Cigars and Wine in Grapevine

This month’s herf cigar was the Rocky Patel Edge Toro Maduro.  This was really an awesome smoke.  Like several other Edge cigars I have smoked before, this one was dark in color, but still smooth in taste and boldness.  I don’t care for cigars that are too dark in boldness, they get old before I am done smoking them, most of the time.  These are the cigars that you hear people talking about when they say, “…don’t smoke this on an empty stomach”.  In my opinion, if you have to eat something in order for the cigar to not make you sick, then it is too strong.  Of course everyone has different tastes and what is too strong for me might not be too strong for someone else, but you get what I am saying.

The Edge series of Rocky Patel’s are the perfect blend.  They have plenty of smoke, they stay lit if you put it down for a couple of minutes, and the taste is outstanding.  I tasted earth- flavors during this smoke; right now I can’t place the exact taste, as it was 4 days ago when I smoked this.  I guess I will just have to smoke another one

Cigar Details:
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan-Honduran Ligero
Size: Price: $6, locally
Cigar Aficianado Rating: 90
Someone else’s review: Stogie Guys

Wow, its been almost a year since I posted in here.  I haven’t stopped smoking cigars, I have just been lazy about posting, so I will try and get better about that.

This month for our Herfers Club we had the Coronado by LFD.  I tasted hints of floral in this cigar.  It burned very smooth and even, had just about a perfect draw, and wasn’t hot at all.  There was plenty of smoke.  It started to get a bit bitter towards the last 1/5 of the smoke, so I put it down and didn’t smoke it any further.  This was a good choice for the club this month.

This was September’s cigar pick for our monthly club.  I was excited to see that it was a Don Pepin Garcia pick this time, and one that I had not had before.

I smoked 2 of them before writing this post, one Saturday afternoon, and one Sunday evening.  The first one started out a bit hot and very spicy, but quickly mellowed into a mild-to-medium smoke with hints of leather.  The second one wasn’t hot at all, was smooth all the way through, and I got the same hints of leather and some earth tones to it.  There was plenty of smoke and the flavor was quite good, but I think that I still liked the Blue Label better.

The cigar burned a bit unevenly towards the end, but this didn’t affect the flavor or quality at all, in my opinion.  I look forward to smoking the other 4 sticks I got.

1) Padron Serie 1926 No. 9
2) Fuente Fuente OpusX PerfecXion No. 2
3) Montecristo No. 2
4) Oliva Serie V Torpedo
5) Ashton Virgin Sun Grown Torpedo
6) Cohiba Madura 5 Secretos
7) Illusione CG:4
8 ) Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur Maduro Epicure
9) CAO Vision Prana
10) Dunhill Signed Range Toro
11) Montecristo Petit Edmundo
12) San Cristobal Monumento
13) Camacho Select Torpedo
14) La Flor Domincana Double Ligero Chisel Maduro
15) Tatuaje Havana VI Angeles
16) Punch Double Coronoa
17) Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic 1979
18) Felipe Power Robusto
19) Romeo y Julieta Aniversario Corona
20) Gran Habano 3 Siglos Gran Corona
21) Sosa Wavell
22) La Gloria Cubana Selectos de Lujos
23) Padilla Signature 1932 Lancero
24) The Edge Sumatra Toro
25) Zino Platinum Grown Special Wrapper Chubby

This was our cigar for the February Herfers.com Herf.  It was a very good smoke.  The cigar was light and I tasted hints of vanilla cream, a slight woody taste that I couldn’t really recognize, and towards the end I was tasting a touch of pepper.  The vanilla cream taste lasted through the entire cigar and it never got hot at the end.  There was plenty of smoke, it burned evenly and I never had to re-light it.

I got 5 sticks for the herfers.com exchange, and I look forward to smoking the other 4 of these.

The Gran Robusto, a 5.5×52 stick, has a Brazilian wrapper, a Corojo binder and  a combo of Nicaraguan, Peruvian and Dominican fillers.  These cigars have been aged since 1991.

The main thing I tasted in this smoke was leather.  It was a good smoke, good draw and plenty of smoke.  I didn’t taste anything besides the leather, perhaps because I am not as experienced, but that was it.  I did like the cigar and I smoked the entire thing, never getting hot all the way to the nub.  Good smoke.

January 2008 was the first month of our new Cigar Club, Stogie Ninja Society.  This month was Judge’s month and he chose a sampler pack of Oliveros cigars from Cigar International.

Tonight I smoked the Oliveros International Churchill.  This smoke measures 7.0″ x 50 and it’s blend employs a mixture of 100% Cuban-seed long-fillers from the Dominican Republic.  The smoke started out a bit spicy and bitter, but very quickly turned into a great, woodsy tasting smokes.  The smoke was very smooth with a terrific draw and plenty of smoke.  It lasted for about an hour and smoked good all the way down to the nub.  It did tend to get a little hot at the very end, but I wasn’t disappointed because I didn’t expect it to taste quite this good.  I am looking on CigarBid right now, trying to find more of these cigars because I liked this one so much.  I’d recommend this cigar to people who are new to smoking and also those who have been into cigars for as long as I have, about 2 year.