JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
The
BEST CIGARS of
2018
editorials JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
26
PERFECT PAIRINGS
28
PERFECT PAIRINGS
37
TRAVEL – ARIZONA’S VALLEY OF THE SUN
AJ FERNANDEZ BELLAS ARTES / THE GLENDRONACH ORIGINAL
MY FATHER LE BIJOU 1922 / ZAFRA RUM 30 YEARS
Few places in the U.S. are more stogie crazed than the Valley of the Sun. Join us as we get to know the Phoenix area’s cigar scene, food, and desert landscapes.
53
TOP 25 OF 2018
64
2018 LIMITED EDITIONS
66
LOS CAIDOS
78
LECHÓN CHALLENGE
100
Q&A WITH NOVELIST KEITH SCRIBNER
Our annual ranking of the year’s best cigars is out. How many have you tried already? Take a look and let us know whether you’re on board with our picks.
Limited edition cigars aren’t eligible for our Top 25 list, but we wanted to recognize these special smokes. Don’t pass on any opportunities to bring them into your humidor.
Get to know Steve Zengel and the brand he created to help the families of fallen police officers and firefighters.
A recap of our first Cigar Snob Lechón Challenge, which pitted five cigar brands against one another in a whole hog roast off.
Keith’s latest novel is set in Connecticut tobacco country. We talked about the scenes and smells of his youth, as well as the role they play in his book, “Old Newgate Road.”
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11
features JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
16
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
18
FEEDBACK
22
WHAT’S BURNIN’
30
BRAND BREAKDOWN 30 ILLUSIONE ONEOFF 32 ALEC BRADLEY MAGIC TOAST
68
SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB
83
RATINGS
SUITE EMOTION
102
TWITTER SCOREBOARD
104
EVENT COVERAGE 104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120
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SMOKE THIS YBOR CITY CIGAR HERITAGE FESTIVAL FUENTE WITH STEFANO RICCI LA GALERA AT CAVA CIGARS CASA CUEVAS AT CASA DE MONTECRISTO BY PRIME PEPÍN GARCÍA AT BURN CHRISTMAS PARTY AT AFICIONADO’S FEATURING AJ FERNANDEZ LA ZONA PALOOZA CREATIVAS GROUP 17TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY TOY DRIVE
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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
VO L . 11 IS SU E 1 www.cigarsnobmag.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Erik Calviño SENIOR EDITOR Nicolás Antonio Jiménez COPY EDITOR Michael LaRocca SALES & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Oscar M. Calviño PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Ivan Ocampo ART DIRECTOR Andy Astencio DIGITAL RETOUCHING SPECIALIST Ramón Santana CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR Florin Safner CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS David Benoliel Andy Astencio EVENT PHOTOGRAPHERS Jamilet Calviño Jerome Berry Paul Perdomo Ramón Santana Cover Photography by David Benoliel www.davidbenolielphotography.com Cover Model - Anna Louise Cigar Snob is published bi-monthly by Lockstock Publications, Inc. 1421-1 SW 107th Ave., #253 Miami, FL 33174-2509 Tel: 1 (786) 423-1015 Cigar Snob is a registered trademark of Lockstock Publications, Inc., all rights reserved. Reproduction in part or full without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. Cigar Snob is printed in the U.S. Contents copyright 2006, Lockstock Publications, Inc. To subscribe, visit www.cigarsnobmag.com
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In the history of the state of Florida, where I reside and from where this magazine is published, there have been exactly 100 Speakers of the state’s House of Representatives. The Speaker is the presiding member of the House and it is an incredibly powerful and prestigious position at the state level. To put it simply the Speaker of the House and the Senate President have a profound impact on what becomes law, what doesn’t become law, and which existing laws get repealed in the state during their term. When the 100th Speaker of the House was being sworn-in on November 20th, 2018, I had the distinct honor of being present alongside his family. Speaker Oliva and I have been the closest of friends for more than 25 years. We’ve been there for each other in the low times and have been blessed to celebrate many victories together, but nothing could have prepared me for the pride I felt as my friend, someone who is like a brother, was officially the state’s 100th Speaker of the House. To borrow a term from House Chamber protocol, I would like to take a personal privilege to congratulate José Oliva for following his passion, achieving his goals, and doing so with a level of integrity and class that is all but extinct in the public sector. We’re living in a time where thanks to social media; everyone has a very public opinion of what is wrong with our government at every level. If you’ve got opinions and think you know how to fix it, I challenge you to step up and run. The men and women elected to those positions, high and low, are mostly regular people like you, me, and José. This is our Top 25 issue! This is the issue where we look back at the best cigars of 2018, re-smoke them, re-rate them, and the rank the 25 best cigars. The culmination of this long and smoky exercise is… drumroll please…. You actually thought I would tell you here and ruin the surprise? Finish this letter and flip to p. 53 to see the list! Once you’ve looked it over, stressed out about it, and Tweeted @cigarsnobmag about how much you agree or disagree with our choices, flip to p. 68 to ease the tension. This issue’s photo shoot is nothing if not smokin’ hot! We basically followed the beautiful Anna Louise around with a camera in a penthouse suite as she smoked Casa Cuevas cigars. Yeah that wasn’t a terrible day. While this was going on in Miami, our senior editor and our art director were out in the desert being professional tourists working on a travel story about the cigar
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scene in the greater Phoenix area. It’s a fun piece that starts on p. 37. There’s a lot of good in this issue so I’ll let you go and get into it now. I hope you have an outrageous 2019 full of health, love, and the best cigars money can buy. Keep ‘em lit,
Erik Calviño ecalvino@cigarsnobmag.com
SMOCKING GUN On a recent episode of the Cigar Snob Podcast, we talked about Donald Trump’s “smocking gun” tweet and asked listeners to tweet at us with their ideas for how we might make “smocking gun” a part of the cigar world’s lexicon. Here’s what we got. That cigar store customer smelling a cigar through the cellophane
— @LigeroLuchador on Twitter El smocking gun is the old guy overdressed at the cigar lounge who is always winking at the ladies.
