5 Vegas Miami

I smoked this bad boy today while I was rating music on the porch balcony. For those of you in the know, this area is also known as "The Twilight Lounge." It was actually a little before noon, so no sun was blasting me directly in the face as I toked on the long stogie. By the time I finally put it to bed, though, the humidity was telling me it was about time to rate inside the air-conditioned refuge 3 feet away.

I enjoyed the Cinco Vegas Miami with an Initech mug full of eggnog-flavored coffee. [It's actually much milder than it sounds, and complemented the smoke beautifully.] The cigar was fairly long with a modest ring gauge (it only looked thin due to the lengthy of the stick.)

The stogie is, I believe, a Don Pepin collaboration under the 5 Vegas brand. Awesome work. Here are my scores.

• Appearance - 4 \ This specimen had the worst wrap-job I've ever seen -- man-made wrinkled ridges. Thinnish for the length. Decent blue and gold band redeemed the appearance, though it was still nothing to look at.
  
• Burn - 7 \ No real problems here, and it was self correcting when smoked slowly.
  
• Draw - 8 \ Just fine.
  
• Plummage - 8 \ Voluminous smoke in places, with a very bold aroma.
  
• Flavor - 9 \ Tasty from the beginning, which is especially impressive on such a long cigar.
  
• Overall - 9.5 \If you smoke it nice and slow like I did (and it's gotten some long humidification) I'd say this one has been one of my favorite smokes. I believe the value on it was decent, if not an extremely good deal.
  

As you can see, I didn't ding it on appearance anyway. But I sure enjoyed my work with this baby helping me pass the time.

Taboo Special Forces, Maduro

OK, this'll be rough, but here goes. A triple review from a few weeks ago, on 7/7/2008... Three Reids took on the Taboo Special Forces in Dillon, Colorado, and here's how it fared.

[All three of us smoked the same maduro beast that we estimated to be about 6' long with about a 54 ring gauge. We smoked it with a 15-year-aged Dalwhinnie Scotch.]

Young Master Ryan

• Appearance - 6 \ Nice wrapper. No fraying. Nice dark color.
  
• Burn - 6 \
  
• Draw - 9 \
  
• Plummage - 9 \ Great smoke. Loved the smell.
  
• Flavor - 9 \
  
• Overall - 9.5 \
  

Rico Suave

• Appearance - 8 \ Very cool look. But lame label goes a bit too far with its retro splash. Looks like they should adorn some skater high tops.
  
• Burn - 7 \ Good. Self correcting. Handicap: low fuel so we used matches in some wind.
  
• Draw - 7 \ Excellent for its heft, width and length.
  
• Plummage - 8 \ Fully good. Superb spicy smell.
  
• Flavor - 9 \ Very light first half, powerful spicy boldness at the end.
  
• Overall - 9.5 \Company, environment, stogie's appearance and big finish.
  

RT

• Appearance - 7 \ Nothing that special but good.
  
• Burn - 6 \
  
• Draw - 9.5 \ Perfect.
  
• Plummage - 9 \ Great smoke -- loved the smell just as much as the taste.
  
• Flavor - 8 \
  
• Overall - 9.5 \

So with 3 Overall ratings of 9.5, you know it was a goodie. Unfortunately I understand the pricing can be a little pricey. Worth it, especially since I smoked for free!

Of course, you also couldn't beat the view of the mountains rising up to a starry night sky as we smoked from the deck.

Gurkha Nepalese Warrior

Gurkha Nepalese Warrior

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks. I've been bouncing around between Enid, Orlando, Alva, and Wichita...I spent just enough time back at my house to see my central heat and air conditioner gasp its final breaths...so now I'm not just busy, I'm HOT and busy. Fun stuff.

While in Orlando, I finally lit up the Gurkha Nepalese Warrior that Brad gave me. I found a cigar bar in Downtown Disney and, after letting it rest for six months, lit the bad boy up. Here I am enjoying it...

Now, truth be told, I was pretty boozed up. I had to keep ordering beers to keep smoking there...and Michelle was doing a LOT of shopping...I managed to write down a semi-coherent review on a little napkin that the hispanic barmaid gave me...but apparently I lost it. If you were hoping for my usual numeric breakdown on this stogie...you'll be disappointed. Too many Red Stripes in my gullet, I guess.

