corona | Half Ashed

Half Ashed Episode 113: Davidoff Nicaragua

May 20, 2015 By Kip Fisher

Davidoff Nicaragua Short Corona

I’m joined this week by longtime friend of the show and former Dogwatch Cigar Radio cohost Dale Roush. A huge thanks to Dale for sitting in with me and catching up. We’re smoking the Davidoff Nicaragua Short Corona, a 3.75″ x 46 beauty featuring a 10 year old Habano seed Rosado wrapper, and Nicaraguan binder/fillers. This line debuted in summer of 2013, and retails for about $9.90 depending on local tax situation. Tune in to get our thoughts on the cigar, as well as a chance to see what Dale has been up to and a bit of cigar news!

News

In a topic we talked briefly about last week as an outlying possibility for a developing trend, Camacho has announced their contribution to the world of barrel-aged cigars. The Camacho American Barrel Aged will feature bourbon barrel-aged corojo as a core component. It will also come with a 5-year old American broadleaf wrapper. In fact, it almost exclusively utilizes American grown tobacco, including the broadleaf wrapper, binder and filler – including a maduro filler tobacco from Pennsylvania. A single leaf of six year old bourbon barrel aged Corojo was added to the recipe. They are promoting a national event tour to launch the line, beginning in Orlando June 8th and ending up at Tampa Humidor December 19th. It will be shipping June 15th and retail for $10-12 per cigar. I posted a story about it on the website with full tour schedule.

United Cigar, who we’ve spoken of several times in the past 2 months, is partnering with Selected Tobacco to extend the Byron line by two vitolas. Both cigars are the largest Byron vitolas to date, and as a result each blend is tweaked a bit with a higher priming to maintain the strength and flavor required to match the larger ring gauge format. The packaging has also been revamped and will include individual humitubes with the cigars. MSRP has been set at a whopping $33 a stick. Here are the details on the cigars. See full story posted earlier.

The Serie Siglo XIX, was blended by Nelson Alfonso with a goal of best representing Cuban Cigars of the 19th Century is now available in a 6 x 56, known as the Grand Poemas.

The Serie Siglo XX – also blended by Nelson Alfonso – aims at representing Cuban Cigars of the 20th Century, and is also available in a 6 x 56 format known as Habanero.

A few weeks ago we reported on an upcoming event-only offering from Crowned Heads…just as an update, the name has changed from “Snake Oil” to “Blood Medicine.” Turns out, Kendall Culbertson of Outlaw Cigar Co. owns the trademark for Snake Oil. So, to maintain the peace, the Crowned Heads folks opted to just change the name. Other details remain the same: it’s a 5.5” x 48 “super corona”; Ecuador Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan binder and filler. It will not be available for stand-alone purchase, and will come through event special purchases.

The still-recovering Skip Martin is closing in on shipping the much-anticipated release of RoMa Craft’s Neanderthal this upcoming week. The line carries a Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Connecticut broadleaf binder and fillers that include tobacco from Condega, Estelí, Jalapa and Pueblo Nuevo from Nicaragua; Dominican olor ligero and Pennsylvania “Green River Sucker One” double ligero. The line will be distributed initially in a single 5” x 52/58 vitola, but will also include extensions soon. A shop exclusive/event 4.25” x 52 vitola will also be available soon for Riverside Cigar Shop in Indiana and Serious Cigars in TX. These two sizes will retail for $12 and $9 respectively.

While cruising the social media nether regions today, I noticed an article halfwheel posted up that they’d found in the Cañon City Daily Record from Dale’s home state of Colorado. It appears some folks in Cañon City CO are shooting for a ban on outdoor smoking in the Central Business District of the city. The claim is that smokers spilling out of buildings (due to an indoor ban) are giving the area an inconvenient image. Councilman James Characky, Jr. said. “I want to create an image of healthy, vibrant people, not an image of cigarette smoking, beer drinkers.” The mayor has proposed limiting the ban to Main Street alone, rather than the entire district.

What Else We’ve Been Smoking

Dale

Man O” War Armada War Horse
Black Market Vandal Toro
Camacho Triple Maduro Robusto

Kip

A peculiar Tramp Stamp – Wrapper: Habano Ecuador, Binder: Nicaraguan, Filler: Nicaraguan

Next Episode

Next episode (114) we will be featuring the Unbanded #024 from zedman. So come by Half Ashed Friday night at 9:30pm EST 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 send [email protected] if you have something you’d like to send in. I will provide an address to send them. Thanks!

Half Ashed Episode 087: Don Pepin Garcia Blue

October 24, 2014 By Kip Fisher

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Good day everyone! I hope the week finds you doing well. Welcome to Half Ashed Episode 087, featuring the Don Pepin Garcia Blue Exquisito (corona gorda; 5-5/8″ x 46). This was one of my (Kip) suggestions, and my brief summation was:

For a time, this was my favorite vitola in the DPG Blue lineup. Nowadays, I strongly prefer the robusto or lancero in the line. Constant, but not overbearing spice is a fixture with this blend. The other vitolas have markedly sweeter dispositions. This one is pleasant in its own right, but has more of a savory bent to it. The DPG Blue comes in no less than NINE vitolas, so you have a big range to choose from. The only blend specifications known are that it’s a Nicaraguan puro with corojo wrapper. For whatever reason, I find wildly varying pricing for these. Tonight’s selection can be found anywhere from $6-8 locally.

