Casa Fernandez | Half Ashed

Half Ashed 185: Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Mi Querida

October 31, 2018 By Kip Fisher

Dunbarton Tobacco and Trust Mi Querida

Mi Querida literally translates as “my dearest”, however it is a rather provocative word within Nicaragua used to expressly describe your secret mistress. While this may sound like an oxymoron, it is not. It is not uncommon in the culture for a man to have a mistress that is both known by and basically approved of by his wife, whereas the “Mi Querida” is the woman who neither his wife or mistress know about or would ever approve of. Cigar wise, it represents my personal maduro desires: a robust, extremely flavorful liga comprised of rich Nicaraguan leaf hand rolled in a 100% naturally fermented, heavy Broadleaf capa. Earthy and dense with a long teasing, slightly dirty finish, Mi Querida is delightfully lush and full bodied on the palate offering an extremely satisfying experience for the most passionate of cigar smokers.

US CT River Valley Broadleaf over NIcaraguan binder & filler; we are smoking the 5” x 52 “Ancho Corto”

Cigar News

- Our condolences to family and friends of Casa Fernández blender Arsenio Ramos, who passed away at age 83.
- Oliva is releasing a Cain Daytona in 7” x 70 format. If that’s not enough WTH for you…it’s going to the European market. Has the whole world gone T-U?
- Pete Johnson announced the “Unlucky 13” retailers who will be receiving this year’s limited run of Halloween series boxes. Presumably, unless you’re trying to ferret out the specially painted box, the cigars will be available in less-limited packaging nationwide….tune in to the show to find out which retailers will be receiving dress boxes.
- AJ Fernandez has an extension coming to the New World series – a Cameroon offering. The cigar will be available in 7(!) vitolas – Petit Lancero (5 x 38), Short Robusto (4 x 48), Corona (6 x 46), Robusto (5 1/2 x 54), Toro (6 x 50), Churchill (7 x 48), and Torpedo (6 1/2 x 52). It comes with a Cameroon wrapper over Nicaraguan insides, and will be priced between $5 and $7, depending on size. It should be launching this Fall.

What Else We’ve Been Smoking

- Craig
  - Tatuaje Caz – Last show cigar, again
  - Monte #2

- Kip
  - Not much at all, as I’ve had little time and been mostly occupied by cigars you’ve all heard about recently……..

Half Ashed Episode 132: Asylum 99 Problems

January 21, 2016 By Kip Fisher

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Asylum 99 Problems

The singular oddball in the Asylum 13 lineup, tonight’s cigar is the Asylum 99 Problems – a 7” x 38 lancero standing in stark contrast to the rest of the line – which typically runs in oversized vitolas. The cigar is a Nicaraguan puro, although it is manufactured in Christian Eiroa’s “El Aladino” factory in Honduras. The story says owner Tom Lazuka asked Christian Eiroa how many lanceros would fit in an Ogre box – and the answer was 99. Hence, the name. The cigar was produced in limited quantity (500 boxes of 99), and retailed around the $7 mark.

Cigar News

The Oliva Serie V Maduro for 2015 has landed. Like last year, it’s in a 6” x 60 vitola with San Andres wrapper. MSRP was reported at $10/stick, up $.50 each over last year – but my old shop has them at $9.60 for singles and $86 per box of ten.

Casa Fernandez has expanded the JFR line…and it’s not in a behemoth ring! It’s a 7” x 50 churchill, and will be made at the CF (TABSA) factory in Estelí. It features an untrimmed, shaggy foot and will retail around $8. Should be shipping this week.

In our final of these updates this year, Quesada has released the last allotment of the España petit belicoso. Rather than the typical singular box of 100 to a selected retailer, TWO were sent out for December…Mickey Blake’s in Connecticut and Tobacco Plaza in New York.

Right on time with our recently begun semi-vertical tasting of ER’s, two new ones are coming down the pike:

The La Escepcion is being expanded with a second size, as an ER for Italy. It comes in a 5” x 48, and will retail for the equivalent of just over $16USD….but to get them you’ll have to go to Italy or know someone who is

There’s also a new French ER, in the form of the Quai d’Orsay Robusto Diplomatico. It’s also in a 5” x 48 vitola, will retail for just under a $14USD equivalent.

Victor Nicholas, of Chogui, announced this week that he’ll be adding another vitola to the Dos77 lineup – the “longsdale” at 6.5” x 46….same blend as the “rogusto,” and shipping in Jan/Feb 2016.

C.Gars Limited’s winter auction!

