NOVEMBER / DECEMBER
2019
Back Black in
featuring Espinosa p. 58
20
yrs of
Acid p. 49
RC6
Maker's Mark's newest
Expression p. 71
Behind the wheel at
DAYTONA p. 39
with
NESTOR
MIRANDA p. 96
IT’S TIME TO FIRE UP THE GRILL, BREAK OUT THE BREWS AND LIGHT UP A BOLD ONE. IT’S GAME TIME. LET’S DO THIS. JOIN TEAM CAMACHO ON INSTAGRAM FOR BOLD CIGAR EXPERIENCES TO DOMINATE YOUR NEXT ‘GATE. AS A SIGNING BONUS, YOU COULD WIN A TRIP TO THE OFFICIAL BIG GAME TAILGATE AT OUR HOME FIELD, CAMP CAMACHO IN HONDURAS.
#CAMACHOTAILGATEDOMINATION
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LANCERO 7 x 38 24 BOX 6 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
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editorials NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
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PERFECT PAIRINGS 26 ARCHETYPE AXIS MUNDI / ARCHETYPE FATAL REFLECTION 28 CASA CUBA / CIGAR CITY HUMIDOR SERIES IPA 46 CAIN DAYTONA / SMOKEY & THE BANDIT COCKTAIL
32
GIFT GUIDE
39
BEHIND THE WHEEL
49
ACID 20 YEARS
71
MAKER’S MARK
96
Q&A NESTOR MIRANDA AND JASON WOOD
We’re highlighting some of the coolest gadgets, cigar gear and other toys that have been sent to us for review. If you don’t find gift ideas here, it’s only because you’re buying this stuff for yourself.
Head to Daytona Beach for a racing-themed Autograph Collection hotel and one of the most exhilarating driving experiences you’ll ever have.
ACID is a lot of things to a lot of people. No matter where you stand on Drew Estate’s infused brand, there’s no denying that it’s a juggernaut in the cigar market. And with the ACID 20, they’re working to win converts among traditional cigar smokers.
A company that’s die-hard about commitment to its recipe uses stave finishing to open new possibilities for its iconic bourbon.
Miami Cigar is turning 30, and they’re celebrating, in part, with a cigar that pays tribute to one of Nestor Miranda’s lifelong passions.
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features NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
16
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
20
FEEDBACK
22
WHAT’S BURNIN’
58
SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB
77
RATINGS
BACK IN BLACK
100
TWITTER SCOREBOARD
102
EVENT COVERAGE 102 DAVIDOFF CHEF’S EDITION AT PER SE 104 NEPTUNE’S 20-YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY 106 ROCKY MOUNTAIN CIGAR FESTIVAL 108 DAVIDOFF DINNER AT SABOR HAVANA 110 CASA CUEVAS AT MASTER’S CIGARS 112 22ND ANNUAL SMOKIN’ BLUES BBQ – TWIN SMOKE SHOP 114 BREW CITY CIGAR FESTIVAL 116 DAVIDOFF CARS AND CIGARS 118 WASHINGTON CIGAR & SPIRITS FESTIVAL 120 MEGA HERF 122 CAMACHO AT THE WHARF
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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
VO L . 11 IS SU E 6 www.cigarsnobmag.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Erik Calviño SENIOR EDITOR Nicolás Antonio Jiménez COPY EDITOR Michael LaRocca SALES & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Oscar M. Calviño PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Ivan Ocampo ART DIRECTOR Andy Astencio ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jamilet Calviño DIGITAL RETOUCHING SPECIALIST Ramón Santana DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER Gianni D’Alerta CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS David Benoliel Andy Astencio EVENT PHOTOGRAPHERS Jamilet Calviño Keisha Kochanowski Victoria Hunt Ari Shapiro EsperConsulting Cover Photography by David Benoliel www.davidbenolielphotography.com Cover Model - Zienna Sonne Wiliams Cigar Snob is published bi-monthly by Lockstock Publications, Inc. 1421-1 SW 107th Ave., #253 Miami, FL 33174-2509 Tel: 1 (786) 423-1015 Cigar Snob is a registered trademark of Lockstock Publications, Inc., all rights reserved. Reproduction in part or full without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. Cigar Snob is printed in the U.S. Contents copyright 2006, Lockstock Publications, Inc. To subscribe, visit www.cigarsnobmag.com
(SUBSCRIBE TODAY) - Only $18 for one Year (six issues) of -
- Magazine delivered to you Visit: www.cigarsnobmag.com or write: subscribe@cigarsnobmag.com
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It’s a mad, mad world out there, ladies and gents. Our collective sense of community and overall civility is at dangerously low levels. I’m not saying anything earth-shattering here. We’ve all seen it in traffic, on social media, and in casual interactions where people treat each other in horrible ways. I’m even seeing it more than ever in schools. Kids have been mean since the beginning of time. There was probably a little caveman kid who was given a loincloth wedgie on a daily basis. When I was a teenager, friction usually led to a fight and stuff was generally resolved. Kids who had previously tried to beat the snot out of each other would sometimes end up as best friends. But in today’s “more civilized” world of bullying prevention, the kid who’s being mean goes on unchecked. The kid who’s being harassed has no choice but to tell the teacher, who then tells the jerk to stop it and the cycle continues. In other words, there is no actual, physical repercussion for the mean kid’s actions and worse, the kid being harassed is forced to live a miserable existence. No one wants to get in trouble for fighting because it could end up being reported and affect his participation in the school’s sports teams or honor society. The knucklehead goes through all of his school years unchecked and unchallenged, so he thinks it’s OK. By the time he’s old enough to walk into a cigar shop and hang out with us, he’s likely to be a grade-A asshole. Bad behavior has to be checked. The more we get away from this very natural and effective, albeit ugly, part of life, the closer we move to a dystopian existence. That sounds a little extreme, but all I’m saying is that the more you remove us from the ugly realities of life, the more you remove us from being human. The ugly parts are what make the good parts possible. If it wasn’t that a beautiful, brand new human being was entering the world, the act of childbirth is itself not a pretty sight. There’s blood, pain, screaming, more blood, maybe a couple of choice words yelled at a frightened, nervous husband. But then the child is born and there is nothing but pure love, a love so great and unconditional that it genuinely takes your breath away. If you keep trying to remove the ugly realities from life, where will it stop? On a more immediate and pressing front, make an effort to be kind to a stranger. I’m not talking about going out of your way to buy a stranger a breakfast sandwich, although if I’m the stranger on the receiving end of the sandwich I would be extremely thankful and would pay it forward. I’m talking about a simple act of kindness like letting one car merge into your lane in traffic without a fight. Even just saying good morning to the other person on the elevator when you walk into it tomorrow morning. But, listen ... the breakfast sandwich idea is not a bad one either. This last issue of the year is upon us and it’s a good one! I sent Nick
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to Daytona to get behind the wheel of a real NASCAR stock car and take it around the world-famous speedway a few times (pg 39). I hope he enjoyed it. I’ve kicked myself several times about giving away that assignment! On the flip side I was privileged to take part in Davidoff’s Chef ’s Edition dinner at Per Se in New York (pg 102). One word: outrageous. I can’t really complain because I also took a trip to Loretto, Kentucky to rekindle an old love affair with Maker’s Mark bourbon (pg 71). Speaking of falling in love, please check out our photo shoot with the beautiful Zienna titled Back in Black featuring Espinosa Laranja Escuro (pg 58). Finally, Nick wrote an interesting piece about ACID Cigars as they turn 20 (pg 49). Enjoy what is left of 2019. Remember to be kind to one another, to look more at what makes us similar than what makes us different, and share a breakfast sandwich with someone!
Keep ‘em lit,
Erik Calviño ecalvino@cigarsnobmag.com
A stellar Brazilian Stalk-Cut Maduro wrapper, rich in texture, complements an enticing blend of diverse well-aged northern Nicaraguan fillers and Connecticut broadleaf binder. This medium bodied, full flavored smoke is lush and earthy with balanced layers of naturally sweet fragrant spice, rewarding aficionados with a satisfying cigar smoking experience that in a word, is Perfeição!
“As Master Blender of Drew Estate, this selection of cigars reflect on the personal journey I’ve embarked on to craft blends to satisfy my tastes, my curiosities, and above all else – my creative passion for blending cigars that I’m humbled to share with you.” - Willy Herrera. Follow me on Instagram @herreraesteli and learn more about the journey we share together.
THE REBIR TH OF CIGARS L A GRAN FABRICA DREW ESTATE ESTELI, NICARAGUA
WWW.DRE WE S TATE.COM
HERRER A E S TELI BR A ZILIAN S TALKCU T MADURO HERRER A E S TELI BR A ZILIAN S TALKCU T MADURO HERRER A E S TELI BR A ZILIAN S TALKCU T MADURO HERRER A E S TELI
Brazilian Dream
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LET ME TELL YOU ONE THING... I’m a cigar shop GM. Love the podcast and had all my tobacconists listen to the Benji Menendez interview! AWESOME!
Alexander Martinez Woodbridge, NJ Thanks for the feedback! That interview was a great one and we’re glad that tobacconists are benefitting from our having caught just a sliver of Benji’s wisdom on the podcast.
WALL OF FAME I want to thank you for helping spread the word about the positive aspects of cigar culture and for promoting the rights of those of us who responsibly enjoy premium sticks (while flipping through the latest edition of Cigar Snob magazine, of course). My cigar buddy, Carman, and I live in a jurisdiction where, unfortunately, there are few options when it comes to enjoying a fine cigar. So, I converted part of my detached garage (a.k.a. Clubhouse) into a cigar corner. Along with paintings, tin signs, boxes and cigar paraphernalia, I staple the bands from every cigar we enjoy to the wall as a permanent catalogue of past smokes! Love your publication, including format and diversity of features. Keep up the great work. Gotta get some kind of Cigar Snob bling to incorporate into cigar corner to make it perfect!
David D., Nova Scotia, Canada (I’m on the right) Wow! That is a serious home lounge set up you’ve got there! Can’t say that we have anything that cool set up at Cigar Snob HQ, but we’ll get working on it. Thanks for the feedback on the magazine and for letting us know that you’ve been enjoying the magazine while exercising your rights — at least to the extent that the nannies will allow. Here in the States, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that there are smokers in other countries who are just as frustrated with government encrouachment on their enjoyment of cigars. We’ll be in touch about what kind of swag we might be able to hook you up with for that wall.
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ERNESTO PEREZ-CARRILLO
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VILLIGER CUELLAR BLACK FOREST
which first appeared in 2015, will be made available only through Drew Diplomat retailers at a price of $217.96 for a box of 15. “The Norteño Edicion Limitada is a killer stick bro,” said Drew Estate master blender Willy Herrera in a press release. “At all of my events consumers come up and ask when it is coming back. I am happy to say this limited release will satisfy some of the demand, but they better grab them quick before they disappear.”
Villiger Cigars announced the release of the Villiger Cuellar Black Forest. An extension of the Villiger Cuellar Connecticut Kreme line, Black Forest is made at Jochy Blanco’s Tabacalera Palma in the Dominican Republic and features a maduro wrapper. The name of the cigar is a reference to the Black Forest in the south of Germany. Villiger Chairman Heinrich Villiger grew up near the Black Forest.
The Norteño Edicion Limitada features tobaccos from the Estelí and Jalapa growing regions of Nicaragua, along with a Honduran binder and Mexican San Andrés wrapper.
TOSCANO GARIBALDI
HERRERA ESTELI NORTEÑO EDICION LIMITADA
Toscano has announced the release of the Garibaldi in the United States. It’s named for Giuseppe Garibaldi, “the Hero of the Two Worlds,” a military general, Italian Nationalist, and smoker of Toscano cigars. The cigar is made at the Toscano factory in Tuscany and “captures the sweet aromas of our natural tobacco and wood while maintaining subtle notes of spice and toasted nuts,” according to a press release. The blend comprises tobaccos from Italy and Kentucky. Garibaldi will be available in 5-packs at a retail price of $18.95.
GRIMALKIN SEASONAL EDITION Drew Estate announced today the limited release of the Herrera Esteli Norteño Edicion Limitada Churchill. The 7 x 48 cigar,
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BLACK LABEL TRADING COMPANY ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF SANTA MUERTE Black Label Trading Company’s Santa Muerte has been released. The cigar is made at the company’s Fabrica Oveja Negra in Estelí. “We have gone out of the box with Santa Muerte. It features Broadleaf, San Andres, Dominican and Nicaraguan tobacco among the 6 filler tobaccos. You experience layer upon layer of coffee, malt, spice and cocoa. As the name suggests, there is a Day of the Dead tribute to honor those we have lost,” said James Brown, creator of BLTC and partner at Fabrica Oveja Negra, in a press release. The cigar features an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Ecuadorian Habano binder, and fillers from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the United States. It’s available in Corona Gorda (5½ x 48) and Short Robusto (4¾ x 52). Both retail for $10.
“We very much look forward to releasing the Villiger Cuellar Black Forest, as it marries Caribbean artisan tobacco craftmanship with German/Swiss folklore, culture, and mysticism. Both our passion for tobacco and the Villiger culture are represented in this cigar,” Heinrich said in a press release. The Villiger Cuellar Black Forest is being made in four vitolas: a 5 x 48 Robusto, a 6 x 54 Toro Gordo, a 7 x 50 Churchill, and a 6¼ x 52 Torpedo. They range in price from $7.80 to $8.40 per cigar.
Grimalkin Seasonal Limited Edition, a Nicaraguan puro, will be available in limited quantities at select retailers. It’s a 5 x 50 Robusto packaged in 25-count boxes with an MSRP of $9.75 per cigar.
Emilio Cigars announced the release of the Grimalkin Seasonal Edition. The cigar is manufactured at Fabrica Oveja Negra in Estelí.
DITKA & JAWS CIGARS WITH THE STARS PARTY The Ditka & Jaws Cigars with the Stars Party will be held Thursday, January 30, 2020 in Miami. The event will feature cigars from the industry’s top brands, Scotch, football celebrities, and a silent auction. The annual event is where Ron Jaworski and Mike Ditka bring friends and smokers together to raise funds for Jaws Youth Playbook, which focuses on improving the overall health and wellness of at-risk youth, primarily in the Greater Philadelphia Region, and the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, whose mission is to assist dire need retired NFL players who were pioneers of the game and who have greatly contributed to the NFL’s status as the most popular sport in America. Learn more about the event and buy tickets at ditkajawscigars.com.
“An opulent and delicious limited edition Nicaraguan Puro.”
“A bold, rich expression of well-aged Nicaraguan and Dominican tobaccos.”
THE 2019 TIMELESS & EPOCA LIMITED EDITION TOROS Available for only a limited time. 1.800.MY.CIGAR
www.natshermanintl.com
Site limited to smokers 21 years of age or older. WARNING: Smoking cigars regularly poses risks of cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx and esophagus similar to smoking cigarettes. ©2019 NAT SHERMAN INTERNATIONAL, LLC NSI557
SABOR HAVANA’S SMOKE THIS! Sabor Havana’s annual Smoke This! Event will be held at the Doral, Fla. tobacconist December 7, 2019 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.; a “pre event” dinner the night before called “Cigars Under the Stars” will be catered by Ruth’s Chris Steak House and will feature cigars paired with The Macallan and a showcase of specially selected wines by Mega Wine & Spirits. The main event will be set up at Sabor Havana and a giant tent right outside the shop. The blowout event features wine, spirits, and food from Sushi Sake, Divieto Italian Cuisine, Christy’s Coral Gables, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse Coral Gables, Diced, Chef Paella, Mega Wine & Spirits, Breakthru, Brown Forman, Republic National Distributors, Zafra Rum and many others. Cigar makers represented at the event will include Arturo Fuente, Villiger, Dav-
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idoff, My Father, Rocky Patel, Miami Cigar, Perdomo, Oliva, C.L.E., Espinosa, Altadis, HVC, Plasencia, La Flor Dominicana, Casa Fernandez, AJ Fernandez, Gurkha, Ashton, Drew Estate, EPC, Lords of England, and El Galan. Get more information and purchase tickets at saborhavanacigars.com.