— @alexmacosta on Twitter That one guy in the lounge that has to give his in depth review of what he’s smoking to no one in particular…
— @theschmooz on Twitter
A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS My favorite episodes of the podcast included those remembering José Orlando Padrón, Arsenio Ramos and Gilberto Oliva, Sr.; those were special and I learned a lot. Thank you for that. I really loved listening to the episode with Joya de Nicaragua’s Alejandro Martínez-Cuenca because his stories were the best!
Rich C. Via Facebook All of them classics, Rich. Glad to see you’re enjoying the podcast and hope some upcoming episode becomes your new favorite soon.
MAKING MOVES Congratulations from me and my colleagues at Cigar Weekly. I saw a copy of Cigar Snob at my local grocery in Metairie, Louisiana yesterday. Never dreamed this would happen. Well done and much success.
Thomas Bender Via Facebook Thanks for the kind words. Always cool to see Cigar Snob on newsstands. Send us a photo next time!
SHOW ME THE WAY TO FLAVORTOWN I’ve been smoking cigars for years but I have never been able to recognize the various flavors like nut, cream, coffee, etc. I do know what I like and don’t like in cigars but I wish I could really pin that down. Any suggestions?
Dan Marsh Media, PA via info@cigarsnobmag.com Most issues of Cigar Snob have a feature in them called Brand Breakdown. There’s one in this issue, as a matter of fact. The flavor wheel we use there is a good guide to use as you smoke. Just let the smoke linger, try retrohaling, and think about what that experience reminds you of. And remember that your palate is yours alone. You might not pick up all the stuff we point to in tasting notes.
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DAVIDOFF WINSTON CHURCHILL LIMITED EDITION
Davidoff is releasing a limited edition cigar called The Traveller inside its Winston Churchill brand. Production of the 5 x 50 Robusto is limited to 8,000 boxes, all of which feature new artwork that references some of the places Winston Churchill visited in his life, like London, Washington and Marrakesh. There will also be an even more limited run of 4,500 packs of five Coronas (5 x 43) that will be available exclusively at Duty Free shops outside the United States. The blend comprises Dominican wrapper, Mexican binder, and fillers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. In addition, Davidoff is releasing a collection of accessories with this cigar. There are two humidors (one with a capacity of about 75 cigars, while the other fits about 35), an ashtray, and a cutter.
That line includes five blends: Fonseca Classic, Fonseca Vintage, Fonseca Cubano Exclusivo, Fonseca Cubano Limitado and Fonseca Nicaragua (which Quesada listed in that order in a recent press release, noting that they’d put them in order of increasing “intensity”). “With Fonseca we have managed to offer cigar enthusiasts all types of smokes in one brand. From a medium but flavorful smoke such as the Fonseca Classic to a more intense and full-bodied smoke in the Fonseca Nicaragua. Now was the time to redesign the brand, and we have managed to do so with something that cannot be missed, a solid red lid with the iconic Fonseca Logo on it,” Quesada Cigars president Manuel “Manolo” Quesada in a press release. Updates to the line’s packaging design include a return to the original 1974 band for all the blends and a secondary band to identify each blend. Further, the Fonseca Cubano Exclusivo will no longer be box-pressed, although the blend will incorporate all the same tobaccos. Quesada celebrated these changes with a launch event Nov. 28 at the Nat Sherman Townhouse in New York City.
