Cigar Snob Magazine November December 2020

November / December 2020

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Destination

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Daniela de JesĂşs CosĂ­o

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editorials NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

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VITOLA 101 - ROBUSTO

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GIFT GUIDE

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BLENDED TO PERFECTION

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DESTINATION OKC

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EYE OF THE STORM

The robusto is one of the all-time most popular cigar sizes and in spite of industry trends leaning towards bigger and fatter cigars, brick and mortar cigar store registers still ring the 5 by 50 more often than most.

The holiday season is bearing down on you and with the clock ticking, we’re here to help take the guesswork out of great gift-giving. We’ve spent the last couple of months testing bourbons, glassware, lighters, cutters, and even our own Cigar Snob gear in the name of science. You’re welcome.

When you’re a 750-year-old independent cognac producer in the Grande Champagne region of France, you can pretty much do whatever you want in the cognac world. And what did they do with this freedom? They created a cognac perfectly blended for cigars!

We sent our intrepid travel team to the heart of tornado country, not because we wanted them to take a ride on a spinning house a la Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. We wanted to know if the cigar scene was as good as we’d been hearing.

The Central American heart of the premium cigar world was ravaged by back to back major hurricanes in November leaving many families with nothing but the clothes on their back. So the cigar industry did what it always does, stepped up with an outpouring of aid and support for those in need.

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features NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

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FEEDBACK

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WHAT’S BURNIN’

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BRAND BREAKDOWN

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SMOKING HOT CIGAR SNOB

71 88 90 92

RATINGS

DIESEL ESTELI PURO

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

TWITTER SCOREBOARD INSTAGRAM SCOREBOARD EVENTS 92 SHORE THING CIGARS WHITE PARTY WITH DAVIDOFF 96 INDUSTRIAL CIGAR HALLOWEEN PARTY 98 ASHES CIGAR LOUNGE 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 99 CAVA CIGARS AND DAVIDOFF DOMINO TOURNAMENT

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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

VO L . 12 IS SU E 6 www.cigarsnobmag.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Erik Calviño SENIOR EDITOR Steve Miller COPY EDITOR Michael LaRocca SALES & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Oscar M. Calviño PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Ivan Ocampo ART DIRECTOR Andy Astencio ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jamilet Calviño DIGITAL RETOUCHING SPECIALIST Ramón Santana DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT Gianni D’Alerta Natalia Marie García CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR Florin Safner CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS David Benoliel Andy Astencio Flow Photography EVENT PHOTOGRAPHERS Bryant McCain RennaVation Studios Jamilet Calviño Cover Photography by David Benoliel www.davidbenolielphotography.com Cover Model - Daniela de Jesús Cosío 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

(SUBSCRIBE TODAY) - Only $18 for one Year (six issues) of -

- Magazine delivered to you Visit: www.cigarsnobmag.com or write: subscribe@cigarsnobmag.com

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I’m always amazed and thankful at how easily our minds are tricked into feeling hope. Amazed because people talk about putting 2020 behind us as if suddenly when your smartphone calendar reads 2021, all of the troubles of 2020 will be safely stored in a locked box in the attic. Everything goes into permanent storage; the global pandemic, the frozen containers of dead bodies, the mistrust of the election process, the cities destroyed by riots, the extremist groups trying to tear our country apart, and countless issues that keep me awake at night. I’m thankful that we are eternally hopeful because it’s what allows us to carry on with our lives in the face of these existential threats.

These sobering thoughts are coming from the guy who is usually “the most optimistic person in the room,” and don’t get me wrong, I’m still optimistic about our future. But the only reason for that is because I believe blindly in the free will of man and particularly the free will and spirit of the American people. When I see college-age kids all over the country talking about their lack of freedoms and the lack of equality, I chuckle inside. If you want to see what those things look like, keep voting for socialism and far left ideologies. My family had to leave Cuba because of those wonderful ideas; Venezuelans en masse have been literally starving to death in a resource-rich country because of those same ideas. When I say “literally” I’m not saying it in the way kids today say “literally” for everything, I mean it in the purest literal sense of the words “starving to death.” But it’s always the same argument; this is America not Cuba or Venezuela. Is Germany first world enough for your argument? From 1949 to 1990 East Germans suffered through their idyllic “workers’ and peasants’ state” until it famously collapsed upon itself. Thankfully for the German people their ordeal only lasted 41 years; Cuba’s going on 61.

My wish for 2021 is not to be able to pack away all the horrible things that happened in 2020; you can’t pack away the bad without also getting rid of the good. And there has been an overwhelming amount of good that has come from this year; the pandemic forced us to spend more time with our inner circle, made us appreciate the tireless work of healthcare workers who do it for the right reasons, the shady election process in some counties gave even the casual observer a glimpse of why 100% open, transparent, and fair elections are so important, and the dangers of extremist hate groups on both sides were exposed. So my wish is that we don’t forget what we learned in 2020 and that we honor the lives that were lost to this horrible virus.

On the Cigar Snob front I am thankful for our amazingly dedicated team. These men and women set aside whatever COVID fears they had to overcome every challenge they came upon in the production of this publication. In the process we became closer, stronger, and broadened our skill sets in order to give you, our reader, the comfort

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of enjoying fun, illuminating, and at times inspirational cigar content on a bi-monthly basis.

Enjoy the issue, always be cool to one another, and smoke great cigars.

Keep ‘em lit,

Erik Calviño ecalvino@cigarsnobmag.com

NOW WE HAVE TO LIVE WITH HIM...

We just arrived in Florida a couple of days ago and finally had time to sit down and enjoy the issue. Read the letter from the publisher and I have to say that was one of the best editorials I have ever seen published. Being only a recent subscriber (about 2 years) I have to say I enjoy the hell out of your magazine. Being 73 years young and having enjoyed cigars for about 25 years it’s good to see editors hit certain society issues right on target. I commented to my wife after reading it that this guy thinks just like me. Nice. Keep up the great magazine and you and your staff stay safe. Looking forward to a new and better year.

Stan H. F. North Fort Myers, Fla. Via feedback@cigarsnobmag.com

Thanks for the rewarding kind words. Seeing as you arrived a couple years ago, you can also catch up on lost time with some back issues, available on our website under the Shop/Back Issues tab.

NO SHOES ON THE YACHT, EVER Beautiful, bikini clad, barefooted girls on a yacht with cigars!

All models should be depicted by a pool, on a yacht, on a beach, in a hot tub, in an evening gown...but always barefooted!

Wendell M. Raleigh, N.C. Via feedback@cigarsnobmag.com

Barefooted and appreciated. And with cigars.

BELIEVE ME KID, IT’S A TOUGH BUSINESS Hello, how do you apply to model? I’d do it for free! LOL Just looking for some change in my life.

Kristin Via Instagram

Okay, Kristin, looking for change is one thing, but signing up to model for us is like enlisting in the military. For details, check our September 24 podcast, where we discuss our grueling hike into the overheated outback of the Utah desert, in the name of art.

WE’LL TRADE YOU FOR A CASE OF 2012 DOMINIO DEL PLATA NOSOTROS Hello dear friends! I’m from Argentina. I used to buy your mag which is awesome and I love it because I travel a lot. But now due to this shitty pandemic I can’t! How can I subscribe? Big hug from Buenos Aires!

Marcelo Via Instagram

Great to have you aboard, Marcelo. We’re all suffering from having our wings temporarily clipped, but Cigar Snob is here to pull you through. Subs are available through our website.

WRITE US AT FEEDBACK@CIGARSNOBMAG.COM 16 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT You deserve it.

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CIGAR ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA’S CHAIRMAN ESTADES STEPS DOWN Cigar Association of America Chairman Javier Estades has stepped down after leading the group for five years. The announcement came during the CAA’s annual meeting in November.

In his final remarks as chairman, Estades noted the strides the CAA has made during his tenure.

“I believe I am passing a financially sound and strong association to my successor, John Miller,” Estades said, according to a CAA press release. He said the cigar industry has faced, among other things, “unprecedented regulatory intervention by the FDA” as well as local and federal tax increases on tobacco and, finally the pandemic.

“Despite it all, here we are – alive and kicking and very proud of what we have accomplished,” he said. “This is due to our focus on building outside relationships with organizations that value partnering with us to fight for you – our members – and the industry.”

Estades also pointed to several legal victories, and said they came thanks to some coalition building among like-minded trade associations as well as a strong state government relations program. Some of the cigar industry’s biggest wins have been at the federal level, he added.

“These include having health warnings thrown out, any product testing put off for the foreseeable future (or longer) and eliminating the recent SE deadline for premium cigars. We still have challenges ahead, and CAA stands ready to continue fighting against improper, overreaching efforts by FDA,” Estades said.

PROCIGAR FESTIVAL 2021 DELAYED OVER VIRUS CONCERNS The Association of Dominican Cigar Manufacturers has postponed its Procigar Festival 2021 scheduled to take place in February, due to concerns about the coronavirus.

The festival, which last year drew 700 people, may still be held next year, depending on how well newly developed virus vaccines perform

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and what the situation is as the year progresses.

“We went ahead and postponed [the festival] for February, but we have not made a final decision on not holding it,” Oriana Veloso, executive director at Procigar, told Cigar Snob.

“We do not want to cancel this until we are sure it cannot be held safely.”

The festival, if it goes forward at some point, will be the 14th annual gathering, and features factory and tobacco field tours, dinner parties, seminars and appearances by cigar industry celebrities.

MICHAEL HERKLOTS TO COHOST THE GREAT SMOKE 2021 Michael Herklots, former vice president of Nat Sherman International, will co-host The Great Smoke 2021, “The Digital Experience.”

In a statement, Herklots said, “While COVID-19 has forced most of us to stay closer to home and take new precautions, the need for safe social engagement remains an important part of premium cigar enjoyment.”

The Great Smoke is scheduled for February 20 and will be broadcast live in a variety show format. The broadcast will include manufacturers, interactive demonstrations, live entertainment, comedians, musicians, magicians, hourly raffles and giveaways, and a specially built portal for attendees to take advantage of event-only promotions and sales.

Limited tickets for the event are on sale and can be purchased through the event site www.

TheGreatSmoke.com.

DREW ESTATE ANNOUNCES CANCELLATION OF BARN SMOKER LIVE VIRTUAL EVENT

to make this decision to ensure the safety of both the staff of Drew Estate and the members of the Florida Sun Grown Farm, with whom Drew Estate partnered for this event.

Drew Estate had previously announced that as part of the Barn Smoker Goodwill Act, it would be donating $50,000 to Cigars for Warriors.

Despite calling off the event, Drew Estate will still be making the $50,000 donation.

GENERAL CIGAR RELEASES PARTAGAS LIMITED RESERVE DECADAS 2020 The latest Partagas Limited Reserve Decadas is now available, the 2020 vintage, in a limited edition release of 2,500 boxes and sold exclusively through brick and mortar retailers.

As with prior releases of Partagas Limited Reserve Decadas, it features Cameroon wrapper leaves surrounded by a blend of proprietary tobaccos from the Dominican Republic (Piloto Cubano from the 2009 crop) and a Mexican San Andres leaf cultivated in 1997-1998. A Mexican San Andres binder from the 1997-1998 growing season completes the blend.

“For cigar smokers who appreciate the depth of aged Cameroon wrapper and who seek extraordinary smoking experiences, Partagas Limited Reserve Decadas 2020 is the ultimate super-premium indulgence,” Matt Wilson, senior brand manager of Partagas, said in a press release.

The blend will be released in a single size (6.75 x 43) called “Dalia,” which will sell for $17.99 per cigar.

Partagas Limited Reserve Decadas 2020 is presented in crystal tubes with a hand-applied wax closure. Each box contains ten cigars.

Drew Estate cancelled the Barn Smoker Live virtual event, originally scheduled for November 14th, citing an increase of COVID-19 cases in Florida.

