Arandoza’s Battle of the Bands – Blue
Arandoza’s Battle of the Bands – Blue Arandoza Cigars is a family owned company that apparently started early 2011, launching its first line of cigars called Blue Label in 2012, with light blue bands. This cigar was reviewed by my compatriot in October 2012 and he gave it a 3.5 out of 5. At the 2013 IPCPR, Arandoza announced the “rebirth” of the medium bodied Blue Label line with a...
Arandoza’s Battle of the Bands – White
Arandoza’s Battle of the Bands – White Arandoza Cigars is a family owned and operated company that apparently started early in 2011 with the stated intention of combining their knowledge of tobacco, passions for cigars and hard work to develop and market a unique line of cigars. A large part of the uniqueness comes from Arndoza’s approach to the blending of tobaccos. All of...
New Life for Juan Lopez
Altadis USA is breathing new life into the Juan Lopez brand name. They are offering an all Nicaraguan cigar – a “Nicaraguan Treasure” as per their marketing materials – in 3 sizes (selection no. 1 is 5 X 54, selection no.2 is 6 X 54 and selection no. 3 is 6 X 60) packed 16 to a box. Altadis made an effort to blend the tobacco from all three growing regions in Nicaragua to create a...
An Exquisite Cuban Stock Exquisito
I’ve met a lot of cigar makers. Many are humble farmers. Many are mild mannered and soft spoken. All share a passion for tobacco. The owner of Cuban Stock has the passion for tobacco, but is in no way soft spoken or laid back. His challenge to me when we met at the recent trade show, “Smoke my cigars and tell you don’t like them”. But, I couldn’t meet...
Cremo Classic – A Pleasant Smoke
What can you say about a cigar company that was one of the premier brands at the turn of the century? Well, if you’ve never heard of Cremo, you might ask , which century? And the answer to that would be the 20th century. This is a brand that was one of the top selling cigars in the Untied States in the early 1900s. There was a factory in New York and sales were very high. Over the...