DREW ESTATE SHIPS NORTEÑO EDICIÓN LIMITADA
In the month of February, Davidoff is calling on smokers to post photos to social media “of their favorite Winston Churchill cigar at their preferred Davidoff location or favourite travel destination” using the #churchillthetraveller hashtag. Those posts get you a chance to win a Winston Churchill accessory.
QUESADA CIGARS REDESIGNS FONSECA BRAND Quesada Cigars announced a design overhaul for its Fonseca Classic premium line earlier this year; now the company has completed a redesign of the entire Fonseca line.
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Drew Estate shipped the Herrera Esteli Norteño Edicion Limitada to Drew Diplomat retailers. The original release was in 2015. The cigar blend features filler tobac-
cos from Nicaragua, binder from Honduras, and a Mexican San Andrés wrapper. In this release, the cigars were rolled in 2016 and aged two years in the molds from the initial production, according to a Drew Estate release. The 7x48 box-pressed Churchills are packaged in 15-count boxes with an MSRP of $217.96 per box. “The Norteño Edicion Limitada continues to be one of my favorite projects at Drew Estate,” said Drew Estate Master Blender Willy Herrera in that press release. “This cigar showcases the complexity in the blending process, requiring tweaks of the classic Norteño blend to really shine in the Churchill Vitola.”
RETURN OF NESTOR MIRANDA COLLECTION SPECIAL SELECTION Miami Cigar & Company will reintroduce the Nestor Miranda Collection Special Selection to its portfolio as part of the company’s 30th anniversary celebration. Special Selection was originally launched in the mid-2000s. Like the original release, this cigar will be manufactured by My Father Cigars in Nicaragua. The Miami Cigar release that announced this relaunch didn’t list vitolas, but did note that they would all be priced in the $7.00 range. “2019 is going to be an exciting year,” said Jason Wood, MCC Vice President. “We try as much as possible not just to hear customer feedback but to act on it, and one common request was to bring Special Selection back to retail. Customers will know it the moment they see it as well because of our choice to enact very minimal adjustments to packaging and presentation. We can’t wait to share the enthusiasm with cigar enthusiasts again around this line. For now, we’re only bringing back the Habano Rosado, with much more to come this year in celebration of our 30th anniversary at MCC.” The cigar is scheduled to ship to retailers in the Spring.
FOUNDATION SHIPS NEW CIGAR WITH NEW WRAPPER DEVELOPED BY NICHOLAS MELILLO Foundation Cigars began shipping its Tabernacle Havana Seed CT #142 to retailers. The blend comprises a Mexican San Andrés binder, Nicaraguan filler, and the wrapper from which the cigar takes its name. According to a release from Foundation Cigars, “Master Blender Nicholas Melillo has been working with choice farmers in the Connecticut River Valley since 2014 to develop the Havana Seed CT #142 wrapper. “The seed is extremely rare and unlike any other tobacco in the world. Due to the incredible amount of oil from the plant, it takes 3 years to undergo the fermentation
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process. The results make for a delicious medium to full bodied blend with hints of cedar, spice, rich earthiness and natural sweetness.” The cigar is available in four vitolas: Doble Corona (7 x 54), Toro (6 x 52), Corona (5 ¼ x 46) and Robusto (5 x 50).
NEW STUDY REEXAMINES AND CALLS INTO QUESTION FDA CONCLUSIONS ON THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF CIGAR REGULATION Consulting firm Magnum Economics has released a report that examines the Food and Drug Administration’s economic analysis of the potential economic impact of regulating premium cigars. Cigar Rights of America shared the report
with its mailing list. In a statement that accompanied the Magnum Economics analysis, CRA wrote, “The report uses FDA’s own assumptions about the effects of the regulations and updates the calculations to use more recent government data. It also depicts that compliance with the regulation will be so difficult and costly that it threatens the very existence of almost all handmade U.S. cigar manufacturers and importers based in the United States.” CRA went on to quote the report’s author, Antonin Scalia Law School adjunct professor and former FDA economist Dr. David Zorn, as saying, “Using FDA’s own cost estimates, the regulations will likely cause 85 to 90 percent of domestic cigar manufacturers and importers (320-338 small businesses) to go out of business, leading to the loss of over 3,500 U.S. manufacturing jobs and almost 1,800 jobs at U.S. importers.”
AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes the GlenDronach Original Aged 12 Years Back on November 17 of last year, we hosted the Cigar Snob Lechón Challenge at the InterContinental Hotel in Downtown Miami (there’s a coverage of the event on p. 78). The event was the first of its kind and it took our team months of planning to pull off. On the day of the event, it was all hands on deck to ensure it went off without a hitch. Thankfully, save for the broken hearts of the competitors who didn’t win, it ran about as smoothly as one of these multi-vendor cook-offs can. After the winners were announced, the raffle items were doled out and the last of the 382 pork-filled, boozed up guests left the venue. Our exhausted crew gathered for a ceremonial toast and cigar. We’d spent so much time planning everything else that we didn’t set aside any cigars or booze for the occasion. But as the cleanup crew was packing up the leftover hooch and smokes, we snagged a bottle of GlenDronach Original 12 and a box of AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes. Although there were other cigars to choose from, we chose the Bellas Artes because AJ Fernandez’s team had won the Lechón Challenge so we thought it’d be fitting. Little did we know what the pairing had in store for us. The GlenDronach Original 12 is a Highland single malt Scotch matured in a combination of Spanish Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks. The distillery, located deep in the East Highland hills, has been perfecting the method of sherry cask maturation since its founding in 1826 by James Allardice.
THE PAIRING After the dust had settled from the Lechón Challenge, we recreated the pairing back at Cigar Snob HQ and to our delight, it tasted even better after a good night’s rest. The GlenDronach pours into a Glencairn whiskey glass with a deep amber color glistening in gold. Rather than rush right in, we let the spirit swirl in the glass for a bit, admiring the nose. After adding a few drops of spring water, the bouquet of caramel, vanilla, spice and pear comes through in waves. On the palate the whisky is rich and creamy up front with a marked sherry sweetness accompanied by fruit, spice, and a light touch of oak. At this point it was time to introduce the Bellas Artes with a well-balanced profile of pepper, cedar, and nuts with a bit of cream on the finish. The cigar’s pepper and cedar helped to accentuate the GlenDronach’s caramel and vanilla notes exceptionally well. LOCATION: JoJo Tea (sipjojo.com)
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CORONA GORDA
ILLUSIONE ONEOFF COUNTRY
Nicaragua
WRAPPER
Nicaragua
BINDER
Nicaragua
FILLER
Nicaragua
PRICE
$ 11.95 - $ 30.00
Dion Giolito Owner
What drew you to using Aganorsa tobacco? There’s so much talk of trying to recreate what Cuba does. It’s like French wines. Everybody says French wines are the best. But which wines? France makes some of the best wines in the world, but not all French wines are world-class. There are world-class wines that come from Spain, Australia, Napa Valley. When I found the tobacco that Pedro Martín (the tobacco legend whose operation was purchased by Aganorsa founder Eduardo Fernández) was sourcing, it was unlike anything else out of Nicaragua. Taking the traditional techniques of Cuba and implementing them in Nicaragua, he made the best of what Nicaragua had to offer. With Eduardo Fernandez’s materials, we consider that these are the best standalone products that come out of Nicaragua. What does it mean to be working with someone like Eduardo Fernandez at Aganorsa? You don’t have a farm or a factory, but you are very hands on and you have credibility in your own right.
AVAILABLE IN 8 SIZES
TOP 3 SHOWN
Canonazo 6 1/8 x 52
+53 Super Robusto 5 3/4 x 48
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Corona Gorda 5 3/8 x 46
It’s a really special relationship that a brand like mine has with Aganorsa and Eduardo. Eduardo has afforded me the luxury of letting me root through his entire business. He’s really entrusted a person like me to be able to go look at pilones. That’s 90 percent of what I do
when I’m here — just making sure the tobacco of the quality I look for makes its way to the galera so that we can get that consistency, not only with Illusione but everything. It trickles down. Having that access to be able to put my hands on any and all of his tobaccos is a rare opportunity for a person like me in this business. The more I immerse myself in that, the more I feel that passion. How do you go about translating this traditional product into a story for your non-traditional brand? Everybody has a story in this business. A lot of those stories run into each other. Everybody says they have the best tobaccos and the best rollers. In our case, I can say it’s true. From my standpoint, Aganorsa is as close to being vertically integrated as you can possibly be. It helps that I have 25 years of experience in retail and have a sense of market trends. I was able to bridge that gap and bring some of that information to people like Eduardo and my other friends in the industry. One Off is a cigar that people might remember from many years ago. Why acquire this brand for Illusione? I was able to procure the brand a couple of years ago. It was a grandfathered brand and I remember that it was like a Roman candle. It made a huge impact. And when the dust settled, for whatever reason, it went away. But it left a real viable impact. It was one of the only brands, in my experience, that people still had a story about. Other brands come and go and people forget about them. But you hold up the One Off and people say, “Yeah, I remember that!” So I kept my eye on it for years. The opportunity arose to get it and now we’re making it here at Aganorsa. The stars aligned. The tobaccos we use came together immediately because of the abundance of tobaccos that Eduardo has from superior crop years. Everything came together. The market will tell. We know it’s a beautiful cigar and we hope that everyone else agrees.