J.C. NEWMAN CIGAR CO. REINTRODUCES PERLA DEL MAR

The event was to be broadcast live from the tobacco fields in Clermont, Fla., featuring members of the Drew Estate team including Jonathan Drew, Willy Herrera and Pedro Gomez. Drew Estate decided that it is necessary

J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is now shipping its updated version of the Perla del Mar cigar to brick and mortar retailers across the U.S. Handmade at J.C. Newman PENSA in Nicaragua, the new Perla del Mar is an improved

version of the Perla del Mar launched by the Tampa cigar maker in 2012. It is named after one of the leading premium cigar brands of the early 1900s.

In a press release, J.C. Newman general counsel Drew Newman said, “Although our Perla del Mar cigars were good, we were not totally satisfied. We wanted to make them better – and that’s exactly what we did. “ Perla del Mar’s existing Shade and Maduro blends have been strengthened with aged Nicaraguan filler tobaccos, and a new Corojo blend, rolled with an Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper, has been added to the family. Perla del Mar cigars are now shaped in a classic Tampa-style press and packed with traditional bands and boxes.

Each blend comes in four sizes and prices range from $6.45 to $7.60. Boxes of 25 run from $161.25 to $190.

“Although our family has been rolling cigars for 125 years, we do not rest on our laurels,” said Newman, who represents the fourth generation of leadership at the family-owned operation.

“We are constantly working to improve everything that we do, and we are very pleased with the new Perla del Mar.”

CAO ANNOUNCES THE LIMITEDEDITION VISION CAO is bringing back Vision in a 2,500 box run in the U.S., and another 2,000 boxes for Europe and Asia. The Vision is made in Nicaragua and comes in a Churchill (7 x 50).

CAO Vision has a Cameroon wrapper over an Ecuadorian Sumatra binder and Nicaraguan filler from Estelí and Jalapa. It was created

by CAO blender and brand ambassador Rick Rodriguez.

“Whether traveling across the world visiting cigar shops and even in doing virtual events as I have been for the last several months, the CAO fans always tell me that CAO Cameroon is one of the absolute best Cameroons on the market,” Rodriguez said in a press release. “I’ve never developed my own blend with a Cameroon wrapper, and I thought it was time to do it, to share my take on a Cameroon-wrapped cigar with Benji and the fans of CAO.” CAO Vision is packaged in a custom-made,

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20-count humidor, constructed out of Spanish cedar with piano hinges. The humidor features blue glowing lights that illuminate the Cameroon wrapper and profile the cigar’s construction. Retail price is $18.99.

SOUTHERN DRAW ANNOUNCES THE FIRETHORN - AUGUSTA TO HONOR VETERANS, FT. GORDON Southern Draw Cigars announces the Firethorn - Augusta, a mixed-blend Belicoso Finos (5.5 x 54), a tribute to veterans and the Georgia town that is home to Ft. Gordon, formerly Camp Gordon, a U.S. Army base since World War II. The Firethorn is the eighth in the 2020 fall release schedule from the veteran-owned and operated Southern Draw, and comes with a single package option of 1,000 10-count boxpressed bundles. The blend is a variation of the original Firethorn, with a Habano Rosado wrapper from Ecuador, San Andres Maduro binder from Mexico and proprietary Nicaraguan filler.

The catchy, tattoo-worthy Firethorn logo on the bundle package was created by JMG Graphic Works, a faithful Southern Draw partner, honoring the base and the military legacy of Southern Draw founder and veteran Robert Holt, who served at Ft. Gordon along with his father, uncle and brother.

In a statement, Jonathan Gollins, founder of JMG Graphic Works, said, “ We looked to tie in elements of the Southern Draw family’s military service at Ft. Gordon... home to the U.S. Army Cyber Command and U.S. Army Signal Corps, the inspiration of the Firethorn at the most prestigious tournament in all of golf and the soul and deep musical influences of long-time Augusta resident, James Brown, who began his illustrious music career by entertaining military troops at Camp Gordon including members of Robert Holt’s family that were serving in Augusta in those days.”

Added Holt, in the same statement, “We shared our combined military service history in Georgia that spanned fifty years (1942 – 1992) and their team intuitively understood just who Southern Draw is and what Augusta, Georgia means to us.”

Robert Holt appeared on the Cigar Snob pod-

cast in 2018.

DIESEL RELEASES WHISKEY ROW SHERRY CASK BLEND FOR HOLIDAYS Diesel Cigars is celebrating the holidays with a twist on its Whiskey Row Sherry Cask blend.

The barber-pole wrapped cigar comes in a 5 x 56 Gordo and is packed in a branded tabletop whiskey barrel.

The cigar uses a mix of a Connecticut Broadleaf and a Connecticut Shade wrapper. The blend was developed by Diesel Senior Brand Manager Justin Andrews, blended by AJ Fernandez and rolled at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez in Estelí.

Diesel Whiskey Row Sherry Cask uses an aging process developed by AJ to deepen the complexity of the blend by barrel-aging the Brazilian Alagoas Arapiraca binder leaf in Pedro Ximénez Sherry barrels overseen by Louisville, Kentucky-based Rabbit Hole Distillery. This process brings out subtle notes of honey, vanilla and molasses.

The cigars are presented in a keepsake wooden whiskey barrel that holds ten cigars and includes a lid that doubles as an ashtray. The Diesel Whiskey Row Sherry Cask is a limited production and sells for a suggested retail price of $124.99 for the cigars and barrel.

The original Diesel Whiskey Row Sherry Cask launched in 2019 and made the Cigar Snob list of the top 25 cigars last year.

EL ARTISTA LAUNCHES ARTISTA STUDIO WORKS TO SPOTLIGHT ISLAND ART El Artista Cigars is partnering with the Dominican artist community to form Artista Studio Works, a venture that will span several mediums to chronicle the life and culture of the Dominican Republic.

“We make tobacco and cigars and that is our art,” Radhames “Ram” Rodriguez, president of El Artista Cigars, said in a statement. “But there is so much artistic expression around us here on the island and I wanted to make an opportunity to share that with anyone who is curious about the Dominican Republic; we are

so much more than just tobacco.”

These expressions include the street art of Santiago and the brush strokes of oil on an oversized canvas hanging in a Santo Domingo gallery.

Artista Studio Works aims to put a spotlight on these works as well as recruit artists and give them an opportunity to develop.

“Artista Studio Works aims to discover talent, bring the artist into the studio and allow them to interpret the factory, our brands, or the general cigar lifestyle,” Kevin Newman, director of marketing and sales for El Artista, said in a statement.

Artista Studio Works will seek out artists from around the island and invite select artists in different mediums to join the collaborative. Artists’ works will then be licensed and reproduced and the artist will receive compensation for their work as well as the notoriety and exposure.

The first artist to join Artista Studio Works is René Peña, a Dominican painter who created oil-on-canvas works of baseball legend David Ortiz and El Artista’s Buffalo TEN cigar. The

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works will be transferred to artwork and merchandise.

Three-panel wall art (20”x18”) will be given away as promotional materials to retailers and El Artista Cigars fans. Fifty-count humidors will be signed by the artist and will be available for sale to retailers. Humidors are limited to 200 pieces and are priced at $150 for the Buffalo TEN and $190 for the David Ortiz.

René Peña’s René Estudio can be found on Instagram @rene.estudio and on Facebook @rene. estudiord

ALEC BRADLEY CIGAR CO. NOW SHIPPING PROJECT 40 MADURO The Alec Bradley Project 40 Maduro, the second cigar line in the ‘Experimental Series’ and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Project 40 line of cigars, is now shipping.

“When Alec Bradley announced the release of Project 40 Maduro in October, we were overwhelmed by the positive responses we received

from enthusiasts, tobacconists and the media,” Jonathan Lipson, Alec Bradley’s director of sales and marketing, said in a statement. “The wait is finally over and we are extremely excited to share this new release with the cigar community.”

Project 40 Maduro is named for a scientific concept relating to how outside influences positively affect one’s well-being. Alec Bradley founder Alan Rubin contends that a cigar, with a proper blend and value proposition, is the key to taking control of one’s happiness.

Applying that theory, Rubin blended the medium-plus bodied Project 40 Maduro, which features a Maduro wrapper from San Andres, Brazilian Habano binder and Nicaraguan filler.

The cigar is produced at J Fuego Cigar Co De Nicaragua in Esteli.

Project 40 Maduro is being presented in white, maroon and gold, 24 count boxes featuring the ‘Alec Bradley’ and ‘Project 40 Maduro’ logos.

It will come in three sizes named after their dimensions: the 5.50 at $5.75 per cigar, the 6.52 at $6.25 and the 6.60 at $6.50.

ROBUSTO

DIESEL ESTELI PURO COUNTRY

Nicaragua

WRAPPER

Nicaragua

BINDER

Nicaragua

FILLER

Nicaragua

PRICE FACTORY

$ 8.99 - $ 9.99 AJ Fernandez

Justin Andrews Global Brand Ambassador for Diesel You started your cigar industry career at a small, familyowned, boutique cigar company called Lou Rodriguez Cigars before joining the large, multi-national General Cigars. How much of a culture shock was that transition?

It was definitely a culture shock, it was an adjustment to say the least because, again, you know how our companies go when we’re small, and it’s like, “Hey, I want to make a broadleaf cigar.” And it’s like, “Hey, well we need to sell more of this Habano that we bought before we can afford to go buy broadleaf!” It’s a huge difference from going to where we basically would sit around and have an innovation meeting and come up with ideas over margaritas or Flor de Caña rum to now there’s brand plans and multiple layers of approval and multiple business units involved. So yeah, it was definitely an adjustment; I realized that this was definitely no longer a hobby. This was something that a lot of people are involved in. And there are a lot of companies across the globe that are impacted by the cigars that we sell.

The brand that you manage for General Cigars today is Diesel, a brand that from day 1 has been made by AJ Fernandez and continues that way to this day. So you inherited a relationship with AJ but that relationship has flourished. He famously speaks little English so how’s your Spanish?

AVAILABLE IN 3 SIZES

So I was fortunate that when I first started with Lou going down to Estelí, which you know, is a small town, it was even smaller 11 years ago, I got to meet AJ and spent some time with him. I wouldn’t say we were besties or anything but you know, I would see him from time to

time and say hello. And so we definitely knew each other. But once I inherited Diesel, then we went from knowing each other to being in bed together! And the last time I saw AJ, which was right before COVID, he let me know that my Spanish has not improved as much as his English has. So thank God for Freddy Molina and a guy who works for us, Jaime Rodriguez, because between my Spanish and AJ’s English it would probably be tough for us to get a lot of things done.

The Esteli Puro is the latest release in the Diesel line. What was the idea behind it? What makes this project special?

Great question. So you know I spent a lot of time down with AJ because of all of the projects we do together. And about five years ago he was explaining how he was installing this drip irrigation system in one of his farms in Estelí. And after going through all the details and the complexity of that he said that the biggest thing is that it would allow him to grow wrapper leaf in Estelí. And you know, all of us love Nicaragua, we all love Nicaraguan tobacco, but very few people understand that the majority of that region produces binder and filler tobacco, but very little wrapper, if any is grown there. And so every time I was down visiting him I would ask, “Is the wrapper ready?” And he’d reply, “No, no, it’s not right.” And the next time I’d ask again and it just kept on and on. And then finally, it must have been the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019 when he started telling me that it was ready. So we started smoking the samples and it was such a different flavor profile to me, because the wrapper drives so much of the flavor that it was just different. I didn’t quite know what to expect and how to kind of capture that and go, “Here’s a project we can use for this.” So we continued going back and forth smoking, going over ideas. And then it just hit me and I said, “You know this cigar is just pure Estelí. All the tobacco is grown in Estelí, the cigar is rolled in Estelí, THIS is an Estelí puro. So much of what we do with our country-of-origin puros you know, you’ve got a Dominican puro or Nicaragua puros, and things like that. So to have all the tobacco come from this micro region [as opposed to a blend of tobaccos from different regions within the country] was really, really exciting. And through the blending process we basically tried to stay true to Diesel where there is that strength, there’s that familiar AJ imprint on everything and you’re used to that full-bodied experience, but we had to balance it out as well. Which I think we did with the sweetness and some of the chocolate notes you pick up from it. It’s a really well-balanced cigar, but it’s definitely on the stronger end of what we’ve released.