PROCIGAR FESTIVAL 2020
Registration for the 2020 ProCigar Festival in the Dominican Republic is now open. The event kicks off in Casa de Campo February 16 to 18. Guests there will enjoy some time on the country’s most pristine beaches,
a visit to Tabacalera de García, and special dinners featuring premium Dominican cigars. The rest of the event takes place in the cigar making hub of Santiago de los Caballeros. Guests will take part in factory and farm tours led by some of their favorite cigar makers, access to new and unreleased cigars, lunches with industry gurus, seminars and workshops, dinner parties, and a whole bunch of Dominican beer and rum. ProCigar provides all the meals and transportation, so all you need to worry about is getting yourself there. The event is the best way to get up close and personal with not only your favorite cigar makers, but with the farmers, rollers, and facilities behind the Dominican stogies you love. It’s also a great way to learn more about the broader Dominican culture that surrounds the cigar industry there. Learn more and register at procigar.org.
Archetype Axis Mundi Archetype Brewing Fatal Reflection
As an internationally distributed publication, we’ve drawn the attention of numerous companies who send us their newest products for our gift guides and reviews. Aside from thousands of cigars and hundreds of cigar accessories, we’ve also received everything from guitars to watches, and even a kegerator. Add Archetype Brewing out of Asheville, NC to the list of companies who have gotten in on the fun. They sent in two bottles of their Archetype Fatal Reflection. The beer is a saison that comes in at an uncharacteristically high 9.2% ABV. The style comes from Belgian farmers who traditionally brewed these “farmhouse ales” during the wintertime, typically with low alcohol levels. They were then stored and enjoyed during the warmer summer months as a refreshing beverage for seasonal workers or “saissoners.” That’s what traditional saisons were about, but in today’s uber-creative beer landscape, brewers like Archetype are doing some exciting things with saisons. The Fatal Reflection is brewed, then aged for 20 months in French oak red wine barrels. They then re-ferment the beer — hence the high alcohol — but they do so with sweet raspberries as the fermentable sugar! Brilliant! For the cigar, we had a decision to make. Do we try to find a cigar that complements the flavors of this funky saison or do we match the beer up with a cigar where the branding lines up perfectly? It would have been a shame to pass up a pairing of Archetype beer with an Archetype cigar, so we went for it. We knew the beer was full bodied, so we had to choose an Archetype cigar that could stand up. We went with the Archetype Axis Mundi. The Archetype Axis Mundi is owned and distributed by Ventura Cigar Company, but it is manufactured at La Gran Fabrica Drew Estate in Estelí, Nicaragua.
THE PAIRING The beer pours into a beautiful hazy pale red color contrasted by the white head with a slightly pink hue. The nose is amazing. It’s what you imagine a raspberry saison should smell like but combined with a boozy red wine barrel. You will wish you could bottle this aroma and smell it every day. The flavors of yeast, hops, and wheat are balanced by plenty of mouth-watering fruity and sour notes. The raspberry finish is what puts this beer on another level. It starts as a continuation of the fruity sourness but closes out as raspberries at the peak of ripeness. Incredibly, the Axis Mundi finds the parts of your palate that were not being stimulated and wakes them up. It delivers tons of dark chocolate, earth, and just enough pepper to balance it all out. LOCATION: Nave (navemiami.com)
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Casa Cuba Cigar City Brewing Humidor Series IPA Back in the dark ages of Florida’s craft beer scene, the mid-2000s, while states like Colorado were knee-deep in excellent beer from the likes of New Belgium, Avery Brewing, and Oskar Blues Brewing, Florida-brewed craft beers were few and far between. That was until 2009 when Joey Redner, the son of Tampa’s legendary strip club owner Joe Redner, founded Cigar City Brewery and effectively opened the proverbial Florida brewery floodgates. For obvious reasons Cigar Snob Magazine has had a love affair with Cigar City Brewing since its inception. We’ve happily featured Cigar City on our pages on more than half a dozen occasions and even enlisted Cigar City to pour Jai-Alai IPA at our famous Cigar Marathon events. So when we ran into Cigar City’s Alex Calante at Galiano Cigar Room in Coral Gables recently and he said, “You have to try the Humidor Series IPA. I can send you some samples!” we caved. That sort of arm-twisting always gets us. Few brands represent their place of origin as proudly and profoundly as Arturo Fuente. In 1912 Arturo Fuente founded A. Fuente & Company at 24 years of age. The company opened its first factory in West Tampa, eventually moving to Ybor City, then opening a factory in Nicaragua, which burned down during the Sandinista rebellion of 1978, and eventually opening in the Dominican Republic. But in spite of opening factories and finding success in other countries, the Tampa and Ybor City roots run deep. In 2016, part of 2nd Avenue in Ybor City was named Carlos Fuente’s Way. When we were choosing which Fuente brand we wanted to pair with the Cigar City Humidor Series IPA, we wanted a blend that could stand up to the IPA’s strong citrus notes without overpowering them. But we also wanted one where the aroma of cedar played a starring role. We chose Casa Cuba, which coincidentally is the least Fuente-looking brand in their portfolio. The blend for Casa Cuba was the final blend created by Carlos Fuente himself. He loved the flavor profile and balanced nature of the cigars made in Cuba and Ybor City at the turn of the century and this blend was his homage to those cigars.
THE PAIRING The vitola that we used in the pairing was the Divine Inspiration; this 6 1/8 x 47 is smooth and creamy with beautifully balanced flavors of cedar, spice, and a touch of cinnamon. The beer on the other hand delivers tons of citrus and sweet hop flavors. The intensities are evenly matched allowing each a chance to shine but what truly brings harmony to the pairing is the subtle note of cedar in the beer. They are almost imperceptible when had separately, but when you take a draw of the cigar followed by a sip of the beer, the name “Humidor Series” really starts to make sense. LOCATION: Nave (navemiami.com)
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WE’RE TAKING THE GUESSWORK OUT OF YOUR HOLIDAY GIFT SHOPPING WITH THIS GUIDE TO SOME OF THE COOLEST, MOST IMPRESSIVE PRODUCTS THAT HAVE MADE THEIR WAY TO CIGAR SNOB HQ FOR TESTING. FROM WATCHES TO HEADPHONES TO AIR PURIFIERS FOR A HOME CIGAR LOUNGE, WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED.
GIFT GUIDE
SKYROAM SOLIS X skyroam.com
$179.99 CASIO EDIFICE EFS-S550 SOLAR POWERED CHRONOGRAPH edifice.casio.com
$200 “Solar-powered” is a bit of a misnomer here. Casio’s solar-powered Edifice watches can actually be charged even with exposure to fluorescent light! The EFS-S550 in particular brings some racing cred along with it, as it was developed in tandem with the Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 pit crew. The super-tough, scratch resistant sapphire crystal and the anti-reverse bezel are the perfect combination of rugged good looks and precision timekeeping.
PSB M4U 8 HEADPHONES psbspeakers.com
$399
ORANGEWOOD MORGAN MAHOGANY LIVE GUITAR orangewoodguitars.com
$275 It’s an accessible, handsome guitar that’s attractive enough to display, simple enough in its design to appeal to most anyone. Featuring a solid mahogany top and a Pau Ferro fretboard with black binding, this beauty produces rich, natural tones acoustically or amplified with the built-in Fishman EQ. It will keep everyone at your cigar lounge talking about how good you sounded when you played for them. Maybe they’re just being nice, but still.
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Why should wires get in the way when you’re listening to music or movies or — if you’re smart — the Cigar Snob Podcast? With noise canceling and the very latest in Bluetooth tech and the M4U 8’s RoomFeel technology, you’ll get a layer of lush realism to your audio, whether you’re listening to thundering bass, a Stradivarius, or Ivan’s famous horn on podcast.
Connect up to 10 devices at once to this global 4G LTE WiFi hotspot to get Internet access in more than 130 countries. Pay $9 for a day of unlimited data, $9 for a month with a 1GB cap, or $99 for a month of unlimited access. You can also use the Solis X as a battery pack to charge your devices.
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GIFT GUIDE
VERTIGO HADES TABLE LIGHTER lotuslighters.com
$25 We’ve been using this lighter for months now at Cigar Snob, and it’s become one of our favorites. The gas tank is huge, the flame size is easy to adjust, and it fits in the hand far more comfortably than most tabletop lighters. The ignition button can be turned to either keep the flame on or lock the button from being pressed for safety.
SHARP FP-F50UW HEPA AIR PURIFIER WITH PLASMACLUSTER ION TECHNOLOGY sharpusa.com
$329 Ideal for small rooms, this purifier will reduce pollen, dust, pet dander, germs, bacteria, viruses, odors, mold, fungus, and yes, smoke. It’s highly energy efficient and can be set to turn on when it detects impurities (i.e., when you light your cigar). We tested it at the office and confirmed that it does, indeed, detect smoke just moments after our first puffs.
HF MELAMINE GRID ASHTRAY hfbarcelona.com
$19.99 There’s nothing quite as frustrating as being midway through a cigar in your backyard and having a gust of wind come through, rolling your cigar onto the ground and your ash into your drink and food. This design was made to prevent just that, and the melamine material will stand up to the elements, so you can leave this thing out as your permanent deck or porch ashtray.
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NEWAIR 400 COUNT CIGAR HUMIDOR, CLIMATE CONTROLLED WITH OPTI-TEMP newair.com
$549 Keeping your cigars at the right humidity is usually pretty straightforward. Maintaining the optimal temperature, on the other hand, isn’t always so simple. This humidor — with adjustable Spanish cedar shelves and a digital thermostat — includes heating and cooling features, ensuring you can store cigars safely for years, even in climates that aren’t always friendly to stogies.
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GIFT GUIDE
SQUARE OFF GRAND KINGDOM CHESS SET squareoffnow.com
$449 You wouldn’t think there was this much tech in a gorgeous rosewood board, but there is. Play against the board’s AI or against any other player using a Square Off board anywhere in the world. When your opponent (AI or human) makes a move, their pieces will automatically move across your board. When the game is over, the pieces reset themselves. Welcome to the future. And also phase one of the robot takeover.
BUZZ BALL TABLE buzzballtable.com
$149.99 Remember that game you used to play as a kid where you’d fold a piece of paper into a thick triangle and flick it across a table into someone’s finger-and-thumb goalposts? Well, now that game has been kicked up a notch by Buzz Ball. All that nostalgia comes together in a folding table that has a gridiron and goalposts on it, so you never have to worry about whose hands are bigger or whether your buddy is moving the target. Touchdowns work just like you remember, except now there are turnover obstacles on the field.
MOTOROLA TALKABOUT T800 motorolasolutions.com $109.99 (pack of two) Two-way radios have come a long way! The Talkabout T800 allows you to share your location with your travel companions via an app and a Bluetooth connection to your cell phone. And even when you’re not getting any cellular service, you can still connect with others who are in range of the T800 by transmitting text messages over those radio waves. This thing has a data range of 20 miles and a voice range of 35 miles.
DINO BBQ RUB AND SAUCE Bringing these two ingredients from a Syracuse-based barbecue restaurant brand into your pantry. dinosaurbarbque.com BIG ACTION SPICE RUB
$4.50 (5.5 oz) An easy way to take your barbecue to the next level, this blend of sweet, savory and spicy notes works great for practically any protein and even vegetables. SENSUOUS SLATHERING SAUCE
$4.50 (19 oz) With an excellent balance of vinegar, sweetness and spice, this sauce is especially great slathered on your grilled chicken. Chunks of vegetables bring texture to the otherwise thin sauce as well.
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GET IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT OF A STOCK CAR ON ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST LEGENDARY TRACKS, THEN KICK BACK IN A DAYTONA BEACH HOTEL THAT’S LOADED WITH RACING HISTORY. BY NICOLÁS ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ
he Daytona Hotel It takes about four hours to drive from Miami to Daytona Beach. More like four and a half or five if you need to stop for lunch or a bathroom break or both. Those four hours or so behind the wheel of a car — even one like the four-cylinder SUV-ish vehicle I drive, which others at Cigar Snob have dubbed “Turbo Mom” — take on a different tone when you know that you’re not only on your way to one of America’s racing capitals, but that you’ll also be spending a little time in a bona fide stock car on the track at Daytona International Speedway. At least it did when I made that trip myself in October. Days before this drive, I filled out some forms and signed a waiver — a waiver I did not read. When a scheduling conflict kept our publisher Erik Calviño from being able to take on this task, it fell to me. The Daytona Hotel had reached out to invite one of us to stay at their property and try out the NASCAR Racing Experience. So it fell on me to head to Daytona and see all this for myself. Despite having been born and raised in Florida, I’d never been to Daytona, so this would all be new to me.
way toward the coast, it’s not long before you hit Daytona International Speedway on the south side of the road. To the north is One Daytona, the shopping and dining complex that houses The Daytona, an Autograph Collection hotel. The hotel doesn’t tower much higher than other buildings in the complex, but it is designed to stand out. Its simple rectangular profile with bold accents cutting across the building are evocative of the building at the center of the speedway’s stands that houses concessions and box suites, among other things. It’s bold, attention-grabbing and in-line with the racing thing without feeling corny or kitschy. The same can be said for the interior of the hotel. When you arrive in the lobby, you’re greeted by designs and decor that leave no room for confusion; you are in a racing-themed hotel. But it’s all executed in such a way that it feels like it’s more museum than theme park, a well-executed celebration of one of this town’s claims to fame rather than a phoned-in take on an obvious gimmick.
Miami has its beaches, but it’s not a beach town. Daytona Beach is like so many beach towns in Florida — flat, hot, slow, with wide roads that all seem to lead to the ocean, where the sand draws a healthy mix of tourist families packed into rental cars and locals with varying degrees of experience as beach bums. Some have developed a fluorescent skin tone after years of joining those tourists in their off time.
The lobby of the hotel comprises three main areas: reception, a bar and a restaurant. The reception area is minimalist, with a couple of reception desks standing freely near the edge of an open area that serves primarily as a display for the first vehicle you’ll encounter on this floor. In my case, it was NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin’s #11 Camry. The car is parked under a giant, slow-spinning sculpture designed to look like a hubcap.