For reasons that aren’t all entirely clear to me, the FDA has reopened a comment period for their upcoming proposed regulations concerning cigars and other tobacco products. You can make your comments through December 30th…so get on it.

What Else We’ve Been Smoking

Craig

Warped La Colmena #36 – A slighter Laguito #2, this 6×36 is a powerhouse! It’s sharp & flavorful with lots of smoke production & a terrific draw. There’s a lot of marketing hype surrounding these but the cigar stands for itself. It’s In your face enough to please seasoned smokers but approachable enough to slyly make a newby green. I enjoy the mild sweetness in the first third and the blossoming depth as it progresses. A slight room aroma of pot was a distraction. This was the worst part of the experience for me.

Kip

Outlaw Cigars Gunslinger “Drifter” – another AJF produced stick…but I didn’t find it typical. You can pick out AJF’s signature here & there, but it was more sedate and lacked the “bite” that I often find in his blends. I really enjoyed it – lots of nuttiness throughout, earthiness in the middlegrounds. Flawless construction. Dig it.

Next Episode

In the next episode (132), we will be smoking the Bolivar Libertador ER Francia. So come by Friday night and hang out with us in the chatroom during the show. If you would like to contact us in the meantime, you can reach us via the Contact Page or 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.

Half Ashed Episode 114: Unbanded 024

May 25, 2015 By Kip Fisher

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Unbanded 024

A traditional 6.5″ x 42 Lonsdale vitola with a slightly green tinged claro wrapper and a simple triple cap. The wrapper appears “dry” and mildly toothy.

News

TL Johnson and La Tradicion Cubana have – from all outward appearances – parted ways amicably. This was announced by posts to both companies’ social media accounts. TL Johnson will additionally be opening a factory in the Dominican Republic to manufacture their own cigars and the Counsellor line that was announced this past year. They will also be providing manufacturing capacity for custom cigar production as the need arises.

Casa Fernandez and relative newcomer Warped have announced a new cigar to be released at this year’s IPCPR. The Futuro is being promoted as something “different” from what the two companies might normally offer…although with a Nicaraguan puro using most or all criollo and corojo from the late 90’s I’m not sure how much of a departure this will actually be for Casa Fernandez. I love AGANORSA, but it’s not exactly the most diverse profile in tobaccodom. It will be available in 2 vitolas – a 6×52 Futuro Seleccion 109 and Seleccion Suprema (5-⅝”x46). 400 boxes of 20 for each vitola will be made available at the show, with future production possible as well.

The numbers are in. The Cigar Association of America’s annual report (via Cigar Aficionado) for cigar importation into the US shows a pretty flat year in 2014. Both Dominican and Nicaraguan imports dropped, with a slightly larger Dominican reduction…but neither are significant. What’s interesting is the slowed import flattening for Nicaragua. You may remember a mere two years ago that Nicaragua was poised – at its then-current rate – to overtake the DR within a couple years. They’re holding strong at second place, only separated by a few million sticks…but the growth has stalled for the past year.

The L’Atelier Cote D’Or has begun shipping. It debuted to a soft launch a few months ago, but has begun showing up nationwide now. It’s a 7×47 soft pressed churchill (the only vitola), and has a production run of 2100 boxes of 10. It uses the Ecuadoran Sancti Spiritus wrapper (Same as the Seleccion Speciale from L’Atelier), over Nicaraguan internals. I picked up a few of these this week, and we’ll feature it soon on the show. It’s a bit of a step out for L’Atelier with its $15-ish price tag, as most of their lines fall in the typical “sweetspot” we so often talk about.

Erik Espinosa will be relaunching the Murcielago blend. Originally, this was an EO Brands line, produced by My Father. Through all the splits, Espinosa retained the rights to the name, and says he thinks he has reverse engineering the blend to be the original. The only blend details are a Mexican San Andres wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and fillers. Pricing has not yet been announced…and I’m more than a little piqued at how this blend will be and how it will compare to the original….since it was made by My Father at a time when they used AGANORSA tobacco. I’d like to know the details of how they have reconstructed it. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be a dead match. It just seems bold to declare an exact match.

What Else We’ve Been Smoking

Craig

Pipe tobacco!

CAO Midnight Ride

Margate

Kip

Asylum Insidious – Ec CT over Honduran fillers; made at CLE’s El Aladino factory. Might not have tried this one had I known its makeup…but I’m glad I did. The sweetness provided a nice surprise, with only some bitter notes toward the very end. With a 6”x52 going for about $4, it’s a win in my book. I’d not resist having a few around, but it wouldn’t be a frequently smoked stick for me.