SWEET

Robusto 5 1/4 x 54

Toro 6 x 54

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Gigante 6 x 60

CHOCOLATE

NUT

EARTH

CREAM

WOOD

COFFEE

SPICE

SCAN THE QR CODE TO LEARN MORE

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VITOLA 101 ROBUSTO

In more ways than one the robusto size is ideal for today’s cigar smoker. At 5 inches it is short enough to enjoy in under an hour but long enough to leave the smoker satisfied. And with its 50 or so ring gauge it has enough tobacco for the master blender to fully develop a flavor profile. But consumers aren’t the only ones that love the size; the fact that it is one of the easier shapes to manufacturer is just one of the reasons why it’s also a favorite among cigar factory owners.

obusto is Spanish for thick, robust, or strong and much like the toro size, which we talked about in the previous Vitola 101, in today’s cigar landscape the classic robusto doesn’t look quite so robust. The classic robusto is 5 inches with a 48 to 50 ring gauge but the trend in cigars over the last 20 years has been to push the envelope on thickness. It is not uncommon to come across a robusto measuring 5 and a half inches and sporting a 54 or 56 ring gauge. All the while other manufacturers run opposite of the trend so they market a 4 inch by 48 cigar as a robusto.

Unlike coronas, lanceros, and perfectos, which require a higher level of expertise from the buncher and roller, the robusto is oftentimes used as the teaching shape. In other words, when a cigar factory teaches apprentice tabaqueros how to make cigars for the first time, many will start them on robustos because they are easy to handle and the 50 ring gauge allows a wider margin for error during bunching. Not to mention that because of its smaller size, the learners waste less tobacco while they learn.

Size and ring gauge range of what is commonly considered a robusto in premium cigars.

0

48

1

2

3

4

4 1/2

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56 THRU Standout Robustos

“I like the Robusto size. It is my 2nd favorite cigar size after the toro. I think the popularity of the Robusto size is directly connected with our busy lives. It comes down to time, however, the ring size (48, 50, 52, 54, etc.…) allows the blenders to incorporate enough tobacco leaves to have more complexity and flavor variations than a small cigar with a thinner ring size.”

- Rafael Nodal

OLIVA SERIE G MADURO

WRAPPER: USA/Connecticut BINDER: Nicaragua

FILLER: Nicaragua VITOLA: Robusto

PHYSICAL SIZE: 4 1/2 x 50 MSRP: $ 6.10

HVC CERRO NATURAL

Altadis USA

“Robusto is the staple size for delivery of flavor but with respect to time constraints you may have. It’s the size that will satiate you just enough so that you are not wanting more. A perfect interlude where enjoyment and time meet.”

- Abe Dababneh Smoke Inn Cigars & Kiss My Ash Radio

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WRAPPER: Nicaragua BINDER: Nicaragua

FILLER: Nicaragua VITOLA: Robusto

PHYSICAL SIZE: 5 x 50 MSRP: $ 8.30

ESPINOSA WARZONE

WRAPPER: Cameroon BINDER: Honduras

FILLER: Colombia & Nicaragua VITOLA: Robusto

PHYSICAL SIZE: 5 1/2 x 52 MSRP: $ 8.49

5 1/2

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GIFT GUIDE

THE KENTUCKY DOUBLE – OAK thekentuckydouble.com

$179.99 Artfully meshing finely honed hardwood, full-grain leather and polished aluminum, the Kentucky Double® Cigar Ashtray and Coaster gives a space for your glass of bourbon and a spot to set your smoke. The frame encasing the leather-bottomed coaster includes a Kerckhaert Kings Plate racing horseshoe, the brand worn for decades by champion thoroughbreds. The design alone makes you want to sit, sip and smoke.

GARRISON BROTHERS SMALL BATCH garrisonbros.com

$84.99 The first time you’ll see the words “small” and “Texas” in the same paragraph. The Garrison Brothers distill their aged bourbon in the Lone Star state’s Hill Country, west of Austin. The brand is the first to come out with a Texas distilled bourbon, in 2010 on March 2, Texas Independence Day, and contends that the high heat and temperature disparities of that fabled Hill Country landscape allow a more flavorful grain yield in a shorter time than its Kentucky counterparts. The Small Batch is equally at home mellowed with a couple of ice cubes or in an Old Fashioned.

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RIEDEL VINUM SINGLE MALT WHISKY GLASS riedel.com

VICTORINOX WINE MASTER – WALNUT victorinox.com

$59.00 (Two Pack)

$154.99

Riedel has long been a purveyor of high end wine glassware. It turned to the cocktail glass segment a couple of years ago, bringing its refined approach to simple sipping. This slick-looking two-piece set of vessels with an outturned lip is perfect for nosing single malts and covers the palate fully as you sip. Riedel enlisted the expertise of Scotland’s finest master distillers to fine tune this design. In our book they nailed it.

We’ve used our Victorinox Swiss Army knife in some dicey situations. This is a variation on the theme, as the Wine Master is aimed at easily and quickly uncorking a bottle of vino. But it is also a multifunctional tool that will open a bottle of beer and gently slice a tuna steak. The walnut handle and the leather pouch it comes in upgrade another utilitarian gem from Switzerland.

GIFT GUIDE

PERFECDRAW theperfecsmoke.com

$39.95

LES FIN LAMES DYAD CONCRETE ASHTRAY lesfineslames.com

$77.99

The bedeviling problem of a stingy draw is fixable, according to the folks at PerfecDraw, who have developed a burrowing tool that roots out the problem. The medieval-looking instrument, with stainless steel blades at the end, cuts and pulls the filler at the same time, providing relief. It’s compact enough to carry around and slim enough to root out even a plugged 24 ring gauge smoke. We’re guessing this is a case of necessity being the mother of invention, created by a dentist and cigar enthusiast.

French company Les Fin Flames delivers a slab of concrete that will be welcomed by any smoker with a flair for style. The DYAD is carefully hand crafted from a high grade mortar and shaped into something simple yet aesthetically pleasing, a 6 x 6 ash tray that has slots for cigars on two sides and felt underside to protect furniture. The DYAD comes in five colors: red, gray, anthracite, blue and green.

LES FIN LAMES LE PETIT – MARBLEWOOD lesfineslames.com

$149.00 Leather Sheath sold separately: $34.00 This French-made beauty is a stylish cigar cutter that can also be used for daily knife functions and is handsomely packaged in a marblewood handle. While only 4.5 inches long, it can handle your 70 ring gauge jawbreaker. The blade, at 2.5 inches, makes it legal to carry in most countries, although we’ll let you explain that to the Customs people. Maybe keep it in the handy leather sheath that is designed for it.

S.T. DUPONT DEFI XXTREME st-dupont.com

$398.00 Next time you crest Denali, you’ll want to have the S.T. Dupont Defi Xxtreme on hand. Its double flames ignite in a pyramid shape and will light your cigar in fierce winds. The Defi Xxtreme won’t bog down the pack, weighing in at a feathery three ounces and not even three inches tall.

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GIFT GUIDE

OVERLORD 8” DAMASCUS CHEF’S KNIFE overlordknives.com

$59.99 An all-purpose knife is essential for any kitchen worth its Gordon Ramsey. This is eight inches of necessary steel that can dice, slice, chop, julienne, filet, cube or whatever else the recipe calls for. Overlord comes in at a reasonable price for such a crucial tool, with a pakkawood handle – a durable, plastic/ wood composite – and a blade of Damascus steel.

FITBIT SENSE fitbit.com

$329.99 Fitbit carved a swath in the crowded tech sector in the mid-aughts through the fitness craze, and it just keeps coming. The Smartwatch Sense blends style and sense, keeping the wearer looking good while also being apprised of vitals including oxygen saturation, pulse and skin temperature. It features hundreds of clock face options, voice assistant and a battery that can last a week without a charge. Much better than that figurative home confinement anklet we’ve been bothered with the last nine months.

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MILWAUKEE BOOT CO. BREWMASTER APRON milwaukeebootcompany.com

$79.00 If you work sloppy, the Brewmaster apron is a real gift. The waxed canvas protection, the multiple pockets, and the generous drape give the wearer some room to operate. For the barber, the chef, the barkeep and the shop rat.

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MISTOBOX GIFT SUBSCRIPTION mistobox.com

$20/mo A 12 oz. bag of coffee lands on the doorstep of the giftee, selected from 590 different types of coffee in accordance with your preferences. If you like your coffee black, finely ground, medium roasted, single origin – voila, Mistobox finds the best match and ships it out. Get the personalized selection dropped monthly, weekly or whenever feels good.

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GIFT GUIDE

CIGAR SNOB HAT – GLACIER cigarsnobmag.com SNOB T-SHIRT - BLUE cigarsnobmag.com

$24.99

$18.00 Our fellow gym rats are envious of these shirts, which are stretchy without being clingy, full without being beefy. The front of the shirt is the Snob logo, with a smaller version on the back. Parade your snobbery and be proud.

For the links, a run, or a sweats-clad trip to Publix, the Cigar Snob hat classes up the joint. Adjustable Velcro closure, flat embroidered logo on the front, cigarsnob.com on the back in a soothing, cool shade of glacier.

SNOB SINGLE JET LIGHTER cigarsnobmag.com

$7.99 A new addition to the Cigar Snob swag collection, the refillable single jet lighter is compact at 2.5 inches high, lightweight and reliable. It comes in a matte gray and with the traditional pull back cap, conjures an old school feel.

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CIGAR SNOB ABS-TRACT COASTER cigarsnobmag.com

$5.00 (4-Pack) The Cigar Snob coaster set is functional as well as a conversation piece, skillfully adapting the cover art from last year’s Pool Party issue. These full color, 4-inch coasters are cut from high-quality coaster board and come in a package of four.

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Blended to Perfection By Steve Miller

rapin Cognac turns 750 years old this year.

But it doesn’t look a day over 500.

The veteran small-batch brand that operates out of a French castle traces its lineage to 1270, when it began as a wine-growing operation. Over the years, a move to distilling – cognac being a descendant of wine – launched a new passion in its founders.

Based in the central France region of Grande Champagne, ground zero for cognac distilling, Frapin uses about 600 acres of the dry soil, where the grapes are grown and handpicked.

This begins the considered process of pressing, fermentation and aging that plays out over a period of years.

While the heavyweights in the cognac line carry the market share – Hennessy has almost 65 percent of the entire U.S. – Frapin mines a trend to the underground with a small-batch approach to the process.

Unapologetically old school, emboldened by periodic revivals, cognac is referred to as “yak” in rap lingo (“‘gnac” to fans of Snoop Dogg) and is touted in song and in Hollywood, most recently by Al Pacino’s character as a film producer in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which shows him pulling an Hoyo de Monterrey from a small humidor and pouring a cognac for a viewing.

The latter is true cognac positioning – a thinking drinker’s spirit, equally formidable as a pre-meal soother, a post-dinner kicker, or Pacino’s screening treat.

That versatility becomes even more desirable when it comes to serving as a complement to a good smoke. And Frapin can help.

Frapin’s Cigar Blend XO, which first came out in the 90s, begins its aging in a new cask for at least a year to pull more aromas through the tannins – the flavor of the wood that varies by type.

In this case, oak is where the blend sits for years.

“To make a difference between blends, it’s mostly the aging,” Frapin cellar master Patrice Piveteau says in an interview with Cigar Snob. “The cigar blend I age in a new cask more than the others.”

The brew is then moved to older, less intense casks to temper the highs and lows of the notes. Piveteau has no hard rules for when it is ready.

“No rules except for the tasting,” he says. “It’s a way for me to

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adapt to creating the right taste.”

