Look, we’re not going to pretend this one stayed on topic. If you’ve listened to Smoke and Steel for more than ten minutes, you already know that’s not really how we operate. What started as a conversation about cigars turned into a full tour of food prices, grilling season prep, Vegas buffets, Shady Maple raising their rates again, ice cream sandwiches that won’t melt, and Butcher Bill’s jalapeño cheddar hot dogs. The Connecticut cigar morning smoke conversation was real and worth reading. So was everything else. That’s the episode.

Mark even called it out that was as he closed out the show “This has been Smoke and Steel, the food and beverage episode. And we talked about cigars a little bit.” Accurate.

The Connecticut Morning Smoke Conversation

This is where the cigar talk actually got going. Spring is here, the weather’s cooperating, and we’ve all been gravitating toward Connecticuts as the first smoke of the day. There’s a reason for that. A milder wrapper in the morning with a cup of coffee just makes sense. You’re not trying to get rocked at 7am.

The Johnny Tobacconaut by Room 101 has been the go-to lately. Grab one of those, pour a cup of coffee, sit on the porch, and you’re set. It’s been so good that Walt went through a 10-pack and immediately ordered another. Doubled down with a 10-pack of the EPC New Wave, which is another great Connecticut in that morning smoke lane.

The Zino line from Davidoff has also been in the rotation for the same reason.

If you haven’t made Connecticut cigars part of your morning ritual yet, this is the season to start. It’s not that they’re easier smokes. It’s that they fit the moment.

Crown Heads Lineup: What’s Working and What Isn’t

We got into the Crown Heads catalog a bit and, honestly, not everything lands for everybody. The Las Calaveras seems to cycle from year to year – one year they are great, the next they are just okay.

Four Kicks, JD Howard, and the E-Series

The Four Kicks still holds up. No complaints there.

The JD Howard Reserve is a weird one. Sometimes you look at it and you can’t wait. Other times it just doesn’t hit right and you know immediately it was the wrong night for it. It’s a mood cigar, and you have to respect that about it or you’ll end up disappointed.

The E-Series, continues to be one of the best buys in the hobby. We keep finding forgotten five-packs buried at the bottom of humidors and that’s honestly not a bad aging strategy. Buy enough that you lose track of them. Come back two years later to a pleasant surprise.

Cigar Aging: The Salsa Theory

This came up naturally and it’s too good not to share. Cigars age like fresh salsa.

Make a batch of fresh salsa, take a bite right away, and it tastes like chopped vegetables. Fine, nothing special. Let it sit in the fridge overnight and suddenly everything comes together. The flavors marry, it’s alive, it’s what salsa is supposed to taste like. But leave it a few days too long and it turns to watery mush. That window in the middle is where the magic lives.

Cigars are exactly the same. There’s a peak. Before that peak, they’re okay. After it, they’re an airball. They’ve lost everything they had and you’d never know it was ever worth smoking. You buy enough of them and forget about them and you hit that window by accident. You also sometimes miss it entirely and end up smoking a ghost of a cigar that’s been sitting too long.

The aging conversation came out of the LFD Suave that got lit up. An older one, courtesy of Eddie, smoked alongside memories of the newer version. Whether the wrapper stays put on a torpedo is a whole separate conversation we also had.

Ferio Tego Timeless: Then vs. Now

The Timeless Supreme got some time this episode. It’s been years since any of us had a Nat Sherman Timeless so comparing the newer version is genuinely hard. You’re not comparing apples to apples when there’s that much time between smokes.

What we can say: the Timeless Supreme is solid. Burns clean. No problems. A sampler led to a 10-pack purchase, which is usually a decent endorsement. The Timeless Sterling also came up as a strong morning smoke option, which brings it right back around to the Connecticut conversation.

Rojas Cinco de Mayo Street Taco & PCA New Orleans

Rojas put out a Cinco de Mayo street taco cigar with pre-sales being promoted through LACC. Around $12.50 a piece. The Street Taco Barbacoa and the Al Pastor variants from Rojas have been the standouts in that lineup compared to the breakfast taco, which is decent but not the same level. If you can find them on deal, they’re worth grabbing.

PCA was happening in New Orleans this week, which means new releases, new hype, and industry people in one place. Guy Fieri was expected to be there with a new Knuckle Sandwich through Espinosa. There was also word of Definition and Chai Mali events. And Santa Clara is setting up their own booth this year, positioning themselves more as a distributor representing multiple brands. Worth watching how that shakes out.

Vegas gets the show in 2027 and 2028. If you’ve been to Vegas for PCA before, you know it’s a mixed bag. The trade show is great. Everything else costs too much and the buffets are gone.

Cigar Page Brick-and-Mortar: Still Coming, Eventually

Construction is moving on the Cigar Page brick-and-mortar facility. They’ve been posting Instagram content from the site and you can see equipment and excavation happening in the background. The original timeline of late 2026 has quietly shifted toward early 2027, and given how much digging is still going on, that might slide further.

When it does open, the expectation is it’ll be a destination. People in the industry have been cautiously noting that the overhead reality of a physical location tends to surprise even experienced operators. The Cigar Page guys aren’t new to this, though. They’ve been part of major retail operations before. Time will tell what the pricing looks like once the doors open.

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