Accept the Challenge! A New Royal Maduro from Gurkha.
Gurkha has had a lot of success with its Royal Challenge blend and in 2014 Gurkha extended the brand by introducing a Maduro version. The Maduro wraps a broadleaf maduro around the Habano/Honduran binder and Nicaraguan/Dominican filler of the original Royal Challenge cigar, giving it a new taste. The size profile ranges from a 5 X 50 robusto to a 7 X 52 Churchill. Gurkha provided me with a...
Kuuts Fires Up the Zapata
Kuuts has their cigar factory in the Danli region of the Honduras where they make their Kuuts Nicaraguan, Placeres, Miro and Zapata Cigars. Although Kuuts has been selling in Europe for a long time, they entered the US market in 2013. I previously reviewed the Miro (not my favorite) and the Placeres Reserva (a good cigar at a good price). At the 2014 IPCPR Kuuts also gave me a Tabacalera Zapata...
JC Newman’s Pearl of the Sea
Aside from a pretty woman’s neck, the best place to find pearls of the sea is in a bed of oysters. In 2012 JC Newman introduced their Perla del Mar and had them available for the 2013 IPCPR where they gave me one to sample and review. I recently inspected the bottom of my humidor and found the JC Neman Perla biding its time until I selected it. The Perla I had was the “G” , a 6 ¼ X 54...
1875 Romeo Y Julieta – Good, But With a Complicated Pedigree
Romeo and Juliet – would be lovers kept apart by differences between their families. The Romeo Y Julieta brand name/global market is no different. The non-US version is Cuban produced and sold outside the US by Habanos SA. Altadis produces the US version in the Honduras. Another complication is that Altadis also sells different Romeo Y Julieta cigars where the 1875 is after the name of...
Cuban Stock Has a New Chubby VP
Cuban Stock Cigar Company launched an addition to its Chubby line of large ring gauge cigars at the 2014 IPCPR in Las Vegas. The new line is called “Boss” and comes in 3 lofty title sizes – the Chairman (7 X 60), the CEO (6 X 56) and the VP (5.5 X 56). Yanev Levy, the founder of Cuban Stock Cigar Company and probably both its Chairman and CEO, gave me a VP to test. The Boss series uses a...
A Volcano From Canada – Tierra Volcan Grande
Each ICPR can be a springboard for a new company/brand to enter the US market after already selling outside the US. The Tierra Volcan line, from the Mombacho Company headquartered in Toronto Canada, did so in 2014 with a large booth and a high quality product sampler for interested parties. They spared no expense with this launch and gave me some samples for testing. Mombacho is a large volcano...