The casks for the cigar blend are stashed in a more humid confine than some of the other blends, ideally providing a roundness and flavors of vanilla and dried fruit which pair amicably with the flavors from a premium cigar. The XO designation means “extra old,” and must be created from a base that is at least six years old.

It’s a distiller geek’s dream. And when Piveteau declares it ready, he seeks a rounder cognac, that is, balanced with no single overpowering tone, as some blends are deliberately aged to please a more specific palate.

“It is a structure in this case, how the flavors connect in ways of complexity,” Piveteau says. “The notes on the cigar blend should be rich but with a flavor that is not too heavy.”

The roundness of Frapin’s Cigar Blend should ensure that a cigar matches the cognac, which as a relative of the wine will have a fruity top note to match the spice of a solid premium cigar.

Piveteau says that Frapin’s small-batch process allows it an exclusivity – “in the niche market, we are very big, though” – that ensures it won’t be found as easily in a disco as it will in an upscale establishment.

Just as cigar makers are often bound by outside forces and events, cognac too is a survivor with generations of makers that have outlasted wars, pestilence and weather woes to create their coveted grog. It makes cosmic sense that the two should get together frequently as a pair.

Cigar Pairing Rocky Patel Quarter Century

>> Pairing Notes >> Before lighting the Rocky Patel Quarter Century, take time to nose the Frapin and the cigar. The inviting aromas coming from the cognac and the cigar are a perfect way to set the stage. Once lit the cigar opens with loads of cocoa, earth, and smooth pepper, which plays beautifully with the Frapin’s core of delicate vanilla and dried fruit. The long finish of the Frapin allows for multiple deliciously paired puffs between sips.

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©SeanPavonePhoto - stock.adobe.com

Bricktown-Downtown OKC

By Steve Miller

©Ffooter - stock.adobe.com

hen the sky turns green, you look for the funnel, Kyle Warr says.

In Oklahoma City, one of the most tornado-prone areas in the world, Warr’s is the voice of experience.

And his experience in the wind-strewn flatlands state is that tornadoes happen. A lot.

“When we were kids, when tornadoes came, we went outside to watch,” he says. “It was family entertainment.”

When a funnel is about to drop, things get quiet, the winds still, and a green hue bathes the landscape.

“That’s when it gets interesting,” Kyle says. An hour north of here, in 1991, a twister cranked winds up to an impressive 262 miles per hour.

“But we don’t usually take cover, since it happens so much,” he adds.

Kyle is our host on a journey through the fine dining and elevated cigar smoking of Oklahoma City, a town that, among other things, is where the first shopping cart was designed, and the first parking meter was installed.

The landscape is peppered with personalities, from Kyle, a born and bred ex-cop, cowboy and musician to a 44-year-old skateboarder who grew up restoring cars and to the jet-setting AnheuserBusch exec who spent half his career in Southeast Asia, only to retire to the plains. The unifier is a love of Oklahoma’s steady, slow pace and the allure of a

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Top to bottom: Oklahoma State Capitol; the reflecting pool at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum solid cigar.

Kyle is the humidor manager at BURN by Rocky Patel after operating his own brick and mortar cigar store for three years. Along the way, he has owned an artist management company, and a guitar shop, and had a piece of an artist touring bus company.

“When I started, I wanted to make sure everyone was welcome to the cigar world,” he says as we navigate the wide streets of the city. His shop was

RDB Cigars and next door was his guitar shop, Red Dirt Brothers Guitar.

“When dads would drop their kids off for guitar lessons, they’d come next door and have a cigar while they waited, and everyone was happy,” he says.

The cigar community here is small, Kyle says – between 500 and 700 people – but the numbers are growing and the potential is bigger.

At BURN, “we create new cigar smokers every day.

People come to the bar to drink and want to have a cigar. They see others enjoying it, and even if they don’t smoke at first…we want that first experience

packing an artery, because beef is on the menu.

There are more cows than people in Oklahoma – 5.3 million to 3.9 million.

Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse downtown is a culinary tribute to Number 7, a steakhouse that drops the pretensions and gives you a large bar with all the dressings, with round booths and tables on the perimeter and plenty of belly-up seating. The dining room is likewise roomy, booths on the side, brick walls (which look exactly like the red pavers found across the street on the minor league, AAA Dodger affiliate Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark) and 60s-era tile floors. Photos of The Mick, born in Oklahoma, line the walls of both the bar and the dining room, shots of Mick in his civvies hanging with Billy Martin, or in action swatting a ball, running it out, doffing his cap… It’s a Yankee fan’s victory lap. A smoked, compact filet is what it should be – flavorful without the need for extra seasoning, a bold, mesquite-brewed smokiness in a filet an inch and a half thick. It comes topped with

Top to bottom: The Colcord Hotel is a downtown anchor, the city’s first skyscraper completed in 1909; the 350 bottle selection of whiskey at Stag Lounge; the exterior of the Colcord Hotel to be as positive as it can be.”

People who grow up in Oklahoma City tend to stay, or at least return. In addition to being plopped down in a prairie overseen by an endless sky, the city takes up parts of four counties and has perks both urban and wild.

Home for a few days in OKC is the Colcord Hotel, at 14 stories the city’s first skyscraper when it was built in the early 1900s. When you hear of a historic hotel, it’s easy to think of cramped spaces and poor plumbing. Not here – the renovations and updates over the years have been kind to the Colcord. The

elevators still have bronze letterbox – often part of the crucial first impression – and the hallways are painted a sleek charcoal with matching carpet, low lit by round, small chandeliers.

The rooms are large for a historic hotel, with built-in USB charging ports anywhere you need.

The driving for this journey is made easier by our kindly upgraded rental; a white Audi Q3, the smallest in the Audi line of SUVs, is just the right size. The monstrous Audi Q7 is a cavernous luxe chariot, handy for carting around a hockey team. The Q5 is one size down, still large and reasonable for a family of four and luggage. For more on the Audi turn to page 48.

When dining in Oklahoma City, you’d better be

tobacco onions, which is a cool thing to call those twisty little browned thin cuts that get their name because of the texture and color that resembles tobacco. The wine list is heavy on the whites, California varietals in particular. Not wanting to commit a culinary infraction just yet, the Rodney Strong Zinfandel gave the smoky meat a spicy lift.

On that ballpark – it’s a classic downtown minor league park, built in 1998 and set amid plenty of food and watering options. The season was shut down this year but this is the last stop for most Dodgers before they reach the major leagues, though, so expect it to bounce back in 2021. Statues of Mantle and fellow Oklahoman Johnny Bench sit outside the gates.

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there’s one TV in the main bar – but conversation.

The weather, the Masters, the ‘rona are all fodder.

Friendly chatter is a lost art in a visual world, and the Cheers-styled banter is familiar, like a welcome relic.

The unaided part of selecting a smoke at Stag is going to change, says Jarrett Jackson, managing partner in a group that also runs the Omertá Cigar Co. to the south of the city, as well as the Wilshire Dive Bar, which offers a small humidor for a 3,000 square foot patio, and the online Purocigarhouse.com, a retail website.

Stag has been around for three years with its bar as a focus, but in the near future will move to a full-on cigar lounge.

“For us, the cigar culture is the biggest thing,” says Jackson, who spent 15 years on the retail side, working mostly with the state’s Indian casinos.

He’s opening up an upstairs area as a full cigar smoking lounge at Stag, with up to three dozen member lockers, leather armchairs, “and not such a

Clockwise from top: Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse is a 10,000-square foot tribute to “The Mick”; Omerta Cigar Lounge; the Prime Porterhouse at Mahogany Prime Steakhouse

Another contender in the downtown steak sweepstakes is Mahogany Prime Steakhouse, all dark wood, marble bar, and plenty of sharp edges.

The menu is beef laden, however you like it, eight cuts and styles, up to the 24 oz. prime porterhouse.

The appetizers are largely water-based, including bacon-wrapped scallops, smoked trout dip, and a platter of calamari, crab cakes and shrimp.

The sea bass was topped with slivered mango, onion and zucchini and dressed on the side with a mango relish. The spinach came with pine nuts, slivered red onion and tons of lemon juice. The wine by the stem came in generous pours, including a reasonable Rickshaw Pinot Noir from California.

These are the places that draw the heart of a city, the travelers mixed with the regulars. The mixing bowl, with fine food and fellowship, give travel a good name.

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After food, a few minutes’ walk away is Stag Lounge, the lone downtown cigar bar. Stag is a corner bar plunked down in a leafy neighborhood of condos and apartments of a recent vintage. Its thing is the dark liquors, with four pages of scotch and whiskey selections and a constant flow of new spirits.

The humidor is compact, maybe 200 square feet and 400 facings, leaning heavy on the boutique brands but also providing a solid mainstream collection.

Selecting an Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente King T and a club soda – hey, it’s 7 p.m. and there’s still stuff to do – it’s a good time to watch the locals. A couple of regulars come in and head straight to the humidor, grab their favorite unaided, and sit down with a scotch. A few more are there for the drink, and it’s clearly not a place about sports watching –

bar setting. We’ll have a humidor manager.”

A stop in Oklahoma City will include a stop at the site of the Murrah Federal Building, where the nine-story building was destroyed by a terrorist bomb in April 1995. Sadly, the event is like the JFK assassination in Dallas; it’s a crappy thing to be known for, but you have to talk about it. The site of the bombing is now a well-tended memorial plaza and museum, with a reflecting pool and a section of chairs that each bear the name of the 168 people killed in the blast. It’s a stirring visit, and walking the grounds where the building once stood is sobering and saddening. The two-block area is a tribute to the first responders and the others that worked to soothe during the weeks after the blast and it’s well done.

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Kyle, our urban Sherpa, says he doesn’t get downtown much yet he’s a devout advocate for the city and assures that the best part of the city lies in the wider open spaces.

We head to ZT Cigars, a standalone former chicken restaurant that features a large humidor – at close to 1,000 square feet, among the largest in town, if not the largest. The stock is a hit parade of big brands, with boxes stacked to the ceiling.

“I’ve got a lot of boutique brands, but I also want to carry what the TAA guys are carrying,” says ZT owner Todd Naifeh. His best sellers are Drew

the virus.

“But now, I don’t think we’ve had three events there,” he says.

The main lounge in the building is a narrow swath of eight traditional chairs, a couch, a table with six chairs and a big TV. Todd is a big picture business guy – he loves the culture, the personalities, the cigar conferences and the business. Like Kyle, he’s an OKC native and got into the cigar world about 15 years ago when he stepped in to manage his cousin’s wholesale

Clockwise from top left: ZT Cigars is housed in a cinderblock standalone building that was a chicken restaurant in a previous life; owner Todd Naifeh, an OKC native stands in the retail space; the large humidor is stocked with a combination of boutiques and major brands. business.

Estate, Padrón and Fuente, the latter of which he never has enough of, he says.

He offers up a couple of Zeak’s Reserve, a light smoking, well-aged in-house blend crafted for him

by Altadis.

On the yellowing band is an autograph – Zeak Naifeh, Todd’s grandfather. It may be the best smoke of the trip.

He quickly decided retail would be a good way to roll, which led to opening ZT in 2010 with its generous space. When he first started smoking in the late 90s, he got his smokes at small shops in the area. The area’s first full-on cigar bar, Maker’s Cigar Lounge, downtown, shuttered in 2011.

“The real heavy culture has been around here since the mid to late 90s,” Todd says. “But it’s taken time to get to where we are now. When I moved to ZT in 2010, everything changed, to me. That’s what spurred [more lounges]. It was just good timing, there were no lounges.”

“I built that for private parties,” Todd says.

2nd Street Cigar Co. is 20 minutes and a world away. While ZT – which also has a second location in suburban Yukon – was a sprawling, energetic and well-strewn cigar haven, 2nd Street is a mellow jamming comfort stop that opened its doors in 2018.

It was used at least a few times a month before

It starts with owner Clyde Percy, who sits behind

At the back of the ZT’s lot is another building, a cinder block structure that has been set up as a clubhouse, where ZT’s customers have more room for some sports watching and conversations.