Daytona Beach’s main artery is International Speedway Boulevard. When you get off the highway and make your
The lobby area isn’t all that big, but they manage to fit in several other replica vehicles without making it all feel crowded. For
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instance, there’s the Bluebird, which Sir Malcolm Campbell used to set five land speed records in the 1920s and 1930s. And then a car that even the most casual racing observers would recognize: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s #88 Axalta Chevy SS. Against a wall opposite the reception desk, along a long stretch of large windows, there’s a bar called Blue Flame. It’s named for the rocket-powered vehicle Gary Gabelich used to set a land speed record on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in 1970. I wouldn’t advise you make plans to set any speed records of your own after stopping here, though. The sleek bar has 16 craft beers on tap and a menu of racing-inspired cocktails, many of which feature Sugarland’s Shine (the official moonshine of NASCAR). One of those cocktails, the Smokey & The Bandit, is featured in one of our Perfect Pairings. Half of the bar’s seating is indoors, giving you a view of One Daytona. The other half is out on a secondfloor patio, where you can enjoy a cigar (although you’ll have to bring your own) either at the bar or at any of the other patio seating. At the center of the bar, taps and shelving for spirits sit in three large cylinders designed to look like piston heads. This is a great place to lounge and even take in the live music that often plays at the center of the complex’s main plaza. Before I really settled in, I spent some time at and around the bar taking pictures of the cocktail and Cain Daytona that you see on that Perfect Pairing page. Once my shutter finger was tired (I made sure we had plenty of options since I’m not really the photo expert around here and wanted to minimize the odds that I came back to Cigar Snob effectively empty-handed), I lit the cigar and kicked back with the cocktail, getting to know a couple of the racing fan tourists who’d settled into their bar stools while I was in photographer mode. Especially considering that the hotel doesn’t have cigars of its own for sale, it was a pleasant surprise that when I asked my bartender for an ashtray, what I got was a bona fide cigar ashtray. It’s a small thing, but anybody who’s ever been stuck trying to balance a cigar on the rim of a smaller cigarette ashtray knows how much this helps your enjoyment of a cigar — and even your cocktail. Not all the rooms here do, but my third-floor room had a balcony of its own with either end of the balcony shut off by a tall wall, so I was able to sit out there with a cigar and a drink each night of my stay — all with a view — and not worry about whether the wind would be too
harsh or whether someone in the neighboring room would give me grief about the smell. I had cigars on the brain, so that was the first thing I noticed. But there’s a lot more to the room than that. The layout isn’t anything off the wall or out of the ordinary, but closer examination shows you just how much attention was paid to the
The Daytona’s reception area is dominated by one of the lobby’s several race cars and a sculpture designed to resemble a wheel, which spins slowly in a recessed portion of the ceiling.
details here. They sweat the small stuff, from automotive-inspired upholstery to the notepad that’s playfully designed to look like a stack of speeding tickets. Behind the bed, a textured wallpaper mimics the look of your headboard sitting in a wind tunnel for aerodynamics testing (although this might be the last place you want to shave time off your laps). There’s also a minibar stocked not only with snacks, but also more interesting hooch than you typically find in a hotel room like this. There’s Stillhouse Bourbon (in an oil can rather than a bottle), a couple of small jars of that Sugarland’s Shine, ginger beer, a glass-bottled Coke, and some cocktail recipes to help you figure out how to put those pieces together. Just in case, there’s also a bottle of red wine. I left the minibar intact, though, opting instead to take a walk around One Daytona. The hotel’s dining options are few, but that’s because it’s practically adjacent to all sorts of options, like Copperline Coffee, Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, and MidiCi Italian Kitchen. The main event in terms of One Daytona Dining, though, is at The Daytona Hotel’s lobby restaurant, Sir Malcolm. It’s billed as having been “inspired by Sir Malcolm Campbell, the famous British racing motorist.” If I’m being honest, I’m not sure I get it. Sir Malcolm was a Brit. The food is primarily
American. And, to my knowledge, he didn’t have a side gig as a cook. But you know what? Who cared? There’s a cool motorcycle at the center of the room and I’ll swallow a bit of marketing if it comes with a great meal. There’s a lot to choose from here, and the portions are big. I didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I went along with a suggestion that I eat an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. It started with the hot & cold Brussels sprout Caesar, a bowl of Brussels sprouts done two ways. In one half of the bowl, they’re flash-fried with herbs and citrus. The other half is served cold, in the style of a Caesar salad, with dressing and parmesan. If I’d polished that off, it would have filled me up. Instead, I left room for the Harris Ranch bone-in filet mignon, served with carrots and a moonshine-braised mushroom demi-glace. It was visually striking and delicious, and the cut was thick enough that I was able to appreciate the steak even through all that rich, bold moonshine mushroom sauce. This was the one dish I made sure to finish; no filet has ever crossed me and lived to tell about it. Before waddling back to Blue Flame for a nightcap, I was convinced by a waitress to try the Kentucky brown butter cake. Alternating layers of vanilla cake and chocolate ganache and topped with caramelized apple and Sugarland Moonshine maple bacon caramel. It was great, but probably would have been more enjoyable for someone with much more of a sweet tooth than me; that maple bacon caramel is intense. If I were back there again, I might opt for the butterscotch moonshine creme brulee with seasonal berries. I’d enjoyed the meal, but I’d also weighed myself down. I went to bed hoping to digest everything quickly. I didn’t need any steak and cake weighing me down the next morning at the speedway.
Shake and bake My orientation at Daytona International Speedway started at 10 a.m., which left me plenty of time to get up, shower and have coffee. I decided against eating breakfast since I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the experience. Besides, I was still feeling the massive meal I’d had the night before at Sir Malcolm. I made my way to the front desk where reception staff arranged for a shuttle to get me across the street to the Speedway with my camera and Boosted Board in tow.
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A word about the Boosted Board for anyone who isn’t aware. Boosted is a popular brand of electric skateboard. Each of the two back wheels is powered by its own belt motor. Specifically, I own a Boosted Stealth, which is a longboard that tops out at 24 mph. I, a 32-year-
around the track would stay dreams. On days when they’re doing this Racing Experience thing, there are up to eight stock cars on the track at any one time. I didn’t want any part of that. So I started to ride the board around other parts of the facility, just to get photos of the stands,
a release. This is how you press it in order to remove the steering wheel. In the event of an emergency, you will need to remove the steering wheel in order to get out of your car. Emergencies? I look around the room. Nobody else seems fazed by this. It turns out I’m the only person here who’s not really a racing fan. In fact, some of these people have been through this experience multiple times at other NASCAR-affiliated tracks around the country. This is a Hans device. The Hans device is a carbon fiber yoke-looking thing that connects to your helmet, comes down over your shoulders and then just a bit over your chest. It keeps your head from whipping around. Press here to release the five-point harness. That’s the seatbelt. Or rather, it’s a whole bunch of seatbelts in one. I’m starting to think I should have insisted on a bigger fire suit. There’s no chance I’ll be able to deal with a wedgie through that five-point thing. If you need to get out of the vehicle, pull here to release the window net.
The NASCAR Racing Experience puts you behind the wheel at Daytona International Speedway, one of the world’s most legendary tracks, playing host to the Daytona 500, among other NASCAR events.
old adult person who had never ridden a board of any kind in his life, purchased this absurd thing several months ago. As you might imagine, the board and I (along with the full-face mountain biking helmet I wear while I ride) have been the butts of many jokes at Cigar Snob. On episode 100 of the Cigar Snob Podcast, for instance, we spent some time talking about the fact that my shoulder was in a sling because I’d dislocated it falling off this board then rode another two miles with my shoulder out of the socket so I could have a family member pull it back into place. All of this after a few minutes of failed attempts to fix the problem by slamming my shoulder into things a la Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 2. My plan had been to, first, use the Boosted Board to get around the Speedway, making it easier to get photos from several angles without having to walk several miles around the facility, and, second, get permission from the Speedway people to take this thing for a lap around the track. You know, just for shits and giggles. It became immediately clear, though, that my dreams of riding an electric skateboard 42 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
I’ll be driving a bona fide racing stock car. There are no doors on this thing. fueling stations, and other Speedway features. That was cut short when security informed me that this sort of thing was not permitted. I would have to settle for just the car thing. When the time came, I walked to a building near pit road, where I’d join other drivers in an orientation for our driving time. One by one, we were eyeballed by staff who handed us fire suits in our size. They were batting close to a thousand in picking out jumpsuits that would fit us like gloves. It hadn’t crossed my mind until this moment that the day’s activity would call for a fire suit. Recall that Erik was supposed to be the one on this trip. Until he wasn’t, and I found myself filling out forms and signing a waiver. A waiver I did not read. That waiver might have made reference to the possibility of fire and the need for a fire suit. Who knows? The orientation was led by a driving instructor who came right out of the gate impressing upon us how important it was that we pay close attention to his presentation. Safety was paramount — as you might imagine — and this was information we absolutely needed in order to come out of the experience alive.
There is no passing on the turns. You may pass other drivers here, here and here. Wait a minute. I’m going to be passing people? There are RPM limiters on all of these vehicles, with the limit corresponding to the number of times each driver has done the Racing Experience before. As a rookie, I’ll be limited to about 4,500 RPMs, which means my car — if I do a good enough job at this — will hit a top speed of roughly 150 mph. And, at that speed, I’ll be passing people? They let people do this? This is insane. It’s getting hotter in this fire suit. The orientation goes on, transitions into a video that reiterates much of what our instructor said, and then we’re all up and walking to pit road. Just before we arrive at our cars, we come to a tent under which staff are finding us drivers helmets that fit right. “My head is really big,” I warn one of them.
Maybe that’s not what he said. But it’s what I heard. I did not read that waiver.
“We see all size heads around here,” he says. Then he places a cloth on my head — which I assume is just supposed to be the sanitary way to wear a communal helmet — and realizes I wasn’t messing around. “Oh yeah. Your head’s pretty big.”
This is a steering wheel. On the back, there is
He reaches for the biggest one they’ve got and
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slips it onto my head. Maybe there was more force than “slipping,” but you get the idea. It’s snug and I can feel the earpieces for the built-in communication unit. A piece of the helmet extends forward along my jawline so that a microphone sits right in front of my mouth. Throughout this process, I’ll be in communication with a spotter who’s watching the track from above me. One of the most important rules here: do not use your
Stillhouse Whiskey, which comes in these oil cans rather than bottles, is among the spirits featured at The Daytona Hotel.
rear-view mirror. Your spotter will tell you when to change lanes, when to pass and when other cars are coming up on you. Since I’m a rookie at this, other drivers with higher RPM limits will be passing me and I need to make sure I’m not in their way. I clumsily slide most of my body into the car. My head gets a little stuck, and between my lack of flexibility and the size of my dome, I begin to wonder whether I’ll ever make it into the seat, but I do. Another guy reaches into the car and begins to strap me in. It’s all becoming real now. Once I’m strapped in, I know I’m not going to be moving much until the whole thing is over, so I need to make sure I’m comfortable. “Give me a second. Do you mind?” I interrupt the dude before he can buckle me in. When his arms are out of the way, I grab the fire suit and my underwear in my fist and give it a good shake to make sure my junk is sitting in a comfortable position for the next eight minutes. “It’s really uncomfortable on the …” I struggle, nervous, to find the appropriate term here. “... on the peen.” I haven’t put my foot on the gas and I’m already messing this up. I doubt Dale Jr. ever announced the discomfort of his peen. “Hey, let me ask you a question,” I say as the steering wheel is being attached to the steering column. “I haven’t driven stick in more than 10 years. That gonna be an issue?” “You think you can do it?” 44 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
“I guess I’ll figure it out.” “OK then.” He walks away. OK then. This is insane. We’ve been told it’s important to get into fourth gear by the time we get to the end of pit road — a distance of roughly 1,200 feet — and hit the track. I was 19 when I bought my first manual transmission car. There was a learning curve; I spent a long time at stop signs and red lights where I stalled out, acting for the benefit of absolutely no one like I was having car trouble and not driver trouble. I got the hang of it eventually, but I’m worried, here on this legendary track, that I might be that guy who stalls out on pit road. But it all comes racing back. Muscle memory takes over and I manage to get into fourth by the time I’m on the track and staring down one of its 31-degree banking turns. During the orientation, we’re all told you’re supposed to ignore the impulse to take your foot off the gas on the turns. It’s only natural considering that, on the road, you’re supposed to slow down some. But these cars and the track itself, we’re told, are designed to handle these turns without the need for that deceleration. It’s a strange feeling, but it’s true. I do my best to fight my instinct and keep the car roaring at 4,500 RPMs as I make this turn. I can see that the car is tilted, but I hardly feel it. During turns, a pro driver can feel up to 3 Gs, meaning that the force of having the seat run up against your body makes a person who weighs 160 pounds feel like he weighs 480 pounds — and they’re feeling that for 500 miles in a race like the Daytona 500. I’m not anywhere near the speed of an actual NASCAR race, but I’m feeling at least some of that. I’m being sucked into the seat more than I’m being tilted in it. Besides, I’m strapped in pretty good. In my last two laps, when I finally feel like I’ve hit my stride, I come up on another rookie driver’s car. He’s a Brazilian tourist who speaks no English. I know he speaks no English because, when he was handed his fire suit, I overheard this exchange. “All right. Here’s your suit. Take off your shoes, put the suit on, and then put your shoes back on.” “I am a size 9.” I can’t be sure, but I have a feeling he missed a lot of the instructions we got about maintaining top speed and keeping a constant distance from the inside line, even through turns. Paolo (that’s what we’re calling him) was slowing down on
turns and allowing the turns to push him out near the center of the track, which made passing him difficult a lot of the time since I was also not supposed to drive too close to the outside wall. It’s understandable. This is a weird sensation the first time around. The spotter in my ear insists I’ll be able to pass Paolo halfway through my last lap. With the spotter’s go-ahead, I move to my right and pass Paolo. It was a simple move — one that I do multiple times daily on the highway. But being in a race car moving 150 miles an hour and not quite knowing how the other guy’s going to react, feeling the rumble of the car as you slip into a sort of tunnel vision … I would really love to read that waiver. Not long after I pass Paolo, the spotter instructs me to put the car in neutral. We’re going to coast into pit road from here. Lots of people have asked me what it was like. I tell them I was caga’o, as Cubans say. I was shitting myself. And I’d do it again and again. I wouldn’t even read the waiver. The experience gave me a new appreciation for not only what NASCAR drivers experience, but also for what draws NASCAR fans to this sport. Since that weekend, I’ve recommended the NASCAR Driving Experience to anyone I thought would even be remotely interested.
The wind down With all that adrenaline pumping, I needed to settle down some. So I headed to the P.F. Chang’s across from The Daytona Hotel, where it had been arranged for me to have lunch. I’d skipped breakfast and my eight-minute racing adventure had taken more out of me than I expected it would. I hopped back on the board and explored a bit more of One Daytona, then headed back to Blue Flame for a cigar and a cocktail before heading out to a local bar to watch a UFC fight. The next day was my last in Daytona Beach. Having never been here, I figured it would be a mistake not to actually visit the Beach. So before I started the drive to Miami, I took International Speedway Boulevard east, found some parking near the boardwalk and explored the beach area on my electric board, which made it easier to cover a lot of ground. This is a beach that’s built for families — with plenty of casual dining, amusements, and even stretches of sand where you’re able to pull your car almost right up to the water, eliminating the need to lug all your coolers and umbrellas long distances. A bit south of the boardwalk, there’s the Don KiKi Cigars Superstore, so you can pick up a beach smoke if you’ve already gone through your stash. Just like that, I was back on the road to Miami, resisting the temptation to test the limits of Turbo Mom.
