8/23/2010- Cigars Intl. Legends Yellow Series (Don Pepin)
Setting- My backyard with Zach, Scott, and two Sarahs (Mine and Scott’s friend.)
Drink- Orange Soda… Bad call, would’ve been much better with a porter or brown ale.
History- Purchased a few weeks ago as a buy-in with Zach, Scott, Jered, and Myself. They’ve been resting in the coolerdor for a couple weeks at 68%
Initial Thoughts- Nice wrapper, it has a very “cubanesque” look to it. Triple cap, and a nice wrapper, no obvious flaws aside from the usual veining (not really a flaw)
The Smoke- This cigar was one of the more interesting I’ve smoked in the past couple months. It started with a fairly strong peppery flavor and aroma, nothing too strong or bad, just different from what I’m used to. About 3/4” into the cigar the peppery notes tailed off and the cigar mellowed while still staying in the Med-Full range strength wise. Flavor wise throughout the cigar it had a very earthy taste to it that I couldn’t pinpoint on any one thing. I need to smoke another to really get what it was. I am really surprised that the tobacco used was nicaraguan as I generally find Nic. Tobacco to be very raw and earthy, this didn’t have that going on in my opinion. It’s very tough to pinpoint what it was though.
Pro’s- Interesting, Intriguing, and while I didnt hardcore nub the cigar it left me wanting more even with a decent nicotine head rush.
Con’s- None really I can think of at this point. Was stronger towards the end, but that’s to be expected.
Overall- Fascinating and intriguing, and I want to try this again. Luckily I have 4 more that are mine and I will enjoy having another.
History: I recieved this cigar as part of a sampler pack from Cigars International, I had mostly ordered the sampler pack for the 5 cigar travel humidor that came with it, but a few gems came with it that I’ve really enjoyed.
Setting: My backyard with a couple of good buddies, sharing stories and talking about the holidays and the new year.
Pre-Cut Impressions: This cigar is clear of any glaring flaws in wrap or cap. A few sun spots are spread throughout the wrapper but nothing glaringly bad or that should affect the cigars smokability. The foot of the cigar did have a bit of a box pressed look which was unnatural to the shape of the cigar as a whole. Rating: 8
You may be wondering what exactly this cigar is from this manufacturer nearly none of us in the states knows of. Vegas De Santiago is a small cigar company from Costa Rica, putting out four different blends in the standard vitola’s, nothing flashy, fancy, or over marketed in any way. I can’t recall where I first heard of VdS, and it wasn’t until a coworker had mentioned going to Costa Rica that I had even thought to look for them again. I had remembered reading a fairly good review on one of the blends but couldn’t find the site that I had read it and I couldn’t recall which blend it was. Curiosity got the best of me and I had to order a sampler pack to try it out, the sampler I chose was https://www.vegassantiago.com/shop/item.php?cid=15791911&id=72229121 I was concerned mostly with the amount of time in shipping from Costa Rica to California but fortunately enough it didn’t take long at all. My order was shipped out with 48hrs and I received it about 5 or 6 days after that; not a bad turn around time at all.
The first 5 readers to email me their address will receive a free Cigar Spike on me. I just recently added the review for this newer product and was very impressed with the product. I want to share it with 5 of you!! I will be doing more giveaways in the future but this is just a nice start to it.
Email: Stogieblog (at) gmail.com
I had initially read about the Cigar Spike on one of the popular cigar forums and the idea really intrigued me. As a grab it and go smoker that doesn’t always smoke at home I find that I frequently would leave home with the cigar but often times without the essentials; a cutter and a lighter. I remedied the lighter situation somewhat by keeping a lighter in my car, one in my desk at work, and of course one at home. The cutter situation was one that wasn’t quite so easy for me. I had an epiphany one day while at the local tobacco shop to buy a keyring punch. It’s very infrequent that I am ever without my keys, so it seemed like the natural solution to my problem to have a serviceable punch ready to go at any time. For a little over a month I was in sweet bliss, sure I went places with friends and left my keys at home once or twice but what’s new? At about the two month mark I was getting ready to cut and light up a brand new cigar, a Rocky Patel 1990 and reached for my keys only to find that the punch part of the keyring was no longer there, the body of the punch was there but the actual cutting surface was not… and nowhere to be found. So there I was looking like a chicken with his head cut off looking for some way to snip this cigar and how did I end up cutting this beauty? Well I didn’t, I ended up punching the end with a house key, thereby nearly destroying the cap and making my smoke somewhat disappointing picking small pieces of filler and cap from my teeth and mouth.
The AVO 9 came with a glowing recommendation from one of my best friends and with a trip to the local B&M I had to try it.
All in all I found this cigar to be very satisfying for a mild body smoke. Great smoothness of smoke, very clean and tasty on the finish, and no strong tongue aftertaste. I found this cigar to offer a typical clean tobacco taste mixed with a little nuttiness that reminded me of hazelnuts in particular.
All in all it was a very well made cigar with good flavors (albeit not complex) and good down to the small nub. I would not hesitate to recommend this stick even though it comes with a fairly high price tag (relative to what you get) in most cases.
Have you ever had one of those vacation weekends that you wish would never end? This past weekend was spent relaxing with friends in a gorgeous house with white and blue water views of the gorgeous pacific ocean. Throughout this weekend of fun a lot of smoking was done and this post is to sort of highlight the smoking I did while on this trip. I can’t say I’ve had a much better weekend than this one and all the tobacco certainly has to do with that. Here’s a brief recap of the tobacco’s smoked on this relaxing weekend. No full reviews on any of these as I was too busy with other things while smoking (hot tub mostly.)
Rocky Patel Vintage 1999 Connecticut Torpedo:
To start the wonderful weekend off right I cracked open the humidor to smoke one of the few Rocky’s I hadn’t smoked before and was itchin’ to try. This cigar brought a fair amount of creamy spice to the table that I really enjoyed. Medium body without being light or heavy and truly ideal in my opinion. The one slight “beef” I had with this stick was that it was just a tad bit tight on the draw. Even after cutting more cap the draw still was slightly tighter than I normally like. By no means was this cigar at all unsmokable or unenjoyable but it was definitely tighter than what I generally like. Fair volume of smoke as well throughout the whole cigar. I will need to review one of these when my mind is fully into the cigar.
While picking up a couple of drinks at the local tobacco/liquor store and decided to see what they had in the small walk-in humidor. While in there another man walked in with a business suit on and picked up two cigars from the bottom shelf “Cuban Reject’s, one of my favorite cigars regardless of the price and at $2.25 a cigar you can’t beat it!” he said. Well I couldn’t let that sort of recommendation go to pass so I picked up two myself and headed to the register, plopped down my $5 and got a few pennies back… For retail in California you can’t beat that, but is it even worth that much??
In reading about this cigar prior to firing it up I found myself wanting to try this cigar even moreso than I had anticipated. The various accounts of where the name originated from all point to the master blender Ernesto Padilla naming this blend and cigar after his father who in 1968 went to jail after he spoke out against the Castro led regime. This cigar was meant to be remembered just as his father was.
The Flor de Oliva Gold has grown on me as time has gone on. Having purchased a bunlde of these I have been slowly but surely smoking them every now and again. Here’s some of my notes on this cigar with a full review to follow here in the coming weeks.
