Don Fernando’s cigarblog

This cigar was a gift from Smoking Gator. It comes packed in cellophane and has an aroma which combines chocolate with horse and barnyard smells. The cigar is 6 x 52 and has a very dark, almost black, wrapper but I suspect that this wrapper is blackened because my fingers turn brown when I touch the cigar. There are hardly any veins on the wrapper, and the band combines beautifully with the dark color. The construction feels good and the draw is fine. The predraw flavor is a full raisin flavor.

The flavor is a bit sweet wood and the smoke feels warm. I can also taste some coffee and after an inch it all becomes a bit creamy. The sweet coffee is becoming the main flavor until halfway where chocolate becomes the main flavor with coffee on the background. I can also taste some spices, but mellow and on the background. After 2/3^rd the spice becomes a bit stronger and I also discover some pepper. The chocolate and the creaminess disappear. The chocolate re-appears for the last two puffs.

The smoke is thick, white and there is plenty of it. The burn is ok, I had to correct once but on the other hand, the cigar didn’t die when I had to lay it away for a short urinal break. The ash is almost white and quite firm. This is a medium to full bodied cigar with full flavors.

Would I buy this cigar again?  Yes, I liked this cigar

Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 7 / 10
Appearance: 8 /10  
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 7 / 10
Aroma (first part)  7 / 10
Aroma (second part)  8 / 10
Aroma (third part)  7 / 10

A friend bombed me with this cigar and he said it was one of his favorites so my expectations of this 7 x 54 torpedo were pretty high. The wrapper is dark, almost leathery with one huge vein running over it. Even the feeling of the texture of the wrapper is leather like, dry and stiff or sturdy.

I tasted some coffee, not too strong though, with a bit of sweetness. After an inch the coffee turns into sweet chocolate. The texture of the flavor is mild creamy. The first half of the cigar is pretty blend and consistent with the flavors mentioned and in the second half I tasted some mild coffee which is replaced by chocolate and white pepper but unfortunately the pepper disappears quickly, only to return for the final couple of puffs combined with a strong dark chocolate flavor. This is the first Oliva that I wouldn’t have recognized as an Oliva stick in a blind taste, as it lacks the specific Oliva sweetness that you find in any of their sticks.

The draw is fine, the ash is white and the cigar produces a lot of smoke. The burn is very straight. This cigar is medium bodied and medium flavored.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, I had better cigars from Oliva

Construction: 7 / 10
Draw: 8 / 10
Appearance: 8 / 10
Smoke & ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 8 / 10
Aroma (first part) 7 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 7 / 10
Aroma (last part) 7 / 10

This big torpedo, 6 ¼ inch ring 52 looks pretty, feels good, maybe a bit too hard, has a fine predraw and a nice light aroma. I taste some tobacco with coffee with a little bit of leather on the background, what a nice flavorful cigar. The flavors are soft, comfortable and after an inch or 2 also creamy. The flavors continue to be creamy, warm and soft, even when there is a woody flavor added to the palate approximately halfway the cigar. Near the end the cigar grows in strength with a more woody flavor. There is no turning point, I could nub the cigar.

There is lots of smoke coming from this mild but flavorful cigar, it took me more then 90 minutes to smoke it

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, although it comes second to the DPG black

Construction: 14 / 20
Draw: 16 / 20
Appearance: 16 / 20
Smoke & ash: 9 / 10
Burn: 16 / 20
Aroma (first part) 7 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 7 / 10
Aroma (last part) 8 / 10

I bought a sampler of the Taboo LR series and the first LR I decided to smoke was t he Havana torpedo with a nice dark wrapper with some pretty veins on it. The tip of the torpedo is longer and slimmer then of any other torpedo I smoked in the past. The aroma reminds me of dry wood, and when feeling the cigar I could not notice any hard or soft spots in the cigar. The predraw was hard though.

Due to the bad draw it was hard to distinguish the flavors very well. I could taste some leather, combined with sweetness. The leather slowly grows in strength and becomes creamy close to the 2 inch mark. Halfway I could taste a hint of chocolate, soon to be replaced by salty nuts. The last part of the cigar became more flavorful.

The draw was horrible; I felt I was sucking a ping pong ball through a pipe. It was hard work to get some smoke through the cigar, and that affected both the flavors and the amount of smoke produced, which was poor. I tried to solve the problem by cutting some more of the cigar, and that caused the wrapper to unwrap.

Would I buy this cigar again? I would love to give it another try and to review it again because I do believe that this cigar has potential, but the bad draw ruined it.

Construction: 12 / 20
Draw: 8 / 20
Appearance: 16 / 20
Smoke & ash: 5 / 10
Burn: 14 / 20
Aroma (first part) 6 / 10
Aroma (middle part) 6 / 10
Aroma (last part) 7 / 10

This handmade Philippians torpedo from Manila cigars, with a 52 ring and a 150mm size looks pretty with its light Java wrapper and it feels well constructed, no soft nor hard spots in the cigar. There is a stable aroma and the predraw is just fine. 

At first I can taste some leather but not as strong as most Cuban cigars, soon to be accompanied by some sweetness, probably because of the Brazilian tobacco used in the filler and some flavors of wood. After about 2 centimeters the taste becomes a bit metallic, but a pleasant one. Later on the leather returns but weaker as before and halfway the cigar it becomes a bit bitter. It does get a bit better near the end though, but the cigar has already been spoiled.