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Cain Daytona Smokey & The Bandit cocktail PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLÁS ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ
During a recent visit to The Daytona Hotel in Daytona Beach, I spent a good amount of time at the hotel’s bar trying a number of their signature cocktails — many of them racing themed, as you might imagine. Aside from moonshines from Sugarlands distilling, Blue Flame, the bar at The Daytona’s lobby, is big on using Stillhouse Spirits (stillhouse.com) in cocktails. After the long drive from Miami to Daytona, I was in the mood for a drink from the get-go. I checked in with Chelsea, who was tending bar at the time, and she recommended I go with their Smokey & The Bandit, which is a twist on the classic Manhattan. Here’s what you’ll need: • • • • •
Brandied cherry 2 oz Stillhouse Black Bourbon 1 oz sweet vermouth 2 dashes angostura bitters 2 dashes black walnut bitters
Place one large ice cube in a rocks glass. Pour all the liquid ingredients into the glass, stir and garnish with a cherry. Simple enough! The last step, though, might prove a little tougher to replicate at home. At Blue Flame, Chelsea uses a cocktail smoker to infuse the cocktail with applewood smoke before serving. There are alternative methods you can try at home without using expensive equipment, but I’ll let you Google that stuff so you don’t blame me when you set your kitchen on fire. The drink is, as you might imagine, a smokier take on the Manhattan. But it’s also got a bitterness you might not expect because the Stillhouse Black Bourbon is mellowed with coffee beans. It’s a refreshing, well-balanced cocktail that’s big enough on flavor to stand up to practically any cigar.
THE PAIRING There was no way around it; we were always going to smoke Cain Daytona. The nut, cream, coffee and pepper of the Oliva-made cigar ran in parallel with the same notes in the Smokey & The Bandit. The bourbon and brandied cherry bring sweetness that plays nicely with the wood and spice of the cigar. A few sips in, the smoke in the cocktail will fade, and if you do use a large ice cube, it’ll be a while before you start to feel water changing the character of the cocktail, making this a pairing that evolves quickly at first, then slowly (if you can keep from polishing your glass off too quickly). LOCATION: The Daytona, Daytona Beach, Fla. (thedaytona.com)
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ASHTRAY: HF Barcelona Cinder (hfbarcelona.com)
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JANUARY 30, 2020 PARAMOUNT MIAMI WORLD CENTER Join Coach Mike Ditka and Ron “Jaws” Jaworski, along with NFL Legends for an evening of cigars, camaraderie and anticipation of the big game!
DITKAJAWSCIGARS.COM F O R $ 1 0 0 D I S C O U N T U S E C O D E:
CIGARSNOB Proceeds Benefit 48 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
TWENTY / PUSHING THE ENVELOPE / GROUNDBREAKING / COUNTERCULTURE / HANDMADE / NICARAGUAN / A CHANGEUP / INFUSED / UNWELCOME / ART / REFRESHING / NONTRADITIONAL / RICH / NEW YORK / DIVISIVE / SWEET / HONORING TRADITION / HIP-HOP / A GUILTY PLEASURE / DISRUPTIVE ... ACID CIGARS ARE MANY THINGS TO MANY PEOPLE. BUT 20 YEARS AFTER THE BRAND LAUNCHED, WHAT’S OBVIOUS IS THAT THE BRAND ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE. THIS IS OUR LOOK AT ONE OF THE MOST POLARIZING LONG-FILLER CIGAR BRANDS ON THE MARKET AND WHAT HAS HELPED IT ENDURE FOR TWO DECADES, EVEN AFTER SO MANY WERE BETTING AGAINST IT. BY NICOLÁS ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ
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t’s not easy to become one of the bigger players in an industry and stay cool. But that’s something that Drew Estate has managed to pull off pretty smoothly. Show up at any event related to the Miami-based cigar company and you’ll find a vibe and a cast of characters that’s unlike any you’ll encounter anywhere else in premium cigars. Cigar culture is often about tradition (typically Cuban), ritual, refinement and maturity. Drew Estate is New York, it’s gritty, it’s hip-hop, it’s graffiti. The company has always been about outside-the-box thinking. And in premium cigars, the smart money is never on outside-the-box thinking. None of Drew Estate’s brands better exemplifies that penchant for disruption than ACID. As a general rule, Cigar Snob doesn’t spend much time on non-traditional cigars like the infused ACID brand, but this is ACID’s twentieth year on the scene, and it seemed fitting to shift our attention to a product that’s been as polarizing as it is perennially successful. “ACID was created 20 years ago, in 1999,” said ACID brand manager Raphael Gros, “but its inception was actually a few years before. Jonathan Drew and Marvin Samel were trying to bring something new to the cigar industry at the time. The brand was born under the Manhattan Bridge, as we say, and they were trying to express the new vision, re-imagining the way we craft premium cigars and wanting to express a sense of freedom.” Much of the cigar industry was slow to accept Drew Estate when they were the new kids on the block. And some were 50 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
downright repulsed by the ACID idea. “It was born in New York as much as it was born in Nicaragua,” Raphael said. “New York has always been the city constantly in movement, reinventing itself, pushing boundaries and moving forward, always looking toward the future. And so I think that they tried to blend that New York feel with the best of the traditional craft of premium cigars.” Jonathan Drew lived in Estelí for years after getting production started there. Even after all that time in Nicaragua and, now, Miami, he’s unmistakably New York. Long nights in the factory — many spent sleeping in the factory — and a relentless pursuit of perfection led Drew Estate to seek the counsel of their tobacco elders, who eventually came to understand that this New York-born company wasn’t looking to dismantle tradition, but rather forge its own path while honoring and learning from the past. It’s one thing to do that with some funky branding; it’s another to have your new path be about infusion. So to the purists, the old heads (this seems like the brand story to use a term like that), that might be a harder sell. “The traditional people were telling Jonathan that it would never last,” Raphael said, “that this burn was going to die very quickly. They did not understand it. But the few shops that started to support it right away were very curious about the brands.” One of those early adopter tobacconists was James George, owner of the Fogue & Bates cigar shops in Tulsa. James got into cigar smoking in about 1991. His palate was trained during the cigar boom, with his first premium cigar being a
“THE TRADITIONAL PEOPLE WERE TELLING JONATHAN THAT IT WOULD NEVER LAST” — RAPHAEL GROS BRAND MANAGER
might have far more distance between them in profile than smokers were used to. Some of this stuff still gets in the way of some smokers seeing ACID as approachable. Over time, the brand has moved to using color to group their brands together. Still, while a smoker with some experience can take something meaningful from picking up a box and finding words like “Corojo” or “Belicoso” on the packaging, you need to have a little experience under your belt to understand what it means to smoke a Croqueta or an Extra Ordinary Larry.
looks like, it’s well guarded, and anybody who’s seen it in person is pretty tight-lipped about it.
“It wasn’t my thing,” he said. “It took a trip to visit Drew Estate in Nicaragua for me to kind of understand a little bit more about ACID, how big it really is, the flavor profile behind it and the passion that Drew Estate put into creating that brand. That they put a lot of thought, effort and energy into making a premium cigar that has a slight bend in the flavor profile. My biggest job on a daily basis is making sure that people don’t confuse that with quote-unquote ‘flavored’ cigars.”
“At the very beginning, lines had names like Juggernaut, Remi, and Cold Infusion,” said Raphael. Many of those original brand names are still a part of the ACID lineup, which comprises about three dozen blends. “So you had a really different feel and talk about herbal, oils, and infusions. We were also trying to educate people without being too descriptive. It was like Coca-Cola; Jonathan and Marvin didn’t want to disclose the recipe. And it was really a broad variety because from the start, I think it was almost like a tea approach. You could look for something more herbal, more floral.”
Chris Duque retired from the Honolulu Police Department in 2007. He was a vice cop for eight years, then worked in various detective roles through to his retirement. He’s been smoking cigars since the 80s. One of his first was a cigar he smoked on the job, when a mentor handed him a cigar and instructed him to light it up and take a few puffs before walking into a murder scene.
When ACID first launched, there were about 18 different blends in the portfolio. Even just that detail is unusual for a brand launch. Adding to the unconventional approach was the fact that vitolas didn’t carry traditional names, and different vitolas under the same ACID family
Communicating all that makes ACID special is complicated not only by naming conventions and flavors that break from norms, but also by the fact that the specifics of how Drew Estate achieves ACID’s unique flavors are pretty wellkept secrets. Whatever that “infusion” process
Macanudo Portofino. “The cigar industry was very different in those days,” James said. “Very stagnant, boring, kind of atrophying a little bit around the edges. The first trade show I went to was in the early nineties in Dallas. Our bathrooms right now at the PCA are much bigger than the ballroom where the trade show was held in those days.” When he discovered ACID at an IPCPR trade show, James says he didn’t “understand” the product. But his customers started to ask for it, so he brought it in and gave it a shot.
One of the biggest factors working in ACID’s favor, though, is the fact that — even if you strip away all that infusion stuff — the core of the product is a quality long-filler cigar. That’s why some smokers who tend to light up traditional cigars actually have ACIDs in their regular rotations. Even if they don’t always talk about their appreciation of ACID with the people at their neighborhood lounges.
“The body had been there for quite a bit. This thing was ripe!” Smoking the cigar was a trick to at least mask the pungent smell of the corpse. Everyone gave him shit about it for a while, Chris said. They’d say he couldn’t handle the body, but he insisted it was his lack of experience with cigars and the fact that he’d inhaled. All right, fine, he said. Maybe it was a bit of both. NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
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Whatever the cause, that crime scene visit didn’t go well. “I went out, I was dizzy, I was light-headed, and I tossed my cookies,” Chris said. It wasn’t until the next decade that Chris got serious about cigars as a hobby. Like James, he spent much of the 90s developing his palate. Then, while on a fishing trip, he was handed a flavored cigar (not ACID) and was intrigued. Once back home in Hawaii, he asked his tobacconist for recommendations and was handed an ACID Kuba Kuba. “I said, Oh yeah, this is it.” These days, Chris — who does consulting on issues related to cybercrime despite his being “retired” — says he smokes three to five cigars a day. In any given week, about four are ACID cigars. “I’m loving the ACID 20 and the Croqueta. If I’m riding around, it’s good for a quick half hour smoke. And the Blondies, that’s a great size. And the tins. I go through a tin a week,” Chris said. “Everybody knows I have a bad sweet tooth. The 20th blew my mind.”
“IT TOOK A TRIP TO VISIT DREW ESTATE IN NICARAGUA FOR ME TO KIND OF UNDERSTAND A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ACID, HOW BIG IT REALLY IS, THE FLAVOR PROFILE BEHIND IT AND THE PASSION THAT DREW ESTATE PUT INTO CREATING THAT BRAND.” — JAMES GEORGE
OWNER OF FOGUE AND BATES, TULSA
premium cigars. NOTE
Croquetas are 2.5 x 50 cigars, so named because they are roughly the shape of the croquettes that are so ubiquitous in Miami’s Cuban restaurants. Blondie is a Connecticut-wrapped 4 x 38. ACID’s tin-packaged product is a 4 x 32 called Krush.
“I’m one of the few people in Hawaii who enjoys smoking ACID,” Chris said. “We have a group and they bust my balls. If they smell ACID, they say, ‘Chris must be around here.’” Chris is a good example of a smoker who has ACID in his rotation, but still enjoys other traditional products. Aside from Drew Estate cigars like the Dirty Rat, he enjoys products from Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, Padrón, My Father, and Foundation Cigars. And yet, he still works an ACID into the lineup almost every day. It’s a similar story with Samuel “Shaggy” West. The Ormond Beach, Fla. resident has been smoking cigars ever since, about 16 years ago, his motorcycle friends started offering him stogies on their long rides between Ormond Beach and St. Augustine (Shaggy gave up cigarettes in 1999). At first, he was smoking Backwoods and other cigars common in convenience stores. Then a friend offered him a premium cigar (he says it might have been a Romeo y Julieta) and he started to explore
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“A coworker and I were chatting. He goes, ‘Why don’t you stop over here at this little shop around the corner for a cigar?’ So I went to a local shop called Big Smoke and had a cigar with him and met the owners, Vicky and Wes. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a pretty cool little place to sit back and hang out with people who smoke. This is pretty awesome.’” Shaggy’s coworker mentioned there was a Drew Estate event coming up at the shop. “I’ve always been a social person, so I’m like, ‘Sounds great.’ And that’s when I really became a fan of some Drew Estate brands. I’d had an ACID or two before then, but I really didn’t know what Drew Estate was.” At that event, Shaggy learned more about and developed a connection to the Drew Estate brand, including one ACID blend in particular. “The Kuba Kuba is such an easy smoke. It’s mild. It’s got that little bit of a sweet taste to it. I really enjoy that cigar,” Shaggy said. “To this day, when I’m around people and they’re not very big into smoking but want to try it, I tend to hand them a Kuba Kuba. At most, one person has said, “That wasn’t for me.” Shaggy was also drawn to the community aspect of cigar smoking.
“I’ve never been involved with something where I connected with people more because we love something so much than I have been with cigars. And I’ve been into a lot of different things in my life. Like I said, motorcycle riding, classic vans ... We’d take trips all over the state of Florida and sometimes out of state and have these big old rallies. With cigars it blows me away how people are with each other.” Guys like Chris and Shaggy are the best kinds of smoker ambassadors and superfans a company like Drew Estate could ask for. That Drew Estate is positioned to take a nontraditional product and fold it into the routines of brand fanatics who have a foot on either side of the traditionalinfusion line is probably a factor that helps make Drew Estate one of the best-selling brands on the market. “ACID has been a great brand for us,” said James, owner of Fogue & Bates, which has three locations in Tulsa. “I don’t understand when stores don’t carry ACID. It’s a huge part of our portfolio as far as what we sell. If you don’t have ACID, people will look elsewhere. That’s how loyal their customer base is to that brand. It’s kind of a quiet giant in the cigar world. If you’re in the business, you know how big ACID is. But at the same time, I’m always amazed about how much we order on a yearly basis.” What all that means at a national level is tough to say. At least in specific terms. “Kuba Kuba is the number-one SKU at the retail level, not just for Drew Estate, but for a lot of retailers. And, it’s the number one selling SKU in the U.S,” said Raphael, stressing that he couldn’t get into specifics about the production numbers for ACID. “What I can say is that we’re talking about millions of cigars.” Among the millions of ACIDs consumed each year are cigars that are lit by smokers like Chris and Shaggy – proof positive that loving traditional premium cigars doesn’t have to mean taking some hard line against infused products like ACID. “I had a conversation yesterday about ACID,” said James. “I was talking to someone who is a traditional Drew Estate smoker. He had been told to try ACID. I always tell people that if you’re [typically a smoker of traditional cigars], ACID is your changeup cigar. ACID is something that you go to when you want to break in the afternoon and you want something that is really amazingly easy to smoke. If you’ve already smoked two or three cigars that day and you just want something to break out of that pattern a little bit, ACID is the one. You’re not compromising anything. You’re gaining the opportunity to try
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some different flavor profiles. I don’t smoke it on a daily basis, but I’m always experimenting with some of the blends I have not tried in a while.” At the 2019 IPCPR trade show (which, for those of you readers who are not up on this inside baseball stuff, has been renamed “PCA”), the Cigar Snob team had a chance to sample the ACID 20. At the risk of stating something far too obvious, it’s the cigar that Drew Estate created to celebrate the ACID brand’s 20th birthday. “Next year, ACID is going to be 21,” said Raphael. “So I think the brand is now an adult. The brand is more mature. That’s what we tried to express with ACID 20. When we started to work on ACID 20 we saw immediately that we wanted to both reward the people that have been smoking ACID for so many years and also find what makes ACID ACID. It needed to have that extra taste, that sweetness and that super indulgent, rewarding moment. On the other hand, when a lot of people started the journey into [traditional] premium cigars, they started with ACID but they want to forget that. A lot of people point the finger at ACID and say, ‘Oh, my palate evolved. So no, I don’t smoke ACID anymore.’ And we wanted to also reach out to those and just bring them back to the brand and say, ‘Even if your palate evolved, ACID is also evolving.’”