On Dale’s recommendation, I gave the Camacho Triple Maduro another try. Why do I keep doing that?!? Tight draw, wonky burn – which, in unison, created a weird “solvent” kind of flavor I didn’t care for. Made it about ⅓ of the way through the robusto. Still not my cup o’ tea…although it once was.

Next Episode

In the next episode (115), we will have special guest Bob McDuffee. Kip and Bob will be smoking the Ashton Symmetry. So come by Friday night and hang out with us in the chatroom during the show. If you would like to contact us in the meantime, you can reach us via the Contact Page or 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 [email protected] if you have something you’d like to send in. I will provide an address to send them. Thanks!

Half Ashed Episode 094: Special Blind Mans Puff Guest

December 9, 2014 By Kip Fisher

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Welcome to Episode 094 of Half Ashed! This week, the vacationing Craig has been secretly replaced by special guest Aaron Loomis of Blind Mans Puff. We had a few minutes to talk about the fantastic job those guys are doing over on their site, as well as some interesting recent collaborations with us and other cigar media members. Be sure you check out the Blind Mans Puff website to get the latest in their unique style of collaborative review.

Aaron was smoking a Nomad C-276 as his chosen CotW, and I selected a 2013 La Flor Dominicana Mysterio (now known as TCFKA M….check out the show to find out why). Both cigars performed admirably during the show, so tune in to get our notes throughout. After spending the first few minutes talking about BMP, we hit a few news items – including stories from Viaje, Casa Fernandez, Espinosa, and La Flor Dominicana. We also gave some indepth coverage to a legislative item that deserves more press than it has received this past week – the fact that some folks in our nation’s capital have sent a letter to FDA requesting a change to the proposed regulating date in their restrictions on the cigar/e-cigarette market. This sounds good on the surface, but has an aspect that concerns me greatly. I don’t think we can dismiss it as simple good news for our hobby.

Finally, we gave a bit more time that might be customary for what we’ve been smoking. This was due, in part, to an overlap in our recent cigar escapades – and that we had mixed feelings about a couple of them. Finally, I wrapped up with a reminder that we would likely be doing another Pipe Show some time in January. The first attempt at it was well received, and we have gotten a good deal of positive feedback…so we’re going to run with it as a quarterly (ish) feature.

In the next episode we will be featuring an Unbanded stick, 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. The Unbanded segments are always a good way to find us humbling ourselves. 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 091: Tatuaje Belle Encre Reserva

November 19, 2014 By Kip Fisher

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Welcome back for another fun-filled, exciting episode of Half Ashed! This marks the 91st episode of the show, and features the Tatuaje Belle Encre Reserva as our Cigar of the Week. The cigar was one of Kip’s selections, and he described it thusly:

The Tatuaje Belle Encre Reserva was a limited run of the Belle Encre (5 ⅜” x 48 perfecto), featuring a CT Broadleaf wrapper rather than the Ecuadoran Habano found on the standard line. It’s packed with the same internal components as the regular line (Nicaraguan throughout). This was released early this year as part of the 10th Anniversary product lineup from Tatuaje, and features the 10th Anniversary band. The standard Habano-wrapped version will continue, although the Reserva was limited, and may or may not see the light of day once again. These retailed at ~$11/stick, which was about $1 more per cigar than the standard line. Total production was just under 2000 boxes of 22 (just shy of 44k cigars). I did a brief comparison of the two back in May 2014.

In the news, we covered items from Smoke Inn’s Microblend Series, Casa Fernandez, Villiger, and Davidoff. Legislatively, there were stories from Nebraska and Massachusetts. As always, we wrapped up with what we’ve been smoking, talked through the ongoing upgrades to Half Ashed and covered a listener email from Ian Winchester.

In the next episode we will be featuring one of Kip’s favorites, the My Father #4 Lancero. 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 084: Bolivar Regentes

October 1, 2014 By Kip Fisher

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Welcome to Episode 084 of Half Ashed, featuring one of Craigs faves as our Cigar of the Week. Of that cigar, Craig says:

My favorite small cigar. These earthy and mildly sweet stick packs a lot of fun into its 34×4-⅞”. Sadly, it has been discontinued for over a decade but the remaining box I have still exhibits some of the characteristics these had when young. At less than 10 years old these were the cigar equivilent of chocolate and mushrooms. That sounds to be an odd combination but it worked so well. So much so, in fact, that once I tried making a savory chocolate cake with sauteed mushrooms within. It didn’t work so well…
Today, these cigars are a shadow of what they once were and only provide an “enjoyable” 30 minutes. No longer the flavor bombs of yesterday, it is my hope that they will continue to evolve and perhaps reveal a subtle complexity of flavors in the future. If no longer bold, than perhaps one day they’ll shine for another reason. The tobacco quality was consistently excellent in over 6 boxes that I’ve personally gone through.