The smoke is quite allright, not too thin or too thick and the amount of smoke is ok too. The burn is a bit inconsistent and gets crooked at the end, but the draw is almost perfect. The ash is very light colored and firm. 

Would I buy this cigar again?  No, the first part is good but the second part is too bad to buy again

Construction: 16 / 20
Draw: 18 / 20
Appearance: 15 / 20
Smoke && ash: 7 / 10
Burn: 12 / 20
Aroma (foot) 7 / 10
Aroma (body) 6 / 10
Aroma (head) 4 / 10

When I got back my cigars had arrived and owner Sasja had a special offer, a case of Oliva classic Oasis & Ovation cigars, the predecessor of the current O series, for a price you can never get these well aged cigars. He gave me a torpedo to try, and well, what can I say, I bought a case so a real review can be expected soon.

The El Cobre by Oliva is a very special and unknown cigar, it is the personal blend of the old man Oliva, the father of current Oliva CEO Jose Oliva and they are only sold at the shop of Brian Shapiro in the USA. The blend was used for family use only and was named after a little mining town in Cuba and is nicknamed ‘the lobotomiser’ and ‘el muerto’ while discountcigars mentions on their website that this cigar should come with a warning label because it’s such a full bodied and full flavored cigar.

A friend of mine met Brian Shapiro and Jose Oliva at a dinner in Amsterdam and Brian Shapiro was kind enough to send a bundle of torpedo’s and a bundle of robusto’s to the Non Plus Ultra shop in Den Bosch, as the owner of NPU is also the official importer of Oliva cigars in The Netherlands. My friend invited me to come to Den Bosch to try the El Cobre torpedo & robusto in the smokers lounge at NPU. And I gladly accepted that invitation, my curiosity was bigger then my fear of the reputation of this powerhouse.

We started with the 6.5 inch ring 52 torpedo, which has a heavy scent of manure, a nice dark wrapper and a distinctive band that compliments the cigar. The predraw released some sweetness.

While we all expected a big bang right at the start, the cigar surprised us with a nice, easy coffee flavor, not a powerhouse at all, but we could feel that the cigar was building up to something heavy and something special. The coffee was replaced by herbs and pepper and about halfway I discovered dark chocolate, my favorite. At the end of the cigar the pepper made a comeback.

The El Cobre torpedo produced a lot of smoke and light gray ashes. The draw was fine.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, if it becomes available in Holland or online.

Construction: 16 / 20
Draw: 16 / 20
Appearance: 18 / 20
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Burn: 18 / 20
Aroma (foot) 8 / 10
Aroma (body) 8 / 10
Aroma (head) 9 / 10

I reviewed 3 out of 4 Costa Ricans Vegas de Santiago torpedos so far, and here is the 4^th. The Vegas de Santiago Originales torpedo, 153mm long ring 50 made of 3 year old Costa Rican filler and binder with a Habano seed wrapper from Nicaragua.

What a nice cigar, light wrapper, good construction, a close to perfect burn, light draw, thick white smoke and a firm ash. The flavor is leather and wood which are accompanied by a hint of toast and some cacao. Halfway the leather and wood are decreasing while the cacao grows stronger and near the end some herbs show up, combined with the cacao. The turning point is very late.

Would I buy this cigar again? Yes, this one is just as good as the Vegas de Santiago puros torpedo.

Price / value: 17 / 20

Vegas de Santiago from Costa Rica is one of my favorite cigar manufacturers, and they have 4 different brands, the Puros, Originales, Don Luis and the Chaman. The Chaman is made out of filler and binder from Costa Riga and Nicaragua with a Connecticut wrapper from Ecuador.

I smoked the Torpedo, a 153mm ring 52 cigar which has a nice oily wrapper and the aroma of straw and hay. The first flavor is mild leather and halfway I could taste a pleasant sour which is gone pretty soon. There is not a lot of progress in this cigar, the flavor is very even. The smoke is thick and white and the ash is firm.

Would I buy this cigar again? No, I prefer the other Vegas de Santiago brands.

Price / value: 15 / 20

This nice Costa Rican cigar from the charming Vegas de Santiago factory is made completely with Costa Rican tobacco and has a 52 ring with a length of 152mm. Vegas de Santiago is a small factory, but they produce great cigars, not just puros with Costa Rican tobacco, but they also have other cigars with nice blends from other countries. Just check out their website www.vegassantiago.com

The wrapper of this puros torpedo is nice and oily, the cigar has the smell of hay. It is east to cut and even easier to light, just one cigar match does the trick. The flavors that I could taste are a pepper right at the start, combined with herbs and leather, those flavors slowly make place for hay and grassy flavors and a hint of cacao. Right at the end I could taste some pepper again. A nice medium to full bodied cigar.

The smoke is full, rich and white, the ash is firm and light grey. The turning point comes pretty late and about the burn I can say one thing: PERFECT, not a millimeter crooked, and the cigar doesn’t die soon, when you put it away to get a drink from the kitchen.

Would I buy this cigar again? I already did, and I will keep on doing it.

Construction: 18 / 20
Draw: 18 / 20
Appearance: 16 / 20
Smoke && ash: 8 / 10
Aroma (head) 8 / 10
Aroma (body) 7 / 10
Aroma (foot) 8 / 10
Burn: 20 / 20

Price / value: 18 / 20