“IT’S DEFINITELY GOT A DIFFERENT PROFILE AND I THINK IT’S GOING TO STAND OUT TO OTHER PEOPLE THAT MAY NOT TYPICALLY LIKE THE OTHER ACIDS.” — SAMUEL “SHAGGY” WEST ACID SMOKER
ACID 20’s dark, toothy Mexican San Andrés wrapper is at the heart of that message. Yes, you pick up the infusion – an herbal, floral, sweet layer that sits beside the cigar. But you also can’t help noticing as you smoke ACID 20 that, under the elements that the infusion adds to the experience, there’s a cigar that’s rich 54 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
and flavorful enough to stand up to plenty of traditional smokes on its own. Mind you, this is coming from me — and I’m generally no fan of infused products — not anyone at Drew Estate. I, like so many other people, wish I had more information about how Drew Estate achieves this in ACID. But as I mentioned earlier in this piece, the company is famously secretive about it. “That becomes a very touchy subject,” Raphael said. “One thing Jonathan told me was if you enter that room [where cigars are infused], you do not exit that room.” The process, whatever it might be, is clearly important to the success of the brand, and it only makes sense that Drew Estate would go to any length to keep those secrets out of the hands of their competition. “We always hear, ‘Oh, ACID is flavored.’ No. ACID is infused and people are always debating about that. I think there is a distinction. When you flavor something, for me, you’re trying to artificially hide the flavor of the tobacco. You’re trying to hide probably average to mediocre tobacco. When you infuse cigars, I think that you are thinking about the tobacco first because we are using the same premium quality that we’re using on all of our other cigars such as Undercrown.” Raphael added that he knew the Drew Estate team had hit on the right blend for ACID 20 when they started getting feedback from smokers of traditional cigars who were saying they could smoke ACID 20 every day. That also seems to be the experience that other, more seasoned ACID
Jonathan Drew overseeing production in Nicaragua in the early days of Drew Estate. The ACID brand, like everything Drew Estate, has been characterized by its roots in New York and Estelí from the very beginning.
smokers have had with ACID 20. “The ACID 20 blew me away. I like to smoke that with iced coffee. If I can get some nitro cold brew with sweet cream, that’s great with the ACID 20,” said Chris. “I’ve only had them a couple of times so far, but that cigar is absolutely amazing,” Shaggy said. “It’s hard to explain what’s different about that cigar. I’ve heard a couple of people who don’t care for the typical ACIDs say that they’ve tried the 20 and they were pleasantly surprised at how much they dig it. It’s definitely got a different profile and I think it’s going to stand out to other people that may not typically like the other ACIDs.” Twenty years after its birth, the secretive, edgy ACID brand is still a polarizing presence in retail humidors. And yet, even if smokers of traditional cigars never fully embrace the infused smokes, ACID is among the brands that continues to fuel one of the most creative forces in cigar culture. Maybe that’s the most significant thing about this milestone and the cigar the company has created to celebrate. At the beginning, nobody expected ACID would be here. And even after two decades of performance that nobody could argue with, these guys aren’t giving up on winning new converts and impacting the culture.
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Maker’s Mark recently made waves with a new nationwide limited release, the Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series
I took a trip to Loretto, Kentucky, home to the Maker’s Mark distillery to reconnect with an old favorite, understand a little more about stave finishing, and figure out what the heck RC6 means. By Erik Calviño
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more than endured, it’s been entrenched. The family’s slow and steady approach was aided greatly by the National Historic Landmark designation the distillery received in December of 1980. In fact, it was the first American distillery to be designated as such while still in active production. The company’s deep-seated responsibility to their loyal fans drives them to maintain the quality and consistency of the product, but as a national historic landmark, the company has a responsibility to keep the buildings and structures intact. It’s hard to fathom that all of the bottles of Maker’s that you’ve come across in bars and liquor stores all over the world come from this small setup, but they do, and the point is hammered home when you visit the distillery.
n the early days of my bourbon journey, Maker’s Mark was it for me. I’m talking about the late ‘90s when, as a technology consultant, I regularly found myself in a different town from week to week, with few to no friends or acquaintances in said town. I’d belly up to a bar in small town, USA — preferably a cigar bar but often just a lobby bar in a big chain hotel — and order a Maker’s neat. I loved it. Maker’s was my warm blanket on the road. That overly nostalgic but 100 percent true story is the stuff that lifelong brand loyalties are built upon. Then I moved to New York City for a long-term consulting assignment. New York is where I “grew up”; that’s where my taste in food, wine, and spirits developed and I dumped Maker’s and didn’t look back. So much so that since 2006 I have been the editor of this magazine and we’ve never as much as published a cigar pairing featuring Maker’s Mark. So much for lifelong loyalties and warm blankets. To be clear, that omission was not by design, I have no beef with Maker’s Mark or the fine people who produce it. It was more a case of “out of sight, out of mind.” Fast forward to August of this year, when I received an invite to visit Maker’s and be among the first to taste their new release. I was hesitant about how excited I could get about a brand I’d moved on from so long ago. Still I accepted the invite.
A brief history of Maker’s Mark Bill Samuels, Sr. bought Burks’ Distillery in October of 1953 and began distilling by 1954. Bill Sr.’s wife Margie Samuels is credited with naming the bourbon Maker’s Mark, hand drawing the label design, choosing the bottle shape, and even
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The Victorian-era stillhouse is five stories high on one side to accommodate the tall still. The site was designated a national historic landmark in December of 1980. [photo courtesy of Maker’s Mark] coming up with the iconic dipped red wax seal. The Samuels brought their bourbon to market in 1958 and, while Margie deserves all the credit in the marketing world for coming up with that timeless, distinctive, and highly effective packaging, it would have mattered not if the liquid inside didn’t live up to it. On that front, Bill Sr. was a pioneer and calculated risk-taker, burning his family’s tried and true 170-year-old bourbon recipe and replacing it with a re-imagined, premium bourbon recipe that put an emphasis on “front of tongue” flavors like sweet and spicy-sweet and eliminated bitter and sour “back of tongue” notes. Since the first square-ish bottles dipped in wax started coming off the bottling line in the late 1950s, Maker’s has continued to produce nothing but Maker’s Mark from its relatively small operation. I say “relatively small” because as you drive up and down the Bourbon Trail you pass countless distilleries bearing household names, and each one seems bigger than the last. Maker’s sits on a sprawling plot of land in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. In fact, you have to go way out of your way to find it. With all of this space and the company’s double-digit growth for close to 40 years, an argument to scale up the operation could have been made almost on a yearly basis but that’s not the Maker’s way. If the proposed expansion plan in any way threatened the quality or consistency of the juice, it was unceremoniously thrown out. Most impressive is the fact that the company has gone through multiple acquisitions and this culture of never compromising quality has
Bill Samuels, Sr., founder of Maker’s Mark, set out to make better tasting bourbon by concentrating on “front of the palate” flavors. [photo courtesy of Maker’s Mark]
Today, Maker’s Mark is owned by Beam Suntory, the global spirits giant based in Chicago with such brands as Jim Beam, Yamazaki, Laphroaig, Knob Creek, and Courvoisier in the portfolio. But it didn’t feel that way when I interacted with the distillery’s staff; there’s a level of autonomy and empowerment that I have not seen from other companies with a similar structure. Unlike the automatons that I’ve encountered in other large distillers, I got the sense that this staff still worked in a family-owned distillery answering to the old man himself. The distillery takes in over 100,000 visitors each year. With the new visitor’s center, which was under construction during my visit, the plan is to accommodate over 150,000 per year after completion.
Legacy building Bill Samuels, Jr. had been the head of Maker’s Mark for 33 years. His priority from day one was,
ten-stave combination among five stave types; the Maker’s 46 stave, Seared French Cuvée, Roasted French Mocha, Toasted French Spice, and Baked American Pure 2. Each imparts a different characteristic so customers are given sample whiskies from each, and with the help of the staff they come up with their own blend. If you’ve ever been to Corona Cigar Company in Orlando, Florida you’ve likely seen their Maker’s Mark Private Select being poured at the bar. “They were one of our first Private Select partners and they were such nice people,” offered Jane Bowie. Jeff and Tanya Borysiewicz had obviously made an impression on Jane. They’d visited Maker’s to take part in the Private Select program in 2016 and here we were in August of 2019 and Jane was still carrying around a Florida Sun Grown branded Yeti gifted to her by Jeff and Tanya.
Over 100,000 visitors take tours through the working distillery each year. They get to see fermentation, distillation, and maturation before dipping their own bottle in hot red wax. [photo courtesy of Maker’s Mark]
in his words, “not to screw it up.” And he had done far better than not screwing it up; he’d grown the business from a locally distributed product to a global brand while never compromising quality. He’d navigated the acquisition of the company and somehow managed to maintain the distillery’s small-town, family-owned culture throughout. But as he was getting ready to hand over the reins of Maker’s Mark to his son Rob Samuels, he came to the troubling realization that he didn’t want his tombstone to read, “Bill Samuels Jr. – he didn’t screw it up.” He wanted to leave a legacy — the kind you could drink. If this were any other distiller, the conversation around a new legacy product would start with the mash bill, the combination of grains that will be cooked, then fermented, and eventually distilled. But not in this case. There is only one thing that comes out of this distillery since its inception: Maker’s Mark. And remember that any initiative that even remotely risks an impact on Maker’s legendary consistency would be dismissed with extreme prejudice, legacy product or otherwise. The same goes for the yeast strain that’s used in the fermentation process. No changes allowed there either. That leaves the maturation phase as the only part of the process with some wiggle room to play, sort of. As it is, Maker’s Mark struggles mightily to keep up with an ever-increasing demand so every barrel of Maker’s that you allocate to an experimental new product is one less barrel that will be sold as Maker’s Mark. With that risk in mind, Bill Jr. worked with then master distiller Kevin Smith and assistant master distiller Denny Potter and set out to create a product that is still 100 percent bourbon, but had enough flavor difference to deliver a wow factor. Simply put, the new bourbon needed to have
cranked up front of the palate flavors, still taste like Maker’s, and have a long finish. The team enlisted the help of Brad Boswell of Independent Stave Company, the cooperage that provides Maker’s Mark with their barrels, and they experimented tirelessly to achieve this holy grail of bourbon. Through science, creativity, a tremendous amount of perseverance, and perhaps even a bit of luck, they pulled it off. For the final product they took ten staves of French white oak that had been aging (or seasoning) for 18 months, seared them in an infrared oven, and inserted them inside a barrel of fully matured Maker’s Mark for about 9 weeks. It sounds straightforward and maybe even obvious when you read it in a summarized manner, but the fact is that to my knowledge no one else was doing this in the bourbon industry. “We tried about 122 wood experiments,” says Jane Bowie, director of the Maker’s Private Select & Diplomat program. “It was big barrels, small barrels, chips, towers, staves, cubes, you name it we tried it.” The resulting spirit, called Maker’s Mark 46 (released in 2010), was the first new product in the 57 years of the distillery. Maker’s 46 did more than exceed every taste and sales expectation that Bill Jr. and the team had for it. His quest for a legacy product to “put on his tombstone” introduced a new dimension for naturally enhancing the flavor of bourbon.
Your own personal Maker’s It didn’t take another 57 years after the success of Maker’s Mark 46 and the stave finishing process to inspire new ideas. So under the leadership of Rob Samuels, the Private Select program was launched in 2015 to let retail and restaurant partners come up with their own stave combinations and personalize their own barrel of Maker’s Mark Private Select. If you recall, Maker’s 46 employs ten infrared seared French white oak staves, but in Private Select, participants get to create their own taste profile by mixing and matching their
Corona Cigar Company was one of the first participants in the Maker’s Mark Private Select program and formulated a stave combination that pairs perfectly with Florida Sun Grown cigars. [photo courtesy of Jeff Borysiewicz] Aside from Jeff’s refined redneck charm, Tanya’s sharp Scottish wit and piercing eyes, and a gifted Yeti cup, the Borysiewiczes made a lasting impression on Jane because unlike most Private Select customers, they came in with a welldefined taste vision. “Theirs was such a unique tasting because it was such a different point of view,” explained Jane. “The goal was to make a completely unique expression of Maker’s that would be personalized for the cigars made with the tobacco that he grows.” The tobacco she’s referring to is Florida Sun Grown, which Jeff grows
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in Clermont, Florida. The tobacco goes into a cigar that goes by the same name made by Drew Estate. Jeff and his team at Corona Cigar Company are no strangers to barrel selection programs; they’ve done more than 30 of them from some of the top producers in the world. “We do a lot of single barrel picks,” Jeff explained, “and usually you’re cherry picking the best of the best barrels but with Maker’s Mark Private Select you’re actually influencing what goes into your barrel.” The ability to influence the final product so profoundly combined with the Corona Cigar team’s knowledge of what pairs well with their Florida Sun Grown created a perfect storm of success for this project.
we know what our stave profile is, when we go through a barrel, we go back to Maker’s, get fresh staves, and do another one.” On their most recent visit to replenish their stock, the Private Select team at Maker’s tried to test Jeff on his recall of his stave profile. They put together a blind tasting to see if he would select a different combination. “It was 100% blind, we had no idea what stave was in what bottle and we spent hours tasting. They thought I was going to pick something else.” In the end, blind tasting and all, he went right back to the same profile. “They couldn’t believe it because the odds of that happening…” The odds were actually 1 in 1,001. That’s how many possible stave profiles you get from five different stave types and ten possible staves. “That’s the formula we like because it goes perfect with a cigar!”