SWEET
CHOCOLATE
NUT
EARTH
CREAM
WOOD
COFFEE
SPICE
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IN THE VALLEY OF THE SUN
Papago Park, Phoenix
BY NICOLÁS ANTONIO JIMÉNEZ / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDY ASTENCIO
moking a cigar can transport you. No matter where you are in the world, lighting up and experiencing those flavors and aromas can be a way to connect with the places where the tobaccos were grown and the cigars were made. From a cigar lounge in Manhattan, a domino table in Miami, or a backyard in L.A., you can take a puff, close your eyes, and feel a little closer to those lush tropical valleys. So it can seem a little surprising that one of the most cigar-crazed places in the U.S. is a growing metropolis nestled into an arid desert in the American southwest. We ventured to the Valley of the Sun to get to know the Phoenix area’s cigar scene and explore some of its vast desert landscape. After landing at Phoenix Sky Harbor International, we headed north to Paradise Valley Village, a mostly residential suburb that’s littered with restaurants and sports bars. After making a pit stop for lunch, we made our way to our first stogies of the trip at Ambassador Fine Cigars. Ambassador is the perfect picture of high-end cigar retail. The whole place feels clean, sleek, well ordered, but still inviting. There’s a cozy Montecristo-branded lounge area that’s open to any customer as well as a far swankier, more secluded Davidoff lounge that’s open to either members or anyone who purchases a day pass. If you’re on a leisurely trip, you’ll probably want to get out some, but this is a great place to get work done if you’re on a business trip and want to enjoy a cigar while you’re being productive. It’s also decidedly Davidoff in its design — an elegant blend of classically
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plush cigar lounge with sleek, modern art everywhere you look. Even if you don’t get yourself a day pass, ask if you can take a look at the large Sedona landscape in the Davidoff lounge that was painted by artists and Davidoff brand ambassadors Mike Baca and Fernando Romero. The 1,000-square-foot humidor houses a selection that can stand toe-to-toe with — if not surpass — that of any retailer in the metro area on variety, depth and quality. Two things stand out here. First, there’s the ample selection of all the staple luxury brands — Padrón, Fuente, My Father, and especially Davidoff. This is one of a select few stores in the country, for instance, that carries Davidoff’s ultrarare Oro Blanco cigar (which was recently featured on GQ’s web series called “Most Expensivest Shit” featuring rapper 2 Chainz). The second thing that stands out is the pair of Vartan cigars, named for Ambassador’s dapper owner, Vartan Seferian. “I have two blends made by Davidoff. The first is a medium body, which is the Vartan,” said Vartan. That core blend comprises Dominican filler and binder with an Ecuadorian Connecticut-Habano hybrid wrapper. “I liked the cigar, so I put my name on it. It comes from Davidoff, so you know we use aged tobaccos.” “A few years later, I introduced the Vartan Zoravar, which is the fuller bodied blend and that’s a phenomenal cigar,” he said. The Vartan Zoravar features Dominican filler, an Ecuadorian Connecticut-Habano hybrid binder and a Nicaraguan wrapper. “I’m Armenian, and Zoravar in Armenian means ‘strong man.’” Those cigars cost around $15, depending on the vitola. Vartan got his start in the business with a single 750-square-foot store in 1997. Now he’s got two
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The private Davidoff Lounge at Ambassador Fine Cigars; The view on the trail at McDowell Sonoran Preserve; the bar, lounge and humidor at Churchill’s Fine Cigars in Scottsdale; a special exhibit at the Musical Instrument Museum stores — one 2,600-square-foot location in Peoria and one 4,100-square-foot store in Paradise Valley, near Scottsdale. Vartan’s expansion is a thing to celebrate if you love cigars, but it’s also best understood in the context of Phoenix’s ongoing cigar boom. “Tampa, Atlanta and Phoenix are three cities that sales reps and others in the industry who travel the country always mention (for their cigar saturation). But 21 years ago, when I started, there weren’t this many shops. Now it seems like for every couple of shops that might close over the course of a year, three or four pop up in their place. We’re all different, and you have to differentiate yourself.” From Ambassador, we made our way north to the Musical Instrument Museum, which Vartan and some others had recommended highly. Now, there’s a good chance you’re thinking the same thing we were. To put it plainly, “That sounds lame as hell.” But we took Vartan’s word for it, and man, were we glad we did. The Musical Instrument Museum is a sprawling facility with a collection of nearly 14,000 instruments from 200 countries. At any given time, about half of those are on display. Whether you have curious kids you want to tire out letting them beat on some drums in the Experience Gallery, you’re a musical nerd ready to geek out on the collection, or you’re a history buff and want to view a world of history through a new lens, the MIM is a place you can easily spend several hours. No, you won’t be
smoking cigars while you walk through the exhibits, but that’s about the only knock I can offer on this place. When we visited, there was a special exhibit on the history of the electric guitar, which featured a jaw-dropping collection of historical artifacts from across the evolution of the instrument. Ready to relax with a cigar and a drink, we headed back south again to Churchill’s Fine Cigars, which is in a small shopping center between Phoenix Mountains Preserve and Papago Park (more on that later). That’s the Phoenix location. Churchill’s also has stores in Tempe, Glendale and Ahwatukee. “We’re a full-service cigar shop and also have a cocktail lounge,” said Churchill’s owner, Bart Gerber. “We have a pretty awesome selection of cigars and we’re a TAA member, so we have all the TAA-exclusive cigars. We’re a craft cocktail lounge and have a lot of bourbons, like Pappy Van Winkle and Buffalo Trace, along with a big selection of single malt Scotches. The atmosphere is low key,
upscale, and it’s one of the few places in Arizona where you can smoke and drink inside.” Just a ten-minute drive from the airport, this is a great place to hang out during a long layover if you can swing it. The Phoenix Churchill’s is also a short distance from some of the large resorts in the area, making it an excellent place to stock up on cigars or get a change of scenery if you’re staying at one of those. The selection is excellent, and Bart says that Padrón has become his customers’ favorite among all the brands he stocks. “Phoenix’s cigar scene came of age during the boom in the mid 90s. We opened in early ‘95,” said Bart. “We’re the second oldest store in town. So we’ve grown as the town has grown. The cigar scene is very vibrant.” When you’re not smoking, Phoenix is loaded with events and activities for sports fans to enjoy — provided the weather is right.
