the well-roundedness that only extensive aging can produce. If I had factored the value of the cigar into the rating I gave it; it would have been a 96 or 97. Dollar for dollar, this one can’t be beat. And because it’s a limited edition cigar this is made in a one-production-run of this blend. Try one today, and stock up NOW while they are available. I know you’ve all heard it before from us, but this is the first time I’m saying it, “RUN, DON’T WALK!” and order now!
92
Dark Shark
For the last several years one of the most popular week-long segments on television is “Shark Week.” Something I’ve learned from the ominous documentaries of these man-eating monsters is that they can literally smell fear.
Normally, the fear is detected through the substance commonly known as “shark sugar”. This, of course, is when the individual bobbing up-and-down haplessly in the murky shark-infested waters become so nervous about their fate that they essentially…well, you figure it out.
The key to survival in this precarious situation would be to remain calm (easier said than done) and not create “shark sugar”. By nature, sharks generally do not favor the taste of human meat.
On the flipside, we humans tend to dine on the fine delicacy of shark steaks and filets while finding the flavor to be quite rich and plentiful. Since we watch sharks on television and feast on them in restaurants, why not take our obsession of sharks into the cigar world?
I get it…ridiculous segue from sharks to cigars. But the Dark Shark is THE BEST moving bundled cigar in the CI Super-Store and I’m going to tell you why.
This blend is quite different than the other cigars which comprise “The CI Unsmokeables.” Many of the anonymous cigars that are categorized into the ‘Liga Unsmokeable’ I would describe as “vomit-inducing” or “capable of gagging a maggot”. However, regarding the Dark Shark, this is an obscure gem.
Let’s take a look at this Nicaraguan handmade. The Dark Shark has a solid midnight-black maduro wrapper that hails from Brazil. The “Brazilian Aripiraca” wrapper takes on its oily, dark characteristic during fermentation, where the tobacco leaves change from a chestnut to a darker hue as the sugars extract from the tobacco. Typically, Brazilian maduro tends to have a full, peppery flavor although the wrapper on the Dark Shark possesses a smooth, natural sweetness. The shiny, Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper encompasses aged, Cuban-seed Nicaraguan fillers, giving the blend a rich, sweetness with just a touch of black pepper.
I hope you’re not looking for a quick smoke in this Nicaraguan-made cigar; the Dark Shark is only offered in a Churchill (7.0”x50). However, for a churchill-sized cigar, they don’t burn particularly slow either. Out of a bundle of twenty, you may find a few under-filled. Overall, the Dark Shark is fairly weightless in the hand, but, despite my criticism, has moderately good construction.
To put it bluntly, there are certain cigars for certain occasions. My Man O’ War Armadas, Puro Authenticos and Ave Marias are normally for the balcony with a glass of rum in hand. My 5 Vegas Golds, Rocky Patel Connecticuts and Morro Castles are the everyday “go-to” sticks. Then, there’s those grass-cutting, pooper-scoopin’, take-my-dog-out-for-a-walk-cigars. Inappropriately prejudiced toward the Dark Shark, I brought one with me to the “place where all bad nights end,” R-----‘s Pub in Bethlehem.
I’m with my friend (for sake of argument, let’s call him Qbert) and after a long night of striking out with the young ladies, we end up at R-----‘s (yes, I’m censoring myself because a good friend of mine works at said “Hell on Earth”).
Upon sparking up the Dark Shark with dirt cheap lager in hand, I’m pleasantly surprised as a giant cloud of white smoke fills the air and my palate is surrounded by a subtle coffee bean flavor. I know I had myself a few ‘Stoli and tonics earlier but I’m not even half in the bag so I confidently stand by my current notion.
Throughout the middle third and finish on the cigar the Dark Shark remained fairly consistent and I don’t notice much change in flavor. However, something notable about this blend is that, strength-wise, it touched medium bodied after about the first half inch. My pre-conceived thoughts were that this blend would be fairly mellow.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised as the Dark Shark surpassed many expectations. The Shark was a solid smoke, decent flavor, above-moderate construction and dirt cheap. At a buck a piece, this is one of the best values CI has to offer.
Qbert was fairly confused as I declared the Dark Shark as “a tasty morsel”. Of course, he had loaded up on Vodka and Rhino Energy Drinks before we ventured about town so he was quite bewildered beforehand.