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a tobacco rolling table that he built himself, surrounded by golden brown tobacco just inside the door. A licensed tobacconist who gave up his auto refurbishing business and spends some of his weekends skateboarding, Percy does rolling demonstrations on Fridays and Saturdays, and has his house cigar rolled by JC Newman, that he sells in a plain Plexiglass case on the counter for $6.25 and $7.25 a pop.

The humidor is a tribute to the obscure.

“Once I ventured into the small-batch stuff, I realized that there were more flavor profiles [in the

boutiques],” Clyde says. A pile of tobacco that goes for $100,000 is over the spending power of some cigar makers, and they go in and buy a smaller portion, he says.

“They are able to get more aged tobacco and since they don’t pay as much, they are able to try different things. The mainstream brands will always have the same process, and great products. These guys in small batch are using hybrid tobaccos and doing things no one else is doing.”

We select a Sinistro Mr. White Robusto and move to the lounge and its 18 easy chairs, with TVs and a group of regulars.

Clyde is a thinker. He’s waxing on this day about the potential for cannabis to disrupt the cigar industry.

There’s a CBD store right next to his, in fact.

“Will the younger generation smoke cannabis instead of cigars?” he poses. A from-the-heart discussion of the pros and cons follows among the group. The consensus: No, because the two can go hand in hand, like a good single malt and a cigar.

Which encourages Clyde.

“I think at this time, we have the best cigars ever being made, this is the heyday for the quality prime cigar,” he says. “The quality now is unreal. People have done the same thing for years and years, but now to put out a cigar that is going to compete and

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stand out, you’ve gotta come with your ‘A’ game.

The stuff coming out of the factories, and the tobacco, is unreal.”

It’s been almost a day since a solid meal, and the Ranch Steakhouse is a sprawling ode to beef and fine wine, plucking a chunk of its vibe from the 50s – low slung, low light and big booths – with a large patio centered on a huge stone fireplace.

We dig into a bottle of 2012 Lan Rioja Tempranillo

ode to a classic pastime, with a contemporary, deep gray exterior, a spacious, heated patio in the front, and a substantial humidor to the back, bar to the right, VIP lounge with fireplace to the left and a steel staircase leading to an upstairs party room.

The décor is traditional Southwestern, relying on a palette of rust, sand, and dark browns.

Lee Babb is spending his retirement as general manager at BURN after 30 years as an executive for

Patel Fifty-Five, take extra time to the ritual of selecting and smoking, feeling the place. Even in a relatively cavernous lounge like BURN, the smoking removes any urgency.

“There are really two BURNs,” Babb says. “There are the slow times, when you can sit and talk and take time, and then there are the weekends or special nights, when things can be loud and raucous.”

Gone for now, though, is a signature special night: the Ladies Cigar Club was launched in June 2019 and was drawing 40 women every other Tuesday evening.

“We’d bring in reps to talk about their products and have people come in and roll cigars and it was hugely successful,” Kyle says. “It created cigar smokers, and we were the first BURN to do this, then others were just starting to do it, but by the time they got it off the ground, it was ‘rona time.”

Crowds are returning and Chisholm Creek is thriving. Within 300 yards of BURN, several highend restaurants are planned in the coming months.

The virus will abate, the ladies club and all the rest will return.

In spending a few days in Oklahoma City, a trinity of cigar experiences can be had – the unique boutique flavor of 2nd Street, the industry power and top of the charts variety of ZT, and the elevated experience of smoking at BURN. Also to be noted is the up-and-coming improvements

BURN by Rocky Patel, the downstairs is spacious and welcoming, the cozy upstairs at BURN is used for private parties and larger groups, with a view of the Oklahoma plains.

– the weather has turned chilly and the Spanish reds are in season – and watch the Thursday crowd swell, a cross section of the city’s movers, shakers and hopefuls. Kyle has a prime filet and I get some excellent scallops served over a bed of orzo speckled with one-inch stalks of asparagus.

The habanero vinaigrette on the side was spicy/ addictive, an excellent complement to each bite.

We drive west from the Ranch, to get a look at Lake Hefner, a water reservoir for the city that doubles as a rec area, stocked with freshwater fish and, even on a day that has turned blustery, pocked with sailboats.

From there, we head north through a blur of upscale development that includes watering holes and more eateries, the traditional mainstays like the Ranch turning to chain dining. It’s among this changing landscape that we find BURN by Rocky Patel, set in a splashy exurb known as Chisholm Creek, which features more fine dining and drinking adjacent to a mammoth TopGolf entertainment center.

The two-story BURN is visually arresting, a modern

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Anheuser-Busch in the South, Pacific Northwest and Southeast Asia. After decades of smoking cigars as a hobby, he’s now applying his expertise as a goodwill ambassador for BURN. A Thursday afternoon melts into evening with a live jazz performer. Yet nothing is hurried, with plenty of time to check the concrete bar, relax with a Rocky

of Stag, Wilshire and Omertá. They’re looking for the in-between years patron who is ready to check out something new.

It all adds up to a city that is a hub of smoke in the Great Plains. The topography is a mask of sameness, but the humanity is a treasure of variety.

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1. BURN by Rocky Patel 13230 Pawnee Dr #119 burnbyrockypatel.com

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3. Stag Lounge 228 NE 2nd St stagokc.com

4. The Cigar Box OKC 2839 S Douglas Blvd #105

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2726 W Britton Rd ztcigars.com

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RICK

NW 10th St

Reno Ave

Reno Ave

40 or

NW 36th St

N Pennsylvania Ave

Meridian Ave

NW 10th St

S May Ave

N Rockwell Ave

NW 10th St

44

17

NE 50th St

235

35

NE 78th St

NE 63rd St

3

NW 23rd St

E Britton Rd

44

44

N MaCarthur Blvd

N Council Rd

N Meridian Ave

N Rockwell Ave

N Council Rd

HN

JO N Sara Rd

JO

4

SW 44th St

10

8

77

N Western Ave

NW 23rd St

NW 63rd St

3A

NW 50th St

40

SW 15th St

7

NW 36th St

Lake Overholster

Reno Ave

74

66

NW 36th St

NW 10th St

NW 63rd St

lvd

Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge

40

SW 29th St

W Wilshire Blvd NW Gra

ke

T K I L PA JOHN

E Memorial Blvd

E Hefner Rd

3

B nd

NW 23 St

77

estern Ave NW

4

K I L PAT R I C K

W Vandament

15 5

W Wilshire Blvd

NW 50th St

rd

Lake Hefner

c

La

N PIKE

W Britton Rd

W Wilshire Blvd

66

W Hefner Rd

Ar

ia ad

E 33rd St

N Eastern Ave

W Britton Rd

KT UR

N Kelley Ave

W Britton Rd

N MacArthur Blvd

N Rockwell Ave

K I L PAT R I C K T U R N P I K E

W Hefner Rd

RIC

NW 122nd St

74

Bluff Creek Park

PA T

N Western Ave

N Council Rd

NW 122nd St

KIL

N Pennsylvania Ave

NW 122nd St

1

11

JO

3

35 E 33rd St

N Martin Luther King Ave

HN

JOHN

Spring Kreek Park

N Kelley Ave

L PA T R I C K T U R N P I K E

E Memorial Blvd

N Kelley Ave

N MacArthur Blvd

77 NW 150th St NE 150th St

NW 150th St

66

S Blvd

KI

NW 164th St

6

77

S Kelly Ave

OKLAHOMA CITY

74

10. Abc Cigars 4448 NW 50th St

11. R & K Cigars 12325 N May Ave #102

SLEEP

240

FOOD & DRINK

240

LANDMARKS

13. Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse

16. Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

7 S Mickey Mantle Dr mickeymantlesteakhouse.com

620 N Harvey Ave memorialmuseum.com

14. Mahogany Prime Steakhouse

17. National Cowboy &

145 W Sheridan Ave mahoganyprimesteakhouse.com

1700 NE 63rd St nationalcowboymuseum.org

Western Heritage Museum

8. Tobacco Exchange Edmond

12. Colcord Hotel

15. Ranch Steakhouse

18. Chesapeake Energy Arena

13512 N Eastern Ave C bestcigarsok.com

15 N Robinson Ave colcordhotel.com

3000 W Britton Rd ranchsteakhouse.com

100 W Reno Ave chesapeakearena.com

TURN

PIKE

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

47

Audi does tech and does it well. Any phone pairs quickly, Apple Car Play comes on flawlessly, and all controls are easily managed from the steering wheel. We love the no volume knob for the excellent stereo, instead controlling it and most everything else from the steering wheel. The 8 x 8 inch touchscreen is more than large enough.

AND THAT’S ENOUGH

By Steve Miller

Audi’s smallest SUV gives the luxury brand a formidable vehicle for those seeking a bit more space than a sedan. With all the refined accoutrements Audi patrons are seeking, the Q3 delivers sharp design, adept handling and the cockpit tech that is by now expected from the German automaker. We turn the Q3 loose for a few hundred miles of highway and city, and here’s how it goes.

The Audi Q3 hits the “just right ” luxe SUV size when compared to the German automaker’s larger entries in the segment.

The intuitive, user-friendly tech reminds us of an embarrassing episode 15 or so years ago, when we were handed the keys to a Mercedes prototype, a real thrill until it came time to fuel it up, and it took 15 minutes to figure out how to open the newfangled gas cap.

We’re still trying, obviously unsuccessfully, to forget that misstep.

Then there’s the space of the Q3, which is a step backwards for anyone with more than a couple of people and some luggage.

The potential problem with any compact SUV is that it lacks the SUV-ness, the space that sent you to the segment. And the Audi Q3 is a leg cruncher for back seat passengers. Which is fine, perhaps, as there is little room for their luggage anyway.

The Q3’s storage space would be a challenge for more than two adults and their stuff, and anyone with such needs would want to move up to the Q5 or higher.

The Audi Q3 fits well in the limited compact luxe SUV segment, carrying a light frame and a reasonable miles per gallon rating, making it a strong player among its formidable competitors, the BMW X1, the Volvo XC40, the Mercedes GLA, and the Buick Encore.

These are the major leagues for driving, and Audi has been a starting player since a revitalization in the mid-2000s, when it relaunched itself with the advertising tagline “progress is beautiful” and a product placement purchase in the first “Iron Man” superhero flick.

Since that time, Audi quality has improved, the design has remained eye-catching, and the marketing has allowed the brand to reach beyond the 60 percent male buyer it once catered to. The Audi SUVs have been part of that expansion.

The products have proven that regardless of the target audience, good is good, and the Q3 ensures Audi remains a player across the luxe car lines.

The Q3 is small enough to allow the four-cylinder, 228 hp turbocharged engine to behave well, and it’s large enough to give a couple of people plenty of space. Driving the Q3 to cover a few hundred miles’ journey, while not the living-roomon-wheels that is the much-larger Audi Q7, is a pleasure.

Drivers who want a taste of Audi’s engine finery on a larger frame will be pleased with the Q3. The turbo engine results in some lag when you

Some drivers are understandably hesitant to go with an SUV from a brand that is known for its precise sedan delivery, where easy cornering, rapid acceleration and smooth speed are the desired attributes. A spiffy engine can only do so much when powering a larger chassis, the thinking goes.

That’s mostly nonsense until you get to the super brands – yes they make a Lamborghini SUV, but…

You’ll hear a little whining as the Q3 moves through the gears as you hit cruising speed, but once it settles in, the cabin is quiet. Audi’s Quattro all-wheel drive ensures the vehicle sticks on the corners.

48 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

2020 Audi Q3

crush the gas pedal, but the eight-speed transmission makes up for that quickly.

Engine

2.0L/228 hp

Transmission

Automatic 8 sp.

