Ezra Zion Archives | Half Ashed

Episode 174: Ezra Zion All My Ex’s Maduro

February 6, 2018 By Kip Fisher

Ezra Zion All My Ex’s Maduro

Kip – The All My Ex’s maduro made its appearance in April 2016 as a followup to the original released blend. The Ezra Zion guys generously gave us these while I was at IPCPR 2016. The maduro All My Ex’s features a Mexican San Andres wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. They were made via Noel Rojas at the Aroma de Jalapa factory in Estelí. The line was available in three vitolas (6”x52 toro at $8.95, 5”x50 robusto for $8.50, and a 6.5”x42 lancero ($8.95)). Total production was 800 boxes of 25 (20,000 total production). I remember these having a healthy dose of potency, yet being entirely approachable; some dry cocoa flavors and an occasional wisp of smoky woodsiness. I couldn’t help but notice that only 18 months in the cello left it incredibly yellowed. Interesting. Let’s see how the cigars are smoking these days….

Cigar News

My old haunt – Tampa Humidor – announced since our last show that they had been acquired by Casa de Montecristo (Tabacalera USA/Altadis/JR Cigars)….and subsequently, a few more acquisitions have occurred. It was announced that Xikar has been bought by Quality Importers (!), and Thompson Cigar has been purchased by STG, the parent company to General Cigar and CI.
Halfwheel is reporting that Altadis is suing another company for trademark infringement with the fleur-de-lis.
Gary Laden of Smooth Draws Radio Show passed away. Our condolences to his family and friends. Remembering Gary, by Cigar Coop
Carlito Fuente announced during the Puro Sabor festival that the Fuente family is opening a new cigar factory in Nicaragua. They have maintained a farming presence there for many years since their original factory in Estelí was burned in 1978. This comes on the heels of announcing the name change for distribution from Fuente & Newman Premium Cigars Limited to the Arturo Fuente Cigar Co.

What Else We’ve Been Smoking

Craig –

Tatuaje Little Boris Robusto Extra – Holy Poop
Tatuaje Capa Especial 2012 Book Toro – Nirvana
Tatuaje Tattoo Robusto – Overlooked too often
Ramon Allones SS – Not the best example
Ramon Allones PC – Old Faithful
Cornelius & Anthony Cornelius (Corona) – Generic

Kip

JC Newman El Baton –
Fuente 858 Sungrown –
Deer Tongue!

Half Ashed Episode 149: Ezra Zion Burnt Ends

August 21, 2016 By Kip Fisher

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Ezra Zion Burnt Ends

Kip – Named after the favored “burnt ends” of a Texas BBQ brisket, this was Spring 2015 direct-to-consumer release from Ezra Zion. It had a total production of 1000 cigars, and sported a cured corojo wrapper (cured?)…but little else in terms of recipe. 6”x52 toro.

Cigar News

Carlos Fuente Sr. has passed. We offer our condolences and a few memories of Senior.

Follow up on the companies releasing epic quantities of cigars at IPCPR….

Random things I noticed at the show:

I didn’t dig in hard to the legislative seminars, but they seemed generally better-attended than in years past.
Wide range of answers when mfrs. Were asked their thoughts about FDA
Lots of new packaging on old blends
Lots of “pre-2007” blend marketing…
AJ Fernandez’ booth was crazy busy.
Macanudo Mao…
Excited about Davidoff Yamasa, EPM 10 yr (DLR), Bella Artes, Yayabo, EZ All My Exes Maduro, Pistoff Kristoff
The Cigarmy cutter….

Today’s the first of the “FDA D-day” – August 8th, 2016. Now what?

What Else We’ve Been Smoking

Craig – A GREAT couple of weeks for me

ECCJ 20th was the dog of the show. That should tell you something
Reynaldo Canonazo 2014 from Zedman
1998 Montecristo Especials
La Atalier Racine – How polar opposite this experience was… from itself

Kip – nada

Half Ashed Episode 147: Ezra Zion and Wildcard

August 21, 2016 By Kip Fisher

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Photo credit: ezrazionstore.com

CotW – Ezra Zion Chocolate Porter, and……

Kip – Ezra Zion Chocolate Porter: This was a limited run released by the guys at Ezra Zion a couple months ago. It features a San Andres wrapper, and had a very limited production of 645 cigars. The release promises deep, roasty flavors coupled with some vanilla, coffee bean and licorice. Also promises not to nuke your palate with strong tobaccos….let’s give it a whirl.
Craig – ….did not write his notes….

