A Timeless Quality Cigar from Aging Room
Aging Room is a brand from Boutique Blends Cigars. Boutique had its early roots in flavored cigars but now focuses upon low volume, high quality cigars aimed at consumers who know what they want in a cigar. Early this year Aging Room launched extensions of its successful Bin No. 1 line. One extension was the addition of a box pressed 6 X 54 toro called D Major. The Bin No. 1 vitolas are all named...
Dissident Bloc is Just OK
Boutique cigar operations sometimes drive change in the industry as their innovations can be successful enough to generate copying by the other industry players. Dissident Cigars is a boutique operation that is a bit beyond the fringe in their marketing so I don’t expect any copycatting there. I sampled their Bloc cigar, a 6 ¼ X 52 toro that wraps a Habano Jalapa leaf around a double Jalapa...
Panacea 658
With so many cigar producers out there it is hard to find anything new and genuine in the clutter of people rushing to market bad cigar to take advantage of the popularity that cigars have become. So, it is with great joy that I discovered a Panacea Green label in my humidor. Obviously, it was a stick obtained at last years trade show, that I was now just getting to. To start with...
Crave the Clave from Cordoba & Morales
Cordoba & Morales are known for continuing the Cuban traditions in cigar making. At the 2014 IPCPR they provided us with a sample of their Clave Cubana Etiqueta Blanca (white label), whose production is limited to 1,000 boxes. The Clave comes in 3 vitolas (robusto, toro and toro gordo) and our sample was the toro, a 6 X 54 box pressed cigar. The clave is a musical instrument – a pair of...
Oceano Pacific – a Big Cigar From La Sirena
La Sirena Cigars, owned and operated by Arielle Ditkowich, has 4 blends until mid-2014 when it acquired Old School Cigars, known for its Jaxx and Stixx lines. La Sirena appeared at the 2014 IPCPR and provided us with an Oceano Pacific Gran Toro that measured a nice 6 X 65 for testing. The Oceano series has Dominican Criollo Viso and Ligero along with Nicaraguan Viso tobaccos for fillers. The...
Don Lucas Issues a 20th Anniversary Cigar
Twenty years is long enough to establish a track record of success and at the 2014 IPCPR Don Lucas issued a cigar to commemorate its 20th anniversary in the industry. Not surprisingly, it is called the 20th Anniversary, is a limited production cigar and they gave me a 5 ¾ X 54 toro to review. The 20th Anniversary is a Dominican puro with a nice, dark wrapper. It was slightly veiny but not...
