Reviews by Jacob J.

(Wake up & Smell the Roses!)

Most people don’t start their day with a powerhouse cigar. But it’s February in Pennsylvania, and while the weather has been all over the place lately precipitation-wise, there’s one thing it’s been steadily, and that’s cold. Sure, it might not be below freezing every day, but cold is cold, right? And when I’m shivering on my way to the office, I generally lean towards the stronger stuff.

There’s just something about a real heavy, full-bodied cigar that warms my soul. In the summer I want something with an airy, crisp finish, but in the winter, nothing but those palate-busting, earth-laden spice bombs will do. That’s why for breakfast this morning I reached for a new release from the factory that produces a good number of my favorite spice-bombs: The La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial, made by the one and only Don Pepin Garcia in Nicaragua.

Now for those who have been around the block a few times, La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial should be a familiar name. The La Aroma de Cuba bearing the ‘EE’ on the secondary band has been with us since ‘08 but received a bit of a reblending before being rereleased in early 2020. On paper, the blend remains the same: Nicaraguan long-fillers covered by a Nicaraguan binder and Ecuador Havana wrapper, just like before. The difference is in the primings, the parts of the plant from which the leaves are pulled. The tobacco used in the updated version come from higher up on the plant and exhibit more strength & complexity than the original. I haven’t burned the original EE recently enough for it to be fresh in my mind to compare, but I can say that as far as my tastes are concerned, the updated version fits the bill perfectly.  

For this tasting, I went with the No. 1 size, a 5 5/8” x 46 Corona Gorda. The wrapper is chestnut-brown and oily, with a little bit of tooth and very little give when squeezed. Overall a beautiful specimen, and when run under the nose gives off aromas of barnyard, leather, coffee, and a touch of citrus. The draw was a bit tight, but by no means unenjoyable, and the cold draw carried notes of earth, coffee, and bread. It took a light from my soft-flame lighter without fuss.

While this might not be everyone’s cup of tea (pun intended) for a morning cigar, to me it’s the ultimate wake-up smoke. For starters, the dominant flavors throughout are coffee, cocoa, spice, and earth. Naturally, this makes for an excellent pairing with my daily cup of strong black coffee. The coffee and earth are there from the beginning, but the spice and cocoa come into the picture in the first third and steadily rise as the burn approaches the band. I would peg the first half as medium-full in body, and while there is some strength, it won’t put you on your ass. After the halfway point, the flavor is kicked up a notch, and the spice and pepper rise to join coffee, earth, and cocoa in the dominant up-front notes. There’s a bit more sweetness in the finish of the second half, which is more apparent with a retrohale, but it’s still not enough to make me describe this stick as ‘sweet’. 

While Don Pepin has long been a favorite cigar producer of mine, La Aroma de Cuba is a brand I overlook too often. The reblended Edicion Especial has inspired me to take another run through their portfolio, especially before the weather warms up again and I move to less heavy selections. Overall, a very satisfying cigar that’s strong, but not inaccessibly so. And can’t forget the burn, razor straight all the way down with no touchups required. Bravo Don Pepin, this stick was the perfect way to start the day.

CigarFest 2019 was a great weekend for me. I had just moved to Pennsylvania from Arizona to start at Cigars International a month or so before, and it was the perfect way to get to know a lot of my coworkers. Sure, maybe I got to know a few of them a little too well, but it was mostly a fantastic time for us, the vendors, the customers, and I suspect even some of the resort staff witnessing the debauchery. I also got to meet a lot of prolific master-blenders and company owners, one of whom was Robert Holt, head of Southern Draw Cigars.

Holt's a pretty pleasant guy to be around, with a firm handshake and a good sense of humor. We spoke briefly about a common interest, good bourbon, and at the end of the conversation he handed me a pre-release Southern Draw Jacob’s Ladder Brimstone. I decided to let it rest for a while, and when I saw that the Brimstone started arriving on our docks, I decided it was time to fire it up and tell the people what it’s all about.

The first thing I noticed is the aroma. This stick is pungent, always a harbinger of great flavors from well-fermented tobacco. It sort of smells like freshly-baked gingerbread, with a bit of heavy earth, and a little cocoa. It surprises me to pick up so much from just the wrapper and the tapered foot, because I know I’m hardly even smelling the filler at all. The cold draw is nice and toasty, with a good amount of sweetness over a solid backbone of earth and spice. 

It's not often you can tell that you’ll like a cigar from the first few puffs, but the Brimstone is an exception. The earth, leather, pepper, cocoa, and espresso beans are perfectly balanced from the get-go, an impressive feat considering the high ligero content. Even more surprising? I was called away from my desk for about 15 minutes and had to leave it, and when I got back the burn was still going strong!

The cigar continued to show a really excellent balance in the second half, with a bit more body and depth while keeping the same levels of spice & pepper. I took it down to about an inch left, and chucked it into my ashtray with satisfaction. That was a really good cigar. I unfortunately haven’t quite made my way through Southern Draw’s entire portfolio, but they’re absolutely on my radar after the great experience I had with the Jacob’s Ladder Brimstone.

Sadistic satisfaction for the serious stogie chomper.

Look, I’ll be honest. I love tobacco. I smoke pretty much constantly from when I wake up to when I go to bed, and I like to follow the great Mark Twain’s advice when it comes to cigars: “Eating and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man's enjoyment of his cigar”. If it’s waking hours in Pennsylvania, you can bet I’ve got a cigar or a pipe fired up in my hand. 

