Sadly, smoking a cigar has become a relatively rare event for me lately, as everything at home and work has been so busy. Having finally found an opportunity to enjoy a nice, long, relaxing smoke, I sifted through my coolidor looking for something truly top-shelf. A while back, our friend Keith Park of Prometheus sent […]
Los Regalos Quetzal by Emilio Cigars
It truly is a great time to be a cigar smoker. So many manufacturers are bringing so many new brands to market, experimenting with new tobaccos and new blends, and we all benefit from this energy & innovation. An interesting side effect from all these new cigars being produced is that cigar makers seem to […]
Inception Cigars (plus giveaway)
A while back, I received some samples of a newly released brand called Inception Cigars. If there’s some confusion over the name “Inception,” these Inception Cigars come from the folks at JSR Cigar Distributors in Houston. I believe there is at least one other brand from a separate company offered under the name “Inception,” but […]
Screwpop Cigar Punch — accessory review (plus giveaway)
We’ve all been there. You’re just about to enjoy a fine cigar and a cold beer when you realize you’ve forgotten to bring a cigar cutter and bottle opener… what a buzzkill! In the past, you’d need to carry around a separate cigar cutting tool and bottle opener, adding a significant amount of bulk to […]
Key West “Al Capone” by Rafael Fuente (first impressions)
Several weeks ago, I received a little sampler pack of cigars from Island Cigar Factory, a chain of three cigar shops down in Key West, Florida. They carry a line of their own cigars made at their own factory in the Dominican Republic. The most visually-stunning cigar among the samples they sent me was this […]
My Uzi Weighs A Ton – Bait Fish (first impressions)
Yesterday, the temperatures rose enough and the clouds cleared up enough for me to head outside to enjoy a rare nice day in February. Not knowing how long the decent weather would hold out, I reached into my office humidor for something guaranteed to be a decent quick smoke. Out came the My Uzi Weighs […]
Liga Privada Papas Fritas
This time of year is always slow for us here at the Stogie Review. The majority of us live in parts of the country where it’s generally too cold to spend an extended period of time outside smoking a large cigar. When you can’t smoke indoors at home, and don’t have the time to make […]
Charlie’s Month in Smoke, vol. 12
They’re calling it an “epidemic.” This year’s flu outbreak has been pretty bad, spanning almost the entire country. Although I’ve personally not come down with anything (other than a day or two of feeling “icky”), unfortunately my wife and son each fell ill for a few days. Taking care of a sick family caused me […]
Charlie’s Top Cigars of 2012 (plus giveaway)
It’s that time of year again. So exciting. So suspenseful. So controversial. It can only mean one thing: everyone with a blog is publishing their highly-opinionated list of top cigars for the year, and everyone else is having fun arguing over which cigars were overlooked and which were overrated. Allow me to add my inflation-adjusted […]
Ezra Zion Reagan
In my day job, I work a lot with statistics. Over the past year, Gary Griffith from Emilio Cigars has brought six independent boutique cigar brands into his distribution network (in addition to his own lines). If my calculations are correct, and assuming the expansion continues at an exponential rate, by 2016 EVERY cigar brand […]