In the news, we had items from Alec Bradley, IPCPR, a PSA for all costumers out there, further updates on the Cigar – Half Ashed migration, and a good bit of news for some of the displaced Torano salesforce. As always, we covered several cigars we’ve enjoyed this past week and hit a few ratholes along the way.

In the next episode we will be featuring our first “semi-pipe” show, 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 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 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!

Episode 013: 2005 Padron Aniversario

May 4, 2013 By Kip Fisher

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2005 Padron Aniversario

Hello again, and welcome back for Half Ashed Episode 013. This week’s episode features the 2005 Padron Aniversario 1964 natural corona as our Cigar of the Week. This cigar, one with which I am not overly familiar in the natural wrapper, turned out to be a phenomenal smoke. These were graciously furnished by Craig, and I was entirely impressed, to say the least. Tune in to get our combined thoughts about how this stick has held up during the past 8 years. I will also be posting an Epilogue review within the next couple of days. Once posted, this will be linked below. Following is a brief summary of some show topics.

Industry News

The American Association for Cancer Research has come out in opposition to the current CRA-endorsed legislation and has issued a letter to every member of the House & Senate stating such. This is not surprising, but some of the numbers given in that letter were (to me, anyway). We talk a little about some of the information in this letter, and some conclusions from it.

CRA promotion through The Cigarmy – We gave a reminder of this ongoing promotion here on The Cigarmy – check that out and let me know when you join up or renew.

We also covered a number of announcements for new cigars, as well as our thoughts about limited, event-only cigars that have been subsequently released into regular production….and a few other items in cigar news recently.

What Else Have We Been Smoking?

Craig: Padrons!

Kip: Partagas Series D #4, Torano Exodus 50 Years, The Tatuaje culebra from the Old Man & The “C,” a fellow Cigar Federation member’s efforts at rolling his own cigars, and a fantastic 2009 Oliva Serie V Diadema.

Miscellany

We cover several listener emails this week, including some follow ups to recent discussions on one gentleman’s discomfort from his cigars and more coffee recommendations.

Wrap

Next week, we’ll have the Ezra Zion crew as special guests, and be taking a look at their new Limited Edition TANTRUM. That will be a LIVE show, broadcast at 9pm Eastern on Cigar Federation (complete with live chatroom so you can interact with the guys and ask any questions you may have for them), so be sure to tune in to find out how that goes. The following week, we will have another special guest – William Cooper (Cigar_Coop) to get his insights into the industry, how it’s going, where it’s going, and generally pick his brain and see what we can learn.

Again, thanks for tuning in, and be sure to check back next week for an exciting Episode 014. 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.

Some quick middle-of-the-night IPCPR observations and new offering from Benitez Cigars

August 4, 2012 By Kip Fisher

IPCPR 2012. What an incredible experience thusfar. Over the next week or two, I’ll be posting up lots of information on several new cigars/lines/companies that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at the show. The boutique makers are coming on strong right now…a phenomena that I welcome (selfishly). The sheer volume of great cigars coming into the marketplace is impressive, and it’s a wonderful time to be a cigar enthusiast. It seems (in my eyes) to be a bit of a boom in that there are lots of new consumers coming into the hobby, and many quality cigars there to greet them. It’s a more favorable situation than the boom of the ’90s. During that time, when demand outpaced production many makers released cigars into the market that simply were not suitable for consumption – whether that be because of rushed production, improperly prepared tobacco (due to time constraints), or simply not taking the time to develop a blend enough to make it sustainable longterm. Today, in comparison, the market has become so competitive that a newly introduced line of cigars that isn’t ready simply doesn’t survive. That’s a boon to us as consumers, I think. I’ve had the opportunity to sample a few new/new to me cigars recently, and overall I see a majority of them being very good to great sticks. Earlier today, I was able to spend some time speaking with one of the newer folks coming onto the scene – Reynold Benitez of Benitez Cigars. He filled me in on some of the changes going on with Benitez blends, and new offerings (I’ll be posting those details in an upcoming review). He has a new corona, which he graciously allowed me to sample. Having a couple of hours to rest before heading back out to Corona for the evening’s festivities, I fired it up while hanging out around the pool and tuning in to Dogwatch Cigar Radio (forgive the terrible picture, it was taken on a phone by someone who has no idea what he’s doing). I have tried Benitez cigars before, and thought they were quality smokes. The earlier blends didn’t necessarily fall directly into the sweetspot for my palate, although I did enjoy them. They were quite bold and spicy – I enjoy spice and pepper in a cigar, but have to be prepared for it with a solid constitution – I’m not a nicotine fiend that can smoke potent cigars on an empty stomach. After finishing the new corona, however, I am thoroughly impressed with it. The initial puffs produced some spice, and a slight burn through the nose upon retrohale. But within minutes, it had settled in nicely. The nasal burn dissipated and it developed into a nice, rich tobacco flavor. I won’t drag this out into a full review, but suffice it to say I loved the blend. It was on the fuller end of the medium range in terms of strength to my tastes, but quite full flavored. The blend works very well in this size – and the care invested in creating it is apparent. It is quite polished and well assembled. I think you’ll definitely be hearing more about Benitez cigars. I will certainly be buying some more of these the next time I pass through Charmed Leaf…and expect a review or two to follow around here. Anyway, it’s now after 1:30 a.m., and I need to get some sleep. It’s another big day tomorrow on the showfloor. G’night, folks