Naturally, this means I generally gravitate to more full-bodied selections. I’ve been smoking for a good long time now, but until I got snagged by Cigars International from a small b&m in Arizona I haven’t tried too many of the CI Nation favorites. It’s not that I had anything against them (we’re all just retailers trying to bring an amazing product to people who will appreciate it, after all) it’s just that they had never really crossed my radar. Fast forward to March of 2019, and I’m pretty much settled into a great new career with CI when the Man O’ War Ruination 10th Anniversary crosses my desk. I knew this brand had a reputation for being on the stronger side, so I couldn’t wait to get it lit.

Before this, I had never tried the original Ruination, or any Man O’ War for that matter. I knew they’re made by AJ Fernandez, and AJ had already scored a few places in my ‘Top 20’ regular rotation list (it’s hard for me to pare it down to less than 20). I also knew as soon as I cracked the cellophane that I had been doing myself a major disservice by not seeking this brand out sooner. The wrapper is a deep hickory-brown Ecuador Habano leaf showing an almost perfectly uniform color, with very finely gritty oils and almost no veins or seams to be seen. It’s almost hard to get a good look at because this things absorbs light like a black hole. My sample is very hard to the touch with a fairly sharp box-press, showing corners but no hard edges. I like candy-bar box-pressed cigars so sharp you could cut yourself on them, and this isn’t quite that defined but it is close. 

The aroma from the foot is surprisingly muted, with some dark fruit and leather just barely apparent. Ditto for the wrapper, but with more of chocolate-wood note. It also made me sneeze, which is always an indication that a cigar will suit my tastes. I opted for a straight-cut, and the cold draw is creamy with a touch of vanilla sweetness, and a background of chocolate, leather, and earth that leaves a peppery sensation on the lips. 

This stick takes a bit of patience to light, but your patience will certainly pay off. I lit carefully to avoid overheating the foot, and was greeted right off the bat with a fair amount of spice at the tip of the tongue, slowly radiating to every part of my palate with every subsequent puff. The flavor profile is dominated by a sort of woodsy-savoriness, with lots of tree bark and barbecue notes and a constant undercurrent of pepper and earth. The smoke production is solid, and I can retrohale about half the smoke for a distinctive extra dimension of charred wood and cream.

The profile loses a lot of its edge and the strength begins to dwindle approaching the second third. There's a nutty note that slowly moves toward the up-front flavors, and the toastiness evolves into more of a smooth graham-cracker note. 

The dense white & black stacked ash clung for an impressive 2 ½ inches before falling with an audible plop into my ashtray, the burn remained razor sharp while building the next 2 inches. I’m very happy with the quality of construction of this sample, especially considering the larger ring gauge, since 60+ usually gives me less-than-stellar performance. No touchups or relights required at all, making this a very relaxing cigar conducive to kicking back and getting comfy. 

Past the halfway point, the flavors are mostly savory and earthy, with a deep chocolatey finish. There is also a subtle emergence of mineral/graphite notes, which is a common thread among almost all of my favorites. The profile in the final third of the Ruination 10th Anniversary exhibit a perfect balance of cream, earth, and graphite. I’m surprised toward the nub by a bit of an herbal, almost tea-like note, seated firmly in the background and barely detectable.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a cigar that burns well all the way down to the finger burnin’ nub, but I found myself poking a match into the side so I could keep on puffing on it after it was too small to hold. I finally toss it in the ashtray with about a half inch left, an hour and 45 minutes after I first put the flame to the foot.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my experience with the Man O’ War Ruination 10th Anniversary, and can now safely say that I’ll be putting in an order for the some of their other lines.

I don’t have a very specific taste in cigars. My mantra is ‘smoke what you like, like what you smoke’, and I have very rarely met a cigar I couldn’t enjoy. The only cigars I’ll pass up if there’s nothing else available are sticks that are too heavily sweetened, with a sugary cap. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these sticks, and I’m definitely not the kind of guy to say they’re not real cigars, but they’re just not my bag. I prefer heavy stuff. Strong stuff. Mineral and earth and dark chocolate and black coffee. I had a cigar the other day that tasted like motor oil, and loved every second of it.

I’ve had a sample of the new Lars Tetens Steam Punk on my desk for a few days now. I’m a little too young to remember Lars and the cigars he made in the ‘90s, but I knew that he pioneered some popular infusion & conditioning processes used by a lot of the brands that are too sweet for my palate. I also know that his cigars were somewhat polarizing, seeing that many loved them and many… felt differently. 

Now I try not to judge based on other people’s opinions, preferring to formulate my own as objectively as possible, and it wasn’t the reputation that was keeping me from firing this stick up sooner (but the crazy bands certainly didn’t help). Instead, it was a misguided assumption that it would be very sweet. Au contraire. From start to finish, I really couldn’t tell if this thing was infused. It’s definitely different. Wood forward, slight pepper, some leather, a few papery notes, on the surface not a particularly unique profile. But there’s just… something extra. An extra bit of spice most noticeable if you breathe in through your nose while puffing, and in the retrohale. 

Lars doesn’t say much about the cigar & its blend on his website, describing it as a ‘medium-bodied palate stimulator’ and a broad statement on the site claims ‘Lars Tetens is recognized as the authentic and original cigar maker to reintroduce the world to a unique conditioning process technique, using essential oils and botanicals.’ I don’t taste any essential oils & botanicals. Or, at least, I don’t think I do. Certainly not anywhere near as heavily as ACID.  

I can say that I enjoyed the Lars Tetens Steam Punk. The description is accurate, this is a medium-bodied cigar with a full-flavored profile, with varying strengths and abundant complexity. The flavors are fairly run-of-the-mill except for that very interesting savory spice note, which is its redeeming factor. If not for what I assume is a result of the proprietary ‘conditioning’ process, it likely wouldn’t stand out a whole lot. By the end of the cigar, I’m impressed. And left with a nub that’s too small to hold. This is absolutely a cigar worth at least a fair shake.