Fuel Thirst, mpg

22 / 19 / 27 combined/city/highway (mpg)

Dimensions

176.6 L, 72.8 W, 62.9 H

Front Leg Room

40 inches

Second Row Leg Room

36 inches

Curb Weight

3,905 lbs

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

49

TEN 2 7 MINU T H E C H O I C TES QUIC PERF E S K SM ECT OKE

THE DRE 4 X WE 3 DR 2 S E W CO E S LLE TATE T A T CT E . C ION OM

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.

WWW.DREWESTATE.COM 50 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

Photo by INTI OCON/AFP/Getty Images

ww

Eye of the Storm Relief efforts are under way after Honduras and Nicaragua are ravaged by back to back major hurricanes.

By Steve Miller NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

51

he damage from two hurricanes that struck Central America within 11 days of each other in November has plunged Honduras into full emergency, as almost 30 percent of the country’s 9.5 million residents are said to be affected by the storms.

Category 4 Hurricane Eta and Category 5 Hurricane Iota swept through parts of Central America and Mexico on November 3 and November 14, respectively, producing landslides and sustained winds of up to 160 miles per hour while dumping over 25 inches of rain in some parts.

The storms are said to be responsible for the deaths of 120 people in Honduras and at least 40 in Nicaragua. Iota initially took down the infrastructure in parts of Honduras, muddling communications and making it difficult to determine where resources were needed. Health facilities were also damaged, with some reported inoperative.

storms took down nearly a third of the crop in the growing region to the north part of the country.

“That one, we lost maybe 450-500 acres worth of tobacco that we were going to be planting,” he said.

Coffee growers in both Nicaragua and Honduras believe that Iota will also limit the seasonal coffee crop.

An early press release by the Nicaraguan Chamber of Tobacco, issued after Eta and before Iota, stated that the tobacco industry in Nicaragua was “unaffected,” but Molina said that information was premature.

Religious groups, agricultural associations, and cities and towns in the U.S. and other parts of the world have donated to help residents of Central America.

The U.S. has allocated $17 million in humanitarian aid and additional personnel in the region.

The consecutive storms make this year the worst storm season in the region in 15 years.

“The chamber was referring more to the facilities and whatever inventory was not damaged, I think,” Molina said. “But when it comes to farming and growing tobacco, yes, there was some damage. We haven’t been able to transplant, and now the baby plants will be older than 45 days and that’s too old to go into the fields. So we are now going to have to

In Honduras, “approximately 2 million people have limited or no access to health services due to damage to the health services network, of which at least 500,000 have health needs,” according to a World Health Organization account.

Photo credit: Plasencia Cigars

Damage amounts in dollar terms are preliminary and vary widely. Agence France-Presse reports damage in Honduras at over $10 billion. Business Insurance magazine reports $740 million in damage in Nicaragua, where an estimated 400,000 people have been affected, mostly on the Atlantic coast.

One of Plasencia’s Estelí fields flooded by Hurricane Iota rainfall with recently planted tobacco submerged in water. “I’m amazed at the resilience of the tobacco plant,” said Néstor Andrés Plasencia during a call with Cigar Snob.

Damage to the tobacco-growing and cigarproducing sectors of the Central American nations appears to be isolated and largely minimal.

So cigar makers, after assessing their damage, have turned to helping their fellow countrymen along with other communities around the world that are donating goods and money to help ease the impact of the storms.

Photo credit: AJ Fernández

The bulk of the damage is northeast of the key tobacco-growing regions of Nicaragua. But the intense rains that were part of the storms impacted the fields of AJ Fernandez Cigars.

AJ Fernández contemplates the extensive damage to the topsoil in his company’s San Ramón field in Estelí.

The damage includes the displacement of families and the ruin of crops and livestock that provide the lifeblood of families.

Banana producers in Honduras estimated that the

52 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

“There was so much water that it flooded some of our farms, and the river nearby brought in rocks and sand into the field,” AJ factory manager Freddy Molina told Cigar Snob. “The water washed away the vegetable soil, so we’ve been having to fix that for the past two weeks.”

A greenhouse at the Oro Verde farm near Jalapa also incurred storm damage, Molina said, taking out some of the young plants stored inside.

wait for baby plants to germinate. By the time we start the harvest, we’re going to be into the rainy season for 2021. We aren’t going to take another chance, so we will grow less tobacco.”

The storm has delayed the state of the planning season, said Claudio Sgroi, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Tobacco, who said the damage struck a “small portion” of the tobacco fields and infrastructure.

“There were a few growers who had started the season early,” said Sgroi, who is also president of Mombacho Cigars. “They might have incurred some heavier damage.”

“Total was around 250 acres that was affected,” he said. The delay will not affect the overall crop, which he said will reflect an increase in demand for imported cigars of around 6 percent next year.

“I am sure there will be more tobacco planted this year,” Sgroi said.

Others said the storm did minimal damage to the crops and buildings.

Photo by INTI OCON/AFP/Getty Images

A boy washes himself in the devastated Haulover, a community 41 km south of Bilwi, in the Northern Caribbean Autonomous Region, Nicaragua, on November 28, 2020, days after the passage of Hurricane Iota.

“We got through this very well,” said Néstor Andrés Plasencia of Plasencia Cigars, the largest tobacco grower in Central America. He said the tobacco crops are solid due to the storms striking early in the growing season, with about 6 percent of Plasencia’s plants sustaining some damage. In addition, the planting was fortuitously delayed by an extended rainy season.

“We have some damage in the fields in Estelí because we started earlier there, but I’m amazed at the resilience of the tobacco plant. We had a field that was loaded with water the day Iota passed through, and the next day, the water level was already down. The plants were a little hurt but we came through with some organic fertilizer, passed a tractor through when the sun came out, and the fields are looking great.”

Nicaragua is the leading exporter of premium cigars to the U.S. Honduras is No. 3.

In addition to tobacco fields in the region, Plasencia also has cigar factories in both Honduras and Nicaragua. He said the fields in Honduras took the brunt of his damage, about 75 percent.

The tobacco growing region of the Jamastrán Valley of Honduras, near the Nicaraguan border, was impacted although the extent is still being determined.

Relief efforts from the cigar community include a joint project between Plasencia, The Tank Brewing in Miami, and Cigar Snob, which collected goods through donation boxes in six Miami-area cigar stores that will go to affected families in Nicaragua and Honduras.

He said the curing barns were heated during the rains to reduce excess humidity, and that “these barns are built very well, they can take a lot.”

On-the-ground cigar operators in Nicaragua put together private relief as well as efforts that went through the Red Cross, said Juan Martínez, CEO of Joya de Nicaragua.

The cigar industry is Nicaragua’s fifth largest by volume of business and grew by 60 percent between 2009 and 2018, from $91 million to $225 million.

“We’ve had private initiatives through the cigar companies mobilized at the community level,” Martínez said. Workers also took part to gather

necessities including clothing, beds, and shoes that were distributed through the Red Cross with help from the Nicaraguan Chamber of Tobacco.

“This process goes in three stages,” he said. “First is to provide basic needs for those affected, then helping to rebuild the homes, which is where we are now, then to rebuild the structures in a way to better protect them in the future.”

Oscar Valladares Tobacco & Co. announced shortly after the storms that it would coordinate a relief effort through a GoFundMe campaign. As of press time, the account had collected $12,800.

The Nicaraguan Tobacco Chamber collected more money from members and bought food and clothing to send to the Atlantic coast. AJ Fernández, Plasencia, Oliva and others also joined to collect over $100,000 for relief, buying supplies for the displaced residents.

“Members are also helping on their own, “said Sgroi of the chamber, who estimated enough was collected to help 1,600 residents. “Some of those go from the chamber to the Red Cross, and members boxed up goods and shipped them out. “

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

53

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48 CIGARS LIGHTER: Zino Graphic Leaf Collection Torch (davidoff.com) GLASSWARE: Ethan + Ashe Rocks Glass (ethanashe.com)

TORPEDO Padrón 1926 Serie 40th Anniversary Maduro

93

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Torpedo 6 1/2 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

La Aroma de Cuba Mi Amor

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Belicoso 5 1/2 54 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Torpedo 6 1/2 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

El Doctor 6 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

72 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

Consistently produces an abundant output of rich, flavorful smoke with notes of bittersweet chocolate, wood, and molasses complemented by a touch of leather and soft spice. Medium plus bodied.

N I CA R AG UA Features a flawless construction and finished with a dark brown wrapper with beautiful oils.

Medium to full strength with a profile of dark chocolate, molasses, cedar, and pepper complemented by a hint of roasted nuts on the finish.

N I CA R AG UA Impeccably constructed and covered with a reddish brown wrapper with excellent sheen.

Delivers a medium plus strength profile highlighted by notes of red pepper, cashew, cedar, and heavy cream.

$ 9.2 7 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Torpedo 6 1/2 52 Nicaragua Honduras & Nicaragua Nicaragua

Tatuaje 15th Habano Oscuro

90

N I CA R AG UA

$ 19.60

Alec Bradley Black Market Esteli

90

Flavorful and beautifully balanced, this medium to full strength, box-pressed torpedo delivers a complex blend of espresso, dark chocolate, and roasted nuts accompanied by soft spice and a touch of cedar. Perfect draw and burn.

$ 15.00

Joya de Nicaragua Cinco Décadas

91

N I CA R AG UA

$ 8.50

Ramon Allones by AJ Fernandez

91

$ 28.00

N I CA R AG UA Delivers an earthy profile complemented by subtle notes of wood, black pepper, and a hint of caramel sweetness. Consistently well-made and covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with sheen. Medium plus strength.

$ 19.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Belicoso Fino 5 1/2 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

USA This short figurado is covered with a dark, neatly applied wrapper and finished with a covered foot. This full strength blend opens with a dominant dose of pepper that retreats partly to incorporate softer, richer notes of dark chocolate, roasted coffee, and burnt sugar.

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

73

GRAN TORO Rocky Patel Aged, Limited & Rare, 2nd Edition

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Sixty 6 60 Mexico Nicaragua Nicaragua

A. Fuente Magnum R

N I CA R AG UA A stout, box-pressed blend with a core of earth, cocoa, and deep pepper joined by more subtle notes of walnut and leather in the aroma.

This medium plus bodied gran toro is well constructed and finished with a neatly applied dark brown wrapper.

$ 11.98

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Super Sixty 6 60 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Camacho American Barrel Aged

91 90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Gordo 6 60 USA/Connecticut USA/Connecticut Honduras & USA

Loaded with flavors of cinnamon, bread, and baking spice complemented by notes of cedar and almond cream. Medium bodied and covered with a thin, light brown wrapper with minimal veins.

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a dark, toothy wrapper, this well-made blend produces an excellent smoke output with a profile of charred oak, molasses, earth, and deep pepper complemented by a ripe fruit sweetness on the finish. Medium plus strength.

$ 4.95 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Magnum 6 60 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

La Flor Dominicana Ligero Cabinet Oscuro

90

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

$ 13.00

Gurkha Castle Hall Nicaragua

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

N I CA R AG UA A thick, good-looking gran toro covered with an impeccable wrapper with a light, reddish brown hue. Consistently delivers flavors of almond cream, cedar, and spice along with a touch of leather in the aroma. Medium bodied.

$ 9.70 L-500 5 3/4 60 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Brick House Natural

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Intense and flavorful out of the gate with a full bodied core of black pepper, oak, and barnyard complemented by a subtle sweetness on the finish. This well-made blend is covered with a dark brown wrapper with excellent oils.

$ 7.60

89 74 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

$ 15.75

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Mighty Mighty 6 1/4 60 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

N I CA R AG UA Delivers a consistent core of pepper, earth, and a touch of caramel accompanied by more subtle notes of roasted almonds and a touch of cream. Medium bodied and covered with a supple, reddish brown wrapper.

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

75

TORO Espinosa Laranja Reserva Escuro

93

$ 11.45 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 52 Brazil Nicaragua Nicaragua

Liga Privada T52

Opens with a flavorful core of espresso, dark chocolate, and smooth pepper accompanied by notes of molasses, oak, and subtle vanilla.

This impeccably box-pressed toro produces an excellent output of thick, aromatic smoke. Medium plus strength.