Cigar News

There are *tons* of new cigars being announced leading up to IPCPR…but woefully few details to be honest. Sure, some are forthcoming. But it seems more than ever that cigar makers are reserving specifics until the show.

Oliva has been acquired by J. Cortes…

In addition to the already-regular-production Tatuaje Black PC, a few new sizes are now going to be available full time: Petit Robusto (4 x 50), Corona Gorda (5 5/8 x 46), Cazador (6 3/8 x 43) and Gran Toro (6 1/2 x 52). I had the chance to smoke the Petit Robusto this week, and rather enjoyed it. I find these not to be too radically different by vitola. They’ve done a good job of tweaking the blend to retain its character in all the various expressions. I do dig that CG as my personal favorite size, though…

A few more surprises….

What Else We’ve Been Smoking

Craig

Crowned Heads Las Calaveras 2014 EL
la Atelier C’ote d’or

Kip

Don Carlos Personal Reserve
Undercrown Robusto
I picked up – but have not yet smoked – the Tat TAA LE for 2016, and the Crowned Heads Las Calaveras 2016. I’ll report back ASAP.

Listener Email

John From Chicago shares the response he received from US Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky after he sent her the form letter the CRA has on its website in support of HR662 “Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act”

Email 1 from John

From: U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Your recent message

Dear Mr. REDACTED:

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for H.R. 662, the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act. I appreciate hearing from you.

H.R. 662 would statutorily exempt cigars from the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA). The TCA granted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to deem all tobacco products under its authority. While cigars are considered tobacco products, the existing law does not explicitly mention cigars. The Food and Drug Administration has issued a proposed rule deeming tobacco products under its jurisdiction. The FDA proposed two alternatives for the treatment of cigars – one option would make all cigars subject to FDA jurisdiction and the other option would specifically exclude cigars designated as “premium cigars” from FDA jurisdiction. The FDA accepted public comment on these two options and is currently reviewing those comments. I will closely follow this process.

While I appreciate your concerns about the proposed regulations and will work to minimize the impact of the law on small businesses, I support FDA’s authority to regulate cigars as needed to protect and promote public health. I oppose H.R. 662because there are serious health risks associated with cigar smoking, and I believe people should be made aware of them. I am committed to warning people about the health consequences associated with cigars, and I am particularly concerned with preventing teenagers from using tobacco products.

Although we disagree on this issue, I appreciate hearing from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me whenever I may be of assistance.

Sincerely,
Jan Schakowsky
Member of Congress

Email 2 from “Grey Goose”

Subject: Re: Black Dog Coffee

I am a new to CCs … and that has been awesome.

I have (interest in) some Monte #3’s, some PSD4’s, Upmann Mag 46’s, some SLR’s, a few Juan Lopez No 1’s and 2’s that I liked, but thought I’d ask what are your top few CC’s that should be on top of my list?

Have been fly fishing the St Joe and Coeur d’Alene rivers lately, the Westslope Cutthroat biting!

Cheers,

Grey Goose

Half Ashed Episode 090: Blessed Leaf Kairos

November 8, 2014 By Kip Fisher

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Welcome to Episode #090, featuring the Blessed Leaf Kairos. This week, we’re smoking one of my favorites, a blend created by the minds behind Ezra Zion Cigars and Casa Fernandez. Here’s a bit of background:

“The Kairos was put out by the “cigar ministry” arm of the Ezra Zion guys – ~~BlessedLeaf.com~~. They decided to add a line from which sales would support various Christian ministries and missions (for full disclosure, I (Kip) am actually a beneficiary of this ministry, as a donation was made toward my move into full time mission work in the Dominican Republic….so take my whole opinion for what it’s worth….however, I’m supremely confident that those who enjoy potent Nicaraguan tobacco will like it). It is produced at the Miami Casa Fernandez factory, as is often the case with Ezra Zion blends. The partnership works well for my tastes. I’m a big fan of both companies, and enjoy the blends they’ve produced together. Kairos has a great deal of symbolism in the packaging (which I can detail on the forum if anyone’s interested). The blend consists of a Nicaraguan Corojo 99 Rosado wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler leaf from both Esteli and Jalapa. It comes in a singular 6.25” x 52 box pressed vitola. A total of only 4,000 cigars were produced in 20-ct boxes and 5-packs…..and I have box #1 (which I paid for). When it was first released, I felt it ever-so slightly in need of a bit more “polish” or marriage in the blend. I have not lit one up in a few months now, so I’m hoping the wait has paid off. In typical Casa Fernandez / Ezra Zion fashion, this is not a cigar for those with weak constitution...” — Kip