Here's what I DO remember about this stick...it burned consistent and tasted pretty good at first. The smoke quality was a little lacking and anemic but the flavor was good-buttery and nutty. It was given to me by my buddy Brad, which is a bit odd because I think it's just the kind of stick that I'd recommend to him! It got a little bitter towards the end but I'm not sure if that was the stick's fault (it had travelled by airplane and I'm not sure if that dried it out a bit). Overall it was a great gift cigar...not sure if I'll buy any but I will take any I'm gifted!

This review also has more than its normal share of special guest reviewers...







That's the stormtrooper that guarded Disney Hollywood Studios. It was Star Wars weekend so we saw a bunch of stormtroopers, bounty hunters, and aliens...very fun. I even got Michelle to ride the Tower of Terror ride (not that scarey) and she didn't divorce me. She hates scarey rides and heights.

Here's Thane and Dad fishing. Dad and I were a two man crew to keep Thane in the game...Thane caught the most fish this time and we all had a nice time. Later we had a bbq.

Here's the super centipede that Mom found in the garage while we were there. It was about 7" long from tip to tip and maybe 3/4" across. I have a video file if you want to see the little bastard in action.

I think it's the biggest bug I've seen outside of a movie or a zoo...Michelle found it on the net and it's a Giant Red Headed Centipede...and it was in Mom's garage. It eats mice and can grow to 12" in length.

Yeah. 12".

You KNOW Mom is loving that!

Peace out.

Don Pepin Cuban Classic Figurado 1973

Don Pepin Cuban Classic Figurado 1973

The setup: It's a warm day...first day in the 90's since last Fall...and Mom and Dad are visiting. We just grabbed some greazy burgers and tacos at a local watering hole...the wind is low and I've got cold beers left over from Eric and Kellie's visit...so everything is just right for a special smoke. I reached for a cheapie but then saw the oddly shaped Don Pepin Garcia Cuban Classic Figurado that my brother Eric had given me a couple of months ago and I knew what time it was!



Here's my stogie and accessories. I've had the DPG Black in the robusto size several times but the shape and girth of the Figurado intrigued me. It reminded me of a german "potato masher" grenade...weighted heavily towards the big end and crazy thin at the other. The one thing that stayed constant with me as I smoked this dude was how fascinating the shape was.




Here it is before light.



Here's the guest star of this Blog...Dad!


Sadly, I noticed a few cracks in the wrapper before I lit up...and this happened about the time the burn hit those cracks. I spent much of my time doing torch touch-ups...it was a very high maintenance cigar.



Here I am enjoying the robust, leathery flavors of this cigar. Lots of pepper after the first inch and really peppery intoxicating aroma. I don't think Mom agreed with the latter, though, as she scooted her chair across the patio away from me!




I nubbed this puppy.

Here's the scoring:
Construction: 6 (I'm being very lenient here, I think) I have had several Don Pepin Garcias have cracking wrappers, especially the Cuban Classics).
Flavor: 8.5 It had a great leathery and pepper flavor that really picked up after the first inch. At some points I almost got a "cameroon" vibe but I don't think that there is supposed to be any of that kind of leaf in this smoke.
Value: 8 (I think they sell for $4-5 when you get a box and they're very tasty for that)
Plumage: 10 This dude sent up booming clouds of grey smoke that smelled/tasted of pepper and some other intoxicating aroma. I really enjoyed the smell and quantity of smoke.
Special: 8
Total Score: 7.75 This was a really great cigar, marred only by construction issues. I had it stored and rested for two months (at 65-68) and hope that the construction problems were a fluke. So far, this is my favorite cigar in Don Pepin Garcia's Black Label (Cuban Classic) line and I will seek out others when I get some $.

Royal Jamaica No. 1 Tubo

Royal Jamaica No. 1 Tubo


This last weekend some buddies and I retreated to a secluded cabin near Enid Oklahoma for some much needed R&R...Scott's grilling, Craig's fine beer, and great cigars made a great trip even better. We had a light rain shower or two, no wind, and clean, cool April evenings. I also got a chance to try out two new things, both gifts from coworkers...my new Mexican pancho and a Royal Jamaica cigar that a coworker brought back for me from one of his Caribbean adventures...

(Yes, I know that the pancho is cooler than Hell but please stay focused on the cigar...)

Gift cigars are always a treat for me to smoke, especially ones I've never had before. They're like test driving a new motorcycle...I never know what to expect but the air is charged with possibilities...

The cigar came in an attractive yellow tube and was double labeled (always a sign of class!). The wrapper was flawless and light, a Connecticut broadleaf I think. No veins were visible and it had a medium strength aroma. I had been aging it for six months or so in my humidor and it was in great condition. It took the flame from my trusty Blazer lighter and we were off!



