Luchador El Gringo Frog Splash – a Big Hit in the Water
General Cigar’s Leccia introduced an extension of the Luchador line at the 2015 IPCPR called El Gringo. Luchador, loosely translated, is a wrestler and the four vitolas in the El Gringo line are named after wrestling moves. The El Gringo line is designed to be a full-flavored cigar and the center of the label has the shape of a traditional mask worn by Mexican wrestlers. General gave me a...
An Evil Genius Smoking in the White Chapel
This is the second year I’ve noticed Evil Genius at the IPCPR and they continue with their Black and White Chapel line. Very little is published about Evil Genius so there is also little to write. Evil Genius gave me a 5 X 50 White Chapel robusto to review, one of the 4 sizes they offer in this blend ranging from a 6 ¼ X 52 Churchill to a 3.5 X 42 mini. White Chapel has an interesting blend....
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...
Evil Genius Cigars Issues Forth The Dark Chapel
The evil genius persona is well defined in our movie and book culture. High abilities of evil geniuses are combined with low to non-existent moral compasses to generate conflict with the good. Evil Genius Cigars takes the good/bad image an interesting step further by having black and white labels for their 2 offerings. At the 2015 IPCPR Evil Genius provided me with a sample of the Black...
Don Lucas has a heavy duty stick in its AL Series
Don Lucas began its cigar tradition in 1992 in the Dominican Republic. Their factory is not far from the Punta Cana resort area in the Dominican Republic so a side trip from the resort would be interesting for a smoker. Today Don Lucas is still a boutique brand but proudly so with 4 blends aimed at different flavor groups ranging from mild to eye widening strong. I met them again at the 2015...
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...
