Tatuaje Miami Noella

For many years, I seldom had any cigars in my humidor with ring gauge of less than 50, with the mid 50s being preferable. Fat cigars fit my fat fingers and fat face, so that's what I rolled with. Perdomo 10th Anniversary, check. Camacho Diploma, check. Even the tubby Nub, check.

Until the day I grabbed a Tatuaje Miami Noella. Wow. Though the 42-ring cigar felt tiny in the grip of my bratwurst-shaped fingers, the flavors and experience opened up new avenues to explore.

Tatuaje Miami Noella

One of Pete Johnson's earlier lines, Tatuaje Miami is a stalwart Nicaraguan puro rolled by Pepin Garcia. The chocolate brown wrapper is webbed with small veins, but has a silky texture with a mildly oily sheen. The draw has a perfect balance of resistance and smoke. Ash only holds on for just over an inch, perhaps due to the narrowish ring gauge.

The first half-inch is an explosion of woody spice, retrohaling will give you splinters here. The blast tones down to a steady pace of bold, woody tones with dark earth and leather. The spice subtly comes in again near the nub. Definitely a medium-bodied cigar with a muscular intro.

Tatuaje Miami Noellas are one of my frequent favorites, and I almost always leave the shop with a pair of these. If they would cost considerably less than $8, I'd walk away with considerably more of them. But, that's Life, right?

Archer Farms Nicaragua El Paraiso

Archer Farms Nicaragua El Parasio

You can get some great coffee at Target. Really, you can. Their house brand, Archer Farms, has some excellent fair trade and direct trade coffees available in both ground and whole bean. One of my recent favorites is the Nicaragua El Paraiso.

Finca El Paraiso is near Matagalpa, in central Nicaragua, a fair 3,000+ feet above sea level.The rich, volcanic soils and abundant rainfall there are excellent conditions for coffee.

A lovely, oily dark roast, flavors are dark earth, bitter cocoa with a subtle sweet fruit note. A cup of this dovetails perfectly, not surprisingly, with my favorite Nicaraguan cigars. Mates well with Oliva, Pepin, or even Padron.

Regular price is close to $8 for the 11 oz bag, but the sale price usually gets below $6.50. Keep your eyes open if you're a regular Target shopper.

H. Upmann Legacy Corona

Yeah, I know that some guys look on Altadis (and General Cigar) lines like they might Budweiser or Wonderbread; mass-produced units with little personality. Hard to call them cigars, right? Well, not every beer is a Shiner Bock and not every cigar is a Tatuaje Verite. Contrary to a connoisseur's position, I actually enjoy some of the Altadis and General Cigar marcas. Not all of them, mind you, but some.

H. Upmann is one of those disputed Cuban brands that Altadis claims, and they make a decent enough non-Habana cigar. Even before we get to the cigar itself, the Legacy's branding is nauseating. The bands at both head and foot are printed with a color scheme stolen from the Thanksgiving display at a Hallmark store. I guess that's what happens when you let straight men do the decor.

H. Upmann Legacy

Fillers are a blend of Dominican and Nicaraguan tobaccos, wrapped with Nicaraguan binder and jacketed in a shady Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper. The promo pap from the official website promises a "myriad of subtle and complex flavors" from the hallowed tobaccos of 2008. Okay, don't just sing it. Bring it.

Ignition brings bold flavors of wood and coffee, with a subtle savory spice for the first 1/2 inch or so. The blend settles down to a nice dance of the wood and coffee, with a little bitter cocoa. The spice comes back in for the last inch as a nice farewell. The draw was about perfect, and overall construction what you would expect from the well-practiced torcedores at the Flor de Copan factory in Honduras.

I like H. Upmann's Vintage Cameroon line, but would agree that they are fairly light-duty. The Legacy promises a more robust flavor profile and definitely delivers. I'll buy more, especially at the reasonable $7 shelf price, but I'm taking off those hideous bands as soon as I get home.