I reviewed the ambiguous Dark Shark because I can’t keep them on the shelves. Customers are buying them two and three bundles at a time! If you happen to stop by the CI Super-Store in Bethlehem and pick yourself up a bundle, you will be greeted with an uproarious "SHARK ATTACK!" declaration by the expert-friendly staff. Anyway, maybe there’s something I’m missing, but if you’re looking for 20 cigars for dirt cheap, buy these bundles and see for yourself!
Expert thought for the day: “Why do they call it a drive-thru if you have to stop?”
79
Obsidian
As a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s during the professional wrestling boom, I was a huge fan. However, my favorite part of pro wrestling wasn’t particularly the matches, the promos, or the hellacious chair shots to the back of an unsuspecting wrestler. I loved the intros! Every time I hear the guitar intro of “I am a Real American,” I still get chills.
With cigars, I am the same way. Whenever someone mentions a hot new cigar that I like, I’m all over it! Moreover, whenever someone talks about the new Obsidian, I get real fired up! There are so many different aspects of this cigar I can cover, which I whole-heartedly plan on doing in this review.
To start, the name and packaging itself is downright awesome. 20 Obsidians come packed in jet black boxes comprised of Spanish cedar wood. On the petit corona, belicoso, and gordo sizes; a black cigar band encompasses the entire body of the cigar, only leaving the shoulder and cap exposed. Presentation-wise, the Obsidian gets an A+ for originality.
Next, we’ll take a look at the blend of tobaccos that comprise the Obsidian. This Dominican handmade features a powerful mixture of Dominican and Nicaraguan long fillers. As I look at the foot of the cigar, I notice a nice combination of dark tobaccos (ligeros) in the core of the cigar, with a portion of lighter-colored tobacco (visos and secos) bunched in there as well. I anticipate a strong, yet balanced and complex cigar.
p>The binder is a limited Criollo ’98 leaf, a hybrid Cuban-seed tobacco that is known for a soft spice and creamy undertone. The binder and filler tobaccos are draped by a stunning, dark oily wrapper leaf known as a Brazilian Habano ligero wrapper. Though it is dark brown in appearance, this wrapper isn’t a true maduro like traditional Brazilian Aripiraca and Mata Fina tobaccos. Believer it or not, it’s stronger.p>The Obsidian is offered in 6 different vitolas (sizes) but today I’ve narrowed my selection to the double perfecto; a powerful 6.0” X 60 figurado. The thing I enjoy about perfectos is the constant changing of the ring gauge throughout the entire cigar that exhibits a myriad of different flavors.
p>The Obsidian is made by the same company who brings you the epic Pinar del Rio line; powerful well-blended Dominican handmades. For me, the Obsidian is like the PDR Oscuro on ‘roids…strong, full-flavored and billows of aromatic cigar smoke.
Upon lighting the Obsidian Double Perfecto, dense smoke fills the air and my palate picks up chewy notes of leather. As the 1st third of the cigar builds, hearty spices are detected in the blend. In the middle third of the Obsidian, I finally hit the immense, 60-ring bulbous point in the cigar…did I just hear the “Hulkster’s” theme music? I am more than enthralled at the fact that during this portion of the cigar, every draw had a distinct, unique flavor. A nice sweetness, along with ample pepper dominates this portion of the cigar.
The finish is just as good as the start, featuring many similar flavors as I picked up when first lighting the Obsidian. The rich tobacco core tastes great and just when the cigar is getting hot (because I smoked it down to the bare nub), I finally put it down with a feeling of great satisfaction.
p>Something that’s notable with the Obsidian is the amount of comments I received from customers in regards to the aroma. The most popular remark I received was, “That cigar smells great!”
In sum, this is arguably the best new blend we’ve brought into inventory at the CI Super-Store in months. Not only does the Obsidian protrude flawless construction, copious amounts of smoke and savory flavor, these sub-six dollar sticks are well worth the value.
Expert advice for the day: “Say your prayers and eat your vitamins.” – H.H.
92
Alta Gracia
Obsidian
Dark Shark
Don Pepin Garcia Blue
Rocky Patel The Edge Counterfe...
5 Vegas Gold Maduro
Gurkha Beauty
La Herencia Cubana CORE
Gran Habano Azteca Double Madu...
Puros Indios Viejo
Davidoff Millennium Series
Man O' War Puro Authentico
Mark Twain
Fonseca Arana
CI Knock-Offs - Compare to Coh...
Graycliff Turbo Edicion Limita...
Cu-Avana Punisher