Cigar Review: My Father Lancero

My Father

I decided to do a little impromptu review tonight while chatting with some cigar bloggers on stickam. It’s amazing how the love of a good smoke can bring people from across the USA together. Joining me tonight was Justin from lasvegASHtv.com, Tom from TomsCigars, Stew from The World According to Stew, Mike aka Agent 6 from TheCigarSpy as well as some StogieReview regulars. We chatted about cigars, music, and general nonsense as I smoked my My Father Lancero.

Cigar: My Father #4
Origin: Nicaragua
Size: 7.5 x 38 (Lancero)
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua

Appearance & Construction (20/20): The one thing that struck me odd about this cigar is no matter how hard I looked I could not find the roll lines. There were no seams on this cigar other than at the triple cap. I actually spent 15 minutes looking for the seams and I was totally dumbfounded. The cigar had some veins but nothing out of the ordinary and the oils were plentiful. The cigar had a small pigtail at the cap as well which was a nice touch, and for those that care about the band when these first came out the pink left me undecided but the smaller size on the lancero it looked pleasing to the eye.

Flavor & Notes (23/30): Compared to the #2 which I reviewed earlier in the year, this cigar was short on flavor. The smoke was very mild and despite offering mocha on the pre-light it was almost non existent for the duration of the smoke. The 1st third offered some slight notes of sweet spice. In the 2nd third it was more defined but still short. The notes of caramel were joined by some pepper, and we closed out the cigar with some pepper with a trace of mocha and cinnamon that disappeared rather quickly.

Burn/Ash/Draw (23/25): I rarely smoke in the house, so I had the fan on exhaust in my room. The burn line was slightly jagged but I will attribute that to the fan. It was never out of hand, but it was noticeable enough to be slightly annoying. The ash was full of ridges and a tad flaky but it held on rather well considering the gauge of the smoke. The burn was a bit too lose which shocked me considering it was 7.5 inches long.

Overall (18/25): I was really disappointed from this smoke as I expected more in terms of flavor and strength. I am very glad this was not my first venture into the stick as it could of been a huge turnoff to the brand. Add into the equation I am not a huge fan of lancero smokes. Thankfully I had some good company while smoking this cigar and some great tunes from knac.com

Rating: 84
Price: 9.00

Cigar Review: Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Maduro

Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Maduro

I’ve had these cigars sitting in my humidors for a while and I kept putting off smoking them. Why I am not sure as it is a cigar that I was very much looking forward to smoking. Perhaps it is that not one local B&M carries them by me and I was worried I would like them too much and not have easy access to them.

Cigar: Don Pepin Garcia Series JJ Maduro
Origin: Nicaragua
Size: 6 x 54 (Sublime / Toro)
Wrapper: Corojo Maduro
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Strength: Med/Full

Pre-Smoke: This well packed cigar is not as dark as your typical maduro. The corojo maduro wrapper can be a tad misleading to the naked eye. The scent off the wrapper is sweet while the foot offers a wood like spice. The cigar has its fair share of veins but nothing extreme and it features a cuban style triple cap. So far this seems like a maduro is supposed to be.

Smoke: This is definitely a full flavor big smoke producing cigar that on the light you were definitely hit with some well defined notes. The first third offers wood with some spices at the start. As I reached the end of the 1st third one of the most defined mocha notes I ever came across took control of the stick. The 2nd third of this cigar offered the same defined mocha notes with some pepper (yes I went into a sneezing frenzy!) and the wood notes remained as well. The final third of the cigar was a heavyweight bout between the wood and mocha notes each taking turns on the lead of the judges scorecard with the wood winning out in the end. The finish of the cigar was very woody.

Overall: Hands down the best Don Pepin Garcia I ever had. What I really liked about it was that it was a classic maduro in the sense it had a lot of sweetness to it in the mocha notes. I have noticed that recently a maduro cigar is not what they have been historically. A maduro cigar is supposed to be sweet, not necessarily strong. Today a lot of these cigars are strong fro the sake of being strong and offer nothing special. There are a lot of people at my local B&M that smoke these cigars because they like the buzz they are getting from the high nicotine content of the leaf. Perhaps I am being a cigar snob, but I believe these people smoke for the wrong reason. These maduro cigars turn the real smoker off to what a maduro is really meant to be.

Rating: 93
Price: $9.75

Cigar Review: 5 Vegas Miami

With the New York Jets, my team in the NFL coming out of Miami with a win I decided to pull this stick out of my humidor as a victory cigar. As a fan of Gang Green, I have high hopes this season with the addition of Brett Favre. According to the 5 Vegas website they say the following about the 5 Vegas Miami cigar,

Miami represents the most elusive blend in the celebrated portfolio of 5 Vegas. Carefully handcrafted with a blend of 1st generation Cuban-seed Nicaraguan long-leaf tobaccos that have been patiently aged and expertly fermented, the Miami caters to the most discerning of palates.

Miami features six standard shapes. Five from Nicaragua, and one from America’s little Cuba: Miami, Florida. This vitola, a shaggy-foot toro, is produced in extremely limited quantities by only our top echelon cigar artisans.

The Skinny:

Cigar: 5 Vegas Miami
Origin: Nicaragua
Size: 6 x 48 (Toro)
Wrapper: Nicaraguan Corojo
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Cuban seed Nicaragua & Dominican

Pre-Smoke: Looking at this cigar it a fairly ugly looking stick, or a stick with a lot of character. Do you look at a glass half empty or half full? The cigar had a lot of veins and was very bumpy. The scent of the wrapper was woody, while the scent of the foot was full out pepper. The pre-light draw was that of pepper and earth. Pretty much making these cigars a typical Don Pepin Garcia blend.

Smoke: The cigar is full bodied cigar with notes of pepper, leather and earth. Occasionally I picked up some wood notes as well. The draw on the cigar was tight and became a little annoying after a while. The highlight of this cigar was the burn. If you can envision in your mind what the perfect burn is, that is what the 5 Vegas Miami offered.  The finish was leather.

Overall: I was talking the other day with an owner of a well known tobacco farm in Ecuador and I told him I was getting a little tired of Don Pepin Garcia as all his blends while good are getting a bit repetitive. He informed me that Don Pepin Garcia just obtained a large amount of Ecuadorian grown wrapper for a future blend. This is something I am looking forward to, but more and more I feel like the cigar I am smoking that was blended by DPG is a rerun.

Rating: 87
Price: $8.00