Foundry Tobacco Co. Talbot (5x60)

The Steampunk aesthetic would be the result if Star Wars were written as a play in the 1800s and Jules Verne did the costumes and set dressing. The overall effect is cheesy, like the props and special effects for 1970's episodes of the BBC series 'Doctor Who'. Folks dress up, make up spectacularly technical names for ordinary items, and generally have fun. Fun is good.

Foundry Talbot

Foundry is the project of cigar giant General Cigar Co., so kudos to them for thinking outside the usual cigar box. At least the gimmick for this is something semi-cool, unlike Furry or Plushie fetishes.

The Foundry Talbot, at 5" x 60 RG, resembles my stature.  The mottled brindle wrapper, fairly smooth with some veins, is reminiscent of the wrapper of the recent Partagas 1845 release. Information is scant on the unspecified multi-country blend used for the fillers.

 After lighting the cigar with my pandimensional pyrostat, the flavors started rolling; hay and leather notes, not much spice. After the first inch, I got the impression of butter and walnuts joining the sweet hay. Overall, a pleasant cigar with mild side of medium-bodied flavors.

  The burn was all over the place, needing touch up on a couple occasions. The cigar swelled up like a bratwurst on a grill, wrapper splitting up the side after the first inch. So, I left both band and faux-brass cog on the cigar in hopes it would hold the it together for the finish.

  At $9.50 per stick, the steampunk gimmick is the only thing going for this cigar to justify the price. The cigar offers decent enough flavors, but drop the gimmick and $2 from the price to make it attractive to more usual cigar consumers. Sure, I might be out $9.50, but at least I have a new accessory for the next theme-party.

Connoisseur, NOT

Heaven save us from the connoisseurs!

The word 'connoisseur' is a derivation from the French 'connaisseur', which translates (roughly) to English as 'insufferably snooty bastard.' I'm sure you've known one or two:

-The guy who only smokes Cuban cigars, and thinks all others as equivalent to Swisher Sweets
-The guy who only brews freshly ground coffee that he's roasted himself, thinking store-bought ground coffee is akin to necrophilia
-The guy who flashes his exspendy watch, going on about the Breitling 17 movement versus the ETA 2836

A Hugh Jass Rant

I even shy away from the label of 'aficionado,' as I'm not a metrosexual male who would light his Opus X with a $20 bill, while standing over his Titleist Pro 1V on the 3rd fairway at Pebble Beach. Actually, I'm a working schlub that prefers puffing an Oliva Serie O, while blasting my Noodle+ out of a bunker at my local municipal course. (By the by, The Serie O is a great golf cigar; good enough to really enjoy, classy enough to not embarrass you when giving one to a stranger, and cheap enough that you won't cry when you accidentally drop it into a muddy divot.)

I like humble geekery; being passionate about something and then delving deeply into the craft/trade/process that excites you. Plus, being a geek doesn't necessarily involve being a pretentious prick and looking down your nose at people that know/care less than you do.

If someone has to stick a label on me, I guess that 'Hugh Jass' fits just as well as any other.

Room 101 San Andres 213

  According to George Orwell's novel '1984', Room 101 is NOT a place you want to end up. The place where you're to be broken by your worst fears is not something I'd associate with a cigar. Oh well, I guess that Matt Booth thinks otherwise.

 Room 101's street cred extends beyond their custom jewelery to some excellently blended and decently priced cigars, thanks to the wise partnership with Camacho. Camacho, trading on it's acquisition by the cigar giant, Davidoff, has been creating excellent blends incorporating their classic Honduran corojo and newly-accessible supplies of excellent Dominican tobaccos. Couple exciting blends with Camacho's reliably excellent construction, and the Room 101's lines have become go-to cigars for many cigar lovers.

Room 101 San Andres 213

  The San Andres line features a filler blend of Honduran and Dominican tobaccos with a Camacho-signature Honduran corojo binder and San Andres wrapper. They're also noticeably more affordable than previous Room 101 offerings, with the 213 corona Pricing $5-6 per stick. The band is graced with a face that only a mother could love. Or perhaps a West Coast tattoo artist.