“If you’re a golfer, there are great courses here,” he said. “Troon North is generally considered to be the best public course in town. Spring training for baseball is great if you’re a baseball fan. We have the Fiesta Bowl, NASCAR races. There’s always something going on during the winter months. Just stay away during the summer.” We loved Churchill’s Casa de Montecristo lounge and the wide selection of spirits, but the most compelling reason to choose this bar might be across the parking lot. “Right next door we have Steak 44,” Bart said, “which is generally considered to be the top steakhouse in the city. So we get a lot of customers who go there for dinner and then come in here for an after-dinner cigar. We have a such a great relationship with Steak 44 that every year we do a cigar dinner here in the store. They bring the food straight over from there, so we become an extension of the restaurant.” After a Casa by Caldwell (which Caldwell Cigars makes exclusively for Casa de Montecristo lounges) and a glass of Cooper City Bourbon by Arizona Distilling Co. (when in Rome), we made our way to Steak 44, where our Art Director Andy Astencio commenced his usual routine of torturing me by making me wait until he was done taking pictures of our food before digging into it. Steak 44 is everything you want a great steakhouse to be. It was opened in 2014 by Jeffrey and Michael Mastro (the guys who founded the more famous Mastro’s steakhouse brand, which they sold to Houston-based Landry’s the previous year when they’d built 11 restaurants around the country) along with their father Dennis and Scott Troilo. The atmosphere is unmistakably upscale, but the
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53
LOS CAIDOS (THE FALLEN)
New Jersey native Steve Zengel combined his love of cigars, motorcycles, and helping others into a charitable cigar company that seeks to help the families of fallen law enforcement officers and firefighters all over the country by giving back $1 for every cigar sold.
the famed Nicaraguan cigar maker Aganorsa and blended an excellent medium-bodied cigar packaged in a somber black and blue cigar box with meaningful details to celebrate the lives of the fallen. They named it Los Caidos. “I scraped together what money I had and released 500 boxes and started going to [charity] events not as Beach House Cigars but as Los Caidos and the community received it very well,” Steve said.
On a cool, rainy evening in Midtown Manhattan, a group of supporters of the initial Los Caidos release gathered at Club Macanudo with Steve and his team to celebrate the return of Los Caidos. Much like the first release, the new Los Caidos is made by Aganorsa in Nicaragua, but one of the things they learned from the “film room” was that firefighters needed a cigar to honor their fallen from the get-go. “The firemen were a little pissed at first, they kept saying ‘when are you doing the red version?’ Steve explained. “So we got that done before the FDA deadline and it was well received.”
fter a career as a high school head basketball coach and later a stint as an assistant coach in college, Steve decided to combine his love of cigars with his finely honed people skills. And after a crash course in the cigar business from Virginia Beach retailer Scott Regina of Emerson’s Cigars, he opened Beach House Cigars in Seaside Heights, NJ in March 2012. You might recognize the town of Seaside Heights from news coverage of Hurricane Sandy. The town was leveled by the devastating storm in October 2012. Beach House Cigars was located a mere 1,000 feet from the beach. Steve eventually re-opened Beach House Cigars in his hometown of Wall Township, NJ. That’s where the Los Caidos story begins.
LOS CAIDOS PART I To create the cigar, Steve collaborated with
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“One of the things you do as a coach is go into the film room, because the film doesn’t lie, and you see where you got your ass beat. So that when you come back on the floor it doesn’t happen again. So 2017 was my time in the film room and I came back onto the floor in 2018 and I’m not getting my ass beat this time.”