In the news, we cover stories from our friends at La Tradicion Cubana and TL Johnson, some interesting survey stats from CigarSense (Craig was not a fan…), CAO, Viva Republica, and a legislative update from Nebraska. We also kick around some talk about a new study beginning to filter out from FDA. As always, we also covered a few of the cigars we’ve enjoyed this week and wrapped up some further improvements that have been made for the Half Ashed site.

In the next episode we will be featuring one of Craig’s favorites, so be sure to check back in Friday night at 9:30pm EST on halfashed.com where you can catch us recording and participate in the new and much improved chatroom. If you would like to contact us in the meantime, you can reach us through the contact page or at the following emails: [email protected] or [email protected]. Please feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions you’d like answered, comments to make…or even compliments and complaints. We love to get your emails! Also, remember you can always go back and listen to previous episodes, which can be found in the Half Ashed Archive. You can download this week’s audio directly below (right-click “Download” and save), find us on iTunes, or subscribe with any podcast app at our RSS Feed. Video, as always, will be available at the Half Ashed YouTube Channel.

P.S. – If you have unbanded suggestions or contributions, you can get those to us by sending an email to [email protected]. This email address goes directly to my wife, so you can simply suggest an unbanded cigar for her to source, or send me an email to [email protected] if you have something you’d like to send in. I will provide an address to send them. Thanks!

Half Ashed Episode 085: Cigar Federation “Collective”

October 5, 2014 By Kip Fisher

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Sorry for the late post again. I should be all caught up and back on schedule after this week. In the interest of brevity I’ll just include a short list of topics for this show:

Cigar of the Week: Cigar Federation’s “Collective”

News:

Don Kiki Berger passes
Cigar Federation charity raffle comes to a close
Crowned Heads has another LE coming down the pike – the “Hecho con Corazon”
Operation Chokepoint = potential bad news for cigar retailers
Room101 Uncle Lee has been announced
Speculation on some possible news items coming soon….

Next week, we will be featuring the My Father Flor de las Antillas 6×60 Binny’s exclusive as our Cigar of the Week. Be sure to check back in Friday night at 9:30pm EST on halfashed.com where you can catch us recording and participate in the chatroom. If you would like to contact us in the meantime, you can reach us through the contact page or at the following emails: [email protected] or [email protected]. Please feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions you’d like answered, comments to make…or even compliments and complaints. We love to get your emails! Also, remember you can always go back and listen to previous episodes, which can be found in the Half Ashed Archive. You can download this week’s audio directly below (right-click “Download” and save), find us on iTunes, or subscribe with any podcast app at our RSS Feed. Video, as always, will be available at our YouTube channel.

Episode 023: Ezra Zion Eminence

July 19, 2013 By Kip Fisher

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Good evening, folks. Welcome to another episode of Half Ashed. I apologize in advance for such a late publication. We actually recorded this show during IPCPR last Sunday, but I have since been traveling without an internet connection; thus, I had an inability to post up the audio. The video from this show is available on our YouTube channel in its unedited form – about 10-15 minutes of which has no video/only audio. We experienced some early issues with connectivity and killed the video to save bandwidth on the convention hall’s wifi. We subsequently turned it back on, so I have left it posted for those who might want to look at our ugly mugs. We covered a number of news items, as well as some early IPCPR stories – although this was actually recorded in the first 3 hours of the tradeshow (so news was very limited at that time).

