Cigar Previews, Part 3

I’m only about 7 hours late getting this one posted today…what can I say? I’ve had a lot going on with getting ready for the Chattanooga Tweet-Up this week. Smoking lots of cigars, though, and taking lots of notes…let’s get to it…

Flathead Steel Horse by CAO

I called the Flathead the best thing CAO had done since General had taken over the company. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a worthwhile blend and concept because a year later, they decided to produce a motorcycle version, the Flathead Steel Horse.

Steel Horse is declared to be a different blend with the same Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper, although a different priming. They are only doing two sizes, at least at first, and they are both thick sticks. While the original Flathead was box-pressed and had a severely flat head (to go with the name), the Steel Horse is round (but does retain the flattened head).

This cigar was bigger than I generally like but it did has a beautiful oily wrapper that made it appealing. The band was a good tie in with the original Flathead but with motorcycle graphics. The olive drab color was not the most appealing but if it’s like the rest of the FHs each vitola will have its own color.

Ten minutes in I was very impressed by the sweetness and spiciness of the blend. I dare say it’s better than the original Flathead and that if this came out from a “boutique” brand it would be very popular with cigar geeks. I was the one who pushed for Flathead to be brought into the shop I work at and it’s done pretty well. I would expect the same from this blend.

Sevillana Reserva by Caldwell

One of in reblended and repackaged Caldwell Junior Varsity line that is now the Iberian Express. This one has Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers, a Dominican binder, and an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper leaf. (Cigar-Coop)

This stogie has the look of a mild cigar and the cold draw flavored one as well. The wrapped has a hay aroma and the foot had funky earth and wood notes.

I fired it up and got a strong cedar flavor up front and mildly sweet graham bringing up the rear with a touch of white pepper on the palate and some black pepper on the nose.

This cigar ended up being really what is needed in the Caldwell line…a mild to medium Connecticut Shade wrapped cigar that fills a gap in the lineup at a reasonable price point. It was very tasty and should sell well in “Caldwell stores.”

Island Jim

Definitely a unique look for this stick with the shaggy foot, strip of Shade leaf at the head and crazed Islander on the band. Okay, so he’s really not “crazed”…but as someone asked me, “Who dresses like that…in Pittsburgh?” I would have answered “Me!” if I didn’t want to maintain at least a little respect. I always dig a cool tropical shirt and straw hat. This cigar is made by Oscar Valladares, the same blender behind Leaf by Oscar. It uses Honduran filler and binder along with a Nicaraguan Jalapa wrapper leaf.

The Island Jim started off medium-plus in body with plenty of earth, coffee and pepper spice. After a few minutes it seemed to get a little muted. I also started getting a bit of tarry buildup on the head because the draw wasn’t great, so I decided to re-cut. That improved the draw and flavor.

I have to say I “liked” this blend but didn’t “love” it. It started to get tight on me again and more tar built up. I discarded it about the halfway mark. If they put a Robusto or Toro into the mix, I’d be more interested in trying this one again at some point, but I’m automatically turned off by the fact that it has one vitola, which is a torpedo tipped size. I have more draw trouble with torpedoes than with lanceros so I wasn’t all that surprised by the poor smoking performance of this one.

Duque by Kings Cigars

Pete and Anwar from Kings are constantly tinkering with blends before releasing them. They gave me something very similar to this cigar a few months ago and I really liked it, but this time Anwar told me, “I kicked up the blend a little with some more ligero.”

The roughly Short Story size and shape is appealing especially at the ~$5.50 price point.

The Connecticut Shade wrapper is creamy and smooth while the filler kicks up the body and spice just a notch. I got a medium strength red pepper on the retrohale.

As I went on I got more earthiness from what I can only assume is Nicaraguan filler. The Shade wrapper added a bit of creaminess but not as much as I had expected. The Duque turned out to be a full-force Conny that will surprise a lot of people.

Home by Dissident

Gorden Crippen from Dissident mentioned Home to me in an email several weeks before the show. I was talking with him about the Chattanooga Tweet-Up and Dissident’s involvement in it and was hoping Home could make it’s debut at our event, but…turns out it won’t be ready to ship until a few weeks (or a couple months) after the Tweet-Up. So…no go for that…

But he had samples to give us at the show and I decided to give this one a whirl on my last weekend at home before the Tweet-Up…smoking a Home at home, as it were.

I don’t recall all the details about this, except I think he said “Honduran puro” and even the pre-release band states that it’s made in Honduras. halfwheel states that it’s Honduran Corojo for wrapper and binder, along with some filler. The rest of the filler is Honduran Pelo de Oro. 2,000 cigars will ship in boxes of 10.

Prelight aroma didn’t hold much for me so I elected to just cut-n-light without spending too much extra time pondering the prelight. The initial puffs on Home were clean and smooth, with a rich natural tobacco taste along with understated earth and hay notes. I was surprised at the small amount of pepper, at least in the early stages, based on how much Corojo that was employed in the blend.

Home was truly delicious with its sweet natural tobacco flavors. I got just a touch of pepper throughout and the smoothness of the Pelo de Oro. Really just a fantastic cigar from the Dissident guys here.