One of the first stops Brian and I made at IPCPR 2016 was the Fratello booth and talk with Omar de Frias about his new releases. One of the cigar lines he was introducing was the new Oro line. The Oro line is Fratello’s foray into Connecticut wrapper cigars. Omar wanted add this missing piece […]
La Palina Illumination Robusto
At IPCPR 2016, La Palina introduced the Illumation to their extensive line cigars. Considered a “Goldie light” by La Palina, its made at El Titan de Bronze factory in Miami, FL using mostly the same tobaccos as the Goldie. The only difference is they replaced the medio tiempo tobacco with a higher priming ligero leaf. […]
Jose Blanco 12/2/16 Interview
Jose Blanco was one of the people we missed at this year’s busy trade show, and that’s something that has been bothering me ever since. So when I heard he was going to be in the area doing a blending seminar, I made a point to grab my handy GoPro and brave Atlanta traffic to […]
Crowned Heads Le Careme Robusto
In July of this year, Crowned Heads introduced the La Careme at IPCPR. The Le Careme is a new cigar from the EP Carrillo factory in the Dominican Republic. The cigar is named after the famed chef, Marie-Antoine Careme, who is considered an extremely influential chef of his time in the late 18th century and […]
CAO Amazon Basin
The popular CAO Amazon Basin has returned after a hiatus of several years, and I made a point not to miss it this time around. According to CAO, the supply of the blend’s key component, Amazon-grown Braganca tobacco is only harvested once every three years. As you can imagine, that makes it pretty difficult to […]
Guardian of the Farm Apollo Seleccion de Warped
This year at IPCPR in Las Vegas, Warped announced a collaboration with Casa Fernandez Cigars to produce a line of cigars called Guardian of the Farm. This new line was created by Max Fernandez of Casa Fernandez and Kyle Gellis of Warped Cigars to pay tribute to the dogs that guard the tobacco farms in […]
Hoyo La Amistad Robusto
This July at IPCPR 2016, Brian and I were taken around the General Cigar Company’s booth by Victoria McKee-Jaworski, director of public relations for General Cigar Company, who showed us their new offerings. Several things caught our eye, but none more than the newest offering by Hoyo de Monterrey, La Amistad, which you can watch […]
Brian’s The Week In Smoke, Issue 105
So I was working on the last Week in Smoke and it occurred to me, I smoked a lot of cigars on vacation. Like two weeks worth of interesting cigars. Which does check out, since I was gone for two weeks. And after a brief, sitcom-esque flashback to me smoking cigars in a much warmer […]
Mega Review: Tatuaje Skinny Monsters – Happy Halloween!
Earlier this year, Tatuaje released their 3rd spinoff from the Tatuaje Monster line with the Skinny Monsters. The Skinny Monsters follow the Little Monsters and the Pudgy Monsters as spinoffs where they are the same blend of their larger, special released Monsters, but is a smaller format, excluding the The Chuck and The Tiff, which were […]
Macanudo Mao
In the cigar community, there is a phenomenon known as Macanudo. The Macanudo brand is one of the best sellers in the country, despite the fact that you probably know few people that smoke them. I suspect that the magic lies in name recognition and branding. Think about it, when a non-smoker wants to celebrate […]