Pancho Villa Cigar is Truly a Shot in the Dark
The annual IPCPR gathering gives very good exposure to new brands and product introductions. At the 2014 IPCPR in Las Vegas, USA Sales inc. had a booth and introduced several new cigars, one of which is a 6.5 X 52 torpedo called Pancho Villa. This cigar has Dominican filler and binder wrapped by Ecuadorian Connecticut tobacco. I was given the Pancho Villa to review. The Pancho was firm, average...
The Ghost Envy – a Halloween Trick or Treat?
Gurkha’s Ghost series apparently first materialized in time for Halloween in 2012. For the 2014season, Gurkha is planning a big extension to the Ghost series – a 7 X 70 mysteriously called “Envy”. It has the same blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan filler tobaccos, a Dominican Criollo 1998 binder, and finally the same dark Brazilian Arapiraka Maduro wrapper as the rest of the Ghosts. The...
Montecristo Shouts “on guard” With Its New Puro Espada Series
Montecristo continues to launch innovative high quality cigars year after year. One of this year’s launches is the Espada (sword) series that is a Nicaraguan puro made in cooperation with Plasencia. For this series, Montecristo takes a page from the wine industry playbook by identifying the “vintage” and the growing region of the tobaccos used. So the Espada series has an Habano Jalapa...
Integrity at Table 36
It’s hard to keep in mind all of the different cigars that we hear about and smoke over the course of a busy life. While I was recently reminded that we had met the folks from Table 36 a couple of years ago, I recently smoked one of their new release cigars from the integrity line. When I first inspected the Integrity Robusto, it was very appealing. It had a nice oily feel. But, it...
A Kingly Sized Broadleaf
Since its opening at the 2013 IPCPR Kings has been developing its offering of cigars. It now has 5 different series, each named for position of royalty to reflect their goal of providing a “taste of royalty” in each blend. I met with Pete Tyndale, King’s master blender, at the 2014 IPCPR where he discussed the how the different series offer tastes from mild to full bodied cigars. Quite a...
The Baron of Kings Cigars
Kings Cigars began in 2010 but appears to have released their first cigars to much success at the 2013 IPCPR. They returned to IPCPR in 2014 to release additional blends and sizes. Kings has a factory in Estelí, Nicaragua and Santiago, Dominican Republic. The theme behind the Company’s name is to provide a “taste of royalty” in the blends it creates. I met with Pete Tyndale, King’s...
