Cigar Previews, part 5

And we’re back to our examination of some of the cigar samples I got from this year’s IPCPR trade show, with a short look at the flavors and brief notes on what my reaction would be if I owned my own shop (which I do not). Let’s dive in…

The Foundry Twins

This year, Michael Giannini’s Foundry line is looking into heritage and time travel at the same time. Basically the question being…what would some classic brands look and taste like 10 years from now. They chose the Bolivar and Ramon Allones brands, best known for their Cuban versions, to update and re-vamp for “the future.”

I have to say that the banding on both of these is just plain bad. Bad in a way that I haven’t seen since the Emilio AF Suave came out. If this is the future of design ethic, we’re destined to look a lot more like Walmart 10 years down the road.

But the most important thing is the blend, right? Yes, it is…although box and band design can’t be ignored because something has to get people’s attention in today’s very crowded humidors.

With the Ramon Allones, the cigar itself was a dark chocolate color with a pigtail and closed foot. The wrapper smelled of earth and cocoa powder.

The closed foot did produce a sweet chocolate note when lighting and it was as followed quickly by notes of coffee and earth and pepper spice when the filler got going. A very nice start.

As I puffed through I got notes of cedar, cinnamon and red pepper. It was all a very good, complex blend that I enjoyed quite a bit.

The Bolivar had a slightly lighter wrapper leaf…more of a milk chocolate and cinnamon color. Once I lit it up I tasted lots of cedar up front with some earth and pepper in the background.

I smoked through this one and found it to not really be in my wheelhouse but it was a well made cigar that will appeal to some people.

If these brands hang around long-term it will be because of the blends, not the design…and I would actually predict the design being tweaked, if not completely changed, within a few years. The blends are pretty solid and if I owned a shop I would probably pick them up because the bands will get people’s attention, at least in the short run. Get their attention, get them to try it…then keep them holding on until the packaging becomes more respectable. With price points in the $6.50 to $7.50 range, it should be a fairly safe bet.

CAO Havana Daydreamin’

This year, CAO debuted two new cigars in a partnership with Jimmy Buffet. Margaritaville will be the one with more attention paid to it, but as it’s a flavored cigar, I elected to turn my attention to Havana Daydreamin’, which is named after a Buffet album (and song) from 1976. The blend is said to be a tweaked version of the venerable CAO Gold, although no one really said how much different it would be. Both the Gold and the Havana Daydreamin’ consist of Nicaraguan fillers and binder along with an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper.

Once lit the Havana Daydreamin’ had fairly potent earthy notes with a creamy, cedary finish. It was mild to medium in body, moreso toward the medium than I remembered the CAO Gold being…but it’s honestly been quite a while since I had a Gold.

As I was getting well into the first third, I had basically made up my mind on this cigar. It was good. Perhaps not the best example of a Conny on the shelves today, but definitely far from the worst. It may or may not be very close to the CAO Gold, and therein lies the problem. If I own a shop and am already carrying the CAO Gold, I can’t see much reason to bring this in…it takes up 3 more facings for essentially the same stick. If I carry CAO Gold already, I’ve probably already been getting requests for it, so do I bring in the one that everyone’s been asking for or do I bring in this and tell people, “It’s almost the same thing.”?

At this point, what I’d probably do is bring in Havana Daydreamin’ alongside Margaritaville to re-inforce both brands for a few months, then move Margaritaville into the flavored section with the other CAO Flavours and replace this with Gold in future orders.

Gibraltar Extra

After spending “some time in the Mudville Nine,” the Gibraltar line moved from J.V. status to Iberian Express. The blend was changed and the name was amended with “Extra.” The new blend uses Dominican, Nicaraguan and U.S. fillers, a Dominican binder, and an Ecuadorian wrapper leaf. (some info from Cigar-Coop)

The wrapper is a gorgeous dark chocolate brown with lots of oils on it and it smelled of freshly tilled earth. I fired it up and was a little surprised at how full bodied it was…probably the fullest bodied of any Caldwell release I’ve had.

At the start I got a good amount of earth along with some dark roast coffee and cocoa powder notes, with just a touch of sweetness. Smoking through it I got deeper earth and chocolate notes along with a decent amount of red pepper.

I’ll be “testing” this one some more but this could very well be my favorite Caldwell blend to date.

Señorial Maduro

Just over a year after starting his own cigar company, Jose Blanco is keeping very busy. The original Señorial line debuted at last year’s show. The 65th Anniversary was released before 2014 was over. Then this year, he introduced line extensions to the original line, his wife’s cigar (Freyja, which I looked at in part 1 of this series) and a Maduro version of Señorial. This cigar features Dominican Piloto Cubano and Criollo 98 fillers, a Dominican Piloto Cubano binder, and a Mexican San Andres wrapper leaf, aged for 4 years.

This is one I’ve been looking forward to quite a bit. Why did it takes two weeks since the show to light it? I guess I was just waiting for the time to be right.

The Mexican wrapper on this one was rich and sweet smelling with a touch of that essential Mexican earthiness. There was no hint of bitterness on the preflight draw. Once lit it was sweet and chocolatey with a bit of Dominican graham and a bare touch of pepper on the nose.

I could tell within the first 10 minutes that this would continue to be a great cigar. The aging of the wrapper leaf mellowed out the bitterness present in so much Mexican lead, leaving a sweet balance that was simply great. This could be the best cigar I’ve had from the show so far…and it has Mexican wrapper leaf…a leaf I had all but given up on a couple years back.