Cain Habano torpedo

Woof. The Cain Maduro was quite the mouthful of nicely substantial flavors. I've really come to appreciate Nicaraguan tobaccos, and Oliva Cigar grows some of the best. Along with the great flavors, Oliva has made very reasonably priced cigars, with the Cain line running $7-8 on the B&M shelf. Great flavors + reasonable prices = lots of Oliva boxes in the Humidor of the Apokalypse.

Another great thing is that there's a hustlin' Oliva sales rep on the Great Plains, and we've been getting the new releases of Nub and Cain with really timely speed. It used to take some considerable time for new cigars to get to Nebraska, but not anymore. I just picked up a pair of the Cain maduro 550, and it's only been a week since IPCPR.

Cain is billed as "Straight Ligero", but is really about 82% ligero, but who's quibbling? The boxes have the ligero origins: 25% Esteli, 27% Condega, and 30% Jalapa ligeros. It's a powerful cigar, and they burn for a long time, like the cigar version of the Everlasting Gobstopper. But, with power comes great responsibility. So, after a couple sirloin steaks, I felt sufficiently forearmed to tangle with the Cain Habano.

Cain's habano wrapper was medium brown, with a couple moderate veins and slight oil sheen over its toothy surface. The cigar felt solid and substantial, like a 20MM AA cartridge. While smoking, the burn line was pretty straight until the final third, and the silver-white ash dropped after about 1.5 inches.

Right away earthy wood, with a pronounced peppery Habano tone. Even my wife, catching a whiff as I smoked on the deck, remarked that it smelled spicy. Definitely medium-full bodied. The Habano heat ducked into the background after the first half-inch, leaving the solid, earthy wood and leather flavors to dominate.

In the second inch, the flavors turned leathery, along with the mild spice in the background, but still kept up the full strength. This was not a hard cigar to enjoy at all. As the final inch burned away, the spice got a bit stronger and the burn line started wobbling a bit.

Overall, for all the power of the cigar, the flavors were fairly smooth, and with a subtle spice in the finish. What a cigar!

Verdict:

Good flavor, good price, I bet with some age, these will be sublime.

Cain Maduro torpedo

I've said that I'm lucky, but in all reality, I'm incredibly blessed. Loving wife, healthy children, sustaining employment, and an Oliva cigar sales rep that gives me a holler when he's coming to town. Cory's latest largesse was a pair of the new Cain torpedos, natural and maduro. I am most unworthy.

Cain's bold, earthy flavor profile is intimidating, but it's a smooth smoke that will take a couple hours to savor. The Mexican-wrapped, Nicaraguan cigar is just extraordinary:



Thanks again, Most Honorable Bringer of Premium Smoke. With friends like you, who needs Cigar Aficionado?

A hearty 'shank you' to Sony Music for nuking my first edition of the video. If you would rather Danzig languish in deepening obscurity, that's fine.

Dulce Vida 'La Bonita' robusto

I love finding, and smoking, cigars that come from off the beaten path of most cigar shop shelves. All it takes is an ear to the ground, and a willingness to try something new.

I first heard of Dulce Vida Cigars on Social Cigar, and contacted proprietress Paula Pia Ventunelli for a sampler. a couple weeks later, the sampler arrived in a unique box with cameo, and the cigars with ribbon bands. I would have smoked it sooner, but seasonal allergies had me plugged up for quite a while.

Being a maniac for maduro, the 'Orange Band' La Bonita is what I dove for first, and I'm glad I did. Here's the description from Dulce Vida's website:

A blend of Peruvian ligero, Dominican Sumatra, Dominican Peloto with a San Andres Morron Limpio binder. The wrapper is a Dominican Sumatra sweated maduro.

The dark brown wrapper was soft like velvet, unlike any cigar I've touched before. It was resting in the humi a month, but still felt like it was either super oily or just wet. Just in case, I threw it into the dry box for a couple days. After the dry box, the wrapper felt like soft, Egyptian cotton terrycloth.

The cigar felt hefty in the hand and well packed, and I got flavors of earth and spice on cold draw.

Once toasted and lit, I had first impressions of earthy leather, Black coffee with nice spice lingering. Definitely in the medium to full-bodied category. Rich, earthy flavor. Lots of smoke. After first inch, flavor shifted a little to an earthy cedar with the spice still singing back-up.

I got the same feeling as when I smoked my first Illusione, like I had discovered a wonderfully complex, yet well-balanced blend. If you like Illusione, I have a strong hunch that you'll like this cigar as well.

Two inches in, and the cigar still was packing a solid medium-bodied punch, and spice still lingered on the palate. This cigar is fairly slow-smoking too, with 2 inches taking at least 30 minutes, so we're looking at an hour-long robusto.

The Dulce Vida 'Orange Band' may have a feminine touch to the exterior, but the blend is no shrinking violet.

Thanks to roller/entrepeneur Paula Pia Ventunelli for the samples. It isn't easy for a small biz to get noticed, and the people with the dream are wagering their backsides to succeed. Boutique cigar fans, best jump on these before they get discovered!

Hoyo de Monterrey Rothschild

Hoyo de Monterrey Rothschild
$4.50, Size: 4.5", Ring: 50
Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper, USA Connecticut binder, Honduran, Dominican, and Nicaraguan fillers.

Hoyo de Monterrey (HdM) is a huge name in cigars, mainly for Cuban smokes, but also for their fine cigars made in Honduras. Their Honduran cigars are rolled by the General Cigar Co., in the same facility that rolls Punch's non-cuban cigars.

This Hoyo rothschild had a dark tan wrapper, and was toothy with varicose veins. Once punched, I found it had a pretty loose draw, I had to really smoke gently. Usually, I prefer a more moderate resistance in a cigar. Burning was mostly straight, except for a couple forgivable wobbles, and the silvery ash held for over an inch.

I was greeted with strong flavors to start, with wood and roasted nuts. After first inch, a coffee undertone meshed with the wood flavor. Pepper started lingering on the palate after the second inch, then waxed stronger in the foreground. Robust flavors abound from solid start to spicy finish.

Hoyo de Monterrey didn't get their reputation for excellence by accident, and this bold tasting cigar continues the tradition. Being a maduro freak, I can't wait the put my torch to a HdM Dark Sumatra.

Smoke Signals toasted a HdM rothschild back in March 2007