We had a full house in the garage this week. I mean a genuinely full house. Every chair taken, a second Mike showing up late, the neighbor mowing his lawn straight through the recording, and Mark burning a hole in the mic cover before we were an hour in. Just another Tuesday night in Gilbertsville.
Episode 049 of the Smoke and Steel cigar podcast is out now, and if you’ve been following the show for a while, this one has something worth paying attention to – we finally made a move on the Top 25 list, and the Padron 1964 Anniversary Series Maduro is sitting at number one.
Table of Contents
Mayflower Cigars: Bruce Brings Something Nobody Had Smoked
The cigar of the night came courtesy of Padre Bruce, who showed up with a canister of Mayflower Cigars – think a Pringles can, which is exactly how we described it, and passed them around. The brand is about a year old, founded by Michael Knowles, and the cigars are hand-rolled at the Oliva factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. That detail came out mid-conversation when Eddie tracked it down on the spot.
Most of us were smoking the Dusk, which runs a mild to medium Ecuador Habano wrapper over a Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan long filler. A few guys had the Dawn, which swaps in an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and a Cameroon binder. There’s a third in the line called the Dream – Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper, darker and fuller.
Tasting notes were honest, which is to say mixed. I was getting something sweet that wasn’t even in the official description. Rob picked up cedar and some creaminess on the Dawn. Most of us agreed it was smooth and well-constructed, even if it wasn’t lighting anyone on fire. Jim said he’d want a cup of coffee with it. That’s probably the right call for the Dawn – it smokes like a morning cigar, which, as Bruce pointed out, is exactly why it’s called that.
Eric the Elder was smoking a Warped Sarto he pulled from his LACC Collective pack and didn’t touch the Mayflower. This surprised no one.
What Everyone Was Buying
Eddie put in a Cigar Page order on a Thursday and had it on his porch Friday morning. He picked up some of his usual Padrón’s, some Tatuaje, some La Flor Dominicana, and a box of Jericho Hill Willie Lee Toro. His words: he likes the Willie Lee, not the Jack Brown. The Johnny Cash reference was not lost on the room.
Rob mentioned ordering some Tabernacles, only to discover they weren’t the big pyramids he was expecting. They were short smokes. They burned long, but still. The visual did not match the expectation.
Walt found a deal on Cigar Outlet, which is run by Fox Cigar and was doing buy one get one free for new signups. He walked away with two boxes of Oliva Serie V Double Robustos, 24 count boxes, for about $130 total. That works out to about $3 a cigar, and yes, the room reacted accordingly.
The Red Meat Lovers by Dunbarton came up as well. Walt had been smoking the Filet Mignon size the week before and liked it. For anyone not familiar, this is a Steve Saka product through Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust. The line has a few names – Ribeye, Porterhouse, Filet Mignon, Beef Stick, etc.
Bruce smoked an Asylum Cold Brew at some point recently and was surprised to find it was an infused cigar. Asylum does this – the infused stuff looks like a regular premium cigar and doesn’t advertise itself up front. The Cold Brew had a spearmint quality to it. His verdict: surprisingly not bad, and possibly worth smoking again.
The Butane Debate Nobody Asked For But Everyone Had Opinions On
Rob kicked off a conversation about butane by asking a simple question: is there actually a difference between the cheap stuff and the premium brands? What followed was about fifteen minutes of genuine opinions.
The general consensus landed in favor of Xikar and Vector over the generic shelf cans. The red-and-white Ronsonol came up as a cautionary tale – a few guys said their lighters started acting up after using it and they had to drain and refill everything. The Xikar High Altitude formulation got particular praise for keeping lighters working reliably.
The refinement numbers came up too. Triple refined used to be the gold standard. Now cans advertise eleven, fourteen times refined. Someone compared it to vodka marketing, which felt right. Whether it matters past a certain point is probably the same answer as the vodka question.
The practical takeaway: the nozzle tips vary between brands, and some cans will fill your lighter fine while others leak. Some brands includes adapter tips on the cap. Ordering butane online means ground shipping, which takes forever. Just find a local shop that carries what you like.