We have news stories from Oliva, Sam Leccia (that’s a biggie!), Hechicera, Casa Fernandez, and Cigar Dojo. We also take care of some housekeeping items, what we’ve been smoking and cover a listener email that we’ve put off for far too long….

Next week, we will be featuring “The Collective” from Cigar Federation 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 from 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!

Half Ashed Episode 077: Casa Fernandez 35th

August 13, 2014 By Kip Fisher

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I apologize for the terribly late post this week, everyone. I had a family funeral to attend that required some travel to Tennessee. So, we’ll have TWO episodes post this week. First up is Ep 077, featuring the Casa Fernandez 35th Aniversario. Tune in to hear Craig reneg on every negative thing he’s ever had to say about CF.

In the news, we had a couple of industry personnel shake-ups to talk over, as well as stories from My Father, The Cigarmy (pipe reviews are live!), and CAO. As always, we also covered what we’ve been smoking, and listener email.

Next episode will feature Bob McDuffee as our special guest – he sits in with Craig for Episode 078. So be sure to check in on the next download (as this show is now 2 weeks old at time of this post). You can catch us live at halfashed.com and participate in the chatroom every Friday night at 9:30pm EST. 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), or find us on iTunes to subscribe. Video, as always, will be available at the CigFed Half Ashed Video Archive.

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!

Cigar News: Casa Fernandez Arsenio Serie Oro

July 8, 2014 By Kip Fisher

Rumors and rumblings have been circulating for a bit about a new Casa Fernandez cigar set for release after IPCPR 2014, but I have just this week [Read more…]

Blessed Leaf to release a new cigar: Kairos

March 24, 2014 By Kip Fisher

[NOTE: I’m a little late with this, and we talked about it at length on last week’s Half Ashed, but here’s a new cigar headed down the pike that I think you ought to check out….

March 13, 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kyle Hoover and Chris Kelly, the leaders of BlessedLeaf.com, a Christian cigar-based ministry, announce the release of the long anticipated Blessed Leaf Kairos.

“This is a project that has been in our hearts for over a year. Our vision was to produce a great cigar with vintage tobaccos and have the proceeds go to ministry and missions efforts.” noted Kyle Hoover.

“For this project, we went back to our roots: Nicaraguan tobacco This is a Nicaraguan puro in the Ezra Zion genre of blending. Since we are doing this for The Lord, it had to be the best work we could possibly do ” added Chris Kelly.

The Blessed Leaf Kairos is a 52 x 6.25 box press. The wrapper is Corojo 99 Rosado. The ﬁller includes ligeros from Esteli and Jalapa. Total production is 4000 cigars of 100 boxes and 5 packs.

The Blessed Leaf Kairos is produced at the Casa Fernandez factory in Miami, Florida.

“We chose the name Kairos because of it’s unique meaning to this project. Kairos is deﬁned as a speciﬁc moment in time when the Divine intervenes directly into your life. To us, there is a duel application. Obviously, as a person smokes the cigar they will have a “heavenly” smoking experience. Secondly, that the support raised for Christian missions will impact people’s lives with the gospel of Christ.” added Hoover.

The Blessed Leaf Kairos will be available for pre-order on BlessedLeaf.com and CigarFederation.com. The ofﬁcial launch herf will be on April 2 on BlessedLeaf.com.

Half Ashed Episode 042: Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro

November 24, 2013 By Kip Fisher

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Hello everyone and welcome back to Half Ashed for our 42nd episode. This week, we had a last minute scheduling change and weren’t able to have our scheduled guest from Casa Fernandez. Nonetheless, we carried onward and smoked the Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Maduro. In the news we discussed stories from Smoke Inn (upcoming Microblend Series), nicotine-free e-cigars (!), a couple legislative items, a new European market Oliva, and the Camacho Blackout. We also covered “what we’ve been smoking,” some corollary topics, and reviewed some recent listener emails (thanks; keep ’em coming).

Next week, our Cigar of the Week will be the Gran Habano Corojo #5 (Original Release). Be sure to check back in next Friday night at 9:30pm EST at Cigar Federation (details on locating the show will be on the front page that evening an hour before showtime), 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 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. 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), or find us on iTunes to subscribe. Video, as always, will be available at the CigFed Half Ashed Video Archive.

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!