First time for everything
Ten toasted staves sitting in a barrel. The Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series employs a combination of French and American oak staves supplied by International Stave Company, these staves naturally impart a new flavor dimension to Maker’s Mark. [photo courtesy of Maker’s Mark]
After hearing all about their tasting from Jane and now deep in conversation with Jeff about the project, I started to salivate and wanted a taste of this magical elixir. I did some quick math to estimate whether there was any of it left: one barrel yields roughly 240 bottles, there are four Corona Cigar locations (three Corona and one Davidoff of Geneva Since 1911 that is owned and operated by Corona), and they’d created their Private Select in 2016, which means each location received around 60 bottles. I’m thinking that my chances of getting to taste this expression are slim to none. “Of course we have it! We don’t ever run out of that.” Jeff exclaimed when I finally asked him if there was any of it left for me to try. “Because
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Maker’s Mark produced only 255 barrels of the RC6 and released them on a national scale on September 11, 2019, making it the company’s first ever nationally available limited release bourbon. [photo courtesy of Maker’s Mark] A small group of us sat in a small conference room with a large table in the middle that was covered end to end with tasting glasses, small sample bottles with handwriting on them, and a couple of jugs of water. The water was strictly to keep us hydrated, not for mixing during the tasting. Jane and Denny Potter, the Maker’s master distiller, had set this tasting up to introduce us to Maker’s Mark
Wood Finishing Series: RC6. The product, which at the time was not yet released, was to be the company’s first nationwide, limited release. There was a palpable nervous energy in the room. We’d toured every corner of the distillery, seen every stave in the process, and had lunch at Star Hill Provision to get us ready for this moment. We were about to get the tasting underway but I needed to know one thing. “What does RC6 stand for?” I thought that a company like Maker’s Mark, which has such an iconic brand name and packaging identity, would have come up with a snazzy name to represent their first national limited release. But that wasn’t the case and I actually loved it. RC6 stands for Research Center 6, as in Independent Stave Company’s research center. Having worked with ISC for two years developing this profile, the folks at Maker’s decided to name the product RC6 as homage to their longstanding partnership with Independent Stave Company. RC6 is literally how the final stave combination and specs had been labeled at ISC during development. But enough about that, let’s get to tasting. We tasted numerous failed profiles at different stages of development. We even got to taste the distillery’s proprietary yeast that has given Maker’s the ripe fruit characteristics that have set it apart from day one. Tasting the jug yeast followed by high proof distillate gave me a new appreciation for the straight distillate. I actually enjoyed the straight distillate quite a bit. There was probably not enough water in the facility to keep me upright had I continued down that road but it was surprisingly flavorful for having just come off a still. Then things got really interesting as we got down to the candidate profiles that almost made the cut. I was struck by how many variations we were tasting but while markedly different, they were all still very much Maker’s Mark. I kept looking around thinking, is everyone else feeling the same way? When we arrived at the final one, stave profile RC6, I was completely in love. It was 100% Maker’s Mark but the flavors were amped up and beautifully layered. The ripe fruit that we tasted in the jug yeast jumped out up front followed by the front of the palate notes of vanilla, caramel, and candied apples. Then towards the end you get the baker’s spice layer, which I thought was one of the key differences that separated the RC6 from the other expressions. It was impeccably balanced and complex and I couldn’t get enough of it. On our way out of Maker’s, we stopped by the gift shop where I had the opportunity to dip my own bottle of Maker’s Mark in wax before I proceeded to buy every Maker’s-branded knickknack I could find. For a guy who had abandoned the brand for so long, I fell hard for it this time. I’ve been pestering local liquor stores trying to buy up every bottle of Maker’s Mark RC6 that lands in South Florida. I’ve returned to the warmth of the Maker’s Mark blanket for good this time.
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Gran Toro 6 52 Nicaragua Brazil Brazil, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
CAO Nicaragua
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A well-constructed, medium strength blend with a core of wood, hazelnut, and cereal complemented by a hint of butterscotch on the finish. Consistently provides an open draw and an abundant smoke output.
$ 6.99
88 78 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
H O N D UR AS
$ 8.93
La Aurora Karl Malone Barrel Aged
89
An impeccably constructed box-pressed cigar covered with a clean, reddish brown wrapper with a velvet feel. Produces an excellent smoke output with notes of cedar, pepper, baker’s spice, and American coffee joined by a subtle hint of citrus on the finish.
$ 9.25
Nestor Miranda Collection Corojo
91
N I CA R AG UA
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Granada 6 50 Honduras Honduras Nicaragua
N I CA R AG UA Finished with a neatly applied, light brown wrapper with some minor discolorations, this medium strength toro has a core of wood, coffee, earth, and soft spice accompanied by a hint of vanilla cream. Consistently provides a firm draw.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
79
TORO Tatuaje Mexican Experiment
93
$ 10.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 5 3/4 50 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua
Herrera Esteli TAA Exclusive
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 USA/Connecticut Brazil Nicaragua
N I CA R AG UA Ultra-flavorful and well-balanced with flavors of espresso, cedar, pepper, and subtle earth complemented by a ripe fruit sweetness on the palate. Produces an abundant output of highly aromatic smoke. Medium-plus strength.
$ 10.50 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 54 Mexico Honduras Honduras, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
Brickhouse Maduro
H O N D UR AS A beautifully constructed toro covered with an even-colored, dark brown wrapper and finished with a neat triple cap. Delivers a balanced core of earth, pepper, light coffee, toast, and roasted nuts. Produces an excellent output of thick, aromatic smoke.
$ 6.70
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Brazil Nicaragua Nicaragua
La Aurora Preferidos Broadleaf Maduro
89
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
N I CA R AG UA A balanced blend with flavors of cedar, soft pepper, caramel, coffee, and a touch of semisweet cocoa complemented by a rich, leather aroma. This medium strength blend draws well and leaves behind a dark gray ash.
$ 10.50 Toro 5 1/2 54 USA/Connecticut Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
Asylum 13
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Delivers flavors of wood and earth complemented by notes of currant, espresso, and a touch of cream. This rustic-looking toro is covered with a dark brown, brindled wrapper with a coarse texture. Draws perfectly while leaving behind a solid, compact ash.
$ 7.26
89 80 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
Impeccably box-pressed and covered with a dark brown, toothy wrapper. Opens with a balanced blast of dark chocolate and charred oak joined by subtle earth, deep pepper, and semisweet espresso. Perfect draw and burn with medium-plus strength.
$ 12.00
Oscar Valladares Super Fly
91
N I CA R AG UA
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
N I CA R AG UA Covered with an attractive, even-colored, dark brown wrapper with a slightly reddish hue, this medium to full bodied blend has a core of earth, pepper, and wood accompanied by a touch of bittersweet chocolate.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
81
TORO Rocky Patel Aged, Limited & Rare
92
$ 1 4.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua
Southern Draw Cedrus
A consistently well-constructed, box-pressed toro covered with a nearly flawless, dark brown wrapper. Medium strength and delivers a balanced core of cocoa powder, deep pepper, caramel, and a touch of oak.
$ 12.49
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Indonesia Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
Blackbird Unkind Cubra
N I CA R AG UA Opens with clean flavors of black pepper, earth, and oak accompanied by notes of dark chocolate, coffee, and a touch of barnyard. This medium to full strength toro is beautifully box-pressed and consistently provides a perfect draw.
$ 9.52
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Gran Toro 6 54 Brazil Dominican Republic USA & Nicaragua
CAO Amazon Basin Orellana
90 89
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper and finished with a covered foot. Consistently draws and burns perfectly and produces a good output of medium-plus strength smoke with notes of pepper, earth, wood, and a touch of almond cream.
$ 10.95 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Brazil Nicaragua Brazil, Colombia, & Dominican Republic
Headley Grange Black Lab LE 2018
N I CA R AG UA A unique-looking toro with a dark brown, coarse cover leaf finished with a tobacco rope wrapped around it. This medium-plus strength blend has a core of charred oak, dried fruit, pepper, and earth accompanied by a touch of semi-sweet espresso.
$ 10.95 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 USA/Connecticut Nicaragua Nicaragua
PDR 1878 Capa Oscura
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A somewhat bumpy, box-pressed toro covered with a dark brown wrapper and finished with a partially covered foot. Opens with a heavy dose of wood and pepper joined by roasted nuts, toast, and molasses. Produces an excellent smoke output.
$ 6.50
86 82 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
N I CA R AG UA
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a dark, oily wrapper finished with a pigtail and a covered foot. Delivers a profile of molasses, wood, and soft spice with a background aroma of ammonia throughout. Consistently draws and burns well.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
83
TORO Oliva Connecticut Reserve
91
$ 8.4 8 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 50 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua
Ashton Classic
A beautifully balanced blend with a profile of cedar, soft pepper, coffee, and a hint of earth accompanied by a rich, creamy vanilla on the finish. This mild to medium strength toro consistently draws and burns perfectly while producing an excellent smoke output.
$ 11.90
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Double Magnum 6 50 USA/Connecticut Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
Lords of England Connecticut
90
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Clean and balanced, this mild blend delivers a smooth mix of cedar, hazelnut, ligth coffee, and subtle spice along a creamy textured smoke. Consistently well-constructed and covered with an impeccable wrapper.
$ 7.50 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 50 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua
Villiger Flor de Ynclan
N I CA R AG UA Smooth and flavorful with notes of soft pepper, leather, wood, and subtle earth complemented by a touch of creamy spice on the long finish. This mild to medium strength blend is covered with a thin, supple wrapper with minimal veins.
$ 13.00
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Ecuador Indonesia Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
Diamond Crown
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A balanced blend covered with an attractive, golden brown wrapper with sheen. Consistently provides a flawless draw that builds to a medium strength core of wood, roasted almond, spice, and a touch of cream.
$ 16.10
89
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
#3 6 1/2 54 USA/Connecticut Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
Indian Motorcycle Canada
88 84 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
N I CA R AG UA
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Thick and consistently well-made, this flavorful toro delivers a profile of vanilla, spice, wood, nuts, and a touch of cream. Mild to medium bodied and covered with a clean, golden brown wrapper with only slight veins.
$ 8.45 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Toro 6 52 Ecuador Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Produces an excellent smoke output and leaves behind a compact, white ash along a razorsharp burn. This mild blend has a core of wood, sharp pepper, and wheat complemented by a hint of cream on the finish.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
85
TORPEDO Liga Privada T52
$ 16.00
92
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Belicoso 6 52 USA/Connecticut Brazil Honduras & Nicaragua
Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco Reserva Especial
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Belicoso 6 52 Nicaragua Dominican Republic Nicaragua
Tatuaje Miami Seleccion de Cazador
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
91
Unicos 6 1/8 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua
$ 12.50
N I CA R AG UA Impeccably box-pressed and covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with a silky feel. This medium to full strength belicoso has a core of earth, red pepper, espresso, and a touch of bittersweet chocolate.
USA Opens with a core of pepper and chocolate that subsides to incorporate notes of cedar, cinnamon, and roasted nuts. This medium to full strength torpedo draws perfectly and produces a highly aromatic smoke output.
$ 9.75 Torpedo 6 1/2 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
Rocky Patel Vintage 1990
N I CA R AG UA Neatly pressed and covered with a good-looking, milk chocolate colored wrapper. Produces a profile of cocoa, cedar, earth, and hazelnut accompanied by a creamy leather note on the finish. Medium-plus strength.
$ 10.65
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Torpedo 6 1/4 52 Honduras Honduras Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
Micaleff Herencia Habano
89 86 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
Ultra-flavorful and consistently well constructed. Delivers an excellent smoke output with a medium strength profile of sweet pepper, earth, cedar, and a touch of almond cream. Draws and burns exceptionally while leaving behind a compact ash.
$ 12.00
Perdomo 20th Anniversary Sun Grown VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
N I CA R AG UA
H O N D UR AS Consistently well constructed and covered with a dark, oily wrapper with veins showing. Smooth and balanced with flavors of cocoa, soft pepper, and roasted nuts complemented by cream and cedar. Leaves behind a solid, compact ash.
$ 11.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Torpedo 5 1/2 52 Nicaragua Ecuador Honduras & Nicaragua
N I CA R AG UA Finished with a dark brown wrapper with a coarse feel, this medium bodied blend delivers a core of earth, sugar cane, nuts, and soft pepper. A consistently well-constructed short torpedo with an abundant smoke output.
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BALMORALCIGARS.COM NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
87
ROBUSTO Padrón 1926 Serie Maduro
93
$ 18.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
No. 47 5 1/2 50 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
Oliva Serie V Maduro Especial
92
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Double Robusto 5 54 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Brazil Nicaragua
Impeccably balanced with a complex profile that opens with sweet earth, oak, and dark chocolate joined by notes of espresso and dark cherry. This medium to full strength, thick robusto is covered with a beautiful, dark brown wrapper.
N I CA R AG UA Covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils, this medium strength robusto is well-balanced and smooth with a core of earth, pepper, and oak accompanied by creamy notes of butterscotch and almond.
$ 10.50 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
Archetype Curses
N I CA R AG UA Well-balanced and flavorful, this medium to full strength blend is covered with a meticulously applied wrapper. This densely packed robusto produces an abundant smoke output with notes of cedar, baker’s spice, earth, and cream joined by a touch of hickory.
$ 9.00
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 50 USA/Connecticut Nicaragua Nicaragua
Caldwell Blind Man’s Bluff
90 88 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
N I CA R AG UA
$ 1 4.00
Aganorsa Leaf Signature Maduro
91
Produces an abundant output of thick and highly aromatic smoke with a profile loaded with dark chocolate, smooth spice, and cream complemented by more subtle touches of earth, espresso, and dark cherry. Medium-plus strength.
$ 9.40
Highclere Castle Victorian
92
N I CA R AG UA
N I CA R AG UA Covered with a dark brown, toothy wrapper with a coarse feel, this full strength blend delivers a core of earth, pepper, wood, and roasted almonds. Produces an excellent smoke output along a perfect draw.
$ 7.90 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 50 USA Indonesia Dominican Republic
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A medium to full strength blend finished with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with slight veins. Produces an excellent smoke output with a profile of red pepper, wood, and earth complemented by a subtle touch of cream.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
89
ROBUSTO Epoca
$ 9.25
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Admiral 5 50 Ecuador Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
El Galan Connecticut
Flawless construction with a beautifully balanced profile of cedar, spice, almond, and cream. This mild to medium strength robusto produces an excellent smoke output and leaves behind a solid, compact ash.
$ 7.26
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Airoso 5 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua
Cimarron Connecticut
N I CA R AG UA Well-balanced and flavorful. This thick robusto has a core of soft pepper, oak, and earth accompanied by subtle touch of coffee on the finish. Consistently provides a good draw and an even burn leaving behind a compact ash.
$ 7.20
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 54 Ecuador Dominican Republic Colombia & Dominican Republic
Casa Cuevas Reserva Natural
90
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Provides an excellent draw and burn while leaving behind a tight, compact ash with a light gray color. This thick robusto produces an abundant smoke output and builds to a medium strength with notes of cedar, light pepper, hay, and roasted nuts.
$ 9.50 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 52 Ecuador Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
Saga Solaz
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A good-looking robusto covered with a golden colored wrapper with only slight veins. Delivers a core of wood, walnut, and soft spice complemented by a touch of vanilla and clove. Consistently draws and burns perfectly producing a mild to medium strength smoke.
$ 8.30
89
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
Psyko Seven Nicaragua
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Delivers a profile of red pepper, wood, and nuts accompanied by floral notes and hint of anise. This medium strength blend is consistently well-made and covered with a clean, light brown wrapper with a velvet feel.
$ 8.49
89 90 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 50 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
N I CA R AG UA Medium bodied blend with flavors of oak, roasted nuts, and a touch of grassiness accompanied by a rich aroma of leather and spice. This good-looking robusto is finished with a clean, light brown wrapper with excellent sheen.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
91
ROBUSTO My Father La Opulencia
$ 10.10
92
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 1/4 52 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua
Illusione OneOff
Perfectly box-pressed and covered with a clean, dark brown wrapper, this medium to full strength blend has a profile of earth, pepper, and oak accompanied by notes of cocoa, nuts, and leather. Excellent smoke output.
$ 15.00
92
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 4 7/8 50 Honduras Nicaragua Nicaragua
Don Lino Africa
N I CA R AG UA Exceptionally balanced with nuanced flavors of cedar, caramel, roasted coffee, and a hint of earth complemented by a black pepper note on the finish. Consistently well-constructed providing an excellent draw and burn. Mediumplus strength.
$ 9.00
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Duma 5 50 Ecuador Cameroon Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
A. Fuente Magnum R
N I CA R AG UA Impeccably box-pressed and covered with a tasty, reddish brown wrapper. This medium to full strength robusto produces an excellent smoke output with notes of oak, pepper, and earth complemented by coffee and roasted nuts.