The stogie had a perfect burn and was a very enjoyable hour. The flavor remained consistent throughout-mostly a mild nutty "creamy" flavor-never offensive. The smoke was thick and seemed to hang in the air, attracting several favorable comments from my amigos who were smoking different sticks.

Overall, the stogie was a solid stick, especially for those who like milder, smooth smokes...and those who appreciate the nice packaging and presentation.

Thanks Chief!

Gran Habano - 3 Siglos

February 28, 2008 -- I choose to celebrate my brother's birthday by grabbing dinner in an Italian restaurant and cigar bar. After polishing off a little chicken with toasted cheese ravioli at the Cigar Box, I settle into a Maker's Mark manhattan and a Gran Habano 3 Siglos. It was part of a 20-pack sampler of Gran Habanos and it has turned out to be my favorite - as excellent a blend as the blonde 5-pack was bad. But that's another review.

Anyway, at $2 a stick, I'm ready for anything. I am very pleasantly surprised. As I sit and puff away, Kellie makes fun of me and we enjoy the lounge singer attacking Journey songs with a vengeance. 3 Siglos translates as "three centuries". Hard to imagine that three centuries ago, no one could have dreamed of the huge glass buildings a couple blocks away - the angular glass-walled Kansas City Star presses, the bowl-shaped glass Sprint Center, the ovalishly cylindrical glass H&R Block building. Or the strip club next door.

The ratings played out like so:

• Appearance - 5 \ Medium width and length at 5X50 robusto. Attractive white & gold double label.
  
• Burn - 7 \ Perfect halfway through but did become somewhat uneven over time.
• Draw - 8 \ Effortless.
• Plummage - 7 \ Solid plummage.
• Flavor - 10 \ Suprisingly flavorful with a notable spice.
• Overall - 9 \ Very likable and an excellent value.

Arturos Fuente Gran Reserva

So I'm not into name brands for hardly anything. Ask anybody who knows me... A brand has to earn my respect -- consistently -- for me to pay more money for it than something else similar at a better price. I do not swoon over brand names.

So when I picked up this Arturo Fuente, I did so because of its impressive size. I just wanted to know what it would be like. Figured it would be good to mix things up some random winter day with a good novelty smoke.

I didn't get around to unpacking this Big Bertha of cigars until a couple of months after its purchase at the Outlaw Cigar store. On the cold evening of February 15th, I found myself at a place as worthy of eyebrow raising as my Fuente boomstick. Kell and I were kicking it at the Kickstand, a local dive we enjoy that manages to cross a biker bar with your uncle's 1970s basement. (If your uncle was a swingin' redneck or buff, that is.)

It's like an old college dive bar, but for mostly blue collar folks. Various union stickers plaster the cramped bathroom's walls. Booths are the size of a spacious phone booth. Christmas and Halloween lights are draped across a ceiling married to brick walls and dark wood paneling. As I order a whisky and a rum-drink, somebody tells me I look like Perseus from Clash of the Titans. And although I thank him for the compliment, the way he's laughing his head off, I get the feeling he didn't really mean it that way. Another fella and his wife come over to me to pay tribute to my stogie and my smokin' hot girlfriend. It's a quick opportunity to feel like you're in a rural American bar while still being in the middle of a metropolis, and I like to drop in once in awhile.

After an hour of half-hearted inattentive sound checks, the middle-aged band explodes into bluesy hard rock renditions of classics. "Travelin' Band" starts it out and flows into songs with refrains such as "That's a cold shock, baby" and "Give me a beat, boy, and Free my soul"...

As for my cigar's ratings, here you go:

• Appearance - 6.5 \ Long to the point of ludicrous. Classy label and sod-hued wrapper.
• Draw - 9 \ Surprisingly decent draw. Firm but fluid.
• Burn - 8 \ OK, especially considering the length. Impressive and even burn for so long a stick.
• Plummage - 7.5 \ Smoke smelled good and put off good amounts.
• Flavor - 5 \ Extremely tasty to start but a little bitter at the end.
• Overall - 7 \ Better than expected and a fun change of pace.

Now since I paid $7-12 retail for this giant, I'm not singing its praises to the mountaintops. But when you've got a cigar you enjoy far more than you expected, you're sharing an adult beverage with your sweetheart, and you start to find yourself jamming out to live covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival, life's looking pretty good.