The Smoke-onos Cigar Festival Recap
Walt and Eric, and Eddie made it out to the Smoke-onos Cigar Festival up in the Poconos, and the event came up a few times throughout the night. The backpacks they handed out as part of the event package turned out to be full military-style rucksacks – not the duffel bags with handles that you’d expect from something like Cigar Fest. Heavy material, pockets everywhere, pockets inside pockets.
I ran into Michael Herklots there, which was a good moment. We also got to talk to Abe Flores from PDR Cigars.
The event ran differently from Cigar Fest in one notable way: instead of a ticket book that forced you to make the rounds, they gave you all your cigars upfront. The room was split on whether that’s better. The ticket system, for all its headaches, kept things moving. Without it, some tables were packed and others were dead quiet. As Mike put it, the ticket chaos was actually a feature in disguise.
Eric apparently led everyone on a hike through the Appalachian Mountains afterward. A shortcut, supposedly. The complaints were on camera but the sound picked up nothing but footsteps.
The Top 25 Gets Serious
This is the part of the episode worth rewinding.
Eric had assigned homework before the show – think about what should be added to the Smoke and Steel Top 25 list. The rules are simple: a cigar has to have been smoked on the show, and enough of the core crew has to have had it to vote on it.
Going into the night, the list sat at 12 cigars and looked like this at the top:
- ChiMolly Pioneer
- Avowed
- Foundation Tabernacle Double Corona
- Ashton VSG
- Definition Big Iron
- My Father Blue
- Gris Gris LA Cigar Collective Toro
- La Flor Dominicana Suave
- Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut
- Patina Sumatra Robusto
- Padre Eligito
- Don Emmanuel
Two additions came out of this episode.
First, the Padron 1964 Anniversary Series Maduro – specifically the Exclusivo, got voted to number one. This took the ChiMolly Pioneer down to two. The debate around the placement was real. Jim said he couldn’t see putting the 1964 anywhere else. A few guys said it would feel like sacrilege to drop it to eleven or lower. Walt wasn’t entirely happy with the final call, but the motion passed. It can move down. It’s not coming off.
Second, the Tatuaje Black Petit Lancero got added. It went in at number six, just below My Father Blue, with the Gris Gris Toro bumping down to accommodate it. There was some back-and-forth about whether the Gris Gris should actually rank above the Tatuaje Black – a few guys thought it should – and the list shifted slightly to reflect that.
My Father Blue also came up for quiet reassessment. A couple of guys said they’ve smoked it recently and it’s still a great cigar, but the first-time excitement has faded. It’s holding its spot for now, but it felt like the beginning of a conversation that’ll continue.
Sean Delivers a Real Theme Song
Briefly, the show’s intro was something Eric’s brother put together. He has the setup, he does it for work, and he offered to make the guys an intro. It came out sounding like Saved by the Bell meets hair metal.
Then Sean from The Burnable heard about it on Discord and said hold on. He put together an actual theme song – heavier, more fitting, full of inside jokes. Eddie going broke. Jimbo with his Patina, ready to ride. Go Birds in there somewhere. The song played at the end of last episode if you haven’t heard it yet.
The Box Pass, the Custom Humidor, and the Merch Shop
The box pass wrapped up, and the box came back overflowing. Guys were giving more than they took. Bags on the side, sticks everywhere. The travel humidor was too small for what the community wanted it to be.
Eric put it to the group: who wants to upgrade the box before the next round this winter? Six people responded. Four of them wanted to buy a new one outright. One of those – Jason, one of the show’s most consistent top fans – is having a custom travel humidor built. Eric has seen the photos. It’s going to be impressive.
The merch shop is also getting close. The quality is going to be good. T-shirts in the $30 range seems to be where the room landed. Hoodies at $40, which everyone acknowledged is on the low end of the market right now. Hats, beanies, flags, different logo variations. The show’s original logo and a newer, heavier alternate version. No timeline announced, but it sounds like the shop setup is underway.
Stay in the Conversation
If you’re not already subscribed, the full episode is up on the Stogie Review YouTube channel – Smoke and Steel lives there along with everything else the crew puts out. And if you want to be part of the conversation between episodes, the Stogie Review Discord is where it all happens.