$ 10.00
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
R 52 5 52 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
HVC Cerro
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C An ultra-flavorful blend with a profile of sweet cedar, cinnamon, spice, and a touch of butterscotch complemented by an aroma of tanned leather. Draws and burns exceptionally well while producing an abundant smoke output.
$ 8.30
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 50 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
90 Miles Habano
N I CA R AG UA Loaded with flavors of sweet cedar, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and cream. This mediumplus strength blend produces an excellent smoke output with a rich, leathery aroma. Covered with a clean, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils.
$ 8.50
89 92 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
N I CA R AG UA
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua
N I CA R AG UA Smooth and subtle flavors of soft pepper and earth accompanied by nuts and cinnamon. Leaves behind a picture worthy, compact ash along a good draw and burn. This medium strength robusto is covered with an even-colored reddish brown wrapper.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
93
SHORT ROBUSTO Davidoff Escurio
$ 9.50
92
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Petit Robusto 3 1/4 50 Ecuador Brazil Brazil & Dominican Republic
CroMagnon Aquitaine
An impeccably constructed short robusto with a balanced and complex profile of sweet cedar, spice, and red pepper complemented by subtle hints of licorice and coffee. Produces an excellent smoke output leaving behind a solid, compact ash.
$ 6.90
91
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Knuckle Dragger 4 52 Ecuador Cameroon Nicaragua
Hoyo La Amistad Dark Sumatra
91
N I CA R AG UA Powerful and flavorful from the onset. Flavors of oak and bittersweet chocolate complemented by pepper, sweet earth, and a touch of caramel. Covered with a clean, dark brown wrapper with minimal veins.
$ 7.99 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Espresso 4 1/2 50 Ecuador USA Honduras, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
ADventura The Explorer
N I CA R AG UA Delivers tons of flavor along a good draw and even burn. Opens with notes of red pepper, earth, and wood accompanied by espresso and bittersweet chocolate. This medium to full strength short robusto leaves behind a perfect, compact ash.
$ 9.70
90
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Short Robusto 4 50 Ecuador Ecuador Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo
89
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A consistently well-constructed short robusto covered with a clean, reddish brown wrapper with a velvet feel. Delivers a core of cedar, spice, nuts, and a touch of cream on the finish. Draws well and leaves behind a compact ash.
$ 7.07 Azarosa 4 1/2 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
Epic Habano
N I CA R AG UA Well-constructed and covered with a dark, oily, and highly aromatic wrapper. Full strength and full flavored from the start with a profile of pepper, earth, and charred oak accompanied by notes of espresso and burnt caramel.
$ 9.10
88 94 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C
VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Fat Rothschild 4 1/2 56 Ecuador Cameroon Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Opens with a blast of red pepper that settles to incorporate more subtle notes of wood, roasted nuts, and molasses. Firmly packed and consistently well-made, this medium-plus strength blend draws well and leaves behind a solid, compact ash.
NOV / DEC 2019 | CIGAR SNOB |
95
NESTOR MIRANDA WITH and
Miami Cigar & Co. is marking 30 years in the business, and part of that celebration is the revival of Don Lino Africa, a cigar that helps the company bring more of Nicaragua into its portfolio and celebrate one of founder Nestor Miranda’s lifelong fascinations. INTERVIEW BY NICOLÁS ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ
factory. We’re very happy and excited for that. It will be the first project that we do with him. So it’s an exciting time. It’s also the only box-pressed cigar that we have. In all of our brands — either brands that we own or brands that we distribute — we do not have a box-pressed cigar. This will be the first. So it’s exciting. Something different. Different taste profile as well. One of the main components that we wanted to make sure was included was the African Cameroon tobacco. So Nestor has a tight relationship with AJ, and they were taking a look to see what they could get done. On the binder, we do have the African Cameroon. Then on the filler, all Dominican and Nicaraguan tobaccos, and the entire thing is wrapped in an Ecuadorian Habano 2000 wrapper. So a nice velvety looking, clean wrapper, you’ve got that African Cameroon in the binder and then Nicaragua and Dominican in the filler. It’s a nice medium, medium-plus cigar.
Yeah. I think anybody who is into AJ products or AJ-made products will be into this. But it’s also a little different. It has its own identity, both in its profile and the packaging. There’s a very unique look to the cigar. What was the inspiration for some of the branding? NM: All my life, I was dreaming about going to Africa. You know, when I was a little kid, I used to go to the Tarzan movie. I mean, I loved it. As I grew up... You know, I like hunting. So about 15 years ago we get together about seven friends and I said, “Listen, we’re planning to go to Africa.” People said, “Put me in, man. Put me in.” So we planned the whole thing. We took the plane from Atlanta to Cape Town. It’s like a 16-hour flight. From Cape Town we went to Johannesburg. From Johannesburg, we took a small plane to our destination in Botswana. So we landed at nighttime in this small airport. The hunters waiting for us over there, they had two Land Cruisers so we could take the people and the equipment. So as we’re traveling in the jungle to the camp, we got a flat tire. In the middle of the night.
JW: Jungle flat tire is the worst kind of flat tire. NM: We all got out, we start changing the tire, you know, I’m there with a flashlight to see if there’s a lion around. We got into the Land Cruiser, keep going, boom, another flat tire. Like, oh my God. So we keep going. Now we got to the destination probably by two o’clock in the morning because of tire changing and all that. So what did we do? I said, “OK, there’s a bar; let’s go and drink.” We start drinking. Next morning they wake you up by six o’clock. They have breakfast and everything. They had a board and it showed you the animals that you’re going to see in the area. Each animal has a price tag. You hunt, you pay. If you don’t kill the animal and it’s hurt, you pay. So you have to follow the animal, you know? If you hit him in the wrong place, you got to follow until it’s dead. So we spent 10 days in a magnificent area in Botswana and the excitement was every day.
NM: My brother in law and I went into a Land Cruiser and we flipped a coin to see who was going to shoot first and it turned out I was shooting first. We see an impala. ¡Fuácata!
JW: That’s actually the noise that the gun makes. NM: More or less the same. The thing in Africa is when you finish hunting — you
We are smoking Don Lino Africa. I feel a compulsion to say África in Spanish. What’s the standard here? Are we pronouncing this in English or in Spanish? Nestor Miranda: Africa. The main name is Africa. [Editor’s note: Nestor has a thick Cuban accent. I’m still not sure how I’m supposed to say “Africa.”]
Let’s talk first about the blend information and other details — wrapper, filler, binder, sizes... Jason Wood: I can take that one. It’s made in Estelí, Nicaragua at AJ Fernandez’s
96 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2019
get maybe two animals in one day — you come back to the campground, you go on a dirt road. It’s 11 o’clock at night and it’s 42 degrees or 40 degrees. It’s winter time in Africa. You’ve got to stop because there was 15 elephants crossing the road. The big one comes over to you. Like, you know, “Stop, man. I got my kids crossing.” It was so emotional, man. Oh my God. Incredible.
I’ve done one of those safaris and I remember having a similar experience with some elephants. NM: It was emotional. Then we go back to the camp and everybody told a story, you know? We got a big fire and everybody has a story to tell about what happened that day. You can hear at night the sound of the lion in the distance. It’s time to go to bed and it’s cold. I leave the window kind of open for the air to come in. Then when I go to bed, I start thinking about the mamba and I say, “I’m gonna close the window.” The mamba, in the winter, they’re dormant. You didn’t have to worry about it. But anyhow, the mamba is the most dangerous
snake in Africa. He bites you and you have three hours to say goodbye to everybody because with the distance from there to the hospital, you’re dead. You’re dead. So that’s the thing in Africa, you know? Like one day we were hunting and I want to shoot this animal. It jumps and the guy said, “Let’s go.” So we jumped out of the Land Cruisers, started going to the jungle, follow the tracks. Maybe two miles from the car in the jungle. We lost that animal. We couldn’t see it anymore. And then the guy said, “Don’t make any noise. Let’s go back to the Jeep.” I say “Why?” He said, “Look.” And through the vegetation, you can see a couple of rhino. They’re big like an SUV, man. They don’t see too well, but they can hear and you can see they’re moving their ears. The guy said, “Let’s go.” So that SOB turned around and looked this way. So we start walking faster to the jeep. The other one is standing up. The two are standing and look at our direction. So now we accelerate our steps. Yeah. When we get close to the jeep, we just jump in and the two rhinos are coming. The two big black rhinos. It reminded me of the movie Hatari! You know, with John Wayne? Oh my God. And we just jump in it, in the jeep. I told the guy, “Listen, accelerate, man. Because they’re coming!” So we finally get away from it. My God, that was emotional.
brand was still around, it’s always been around in the market, but to give it its love and its proper attention. So the first thing we spoke about was obviously manufacturers. We wanted to make something in Nicaragua. We have a couple of factories where we make stuff. We wanted to try something else. Ultimately, we moved forward with AJ, and that was a natural progression for us because of the relationship Nestor does have with AJ. Africa was the natural move for us to get Don Lino going. So there is a lot of different components to it.
So you mentioned that you had dreamt of going to Africa for a long time before you finally made it. How did it compare to your expectations?
[At the time of this interview], we still haven’t received the first batch of cigars — just the samples we’re smoking now and the ones that we gave out during the IPCPR trade show. But everything has been very smooth. It’s a legit factory. They have all the proper procedures in place to make sure that everything’s done. And as we got close to launch, it went from a call every two or three weeks to basically communication every day, just making sure that everybody’s on the same page. But it’s good to have that counterpart at the factory that has that same mindset that we have.
NM: It was above and beyond expectations. It is amazing. If you dream of going to Africa, go. I remember one day we stopped and saw all the zebra and impala running. You know, you are in Africa, man. And the wildebeest. I mean I’ve seen that in movies, but when you go there and see it, it’s impressive. It’s really impressive. Every day was something different. It was my dream and I got it. I’ve been to Africa three times already.
The whole family went recently. How was that? NM: We took the kids and that’s an amazing thing. JW: Nestor didn’t have the rifles so he was a little uncomfortable. NM: I was scared to death when I see the rhino because I know he can hit the jeep. I got my kids there, my wife. One rhino came over to me. I said, “Take the girl in the front. That’s my wife.” [Editor’s note: We at Cigar Snob assume Nestor was kidding. But who knows?]
Going back to the cigar for a minute, the launch and the distribution and all that. How widely available is it? What sizes are available? J W: It will be available in November. It’s a full production cigar, available in five different sizes from a Petite Corona all the way up to a 6 x 60.
What’s the feedback been like pre-launch? JW: Very positive. Preorders have been very strong. It’s the strongest prerelease we’ve had in my time with the company; I’m going on 10 years. Nestor obviously in the past has had some larger presale deals. But this, for our times within the last decade, it has been the largest presale and we still have a couple of weeks left before the launch.
We normally don’t get into this kind of marketing stuff in the magazine. But because it’s such a part of the image of the cigar, talk a little bit about the messaging and getting people to understand who makes the cigar. You know, there’s Miami Cigar behind it, AJ behind it, but when you look at the band, you’re seeing just this big A, which is beautiful but doesn’t necessarily say all that other stuff that would typically be the default information on the packaging. JW: I guess we could call this the rebirth of the Don Lino brand. So Don Lino was a brand from the past that Nestor and Mariana started. It was one of their first babies. And we had about six or seven different offerings in that. The highest profile cigar was the Don Lino Africa. So this is our start into that segment again. So we’re bringing Don Lino back to the forefront. Obviously in our industry there’s different things going on that make these grandfathered products very prominent and very strong. So that’s why we’re getting into that. Getting Africa back, going back to Africa with the kids and all that ... When we went, we were having a couple of Scotches and smoking some cigars and we were talking about the fact that we need to revitalize the brand. The
Talk a bit about what your experience has been working with AJ Fernandez to produce this cigar. JW: I didn’t have any prior experience or a relationship with AJ or anybody in his company. But Nestor, being in the industry for such a long time and also with the Cuban background, he was the one that recommended that we reach out to him and see if it was a possibility. We met him down here in Miami at one of the shops and had a very nice conversation with him and Freddie, his head of production, to see if it was possible, see what we can get done, what time of year would work best.
He’s so detail oriented about the cigar production, too. NM: He’s on top of everything. Last week, he called me out of the blue. “Hey Nestor,” he said, “Listen, I’m making a great cigar for you, man. You’ve got to add a second band on the bottom.” I said, “You think so?” “You have to, man. You have to. That’s a great cigar. And it looks more interesting with the second band.” I talked to Jason and I said, “AJ called and said we’ve got to do something.” So we did. JW: At the buzzer. Nothing like being right there, like ready to roll and then... It’s just not the norm, right? That’s how much he cares about everything he makes. He wants them to sell, of course, but he cares so much about every single brand. When he called, I was like, “What? What’s wrong with this guy? Tell him to worry about his stuff.” But then I thought about it, and I was like, “No, that’s not the way to think about it. He’s calling to help and it’s his opinion.” You want a partner that’s gonna look out for your brand.
Where do you see your portfolio going from here? JW: So this year is the 30th anniversary of Miami Cigar. When we were planning at the end of 2018 for the whole release schedule and what we were doing in 2019, the focus was on the fact that our consumers are looking for more Nicaraguan tobacco. We wanted to get more focused on the Nicaraguan portfolio, whether it was with our Dominican partners or with brands that we own. So that was the thought process starting off like we did in March. We brought back Nestor Miranda Special Selection in the original packaging with the burlap and all that. That’s made in Estelí also, by Don Pepín. So we’re focused on the Nicaraguan side of our portfolio because, honestly, it has taken a backseat to La Aurora and Toscano and whatnot. Getting that rolling has added to the buzz around Don Lino Africa as well. Our next release will be Don Lino Havana Reserve. Havana Reserve was a limited release done by Nestor and his team back in the day and then they released it full-on as a regular production cigar. That will be the next thing to look for at the PCA convention. It will continue our work on the Don Lino name and bolster our Nicaraguan portfolio.
Listen to the full interview on the Cigar Snob Podcast (cigarsnobmag.com/podcast) to hear Nestor reflect on three decades of Miami Cigar.
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The cigar world is on Twitter and we aim to keep track of who’s leading who. The following is a scoreboard of the cigar world’s most relevant Tweeples. The list is sorted by number of followers and broken into groups: Top 20 Twitter Cigar Companies & Reps, Top 10 Twitter Retailers, Top 10 Online Cigar Tweeps, Top 3 Twitter Cigar Organizations, and Top 3 Cigar Radio Twitter accounts. If you have the numbers and belong in one of these groups, stand up and be counted! Set us straight via Twitter @cigarsnobmag.
TOP CIGAR COMPANIES (sorted by Twitter followers) Rocky Patel @RockyPatelCigar......................................... Drew Estate Cigars @DrewEstateCigar............................. Padron Cigar @PadronCigars............................................ CAO International @CAOCigars......................................... Alec Bradley Cigars @AlecBradley.................................... La Flor Dominicana @LFDCigars....................................... Camacho Cigars @camachocigars.................................... Jonathan Drew @JonathanDrewArt.................................. Ashton Cigars @ashtoncigar............................................. Pete Johnson @TatuajeCigars........................................... Xikar Inc @XIKARinc......................................................... La Gloria Cubana @lagloriacubana.................................... Nick Perdomo @PerdomoCigars....................................... Miami Cigar Co @miamicigar............................................. Punch Cigars @punchcigars............................................. Ernesto Padilla @PadillaCigars......................................... Avo Cigars @AvoCigars..................................................... AJ Fernandez @ajfcigars.................................................. Davidoff Cigars @Davidoff_Cigars.................................... La Palina Cigars @La PalinaCigars....................................