$ 1 4.33

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 52 USA/Connecticut Brazil Honduras & Nicaragua

Padrรณn 1964 Anniversary Maduro

92 91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Imperial 6 54 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

N I CA R AG UA A dark, box-pressed toro that consistently delivers a flavorful and well-balanced blend with notes of dark chocolate, earth, and soft pepper complemented by more subtle hints of cedar, coffee, and leather. Medium strength.

N I CA R AG UA A complex, well balanced blend with a profile of cocoa, roasted almond, cedar, and leather complemented by a sweet pepper note on the finish. Impeccably constructed and covered with a flawless, dark brown wrapper with beautiful oils.

$ 11.50 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 50 Mexico Honduras Honduras

Perdomo Double Aged 12 Year Vintage Maduro

90

Ultra-flavorful with a rich profile of caramel, chocolate, and leather complemented by smooth pepper and a touch of earth. Covered with an impeccably applied reddish brown wrapper with sheen. Medium plus strength.

$ 8.45

Aladino Maduro Box-Pressed

91

N I CA R AG UA

$ 16.80

Romeo y Julieta by AJ Fernandez

76 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

N I CA R AG UA

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Epicure 6 56 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

H O N D UR AS A beautifully box-pressed blend covered with a dark, coffee bean colored wrapper with minimal veins. Delivers a medium to full bodied core of oak, black pepper, and molasses accompanied by notes of espresso and dark chocolate.

$ 10.50

N I CA R AG UA Produces an abundant output of thick, rich smoke with notes of wood, sweet pepper, and chocolate accompanied by more subtle notes of earth and caramel. This thick, wellconstructed toro is covered with a clean, dark wrapper. Medium to full bodied.

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

77

TORO Muestra de Saka Unstolen Valor

91

$ 1 7.95 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

Protocol Sir Robert Peel

Firmly packed and covered with a highly aromatic wrapper with excellent oils. This full-bodied toro burns slowly while delivering a flavorful and intense combination of deep pepper, earth, savor, and grilled meats.

$ 11.95

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Oliveros Gran Retorno 2 Habano

91

N I CA R AG UA Delivers a balanced profile of pepper, wood, and cinnamon accompanied by hints of leather, cocoa, and cream. Impeccably box-pressed and finished with a clean, supple wrapper with a velvet feel.

$ 7.70 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Swing 6 50 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

Kristoff Kristania

N I CA R AG UA Smooth and flavorful with a core of earth, smooth pepper, and a touch of cocoa complemented by a rich, leather aroma. This medium bodied toro is consistently well-constructed providing an excellent draw and a slightly wavy burn.

$ 6.02

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 52 Nicaragua Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Villiger TAA Exclusive 2020

90 89

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A smooth, medium bodied toro with a core of cedar, pepper, and cream accompanied by a touch of cocoa and baking spice. Provides a consistently good draw while producing an abundant smoke output.

$ 9.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 54 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Fratello Arlequin Prensado

78 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

N I CA R AG UA

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a toothy, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils, this pressed toro delivers a profile of wood, black pepper, and a touch of sweet cream. Produces an abundant output of medium to full bodied smoke.

$ 10.50 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Toro 6 1/2 54 Mexico Ecuador Peru & Nicaragua

N I CA R AG UA Opens with notes of intense black pepper, charred oak, and tanned leather complemented by a touch of walnut and orange zest on the finish. Box-pressed and covered with a dark, reddish brown wrapper with excellent oils.

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

79

ROBUSTO Davidoff Grand Cru

$ 21.30

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 1/4 52 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Joya de Nicaragua Antaño CT

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 54 USA/Connecticut Nicaragua Nicaragua

La Galera Connecticut

N I CA R AG UA Flavorful and well balanced with a profile of cedar, nuts, and smooth spice accompanied by notes of subtle earth and vanilla cream.

This medium strength robusto is finished with a clean, golden colored wrapper with a supple feel.

$ 8.25

N I CA R AG UA A firmly packed, thick robusto finished with an impeccable, light brown wrapper absent of any noticeable veins. Draws and burns perfectly while producing an excellent smoke output highlighted by notes of oak, subtle spice, and a touch of vanilla cream.

$ 5.50

89

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Chaveta 5 1/8 50 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Macanudo Heritage Nuevo

88

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Covered with a golden colored wrapper with slight veins, this mild to medium strength blend has a profile of cedar, black American coffee, and spice accompanied by a light touch of citrus. Consistently draws and burns well.

$ 12.99 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Mexico Mexico & Dominican Republic

Alec Bradley Medalist

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A mild robusto covered with a nearly flawless, supple wrapper. Produces a generous output of light bodied smoke with a delicate profile of cedar, white pepper, and a hint of cream complemented by notes of leather and spice on the nose.

$ 6.00

88 80 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

An impeccably constructed robusto with a perfect draw and even burn leaving behind a solid, compact ash. Delivers an abundant output of mild and creamy smoke with notes of cedar, sweet spice, and vanilla complemented by a touch of roasted nuts.

$ 8.45

Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne

90

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 52 Honduras Honduras Honduras & Nicaragua

H O N D UR AS Flavors of nut, cream, and sharp spice complemented by a subtle cedar note on the finish.

Provides an open draw and a wavy burn while producing an excellent output of medium bodied smoke.

THE MUSIC DANCES WITH THE CLASSIC MADURO IN YOUR HAND. THE WRAPPER, AGED 3 YEARS, INTENSIFIES THE SMOOTH AND CREAMY TOBACCO, DELIVERING RICH FLAVOR FROM THE FIRST DRAW.

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

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ROBUSTO Oliva Serie V

$ 9.08

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VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Double Robusto 5 54 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

A. Fuente Don Carlos

Ultra-flavorful and balanced with a core of chocolate, roasted almond, and smooth pepper complemented by notes of espresso and sweet cream. Impeccably constructed, this medium to full strength robusto draws and burns perfectly.

$ 10.30

92

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Cameroon Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

My Father El Centurion H-2K-CT

92

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C A beautifully balanced blend with a core of sweet cedar, nuts, and soft spice complemented by a touch of cinnamon and cream on the finish. Consistently produces an excellent smoke output and leaves behind a solid, compact ash.

$ 8.10 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona Box-Pressed 5 1/2 48 USA Nicaragua Nicaragua

Gurkha Nicaragua Series

N I CA R AG UA An impeccably box-pressed blend covered with a supple, medium brown wrapper with almost invisible veins. Draws and burns beautifully while producing flavors of cedar, soft pepper, and cocoa powder complemented by a rich, almond cream note on the finish.

$ 9.75

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

Camacho Nicaraguan Barrel Aged

90

N I CA R AG UA Consistently produces an excellent smoke output with a flavorful profile of sweet cedar, cocoa, and nuts balanced by smooth spice and a touch of oak. This well-constructed robusto is covered with a clean wrapper with a supple feel.

$ 10.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 Ecuador Mexico Honduras, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

Micallef Connecticut

H O N D UR AS Delivers a profile of oak, earth, and smooth pepper balanced by sweet, subtle notes of vanilla and mocha. This well-constructed robusto produces an excellent smoke output along a slow and steady burn. Medium plus strength.

$ 9.60

90 82 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

N I CA R AG UA

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 52 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

N I CA R AG UA Opens with a balanced blend of cedar, nuts, and spice accompanied by notes of leather, nougat, and cream. This medium bodied robusto is covered with a supple, light brown wrapper and produces an excellent smoke output.

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

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84 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

ROBUSTO Herrera Esteli Norteño

$ 8.15

N I CA R AGUA A beautifully constructed, box-pressed short robusto delivering a flavorful medium bodied profile of roasted nuts, cocoa, and coffee balanced by a smooth pepper and earth core.

Draws and burns perfectly while leaving behind a solid, compact ash.

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Short Corona Gorda 4 7/10 48 Mexico Honduras Nicaragua

92 The Tabernacle

$ 10.75

N I CA R AGUA Covered in a flawless, dark brown wrapper with excellent oils. This impeccably constructed robusto delivers a core of roasted almonds, earth, and pepper complemented by a touch of coffee and raisin. Perfect draw and burn leaving behind a solid ash.

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Robusto 5 50 USA/Connecticut Mexico Honduras & Nicaragua

Crowned Heads La Coalición

$ 12.25

N I CA R AGUA Sweet and intense with a core of charred oak, pepper, and currant accompanied by leather, mineral oil, and sweet cream. This medium plus strength blend produces an incredibly high smoke output and leaves behind a solid ash.

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Gordito 5 1/2 50 USA/Connecticut Indonesia Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

90 601 La Bomba

$ 9.99

N I CA R AGUA Opens with an intense burst of black pepper that settles just enough to incorporate flavors of earth, dark chocolate, and espresso. This unique-looking smoke is covered with a toothy wrapper and topped with a long, wick-like pigtail.

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Napalm 5 52 Nicaragua Nicaragua Nicaragua

90 La Galera Anemoi

$ 10.00

D OM I NI CAN REPUBLIC A thick robusto covered with an exceedingly dark wrapper with a rough texture. Opens with a blast of black pepper, bitter chocolate, and raisin sweetness that settles slightly to incorporate more subtle notes of oak and cinnamon.

Medium plus strength.

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Notus 5 56 USA/Connecticut Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Hiram & Solomon Master Mason

$ 10.30

N I CA R AGUA An intense, medium strength blend covered with an extremely dark wrapper with thin veins.

Delivers flavors of bitter coffee, charred oak, and roasted nuts complemented by more subtle notes of ripe fruit sweetness and leather.

88

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Robusto 5 52 Nicaragua Indonesia Nicaragua

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CORONA Casa Cuba

$ 8.99

92

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Divine Inspiration 6 1/8 47 Ecuador Dominican Republic Dominican Republic

Sobremesa Brulee Blue

Superb balance and complexity with a profile of almond, cinnamon, soft spice, and cedar accompanied by more delicate notes of bread and dried fruit. This medium bodied blend is covered with a light brown wrapper and finished with a subtle press.

$ 1 4.95

91

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona 6 1/4 46 Ecuador Mexico Nicaragua

San Cristobal Elegancia

N I CA R AG UA Impeccably constructed and topped with a neat pigtail, this mild to medium strength blend is well balanced and incredibly flavorful with a core of cedar, mild coffee, caramel, and cashews complemented by a noticeable sweetness throughout.

$ 6.45

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona 5 1/2 46 Ecuador Nicaragua Nicaragua

La Aurora 107 Cosecha 2007

90

N I CA R AG UA Produces an excellent output of medium strength smoke with a balanced profile of pepper, earth, and spice while leaving behind a super-compact ash. This consistently well made corona is finished with a nearly flawless, light brown wrapper.

$ 11.00 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona Gorda 6 47 Ecuador Brazil Brazil, Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

CLE Connecticut

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Provides a perfect draw and burn while leaving behind a solid ash that breaks off in large chunks. This medium plus strength blend has a core of red pepper, wood, and sweet spice accompanied by a sour apple note on the finish.

$ 7.66

90

VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Corona 5 3/4 46 Ecuador Honduras Honduras

Montecristo White Series

89 86 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C

H O N D UR AS Covered with a thin, golden colored wrapper with sheen, this mild to medium strength corona delivers a core of cedar, nuts, and spice complemented by a touch of earth and cream.

Consistently draws and burns perfectly.

$ 9.90 VITOLA: LENGTH: RING: WRAPPER: BINDER: FILLER:

Especial No. 3 5 1/2 44 USA/Connecticut Nicaragua Nicaragua & Dominican Republic

D O M I N I CA N R E P UBLI C Smooth and creamy with a profile of wood, spice, and cashews accompanied by a bit of coffee and citrus. A good-looking corona covered with a clean, light brown wrapper. Provides a firm draw and leaves behind a solid, dark gray ash.