  This cigar wastes no time getting started with bold, nutty flavor with leather notes. After the first inch coffee joins the leather in the background, while the nutty flavor dominates. It's definitely an uncommon flavor profile, which is why I've kept enjoying these since they've been released. A subtle spice note drifts in to the flavors nearing departure, but is never obviously "spicy".

  The San Andres is a worthy, and easily affordable, extension beyond Room 101's Conjura and Namakubi lines. After enjoying a few of these, I'm still game to say: Alright, Comrade O'Brien, take me to Room 101!

Esteban Carreras 1961 Robusto

  There must be something special about 1961, as Esteban Carreras joins the illustrious company of Rocky Patel and Frank Llaneza in naming a cigar after that year. So what's the big deal?  Let's check Wikipedia for some hints.

  1961 Birthdays: Wayne Gretsky... Henry Rollins... Vince Neil... Ray "Boom-Boom" Mancini... George Clooney... Melissa Etheridge... Boy George...

  Cigar makers Hockey fans? I don't think that Miami has been a big force in hockey. Motley Crue fans, perhaps? I think Black Flag was better. Boxing, 'ER" reruns, Gay pop singers? Must not be a birthday thing..

  1961 Events: Adolf Eichmann's death sentence... Alan Shepard goes into space on the Mercury-Redstone 3... Roger Maris tops Babe Ruth's home run record... failed Bay of Pigs invasion... Fidel Castro declares Socialism for Cuba. Ahh.. I think we're getting warm.

  So, 1961 might mean more to Baby Boomer cigar aficionados than anyone else.

Esteban Carreras 1961 Robusto

  Esteban Carreras 1961 envelops a blend of  Dominican and Nicaraguan fillers with a Sumatran binder and Cameroon wrapper. The wrapper is medium brown in color and has mild veining over a mildly toothy surface. While burning, the ash at the core of the cigar is strikingly white.

  The flavors start out as sweet grass and dirt in a mild-medium bodied presentation. After the first inch, the earthiness recedes in favor of a leathery compliment to the dominant sweet grass notes. The last third still finds sweet grass and leather, with a subtle spice creeping in as the cigar winds down.

  Not a bad cigar if you like sweet grassy flavors, but the Esteban Carreras 1961 won't push the Fuente Hemingway out of my humidor. The 1961 robusto runs $6-7 on the shelf, which isn't terribly expensive. Still, I'd just as soon spend the extra $1-2 for the Hemi.

La Riqueza no. 3

What's in a name? Or, for that matter, a number? Some times a dish at your local Chinese restaurant, but in a cigar, a nod to Cuban cigar tradicion on both counts. 'La Riqueza' is a classic cigar name from Habana, and any habanophile will list off his favorites by numbers; Montecristo no. 2, Partagas Serie D no. 4, etc. Tatuaje mastermind Pete Johnson shows his affection for Cuban cigar tradition with both the name of this line and the numbering of the vitolas.

La Riqueza no. 3

The La Riqueza no. 3 is a box-pressy  5 5/8 x 46 Nicaraguan puro. If I remember right, I paid $60 for the box on the Devil's auction site. Not terribly expensive, though these will run you $7-8 in a cigar shop.

Once liberated from the cellophane sleeve, A quick whiff at the foot yields a smell of musty leather, wood. The dry, toothy wrapper isn't particularly smooth, but has a couple moderate veins.

Initial woody notes with a gentle, white pepper spice in the first 1/2 inch. After that, the spice subsides, and the rest of the cigar 's flavors are mainly wood and coffee. Just a nice, medium-bodied flavor that didn't vary much over the hour it took to burn.

The no. 3 is a nice, polite cigar that is heavy on neither the palate nor the wallet. Just like the Chow Mein #21 with egg roll..

So, Now I Have a Cigar Blog

Well, here it is, the Hugh Jass cigar blog. Now I just need to smoke some cigars, take pictures, take notes (maybe), read other reviews (more likely), write up some Hugh Jass reviews of my own, addle advertisers and sucker sponsors.

This is going to be fun.