33770 32228 27671 25429 21127 20040 19160 19151 17802 16698 14863 14787 13051 13002 12948 12380 11988 11896 11811 11671
TOP CIGAR ORGANIZATIONS CRA @cigarrights............................................................. 14725 Premium Cigar Association @PCA1933............................. 8222 Tobacconist University @tobacconistU............................. 4601
TOP CIGAR RADIO Cigar Dave Show @CigarDaveShow................................. 11570 Smooth Draws @SmoothDraws....................................... 4350 KMA Talk Radio @KMATalkRadio...................................... 2310
SOME OF OUR FAVORITE TWEETS, MENTIONS, AND RANDOM SOCIAL MEDIA GOODNESS.
TOP CIGAR RETAILERS & REPS Famous Smoke Shop @FamousSmokeShop...................... Mulberry St. Cigars @MulberryStCigar............................. Cigar Hustler @cigarhustler.............................................. Cigar Row @CigarRow..................................................... Jeff Borysiewicz – Corona Cigar Co @CoronaCigarCo....... Michael Herklots–Nat Sherman @MichaelHerklots............ Barry – Two Guys Smoke Shop @Barry2Guys................... Cheap Humidors @cheaphumidors................................... Lindsay Siddiqi @TheCigarChick....................................... Palm Desert Tobacco @palmdsrttobacco.........................
14297 13516 11460 8186 7469 6593 6347 5371 5261 4946
@Onlylovecigars via Instagram #cigarcommunity #cigarsnob #cigarstore #cigara #cohibacigar #cigarlovers #cigarreview
TOP ONLINE CIGAR TWEEPLES David Voth–Sex, Cigars, & Booze @SexCigarsBooze......... Cigar News @CigaRSS .................................................... Cigar Events @CigarEvents............................................... Cigar Federation @CigarFederation.................................. Robusto Cigar Babe @RobustoBabe................................. Stogie Boys @StogieBoys ............................................... Cigar Evaluations @CigarEvaluation................................. Cigar Inspector @CigarInspector ..................................... The Stogie Guys @stogieguys........................................... Tom Ufer @cigarsmonkingman..........................................
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148714 15727 14709 12431 10387 8709 8680 8335 8052 6541
@lilsiscokidd21 via Instagram Hanging with Angels... #cigar #cigars #cigarlife #cigarstyle #cigarsdaily #cigarsofinstagram #smokersrd #womenwhosmoke #cigarworld #cigarsmoker #cigarsnobmag #cigarcartel #cigarsnob #smoker #arturofuente #fuente #angelshare #onlyfuenteisfuente
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DAVIDOFF CHEF’S EDITION DINNER at PER SE NEW YORK CITY
Only Davidoff could pull off this type of magic as a grand finale to their wildly successful Chef’s Edition collaboration. The project kicked off two years ago when the company brought together five extraordinary chefs from around the globe to co-blend a masterpiece cigar alongside Davidoff’s master blenders. Coming into the collaboration, all of the chefs were experienced cigar smokers and each currently held at least one Michelin star: Thomas Keller (The French Laundry, Per Se, and others), Alvin Leung (BO Initiative), Klaus Erfort (Gästehaus Klaus Erfort), Heiko Nieder (The Restaurant), Shaun Rankin (Ormer Mayfair). These international tastemakers’ ability to discern flavors, aroma, and mouth feel proved to be just as useful in blending cigars as in preparing world-class cuisine. “The key to creating a recipe and blending a cigar,” stated chef Heiko Nieder, “is that you have to do it with your heart as well as with the tongue and the nose.” The Davidoff Chef’s Edition was released in September 2018 and almost instantly sold out. An additional 500 boxes were set aside and saved for this grand finale dinner. The evening started at chef Thomas Keller’s highly acclaimed Per Se in New York City’s Columbus Circle. Guests were served canapés and cocktails in the garden followed by a specially curated fourcourse meal, two of the dishes by chef Keller and two by chef Nieder. Each dish was paired with an old world wine and drew inspiration from the Chef’s Edition cigar. Chef Nieder’s turbot with “Champignon de Paris,” pears, and cigar flavors served alongside a glass of Domaine Nicolas Joly, Coulée de Serrant, Savennières 2015, particularly stands out. That was until chef Keller served an Elysian Fields Farm lamb prime rib with a “ragout” of sweet corn, Black Mission figs, and Piedmont hazelnut jus accompanied by a glass of La Rioja Alta’s Gran Reserva 904 Rioja 2010. The most difficult thing from the evening was answering, “Which dish you like the most?”
Heiko Nieder, Anna Bolz, Alvin Leung, Jeslyn Theo and Thomas Keller
Lana Fraser
Chef Keller's lamb prime rib
As if the four-course tour de force was not enough, desserts were served after a limousine ride down to Davidoff of Geneva since 1911 at Brookfield Place. Guests were greeted with a Davidoff Chef’s Edition cigar and a Patrón Smoked Old Fashioned. Then Per Se’s pastry chef, Anna Bolz, brought down the house with an array of cigar inspired desserts. With this level of sweets, cigars, and libations flowing in the company of chef Keller, chef Nieder, and a surprise appearance by chef Alvin Leung, the night and this special collaboration ended with plenty of fireworks. Thomas Keller, Susanne Minder, Alvin Leung and Heiko Nieder
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Dylan Austin, Beat Hauenstein and Mark Jacob
Patrรณn Smoked Old Fashioned
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EVENTS NEPTUNE CIGARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY Miami
Neptune Cigars celebrated 20 years in the business with an incredible party at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, one of Miami’s most iconic venues. The Prohibition-themed festivities overlooked Biscayne Bay and featured appearances by cigar manufacturers, swag, raffles, great food, casino games, and bars that were offering tastings of rum and bourbon.
Luz and Chris Normand
Juan González, Carola Cava, Oscar Butler, Christian Zovaen, Ralph Marmolejos and Adrián Acosta
Dylan Austin, Alan Rubin, David Haber and Bradley Rubin
Liana Fuente and Manny García
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Yadira Creightor, Cristina Llaca, Maria Milián and Patty González
Justin Waterman and Bridget Heart
Ozzie and Elizabeth Halphen
Javi Carranza, Ibis Lu, Nestor Plasencia and Bélgica Suárez
Nish Patel, Sammy Phillips and Patrick Vivalo
Ernesto Pérez-Carrillo and A.J. Fernández
Danny and Jessica Delgado, Nestor and Mariana Miranda, Alex Marban, Carolyn and Héctor Paz
Virginia and Mario Profeta
Sam and Desiree Odom
David Mealey and Michael Herklots
Viviana Torres, Evelyn Galiano and Grisel Andrés
Alcides Viciedo and Israel Cruz
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EVENTS ROCKY MOUNTAIN CIGAR FESTIVAL Broomfield, Colo.
The 10th Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival saw more than 2,000 tickets sold. Attendees enjoyed perfect weather, great cigars, excellent food, live music, and some of the best company a cigar lover could hope for at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, Colorado. They also went home with plenty of swag, including more than 40 cigars, cutters, lighters, commemorative glasses and shirts.
Jeremy Weiner and Bobby Newman
Sarah Bonsall, Jared O’Reilly, Rob Lollar and Duane Bonsall
Hostos Quesada, Claudio Sgroi and Albert Montserrat
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Vinnie Kinman, Kevin Kressley, Matthew Weddle, David Hondolocke and Mike Koenig
Kurt Van Keppel and Craig Cunningham
Naishel Rohrer and Steev Merriam
James and Xochitle Laughin
Mike Henderson, Oscar Valladares and Orlando Ventura
Johan Zwaan, Sarah Khatib, Pam Nolen, Mike Baca, Pedro Wagner and Klaas Kelner
Ari Riego and Leonor Abzaradel
Rich Ivancic, Charlie “Doc” Watson and Travis Pappenheim
Berta Bravo, Christine and Lonnie David
Andy Jackson, Chuck Phillips and Ken Gavito
Dan Yockey and Nate McIntyre
Juan López, Cristina Santana and Nico Magaña
Adam Walter, Jarrod Ridnour, J.P. Brazill and Dan Schudel
Jim Robinson and Melody Troutman
John Oliva, Liana Fuente and Tommy Curtis
Dan Welsh, K.C Johnson and José Ortega
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EVENTS DAVIDOFF DINNER AT SABOR HAVANA Doral, Fla.
Sabor Havana, one of Miami’s premier cigar shops, hosted an incredible steak dinner catered by Ruth’s Chris Steak House. After the retail shop was transformed into a dining room, owners Jorge and Aquiles’ guests were served perfectly cooked steaks and delicious sides. Davidoff brand ambassador Jeff Stone led attendees in a tasting and pairing session that brought together Davidoff cigars and The Macallan Scotch whisky. Jeff Stone, Eliana Osorio, Claudia Ceballos, Jorge Valdés, Carlos Escalona, Aquiles Legra, and Mike Martínez
Gus Martínez and Mario Silvestri
A little toast to another great dinner!
Fernando Fariñas, Reinier Lorenzo, Nick Esquivel, Jorge Valdés, Jose Barrera, and Rafael del Monte
John Cartaya and Adrián Hernández
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Gus, Steven, and Fernando Martínez
Aquiles Legra, Victor Hernandez, Jorge Valdes and Carlos Escalona
Bobby Singer
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EVENTS CASA CUEVAS LAUNCHES LA MANDARRIA AT MASTER CIGARS Miami
The Cuevas family took lemons and made lemonade when they created the La Mandarria brand to commemorate the theft of some of their inventory from a Miami warehouse. That brand had its coming-out party at Master Cigars in Miami. There was great food, drinks, and special deals on Casa Cuevas Cigars. Gabriel Álvarez, Felipe Sosa, Luís and Alec Cuevas and Gabriel Piñeres
Luís and Maida Cuevas
Honson Lau and Jesus Comendeiro
Carlos Valdés and Manny Riviera
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Lui Moran and Michael Pugh
Denise Cuevas and Mary Bencosme
Ariel Valerio and Miguel José
Jorge Peña and Tony Pichs
Carlos Moreno, Sr. and Carlos Moreno, Jr.
René Cardona and Elvin Bencosme
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EVENTS 22ND ANNUAL SMOKIN' BLUES BBQ Londonderry, NH
Kurt Kendall and the Twins Smoke Shop team have been at this for a while now! The celebration featured live music by the Chris Lester Band, BBQ by Hickory Stix BBQ, and raffle prizes. Of course, guests also took cigars home — 20 of them, to be precise. The price of admission included a complimentary cocktail, breakfast, and more. Perhaps the most unique thing about this event: a traveling tattoo artist was giving 7-20-4 Cigars tattoos free of charge!
Kurt Kendall and Kevin Cyr
Cindy and Steve Saka
John Kurti
Brad Jarvis and John Gallogly
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Lisa LeMieux and Kevin Caikauskas
Kevin and Kurt Kendall
Jennifer Irons and Karen Kenney
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EVENTS BREW CITY CIGAR FESTIVAL Milwaukee
The 7th annual Brew City Cigar Festival was held this August in the Cream City and it was the largest yet, with participation from more than 65 premium cigar manufacturers, distilleries, wineries, breweries and cigar accessory companies. The event included live entertainment, cigar demonstrations, and casino games, all of which helped raise money for the Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin. José Luís Castillo, Roberto Montemayor, Beth Borst, Mike Doble, Joan Doble and Keith Horvath
Corinna Butowski and Mia Marzion
Juán López and Rocco Lacapra
Justin Klis, Tim St. Amand, Corinna Butowski and Gavin Degrave
Kim Hanson, Chris Hanson and Ricky Rodríguez
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Josh Rushlo and Gony Herrera
Jennifer Groh and Cheryl Jacobs
Alejandro MartĂnez Cuenca Joya De Nicaragua
Dion Giolito Illusione Cigars
Carlos "Carlito" Fuente, Jr. Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.
Erik Espinosa Espinosa Cigars
Karl Malone Barrel-Aged by Karl Malone
cigarsnobmag.com/podcast
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EVENTS DAVIDOFF CIGARS AT CLASSIC CAR CLUB OF MANHATTAN New York City
The Classic Car Club of Manhattan played host to Davidoff’s Taste the Elements event, which featured three great Davidoff cigars: Davidoff Nicaragua, Yamasa, and Escurio. In addition, Davidoff also set up their immersive Taste the Elements walkthrough experience, which much of the cigar industry first experienced at the IPCPR trade show in Las Vegas. Guests enjoyed food and an open bar overlooking the Hudson River.
Doug Laue, Joel Barad and Dylan Austin
Alberto Rosario and Rodolfo Pérez
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Lana Fraser, Valerie Richardson and Kyla Jones
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EVENTS WASHINGTON CIGAR & SPIRITS FESTIVAL Snoqualmie, Wash.
Snoqualmie Casino held its 9th annual Washington Cigar & Spirits Festival, which has become one of the premier events for cigar lovers in the Pacific Northwest. Eight different cigar manufacturers were represented, along with dozens of premium spirits. Guests enjoyed samples of WhistlePig, Glenfiddich and Ardbeg, to name a few of the spirits, which made for great pairing with cigars from brands like Diesel, Drew Estate, Eiroa, H. Upmann and La Palina.
Chloe Chanley and Travis Sanders
Patrick DeWitt and Narong Va
Ron Grant
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Josh Weltmer and Jon Stave
Ed Ryan
Jay Larsen
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EVENTS MIAMI MEGA HERF YACHT PARTY Miami
Smokers from around the country gathered in Miami to step aboard the Seafair Mega Yacht, a massive party vessel docked in downtown Miami. While navigating through Biscayne Bay, guests enjoyed cigars by Drew Estate, Davidoff, Cuban Crafters, and Fuera de Serie Cigars, to name a few. There were open bars, a buffet, a DJ — even when rain forced the party indoors, it only got better. The night ended with loads of raffle prizes being awarded to lucky winners.
Joey MAC Dizon, Lui Moran, Michael Pugh, Howard Holman and Anthony Brown
Meredith and Adrian Stokes
Tony Pichs, Carlos Escalona, Manny RodrĂguez and Jorge Salazar
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Sean Williams and the ladies!!!
Terri Hollingsworth and Jones Moore
Emma Viktorson, Traci Irven, Omar Jordan and Tahirah T. Bey
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EVENTS CAMACHO AT THE WHARF Miami
Camacho and Harley Davidson were the stars of this full moon party, where Sabor Havana was on hand with cigars for sale. It’s always great to see these two brands come together, as it makes for a great time and they’re two brands that feel like they go hand in hand. There was a fire dancer, cigars and great food. As with any event at The Wharf, what really set this event apart was the venue right on the Miami River. George Rami, Jorge Valdés, Tony Guerra, Carlos Escalona and Aquiles Legra
Jesús Santana, Samantha and Jessica Rodríguez
Fabián Barrantes and Samantha Meholick
Juan S. Vásquez, Rafael Zuzolo, Mauricio Rivera and John Clavijo
David Delancey, Robert Singer and Carlos Escalona
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Mike Martínez and Eliana Osorio
Renee and Earl Barkley, Cheryl Davis and Mikal Saboor
Oscar Butler, Starky Arias and Elvis Batista
Tommy Crews, Gabrielle Hamilton and Ramón Adato
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