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

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

87

TWITTER SCOREBOARD The cigar world is on Twitter and we aim to keep track of who’s leading who. The following is a scoreboard of the cigar world’s most relevant Tweeples. The list is sorted by number of followers and broken into groups: Top 20 Twitter Cigar Companies & Reps, Top 10 Twitter Retailers, Top 10 Online Cigar Tweeps, Top 3 Twitter Cigar Organizations, and Top 3 Cigar Radio Twitter accounts. If you have the numbers and belong in one of these groups, stand up and be counted! Set us straight via Twitter @cigarsnobmag.

TOP CIGAR ORGANIZATIONS

TOP CIGAR COMPANIES ( sorted by Twitter followers ) Rocky Patel @RockyPatelCigar ................................................

Drew Estate Cigars @DrewEstateCigar ....................................

Padron Cigar @PadronCigars ...................................................

CAO International @CAOCigars ................................................

Alec Bradley Cigars @AlecBradley ...........................................

La Flor Dominicana @LFDCigars ..............................................

Jonathan Drew @JonathanDrewArt ..........................................

Ashton Cigars @ashtoncigar ....................................................

Camacho Cigars @camachocigars ...........................................

Pete Johnson @TatuajeCigars ..................................................

La Gloria Cubana @lagloriacubana ...........................................

Xikar Inc @XIKARinc ...............................................................

Nick Perdomo @PerdomoCigars ..............................................

Miami Cigar Co @miamicigar ...................................................

Davidoff Cigars @Davidoff_Cigars ...........................................

Punch Cigars @punchcigars ....................................................

Ernesto Padilla @PadillaCigars ................................................

AJ Fernandez @ajfcigars .........................................................

Avo Cigars @AvoCigars ...........................................................

La Palina Cigars @La PalinaCigars ...........................................

35675 33681 28574 26167 20917 20592 18618 18608 18481 16472 15134 15015 13505 13091 12993 12821 12646 12493 11558 11557

Cigar Rights of America @cigarrights ...................................... 14737 Premium Cigar Association @PCA1933 .................................... 8452 Tobacconist University @tobacconistU ................................... 4465

TOP CIGAR RADIO Cigar Dave Show @CigarDaveShow ........................................ 11137 KMA Talk Radio @KMATalkRadio ............................................. 2232 Cigars and Scotch @CigarScotch ............................................ 1923

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE TWEETS @spadescigars New York , New York .. The City Where Big DREAMS Come True .. The Queen of Spades .. Smoking a @ spadescigars White Label Cigar .. Available NOW at www.spadescigars. com or Your Local Cigar Lounge .. Look Forward To Seeing Everyone at @ houstoncigarweek Memorial Day Weekend Thursday May 27th - Sunday May 30th 2021 .. Play Your Best Hand …

TOP CIGAR RETAILERS & REPS Famous Smoke Shop @FamousSmokeShop .............................

Mulberry St. Cigars @MulberryStCigar ....................................

Cigar Hustler @cigarhustler .....................................................

Cigar Row @CigarRow ............................................................

Jeff Borysiewicz – Corona Cigar Co @CoronaCigarCo................

Michael Herklots @MichaelHerklots .........................................

Barry – Two Guys Smoke Shop @Barry2Guys ...........................

Lindsay Siddiqi @TheCigarChick ..............................................

Cheap Humidors @cheaphumidors ..........................................

Buckhead Cigar @BuckheadCigar ............................................

15532 13035 10948 7787 7521 6383 6341 5133 5110 4281

TOP ONLINE CIGAR TWEEPLES David Voth–Sex, Cigars, & Booze @SexCigarsBooze .................

Cigar News @CigaRSS ............................................................

Cigar Events @CigarEvents .....................................................

Cigar Federation @CigarFederation .........................................

Robusto Cigar Babe @RobustoBabe ........................................

Stogie Boys @StogieBoys .......................................................

Cigar Dojo @CigarDojo ............................................................

Cigar Evaluations @CigarEvaluation ........................................

The Stogie Guys @stogieguys ..................................................

Cigar Inspector @CigarInspector .............................................

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144670 16551 14774 11933 10895 8302 8197 8110 7827 7385

@thecigarholder All set for the weekend. check out our new #tchcigars Leather Case on www. tchcigars.com, great accessory for aficionados, every cigar travel case is made of leather and is built by hand to the most stringent criteria, ensuring quality, durability and style.

love is for suckers - cigars are for lovers score more great sticks like sweet jane, crazy alice & fat bottom betty from your deadwood tobacco co. and drew estate.

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

89

INSTAGRAM SCOREBOARD Since its launch in October of 2010, the cigar world has become enamored with Instagram. Today the ‘Gram is unquestionably the most popular platform on which to share snaps of what you’re smoking and drinking. This scoreboard is sorted by number of followers and broken into groups: Top 20 Cigar & Cigar Accessory Companies, Top 10 Retailers & Reps, Top 10 Cigar Influencers, Top 3 Cigar Organizations, and Top 3 Cigar Radio accounts. If you have the numbers and belong in one of these groups, stand up and be counted! Set us straight via Instagram @cigarsnobmag.

TOP CIGAR & ACCESSORY COMPANIES ( sorted by Instagram followers )

TOP CIGAR ORGANIZATIONS

Padron Cigar @padroncigars ...................................................

Drew Estate Cigars @drewestatecigar .....................................

Davidoff Cigars @davidoffcigars .............................................

Rocky Patel @rockypatelcigar .................................................

Arturo Fuente @arturofuentecigars .........................................

Gurkha Cigars @gurkhacigars .................................................

Xikar Inc @xikar .....................................................................

Camacho Cigars @camachocigars ...........................................

Boveda @BovedaInc ...............................................................

La Flor Dominicana @LFDCigars ..............................................

Epic Cigars @epiccigars .........................................................

Ashton Cigars @ashtoncigar ...................................................

My Father Cigars @myfathercigars ..........................................

AJ Fernandez @ajfcigars .........................................................

Alec Bradley Cigars @alecbradleycigar ....................................

Joya de Nicaragua @joyacigars ...............................................

Oliva Cigar Co. @olivacigar .....................................................

Nick Perdomo @Perdomocigars ..............................................

Villiger Cigars North America @villigercigar .............................

E. P. Carrillo Cigars @epcarrillo_cigars ....................................

Premium Cigar Association @PCA1933 .................................... 12117 Operation: Cigar for Warriors @cigarsforwarriors .................... 10503 Cigar Rights of America @cigarrightsofamerica ....................... 2999

125215 108791 101322 93047 80490 68764 67303 65693 61050 58386 55068 52452 50610 49264 46564 43302 43067 40142 38510 37533

TOP CIGAR RADIO Cigar Dave Show @cigardave ................................................. 3178 KMA Talk Radio @KMATalkRadio ............................................. 1581 Cigars and Scotch @cigar_and_scotch .................................... 832

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE TWEETS, MENTIONS, AND RANDOM SOCIAL MEDIA GOODNESS.

@ambassadorheather Anyone know the way to the smoke show?

TOP CIGAR RETAILERS & REPS Famous Smoke Shop @famoussmokeshop ...............................

Mulberry St. Cigars @mulberrystcigars ...................................

Cigars International @cigarsinternational ................................

Privada Cigar Club @privadacigarclub .....................................

Cigar Hustler @cigarhustler ....................................................

The Cigar Culture @thecigarculture .........................................

Master Sensei @cigardojo ......................................................

Angela Yue @angela_yue .........................................................

Michael Herklots @michaelherklots .........................................

La Casa Cigars & Lounge Vegas @lacasavegas ........................

53236 48379 48339 45308 30366 29362 25561 24533 22892 19055

TOP ONLINE CIGAR INFLUENCERS ON INSTAGRAM Delicia-Creator-Influencer @cigarvixen ...................................

Cigar Lover @cigarlover12 ......................................................

Naked Cigar @nakedcigar .......................................................

Eric Theoneandonly @scotchandtime ......................................

Cigars / Smoke.Laugh.Live @world.of.cigars ............................

Nikki @cigarpassionista ..........................................................

Elaine Lilley @elainelilleyhawaii ...............................................

Liz Cigar Life Style @remarkable_liz ........................................

Girls With Cigars @girlswithcigars ...........................................

HERficinado / Cigar Lifestyle @herficionado ............................

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79254 52006 49135 46882 39735 29504 27695 27510 26471 25197

@texasbourbonking

Opus X Lost City & Old Forester 150th Anniversary ~

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

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EVENTS SHORE THING CIGARS WHITE PARTY Watersound, Fla.

Shore Thing Cigars, with Davidoff Cigars, held an exclusive event to honor its top tier customers, the second annual White Party, in which invitees dress in all white – never too late in the season for that in the balmy Florida Panhandle. The private gathering was free for the 15 customers who were honored this year. For their devoted patronage, the attendees received a swag bag as well as a camo patterned, leather cigar holder and some of the featured cigars, which included the Luke Bryan Exclusive – the country star is co-owner of Shore Thing.

Paul Copeland, Stacey Sparks and Tiffany Ashley

Lana Fraser and Tiffany Ashley

Steve Lehman, Griffin Eure and Garrett DaMore

92 | CIGAR SNOB | NOV / DEC 2020

Shiah Goldberg

Dylan Austin

PHOTO CREDIT: RennaVation Studios

EVENTS CAVA CIGARS DOMINO TOURNAMENT WITH DAVIDOFF CIGARS Miami

Cava Cigars hosted a domino tournament with Davidoff Cigars, and while it took all day, the first prize winners, out of 32 teams, scored two boxes of cigars, an ashtray, a cigar cutter, an AVO leather carrying case, a T-shirt, a trophy and a day of competitive fellowship.

And this is no afterthought: There was also free food and beer.

Giselle Rosales, Carlos Escalona and Yenly Castillo

Carlos Escalona and Bobby Singer

Moises Espinosa, Carlos Escalona and Erik Espinosa

Ariel Núñez, Adrian Fish, Rick Vargas, Alex and Eugene Castañeda

Victor Barroso and Andy Chirino

1st Place Winners: Mauro Caballero and Marcos Olaniel

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

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NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

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EVENTS INDUSTRIAL CIGAR HALLOWEEN PARTY Frisco, Texas

Industrial Cigar Co. hosted its 4th annual Halloween Party with a theme of Haunted Hollywood, with Crux Cigars, encouraging everyone to come dressed as their favorite celeb to dig into some food, drink and premium cigars.

Prizes were handed out for best dressed, best couple and most creative costume. The day after chatter was loud and clear: It was a party.

Andrew, Dave, Beglije, Nathan, Ale and Brandon Frakes

Sam Ventura and Kristen OrtĂ­z

Megan Dunn

Ale and Benglije Frakes and Grace Chellino

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Ryan and Niki Hensley

Grace Chellino and Auston Jashari

Doris García

Sophonie Pierre

Gabe Harris

Brandon and Dave Frakes, Anton Bova and Ty Demery

Kevin and Leslie Ochoa, Ale Frakes, Clancy Shannon, Diana Sully, Gabe Harris, Doris García and Brandon Frakes

Brandon Byers

Nathan Frakes

Megan Dunn, Abby Harris, Ale Frakes, Niki Hensley and Kayla Parker

Niki and Ryan Hensley

NOV / DEC 2020 | CIGAR SNOB |

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EVENTS ASHES CIGAR & LOUNGE 5TH ANNIVERSARY Miami

Ashes Cigar & Lounge celebrated five years of action with an anniversary party, made more special with a cigar launched by Ashes made

by AJ Fernandez. Celebrants enjoyed cigar specials throughout the night while digging into plenty of food and booze to the mixes of a live DJ. A tent, some dancing and more smokes rounded out the successful quinquennial bash.

Alfredo Cruz, Jeffrey Groover, Luis Cuevas and Steve Hernández

Alvin Hung and Randy Gornail

Bartley, García and Trinoskey

Danny Benedit, Albert Tamargo, Clara Benedit, Lily and Bill Prieto

Jeffrey Groover and Bill Prieto

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Alvin Hung and Juan Núñez

Danny and Clara Benedit

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