THE RETURN
INTERVIEW BY ERIK CALVIÑO
After the tragic deaths of two local law enforcement officers, Steve’s Beach House Cigars started getting involved in the small charities being set up by the families and friends of the fallen. They’d host charity events and invite Beach House Cigars to sell cigars to raise money for the families. “I was going out there constantly with Beach House Cigars branded cigars,” said Steve, “and I was giving a couple hundred bucks back at the end of the day. But these families needed $20,000, not $200. I felt like it was a drop in a bucket. It felt insignificant.” Steve shared his thoughts with a friend and Jersey Mike’s franchisee who told him all about the sandwich chain’s charity initiatives. The idea to launch a charity-driven cigar brand was born.
and some funds were distributed to families of fallen law enforcement, it didn’t turn out exactly as he had planned. Steve compared the mistakes he made with the initial release to losing a game in basketball.
Incredibly, their first order came from Cigars International, the giant online cigar retailer. Steve related these events to us during a recent interview: “Someone from [Cigars International] had been vacationing at the Jersey Shore and inquired about all the boxes of Los Caidos that had just been delivered to the store.” He explained what he was trying to do with this charity brand, and before long they placed an order of Los Caidos to sell on their site. The exposure proved to be invaluable. “They picked it up before any other retailer and not a lot of people know that, but it tremendously helped. Once that visibility got out there, we quickly sold out within a year.” The original idea had been to take the proceeds from the sale of the cigars and distribute checks to families of the fallen nationwide as part of a cross-country motorcycle ride that Steve called Life of a Ridetime. And while the cross-country ride did take place
This time around, Los Caidos released 1500 boxes for police and 1500 for firemen. “In the box there are 12 spaces, the first 10 contain a 6 x 54 toro, the eleventh is a 6 x 54 torpedo, and the 12th space is left open.” Steve clarified the meaning behind the empty slot and the torpedo saying, “The torpedo is what we call the ‘end of watch’ cigar and it’s intended for the box purchaser to honor their fallen brother or sister. When they pull it, the empty space is for the one their friend or family member is having with them upstairs because they’re no longer with us.” All of this would be beautiful, but mostly empty if the cigar was not good. In other words, if you purchased the box to celebrate the life of a fallen brother and when you lit this meaningful, emotion-filled cigar, it was harsh or tasted like moldy socks, the moment would be ruined. That is not the case with this cigar. By partnering with Aganorsa, one of the most decorated cigar factories in the cigar business, Steve ensured that the cigar’s quality would stand up to the weight of cause.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED WITH LOS CAIDOS OR TO PURCHASE A BOX, VISIT LOSCAIDOS.COM.
PICK THE CIGAR THAT SUITS YOUR SPEED
ACID KRUSH CLASSICS, AMBROSIA CLOVE TIKIS, DEADWOOD SWEET JANE, ISLA DEL SOL, KENTUCKY FIRE CURED, LA VIEJA HABANA, LARUTAN DIRTIES, LIGA PRIVADA CORONETS, TABAK ESPECIAL CAFECITAS, UNDERCROWN CORONETS.
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Featuring
2018 - MIAMI Cigars. Pork. Booze. Music. If that doesn’t sounds like a good time to you, then we can’t be friends. Our very own pig roast-off was the most fun we’ve had at work in a long time — so you can imagine how much the guests in attendance enjoyed themselves. On arrival at the terrace of the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Miami, they were greeted with gifts. A cutter, lighter and butane (thanks to Xikar), 15 cigars from sponsor brands in a Cigar Caddy travel humidor and a separate cigar box containing an additional 5 cigars — one from each of the companies competing in the cook-off. Many thanks to Casa Cuevas for sponsoring the bag check that made it so our 382 guests didn’t need to lug all their cigars around all night. Of course, that pig roasting contest was the main event. Five cigar makers each cooked a whole hog over the course of the day: Espinosa Cigars, Arturo Fuente Cigars, Villiger, Oliva Cigar, and AJ Fernandez. In the end, two companies emerged victorious. AJ Fernandez took home the Grand Champion trophy after garnering the highest score from the judges, while Espinosa was the favorite of the crowd and won the People’s Choice trophy. A few acknowledgements are in order. Michael Peña of Hialeah’s La Bodeguita Restaurant and his team were instrumental in planning and executing the event. Our friends at La Caja China not only provided their famous pig roasting boxes for our competitors, but also supplied a custom Cigar Snob SP-300 Caja China valued at $1,500 that went to a very lucky raffle winner who we’re sure has been hosting way more parties lately. Villiger Cigars and Jack Daniel’s sponsored the event’s exclusive VIP section. Total Wine, Revolución Tequila, and D’Cata Wine all helped keep the crowd lubricated. Stay tuned for news on upcoming events. We have big plans!
