Category — Random Cigar-Related Stuff

After two blustery days in Bermuda, I finally got a beachworthy one on Wednesday. It was perfect, in fact — bright, warm sun and a light breeze on Elbow Beach. Time for this Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill, purchased in Hamilton two days earlier.

The first half was easygoing, light and toasty with vanilla notes. Nothing like the in-your-face earthiness of the RyJ Tubos No. 2 I reviewed here previously. The Short Churchill developed the trademark Habano “twang” by the halfway mark, but never got far beyond medium bodied. The body was perfect for late morning, though I wonder if it has enough kick to satisfy later in the day. The build was excellent and the burn was slow. The Short Churchill is solid in every respect, though it doesn’t quite live up to its full-sized namesake, the RyJ Churchill Tubos.

For any BOTLs planning a visit to Bermuda, I recommend Chatham House on Front Street in Hamilton. The selection is average, though the staples were represented — cherry-picked vitolas from all the major marques. Their stock was well maintained and their prices reasonable. A Monte No. 2, Partagas Serie P No. 2 and the RyJ Short Churchill ran me $53.00. Fair enough.

The place to avoid is Churchill’s in St. Georges. Their stock was slim, picked over, and seemingly over-humidified.

Finally, not that any of us needed to be reminded why not to buy smokes in the hotel bar, but I’ll give you just one price comparison: Monte No. 2 at Chatham House, roughly $20; Monte No. 2 at The Veranda bar at Elbow Beach, $38.

My apologies for being absent of late. I penned a few notes from the road but was unable to get them posted. Such is the problem with being a one man blog show. Now that I’m back in the saddle, here goes…

The normal daytime high this time of year in Bermuda is 70-72. Well, today barely hit 60 with intermittent rain and gale force winds. (Yes, literally.) If I wanted to freeze my ass off, I could have gone to New Jersey for half the price.

Then again, you can’t get a Partagas Serie P No. 2 at your local Garden State tobacconist.

Since I smoked only one, I’m ill equipped to give you a full review of the PSP2. But I can say it performed well given the gusty conditions at The Veranda, one of Elbow Beach’s many outdoor bars. While my party sipped Havana Club Anejo mojitos and read from the bar’s impressive rum menu, I savored this torpedo.

It began leathery and nuttier than expected. Around the point at which I snapped this photo, the flavors turned deeper and darker with strong cocoa and earth notes. Despite this smoke’s reputation for being powerfully spicy, I found the spice to be more of an accent than the centerpiece. A rich, fulfilling Habano with surprising smoothness.

The original idea was to use this post to explain my rating criteria. But with message boards teeming with debate over methodology and even the usefulness of ratings themselves, I thought I’d post a few general observations as well.

First, I know it’s unfashionable to say so, but ratings serve a valuable purpose — to help inform purchase decisions.

Yes, I’m copping to it. I’m not too cool to heed the recommendations of others, even when those recommendations come with a trite little number attached. That’s not to say any single rating sends me rushing to the B&M, but the sum of ratings takes the randomness out of my next purchase.

I use the 100-point scale popularized by Cigar Aficionado. Is it a better system than others? Probably not. But it is a familiar scale, which is reason enough to use it. More on this later.

The noteworthy difference between my rating methodology and CA’s is that they are tasting blind and I am not. I see two enormous benefits to non-blind, or informed, reviews: (1) an informed review replicates the smoker’s real world experience, which does include a brand bias; (2) an informed review allows the reviewer to consider value in the overall rating.

The latter point is critical, since price is an object for every smoker I know. For me, once a stick approaches $8.00 or so, I raise the bar. If it doesn’t show me something I can’t get from a $4.00 stick, the rating needs to account for that.

I use four of the five criteria used on Top25Cigar, weighted in the following order: flavor, construction, value, appearance. From there, I make a relative judgment that reflects my overall experience.

The scale generally mirrors CA’s:

• 95-100 is the rare classic, the Dark Side of The Moon of cigars;
• 90-94 is exemplary, among the best;
• 85-89 is good-to-excellent, a respectable staple in any collection;
• 80-84 is just okay. Probably wouldn’t buy it again, but would happily smoke if gifted;
• 75-79 may have merit, but also has serious issues. Humi-fodder that eventually gets tossed;
• <75 should be banished to the composter before it contaminates something.

[Read more →]

For an inaugural post, I hoped for something that might differ from everyday stogie blog fare. So why not start with a smoke I can guarantee you haven’t seen before? With sloppy caps and lumpy heads, these bear all the hallmarks of amateurism. And for good reason – they’re the first handful of smokes I’ve ever rolled.

No, I’m not pimping a new brand. They’re the product of a cigarmaking class with master torcedor Wallace Reyes, built from Ecuador wrapper, Indonesian binder and Dominican/Honduran filler. The bunches were made a couple of weeks ago, and wrappers applied on January 14th.

To give you an idea of how tricky this can be, it took me an absurd two hours to make my first ten acceptable bunches and ten minutes apiece to apply the wrappers. Recognizing a proper bunch by feel is art unto itself. Keeping maximum tension on the wrapper leaf without tearing it is another. Even cutting the caps requires more coordination than I’d imagined. [Read more →]