Ezra Zion Eminence

Our cigar of the week was the upcoming Ezra Zion Eminence, which we greatly enjoyed and covered our tasting notes near the end of this abbreviated show. We will be recording Episode 024 this upcoming Tuesday (July 23) once I have returned from a family trip….and I will make every effort to have that posted almost immediately. As a sidenote, this will be an episode you definitely want to catch. We’ll be covering a great deal of news from IPCPR 2013, with coverage on quite a few new releases and great cigars I had the chance to try while there.

Episode 024 should be posted in a much more timely fashion than Episode 023. You can join us live while we record if you’d like as well – Tuesday night July 23rd. Follow my Twitter feed @The_Cigarmy and I’ll post the exact timing. In the meantime, if you would like to contact us, you can reach us through the contact page or at the following email addresses: [email protected] or [email protected]. Please feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions you’d like answered, comments to make…or even compliments and complaints! Also, remember you can always go back and listen to previous episodes, which can be found in the Half Ashed Archive. You can download this week’s audio directly below (right-click “Download” and save), or find us on iTunes to subscribe. Video, as always, will be available on our YouTube Channel.

P.S. – If you have unbanded suggestions or contributions, you can get those to us by sending an email to [email protected]. This email address goes directly to my wife, so you can simply suggest an unbanded cigar for her to source, or send me an email to [email protected] if you have something you’d like to send in. I will provide an address to send them. Thanks!

Episode 014: Ezra Zion TANTRUM

May 11, 2013 By Kip Fisher

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Ezra Zion Tantrum

Welcome back to Half Ashed, everyone. We managed to avoid being booed off the air for yet another week, so we humbly present Episode 014 for your listening and viewing pleasure. This week we were honored with special guest Kyle Hoover from Ezra Zion Cigars as we take a look at their new Limited Edition TANTRUM – a very big cigar in a very small package. As should now be evident from opinions I’ve voiced about my love for Ezra Zion cigars, I’m always excited to see something new from the guys. Tune in for all the details about the TANTRUM, as well as what our thoughts are as we smoke one with Kyle.

Industry News

Industry news was very light this week, with little to update legislatively. We did have a couple of folks enlist/renew with CRA with my Ambassador number to take advantage of the ongoing Cigarmy promotion. So, a big thanks to them, and a hope that they’ll enjoy the bonus cigars from my own stash.

We did cover several news items related to new cigars that were announced this past week, and a few other items around the industry.

What Else Have We Been Smoking?

Craig: Just the usuals: Monte Especial, Fuente Cuban Corona, “cigar Lounge” 30-30. All standards, all great.

Kip: I dug into Liga Privada pretty heavily this week, enjoying a Dirty Rat, Feral Flying Pig, and a couple No. 9’s. Other highlights were “Blend Number 5” from one of Craig’s local brick and mortar shops, and a lovely Don Pepin Garcia Blue.

Miscellany

We covered a couple of listener emails this week, but had to reserve a few more for next week due to time constraints. Thanks for sending those – and keep them coming! We love to get feedback from everyone, and learn from all the questions. We don’t always have a solution, but we’re sure to have an opinion….and there’s almost always someone listening who knows far more than we do, and can provide an accurate answer.

Wrap

A huge thanks to the guys at Ezra Zion, who provided this week’s CoTW – as well as the great discussion and insight from Kyle as he sat in on the show. Next week, we’ll have another very special guest in Will Cooper – Cigar Coop – as we feature the 2011 Quesada Oktoberfest. We’re very much looking forward to Coop’s input and views on the industry as a whole, and talk about his contributions to the cigar world and pick his brain a little about the future he sees for the industry.

Again, thanks for tuning in, and be sure to check back next week for an exciting Episode 015. In the meantime, if you would like to contact us, you can reach us through the contact page or at the following email addresses: [email protected] or [email protected]. Don’t forget to get those emails in this month to be entered in our current giveaway. Also, remember you can always go back and listen to previous episodes, which can be found in the Half Ashed Archive. You can download this week’s audio directly below (right-click “Download” and save), or find us on iTunes. Video, as always, will be available on Cigar Federation homepage or at the CigFed Half Ashed Video Archive.

P.S. – As always, if you have unbanded suggestions or contributions, you can get those to us by sending an email to [email protected]. This email address goes directly to my wife, so you can simply suggest an unbanded cigar for her to source, or send me an email to [email protected] if you have something you’d like to send in. I will provide an address to send them. Thanks!