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Luís and Denise Cuevas, Humberto Ares, Gabriel and Grace Álvarez and Gabriel Piñeres
Carl and Irma Zogby
Albert Montserrat and Sara Tío
Alberto Hernández and Lissette Leiva
José “Pepito” Martínez and Oscar Calviño
PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Perdomo, Ramón Santana
Erik Espinosa sabotaging Villiger’s Héctor Pires and Máximo Díaz
Paul Palmer and Steve Zengel
Lily Armas
Robert Singer, Rocío Montoya-Singer and Ozzie Gómez
Odalys Hernández, Arancha De Mata, Tirza Fernández, Nelson Hernández and Iván Fernández
Eiler Mesa, Daimel Hernández, Ivon Diaz, Olga Rodríguez, Magela Montoya and Berta Bravo
RAFFLE TICKETS!!!!!
Olga Rodríguez, Félix, Eiler and Jorge Mesa
Dave Wagner, Bernie Rodríguez, Albert Sosa and Oswaldo Carrera
Ibis Lu and Monica Martínez
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ROBUSTO Ashton Virgin Sun Grown
$ 12.00
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D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C
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VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Pegasus 5 54 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic
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Joya de Nicaragua Antaño Dark Corojo
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VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
$ 8.50
N I CA R AG UA El Martillo 5 1/2 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua
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Southern Draw Jacobs Ladder
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Flavorful and intense, this medium to full strength offering produces a good smoke output with notes of oak, nuts, cocoa, and spice accompanied by a creamy, leather finish. A neatly constructed, thick robusto covered with a dark brown wrapper with some tooth.
$ 9.50
N I CA R AG UA VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 1/2 54 USA Ecuador Nicaragua
Victor Calvo Maduro
Impeccably constructed and covered with an exceedingly dark and even-colored wrapper with sheen. Medium to full strength with a profile of dark chocolate, espresso, charred oak, and roasted nuts. Draws and burns perfectly, leaving behind a slightly flaky ash.
$ 6.50
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N I CA R AG UA
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VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 50 USA/Connecticut Ecuador Nicaragua
Gurkha Ghost
A beautifully constructed, box-pressed robusto covered with an impeccable, reddish brown wrapper with only minimal veins showing. Produces a medium bodied smoke with notes of red pepper, caramel, wood, and a touch of cream.
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$ 6.2 9
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Shadow 5 52 Brazil Dominican Republic Nicaragua & Dominican Republic
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Blanco - Liga Exclusivo de Familia
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Ultra-smooth and flavorful with a balanced profile of cocoa, pepper, leather, and wood complemented by a rich, caramel note. Consistently well made and covered with a dark, toothy wrapper with good oils. Medium to full strength.
D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Opens with a blast of pepper that settles to incorporate notes of dark roast coffee, earth, and nuts. This medium-plus strength robusto is covered with a dark, toothy wrapper with a somewhat mottled color.
$ 8.30
N I CA R AG UA VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:
Robusto 5 54 USA/Connecticut Nicaragua Nicaragua
Covered with a dark, toothy, and oily wrapper with a coarse texture. This slow-burning robusto has a firm draw and an even burn leaving behind a solid ash. Delivers an earthy and peppery profile accompanied by subtle hints of leather, oak, and molasses.
Alejandro MartĂnez Cuenca Joya De Nicaragua
Dion Giolito Illusione Cigars
Carlos "Carlito" Fuente, Jr. Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia.
Erik Espinosa Espinosa Cigars
Karl Malone Barrel-Aged by Karl Malone
cigarsnobmag.com/podcast
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EVENTS SMOKE THIS! Doral, Fla.
Sabor Havana’s annual blowout event was as big as ever this time around. Smokers, cigar makers and cigar media converged on one of the Miami area’s favorite tobacconists for a day of live music, food, drinks and cigars. There were also raffles and a kickoff happy hour sponsored by Miami Cigar.
Sushi Sake in the house!
Ibis Lu and Mauro Caballero
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Jonathan Drew and Rocky Patel
Raquel González, Laura Reyes and Heidi Morales
Daniel Villareal, Helen and Hanna Meneses
Lauren Salter and Ray Torres
PHOTO CREDIT: Jerome Berry
Duvier González and Alma Valdés
Javier A. and Daniel Villareal and Lester Jiménez
Erik Espinosa, Jr., Jorge Reyes and Mike Denys
José Ovalles and César Villanueva
Fiorella Blanco and Charitin Chacón
Luís and Marjoris Gutiérrez
Juliannie Tacoronte and Michael Martínez
Maricelis Amaya and Carla Orantes
Mike Pérez
Alfredo Gómez and John Díaz
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